If you are still skeptical about using digital and social media in business marketing it appears you are not alone. Many small and medium-sized businesses seem to think digital marketing is only good for reaching consumers, and that business customers don’t have time for it. Is this assumption a strategic blind spot that’s hurting your business?

blind-spot

The Contradiction

According to recent studies, your business has probably dabbled in one or more social media networks — a blog or You Tube channel perhaps — and you consider word of mouth an essential tool, but you don’t think you really need digital marketing. Not so, according to your business customers.Importance of Social Media to Small Busines: emarketer chart

The Strategic Blind Spot

Remember the maxim for B2B marketers “business customers are people too”? People have come to expect new ways to find detailed information, network and engage — and they expect these same tools and experiences from suppliers when they themselves shift roles and become the potential buyers. Business customers are hungry for more and different kinds of digital content.

Digital and social media tools have quickly become the single most important way to attract new business customers and sustain old ones. If you’re like most business marketers, connecting with your customers is an ongoing goal — and generating more high-quality leads is a continuing challenge.

Search is one of the most efficient ways to create and optimize leads, and the key to doing well in search results is an integrated marketing strategy that creates more and different kinds of digital content. (Google reports 62% of B2B buyers are doing more online research because of the economic downturn and have become more likely to switch vendors.) You really do need digital marketing.

Business owners and managers are generally practical about what works and quick to jump onto an approach that generates a return. What is behind this gap between the reality of the importance of digital marketing and the blind spot about its role?

The Barrier

I’ve begun to wonder if a lack of relevant case studies and examples is the barrier keeping small and mid-sized businesses from recognizing and accepting this new reality. Much of what you read in business and popular media is about the use of social and digital media by celebrities and major consumer brands, so it’s easy to think that’s all there is. In the interest of connecting you and your digital business customer, here are a few examples of successful B2B digital campaigns from large and small businesses.

Five Digital Business Customer Stories

  1. Virtualization-software developer Open Kernel Labs wanted to attract 1,000 members for its branded community. A modest goal, given the volumes of users on networks such as Facebook and Twitter. But the entire global audience of Open Kernel Labs consists of fewer than 20,000 people. Using online video (Geek TV) and a corporate blog with humor, Open Kernel Labs managed to surpass its goal of attaining 1,000 community members—two months earlier than projected. The community, combined with a now-thriving company blog, has created so much interest that the company has hired a larger sales team to be able to follow up on incoming leads. Needless to say, profitability has also increased.
  2. GE has been open about the success of the ecomagination Challenge, where they invited business plans for new inventions to power the smart grid in return for investment funding. The response was overwhelming — 5,000 business plans from innovators in 150 countries, and active participation from nearly 100,000 enthusiasts. The results speak for themselves: new partnerships with start-ups, venture capitalists and retailers, and the ability to bring new offerings to their existing customers.
  3. Omni Hotels & Resorts used a blogger outreach program to promote its meetings and events business to a micro-audience of influencers ignored by its competitors, leading to hundreds of conversations and direct sales leads.
  4. Accenture Management Consulting used LinkedIn to set up a careers group — when the group ballooned to more than 5000 members, Accenture subdivided it into separate, niche-relevant groups aimed at specific kinds of potential customers — including HR and IT recruiting professionals and agencies.
  5. The Praetorian Group, is a B2B publisher and online-only media company that created a Facebook footprint that nearly doubles that of consumer publisher Rolling Stone and rivals Newsweek. Although still early in the program, referrals from Facebook already represent 27% of Praetorian’s website traffic.

In today’s crazy economy, you cannot afford to have a blind spot about the role of digital marketing. Do you know of other successful digital and social media campaign for business customers? Do you have a success story to share?

 

Related

Are Small Businesses Apathetic About Social Media? emarketer

How to Improve Your Site’s Search Engine Optimization, Inc. Magazine

B2B Lead Generation Via Search Marketing. Strictly Business

Use Your Digital Strategy to Differentiate, Digalicious

Google’s Zero Moment of Truth Customer Engagement Concept

Study: Social opinions influence business decisions. BtoB Online