b2b email strategie

B2B Social Media + Email Marketing:Rock Solid Strategies For Doing It Right!

Businesses Connecting With BusinessesThrough The Power Of Social Media!

Copyright © Lon Safko

By Lon SafkoAuthor of The Social Media Biblewww.LonSafko.com

ExtremeDigitalMarketing.com

Copyright © Lon Safko

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ExtremeDigitalMarketing.com Copyright © Lon Safko

B2B Social Media + Email Marketing:Rock Solid Strategies For Doing It Right!

Social Media is the most effective set of marketing toolsfor B2B that we have ever seen. While marketing usingsocial media tools is different than conventionalmarketing, using social media to market business tobusiness is different again. The one constant thatremains the same, is people connecting with people.

Whether your business is a B2C for a B2B, your second“B” is always still a “C”. And, whether you call yourcustomers “B” or “C”, they are still people who want tobuild relationships and trust with the people they chooseto do business with.

In this guide, I will show you 10 techniques on how touse the different social media tools that you mayalready be familiar with to to build trust and ultimatelybuild business. Everything you do using socialnetworks should be designed to build trustedrelationships with your business partners.

When you combine social media with email marketing(The Original Social Media), you have a powerfulsynergistic strategy!

Whether you callyour customers“B” or “C”, theyare still peoplewho want to buildrelationships andtrust with thepeople theychoose to dobusiness with.

By simply publish-ing a weekly blogyou can increasethe two mostweighted criteriaused by all searchengines; GoogleJuice and LinkLove.


Strategy One - The Social Media Trinity - Blogging

1. Blogging

Social media can be used effectively to build publicity,customer collaboration, thought leadership, marketresearch, product development, enhance SEO, leadgeneration, new business, customer retention, brandrecognition, and trust.

Blogging is the most effective tool you can use to show yourcustomers and prospects that you are participating, youunderstand your industry, and your a thought leaderproviding insights and information.

A blog only takes a few minutes, requires 400 words once aweek, and creates and invaluable platform for you and yourcustomers / prospects to engage in meaningful dialog thatbuilds trust; which ultimately leads to sales.

Simply by publishing a weekly blog you can increase thetwo most weighted criteria used by all search engines;“Google Juice” and “Link Love”. You get a greater SEOranking just because you’re blogging.

“Google Juice” is the number of indexed pages for anygiven keyword(s) by a search engine. How many pages arereturned when you type in your “company” your “product” or“your name” in Google in the top right corner? “Lon Safko”generates more than 115,000 SERPS (Search EngineResult Pages. By blogging, you create page after page forsearch engines to index with priority treatment.

Your customers will participate in theconversation that you started. Otherbloggers will link to your blog contentcreating “Link Love”. This will drive yourweb / blog site to the top of the searchengines.


Strategy Two - The Social Media Trinity - Microblogging

2. Microblogging

Twitter is the choice of people around the globe formicroblogging. Most B2B marketers still aren’t usingTwitter, giving us the greatest opportunity ever. Shortbursts of 140 character insights are an incrediblyeffective way to engage your customers andprospects. Bite sized “I Didn’t Know That!” contentwill get their attention every time.

Use Search.Twitter.com to search keywords that representyou, your company, and your products / services. UseStrategy Six - Cyber-Surveillance - Microblogging fortechniques to monitor your tweets regularly. Be sure towatch both what is being said and who is saying it. Thenjump into those conversations with good content andcomments.

Follow your industry thought-leaders and influencers.Listen to what they are talking about, reTweet their Tweets,thank them when they Tweet something good about youand your business. Engage them when you disagree.

Be sure you use Twitter Hashtags e.g. #socialmediabible.Both search on them and use them in your own tweets.Feel free to Tweet about you, your business, yourproducts, news, updates, and why your customers canbenefit from working with you, but never use a socialnetwork to “sell” or you will be “flamed”. Buildingrelationships and trust is always the best way to sell.

Bi te s ized “ IDidn ’ t KnowThat ! ” contentwi l l get the i ra t tent ion ev eryt ime.

Also use Yammer to Tweet with yourinternal customers; your employees. Theywant to be in the loop as well!

Strategy Three - The Social Media Trinity - Social Networks

3. Use Social Networks

Are you using them? Are you on Facebook & LinkedIn?Well your customers and prospects are. You need tobe where they are. In marketing, this is called a“watering hole”, where like minded people gather todiscuss something in common, your industry.

Facebook now has more than 350,000,000 membersmaking it the largest like-minded community on the planet.If Facebook were a country, it would now be the thirdlargest country in the world. Create a Group, create a FanPage. It’s completely free! So, why not?

When your customers or prospects search their socialnetwork does your company come up? You need to be inthe game to win!

Always provide great content and make it interactive; postyour blog links, create and post your customer photographs,audio podcasts, videos, email sign-up link, case studies,and white papers (like this). This will keep your customerscoming back for your content and build that sense of trustand indebtedness.

Are you in LinkedIn? Think it’s only for people and notcompanies? You’re right! But, people buy from otherpeople. They buy from people they trust.


When yourcustomers orprospectssearch the i rsoc ia l networkdoes yourcompany comeup?

Be sure your profile is up to date includingyour education, affiliations, home town,college. If only one prospect looks for yourcompany on LinkedIn, finds you and seesthat you both went to the same college, orgrew up in the same town, or belong to thesame professional organization... Do youthink the competition stands a chance?

products


Strategy Four - Cyber-Surveillance - Web & Blog PagesAnd Comment Marketing

4. Cyber-Surveillance - Web & Blogs PagesAnd Comment Marketing

Many people call this brand or reputation management,but it’s more than that, it’s Comment marketing. Youhave a responsibility to your company to listen to theconversations people are having about you, yourcompany, your products, and your brand. There is aneasy and free way to do that.

The web is now categorized into three basic types of webpages; standard HTML web pages, blog pages, and socialnetwork pages. Most conversations, peer reviews, andcomments take place here. Google has an answer formonitoring all three; Google Alerts.

To create Google Alerts all you need is a Google Gmailaccount, which is worth having anyway. Create as many asyou wish. I have dozens that include “Lon Safko”, “SocialMedia Bible”, and more.

Any time anywhere in the world the keywords (characters)appear in either a web or blog page, I get an activehyperlink emailed to me within 30 minutes of them beingposted on the web. This gives me a chance to respond.

I can thank the author for the kind words, or engage as towhy the author is misinformed. Most often I am the veryfirst to comment and I encourage good behavior and diffusea negative before it happens. And, BackType will evenmonitor “Comments” on blogs!

Set up Alerts tomonitor what yourcompetition isdoing. Your cansee their blogposts, their webpages, theirevents, and whatis being saidabout them!

You can also set up Alerts to monitor whatyour competition is doing. You can see theirblog posts, their web pages, their events, andwhat is being said about them!

Don’t forget to monitor Google Products foryour competition’s products...


Strategy Five - Cyber-Surveillance - Microblogging

5. Cyber-Surveillance - Microblogging

What are people Tweeting about you, your company,and your brand? You need to know!

What if every time someone sent out a Tweet anywhere inthe world that mentioned you or your brand, you got acopy of that Tweet at the same time the recipient did?Well you can!

By using one of the free downloads; either SeesmicDesktop or TweetDeck, and setting them up with alerts likeGoogle Alerts, you will receive a copy of that Tweet to yourTwitter account on the web, social network, home page,aggregator, or email.

This gives you the opportunity to reTweet that goodmessage or engage the Tweeter and explain why they aremisinformed. Twitter Comment Marketing allows you toencourage good conversations and diffuse negative ones.

Just like Google Alerts, these software apps continuouslyrun on your desktop and give you updates every couple ofminutes. By using these apps, you no longer have to login to your Twitter account, it’s all there, see Tweets, sendTweets, receive direct Tweets, and reTweet.

Use Search.Twitter.com to find anything on Twitter. Youtype, Twitter will show it, along with the picture and profileof the sender, what they said, when they sent it, hashtags,number of reTweets, and you can reply or reTweet ityourself.

What if every timesomeone sent outa Tweet anywherein the world thatmentioned you gotcopied to you atthe same time therecipient did?

Both Seesmic and TweetDeck also havemobile versions of their apps so you canmonitor your Tweet Stream from anywhereat any time.


Strategy Six - Mobile Marketing

6. Mobile Marketing

Mobile marketing is one of the least understood forms ofmarketing and the rest of the world is way ahead of the U.S.This gives us, the early adopters a huge competitivemarketing advantage.

Kakul Srivastava, General Manager of Yahoo!’s Flickr told methat there are 3 mobile phone for every person on the planet, yetwe don’t use mobile marketing. More and more people areusing web enhanced telephone technology.

Of course we can use Twitter to reach out to our customers ontheir cell phones, but we can also use mobile phones for leadgeneration, follow your competition, building brand awareness,sending product alerts, updates on webinars, trade shows,seminars, teleconferences, customer care Q&A’s, coupons,specials, give-aways, contests, and just building personal rela-tionships.

Mobile marketing needs be fun and interactive. Use informativeor entertaining five minute videos for maximum conversation.Remember, mobile phones provide us with voice, SMS textmessaging, Internet access to web sites and blog pages, text,photos, audio voice and music, video, calendars, GPS, games,sports, and news. Use them all.

Make your content interactive, both by providing hyperlinks and,QR Barcodes, but encourage your customers and prospects topersonally interact. Offer cell phone video contests involving

General Managerof Yahoo!’s Flickrtold me that thereare 3 mobilephones for everyperson on theplanet, yet wedon’t use mobilemarketing.

your product or service, user generated musicvideos & commercials, run contests.

If you want your customers to participate, yourcontent has to have value. If you want them toengage, offer them something in return, a couponor even an iPod. Their participation will be wellworth the cost of an iPod.


Strategy Seven - Interactive Email Marketing

Is your Twitteraddress in youremail signature?Your Facebookaddress? YourYouTube address?Are you trying tokeep your companya secret?

7. InteractiveEmailMarketing

Youremailneeds tobe interactive, informative,andentertaining.Thinkabout the lastemailyoupassedalongtoa friendorcolleague.

WhetheryouareusingaConstantContact templateorbuildingyourownemail usingHTML,besure toaddyoursocialmedia links toyouremail communications. Havea link toyourphotosonFlickr showingyourhappycustomers,direct your readers toyourYouTubevideos,link themright toyourFacebook fanpage. Make it easy for themtoconnect.

People love to lookatphotographsandvideos. Especially if thesearepeoplewhoalreadyareusingyourproductorserviceandarehappy.Itmakesyourexistingcustomersandprospectsmorecomfortableaboutmaking the rightdecisionaboutbuying fromyouandbuildstrust.

Interactivityalsomeansyouremail signature. I amshockedduringmykeynotes to findouthowmanypeoplestill don’t useanemail signature.Make it part of your template. IsyourTwitteraddress inyouremail sig-nature? YourFacebookaddress?YourYouTubeaddress? AreyouusingQRBarcodes? Areyou trying tokeepyourcompanyasecret?Youhave tomake it easy if youwantyourcustomers to followyouandparticipate inyourofferingandyourbrand.

Setupyoursignatureblocksoyoudon’t have to thinkabout it. Onceit’s inyour templateeveryonegets it. Alwayskeepyour information infrontof yourcustomers. Thiswaywhen theyareready toconnect, ready toaskaquestion,or ready tobuy, theability toconnect isalways there.

My Office Telephone


Strategy Eight - A Social Media Interactive Email Signature

Sign-Up For My EmailSign-Up For Constant ContactAn SMS Text Message Or Tweet

Go Directly To My Web Site

8. Insert a QR Barcode Into Your Email Signature

What if you actually made it easy for your customersand prospects to find you! What if you inserted a QRBarcode into your email signature?

What’s a QR Barcode or Quick Response Barcode? It’sthe little square images you are now seeing in magazines,on billboards, and other printed materials. I put QRBarcodes into everything.

With more and more mobile phones being web enabled,QR Barcodes are becoming more and more valuable.They work by downloading any of a dozen free apps onyour iPhone, Android, or other web enabled mobile phonelike the one I use; Barcode Scanner. Then just click theapp, and point your cell phone camera at the barcode.That’s it! In a few seconds your mobile phone tells you thatit recognized the code and asks if you would like to goimmediately to that web site! Cool!

To create as many free barcodes with your information justgo to: qrcode.kaywa.com. You can create QR Barcodesfor your URL web addresses, SMS text messages, andeven you telephone number so you client can point anddial. Try them!

QR Barcodesfor your URLweb addresses,SMS text mes-sages, and evenyou telephonenumber.


Strategy Nine - Implement & Measure

When youimplement yoursocial media /email marketingstrategy, youhave to have away to measureyour successes,your ROI, yourCost Of CustomerAcquisition

9. Implement And Measure

When you implement your social media / emailmarketing strategy, you to have a way to measure yoursuccesses, your ROI, your Cost Of CustomerAcquisition. You can’t manage what you don’tmeasure.

Conventional marketing measured success throughuseless metrics such as impressions. Even todaynewspapers will try to convince you that for eachnewspaper printed two people will read your ad.Do you believe that metric?

By using social media and email marketing, everythinggoes through a computer somewhere and when it does,we can measure it and in great detail.

There are easy ways to measure social media effects; areyou gaining new Twitter followers? Is the size of yourFacebook Group growing? How many viewers did yourlast video post get in the first week? When people engageand participate in your brand, they become aware, theybegin to trust, and when it’s time, they will buy from you.

There are other more deliberate ways to measure yourTweets success; set up a new landing page on your website that only is sent out on Twitter, ask your customers toparticipate in a survey for a chance to win an iPod, createa web site treasure hunt, where the first person to find...Wins.Think in terms of measuring everything andbe sure to use Google Anylitics. Specificallydesign in ways where you can track yourprogress, so you will know where to focusyour resources. It will also give youenthusiasm to stay committed to socialmedia and email marketing.

Here’s a sneakpeak into SectionThree of my newbook, The SocialMedia Bible, Sec-ond Edition...


Strategy Ten - The Five Steps To B2B Success Strategy Plan

10. The Five Steps To B2B Success Strategy Plan

Here’s a sneak peak into Section Three of my newbook, The Social Media Bible, Second Edition. Whilethe specific strategies you read so far will help youbuild your B2B business relationships, here are TheFive Steps to Social Media B2B Success.

Step 1. Analyze your existing Marketing; look closely at allof your marketing techniques and campaigns, determinethe specific cost for each, identify the number of newcustomers that technique generated, divide those numbersto determine your ROI (Return On Investment) for each.

Step 2. Understand The Social Media Trinity; Blogging,Microblogging, and Social Networks. Get involved in each.Actively post content, connect, and engage with yourcustomers and prospects.

Step 3. Integrate your conventional marketing with yoursocial media marketing strategy. Show your Twitteraddress on your email, on your, brochure and on your website. Place your Facebook link in your advertising, and useQR Barcodes to connect with your customers throughmobile.

Step 4. Identify Resources; look to internal employees forhelp, turn to interns, temps, and college students to helpimplement your plan with your guidance.

Step 5. Implement & Measure. Be sure tothink through every implementationtechnique for your conversation strategy,and how to measure every campaign. Youcan’t manage what you don’t measure.

Bottom line...If you want towin, you have tobe in the game!

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