23 Dec 2015
A useful guide to social media advertising for B2B marketers
Social media is a proven way of accumulating an audience that is accessible en masse. With millions of consumers using social media, businesses should consider using it as part of their marketing strategy. Furthermore, a recent report from Sprout Social has revealed that social media advertising has reduced marketing costs by 44% for B2B marketers.
What social networks should your business be using?
Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook are amongst the most effective and influential social networking outlets for businesses. It is vital that you are targeting your clients on the correct social network: research shows that LinkedIn is the most effective platform, and has generated 44% of new leads for B2B marketers. 39% of new leads were gained via Facebook and another 30% via Twitter. Below is a list of hints and tips that you may find useful when advertising your firm’s services via social media.
Hints and Tips
Targeting posts
Targeting the correct demographic of clients or prospects enables you to reach your core audience directly. The more time invested in tailoring and targeting the content you post to your market, the more your posts will engage with your target audience.
Design your content with mobile devices in mind
When creating visual content for your social media posts, keep in mind that mobile device usage dominates the market: Buffer Social states that 71% of Twitter users access the site via a mobile device. It is wise to ensure the assets you create for posts are the correct size for each social network.
Tracking your posts
Ensure that you make the most of every penny you place behind a social media post. By making use of Google Analytics, you can gain valuable information by tracking your posts. This information enables you to see which posts have the highest engagement, allowing you to continue to effect successful campaigns.
Increasing your followers
Once your business has implemented paid advertising, you are likely to see a rise in your number of followers. Targeted advertising will increase the awareness and visibility of your firm, allowing you to reach a potentially broader range of prospects.
Interacting with users
Treat social media advertising like any other social media content, by responding promptly to users regarding any questions that they may have. Doing so will encourage interaction and demonstrate good customer service.
What does the future of social media advertising hold?
In comparison to the more traditional advertising mediums, the growth of social media advertising is likely to be rapid in the next few years. Facebook’s product officer Chris Cox presented a new concept at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, centred on what mobile advertising will look like in the future. Futuristic adverts were displayed interactively via a touch screen, allowing consumers to swipe to see a 360-degree rotating product.
Currently there are 380 million business professionals using LinkedIn. The network is ideal for B2B marketers wishing to generate leads and target professional groups. Having the ability to target posts allows you to track your content, therefore receiving higher conversation rates. This could then potentially lead to the creation of new business opportunities for you and your firm.
Twitter is an excellent network for small businesses that have a limited budget, allowing users to set a daily spend allowance. This is also known as ‘pay-per-click’. Through the use of ‘pay-per-click’, costs are only incurred when users interact with your account or posts by clicking on the promoted tweet. Subsequently, the user must either favourite or re-tweet a post, or follow your account.
Will we see an increase in social media advertising? Remember: where there are people, there is opportunity…
Summary
To conclude, one of the most obvious negatives surrounding social media advertising is how time-consuming it can be to create content that is both engaging and worthwhile to your clients. However, this negative may be outweighed by the comparatively low cost of social media advertising, which allows you to reach a large number of prospects worldwide.
We have a number of blog posts centred on the subject of social media that you may find of interest. We can also provide a social media service, which posts daily updates to your networks containing technical content, and which also links to your firm’s website, thereby improving your online presence. This package comes for just £40+VAT per month.
Contact our friendly team to find out how we can help you: please call us on 0800 181 343 or email info@practicetrackonline.co.uk.
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