B2B Lead Generation through Social Media in India

A PRESENTATION BY

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Globally, 75% of B2B buyers and

84% of C-level/VP executives

use social media to make

purchase decisions

Source: Social Buying Meets Social Selling: How Trusted Networks Improve the Purchase Experience, IDC, February 2014

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Globally, 70% of B2BMarketers use

social media as their

leading content marketing

channel

Source: What Works Where: The Recipe for Digital Success in B2B, OMOBONO The Business Agency, 2015

4Source: The Digital DNA – State of eMarketing India 2015, Octane Research

69% of India B2B Marketers confirmed Social

Media Marketing to be one of

the primary content marketing activities in

2014.

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The Myth

Social Media is used primarily by junior people who do not have the influencing/ purchasing power.

The Myth & Facts about B2B Social Media Marketing

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The Facts

B2B buyers who are active on social media comprise a more Senior and influential segment.

These senior buyers spend 84% more per purchase and make 61% more purchase decisions than the non-users of social media.

Source: Social Buying Meets Social Selling: How Trusted Networks Improve the Purchase Experience, IDC, February 2014

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Status of B2B Content Marketing and Social Media Marketing (2014-15) in India

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• 23% B2B marketers generate 30%+ of revenues through content marketing.

• 20% of smaller businesses generate 50%+ of revenue using content marketing.

B2B Content Marketing in India

Source: The Digital DNA – State of eMarketing India 2015, Octane Research

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• For the past 5 years Social Media Marketing remains the most popular online marketing activity

• 52% use social media as an efficient customer engagement tool

• Social Media Marketing and Email Marketing have been the top sources of customer engagement in the last 4 years

B2B Social Media Marketing in India

Source: The Digital DNA – State of eMarketing India 2015, Octane Research

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B2B Social Media Marketing in India, Contd…

Social media boosts the

success of Email marketing which

is still one of the leading content marketing

activities at 71% popularity

Influence of social media on email marketing campaigns

Source/Graphic Courtesy: The Digital DNA – State of eMarketing India 2015, Octane Research

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Success Stories of Social Media Marketing in India

Deskaway, iYogi, TCS, Suzlon

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DeskAway

Company Snapshot

DeskAway is an online Project Collaboration Web app that allows small and large teams to work together on projects.

Challenge Reaching a huge target market including a wide variety of companies.

Social Media Strategy

1. It chose Twitter as a springboard along with Adwords and paid media for B2B marketing. 2. It shares news, messages, display thought leadership on Cloud/SaaS, offer product

announcements, and write blog articles on its Twitter stream.3. It set up a weekly plan to search terms on Twitter, monitor its audiences’ interests, connecting

with them and offering a subtle information on what they have to offer.

Results 1. Social Media proved to be a very cost effective way to connect with their vast target audience2. Established effective market reach3. Successful in creating brand awareness 4. Lead generation

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iYogi

Company Snapshot

iYogi is a remote technical support company. It launched Digital Service Cloud, a new cloud-based product offering targeted at large telecommunications companies and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

Challenge To create brand awareness of the new cloud-based product offering and generate leads.

Social Media Strategy

1. As most other B2B marketers, iYogi chose Linkedin as one of its content marketing channels.

2. With the help of sponsored update campaigns and other tools, iYogi identified the areas of interest and places where key decision makers were clustered.

3. Through its content, iYogi garnered engagement with its target audience.

Results (Source: LinkedIn, Jan 2014)

1. Steady rise in relevant followers on the iYogi company page. 2. The campaign was successful in achieving 62% of the follower base within three months

from the start of the campaign. 3. The campaign also achieved 7-8% content shareability out of the total engagements. 4. Established engagements with Business Development Managers and influencer-level

audiences in select industries globally.

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Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)

Company Snapshot

TCS launched the Digital Software & Solutions Group (DS&S Group) to help enterprises achieve successful digital transformation with fully integrated and licensed modular software and solutions.

Challenge 1. Reaching the decision makers in both marketing and analytics functions of the telecom, retail and financial markets to provide tailored solutions to their digital transformation needs

2. Offer the best “how-to” content.

Social Media Strategy

1. TCS chose Linkedin as one of its prime engagement tools with its target audience.2. The main strategy was to deliver “how-to” content rather than “theory” and, thereby

establish itself as a not just a thought leader but also a “doing-leader”

Results (Source: Linkedin, April 2015)

1. Drove traffic with 1.8X above LinkedIn benchmark CTR (0.51% vs 0.28%) 2. Earned 15% more clicks worth INR 504523 in free earned media 3. 185 decision makers acquired as followers 4. 1.6X engagement rate compared to LinkedIn benchmarks (0.56% vs 0.34%)

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Suzlon

Company Snapshot

Suzlon is a leading Indian Wind Energy company with a vision of pursuing sustainable development for the planet in the social, economic and ecological spheres.

Challenge 1. There was a need to widen Suzlon’s appeal to suit the sentiments of general masses. 2. After identifying youth as the most suitable audience, it had to demonstrate how an individual

could find solutions to have cleaner air.

Social Media Strategy

1. As a part of their commitment to bringing about a “Clean Air Revolution” in India they launched a campaign called P.A.L.S (Pure Air Lovers Society).

2. The media campaign used Facebook, Twitter and, direct mailers to drive the audience to the P.A.L.S website and participate in the point of actions

3. Regular updates about P.A.L.S events were sent to the registered audience, thereby, creating a platform for people to come out in open and share views and techniques to achieve cleaner air.

Results 1. This social campaign was among the fastest growing social cause campaigns in India and quickly reached a major milestone of creating a million strong P.A.L.S community.

2. Brand awareness, increase in website traffic being a natural consequence, they also established thought leadership and positioned themselves as a company closer to the general public and not just B2B communities.

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Key benefits of Social Media Marketing for B2B companies in India

Source/Graphic Courtesy: The Digital DNA – State of eMarketing India 2015, Octane Research

40% of B2B companies have

generated sales leads from social media in

India

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Global Patterns in B2B Social Media Marketing

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What it means to B2B marketers

Social media provides a channel to interact, converse and build trust. The leads generated on the basis of trust are more likely to convert into sales.

Its time to distribute as much content as possible on these social media channels to build the trust, brand awareness and thought leadership and “pull” the prospects rather than using a “push” strategy

Social media has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate

than outbound marketing1

Sources: 1. State of Inbound Marketing, 2012 2. Whittington Consulting

54% of B2B marketers have generated leads with social media

marketing

40% of those who generated leads have generated revenue2

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Social media conversations increase the speed of closing by 20%

B2B companies generate 3 timesmore leads through social media than traditional channelsSources: 2015 B2B Lead Gen Report, Pinpoint Market Research and Anderson Jones

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 What it means

LinkedIn has emerged as the favorite social media channel of B2B marketers and a platform to distribute content plus build successful networks which will give quality leads that can be nurtured to conversions.

Facebook and Twitter are shaping up as lighter channels to share content, brief insights to articles, images and blogs.

69%

49%

36%

Lead Generation for B2B Marketers through Social Media

LinkedIn Facebook Twitter

Sources: 2015 B2B Lead Gen Report, Pinpoint Market Research and Anderson Jones

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• Of all the decision-makers who use social media to make purchases

45.2% influence or make decisions company- wide 24.6% influence or make decisions for their respective business units

• Buyers place great trust in their professional networks

76.2% buyers say that they prefer to work with vendors that have been recommended by someone in their network

Other Exciting Facts

Sources: Social Buying Meets Social Selling: How Trusted Networks Improve the Purchase Experience, IDC, February 2014

22Source/Graphic Courtesy: : 2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, Social Media Examiner

Key benefits of Social Media, Global

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Key success metrics1. Customer Engagement

2. Social Reach

3. Visitor Growth Rate

4. Conversion rate

5. Lead generation

6. ROI

7. Sales

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Percentage of B2B marketers who use various social media sites to distribute content

Source/Graphic Courtesy: 2014 B2B Content Marketing Trends – North America: Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs

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B2B buyers’ top uses of the most popular social media - LinkedIn

Source/Graphic Courtesy: Social Buying Meets Social Selling: How Trusted Networks Improve the Purchase Experience, IDC, February 2014

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Tips for success in Social Media Marketing• Undertake ample research to understand the sentiments and demands of the target market

• Have clear and definable objectives

• Commitment and consistency in creating high-quality content, information-handling and responding to the queries/issues/ideas of the target audience

• To be present at the intersection of conversation. It not only creates brand awareness but also builds trust and thought leadership

• Find industry audience who can bring in with them strong and influential social networks

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• Don’t be explicitly promotional. Social media is essentially an interaction and knowledge sharing tool for B2B marketers. Hard selling can be counter-productive

• Monitoring the brand sentiment rather than just tracking the brand mentions. Brand sentiment is a ratio of favorable to unfavorable mentions of a brand in the online media.

• The profiles and content on the social media should be up-to-date and of high quality.

• A documented strategy for consistent content creation, measuring the ROI of social media, lead management and lead nurturing through the sales cycle.

Tips for success, Contd…

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 “Whether you’re in the B2B or B2C sales side and whether or not your product is a cheap impulse buy or a multi-million dollar long term sales cycle, your business is now – without a doubt – a media company as well.” Mitch Joel, President, Mirum

“’Build it, and they will come’ only works in the movies. Social Media is a ‘build it, nurture it, engage them and they may come and stay.’” Seth Godin, Author, Permission Marketing

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Social SamosaLinkedin2015 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, Social Media Examinerhttp://www.rickwhittington.com/blog/b2b-demand-generation-with-social-media/#sthash.I8WqzZ1y.dpufhttp://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/EY-social-media-marketing-india-trends-study-2014/$FILE/EY-social-media-marketing-india-trends-study-2014.pdf

Other References:

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