Social Marketing to the Business Customer: Listen to Your B2B Market, Generate Major Account Leads, and Build Client Relationships
Use social marketing to energize your B2B relationshipsSPENDING ON B2B SOCIAL MARKETINGis expected to grow 21 percent annually through 2013, yet the innovations of successful companies get surprisingly little attention. This book guides the reader step by step through the process of building and executing a social marketing strategy intended specifically to address the unique needs of business customers.It's no secret that social media tools offer powerful new ways to build and cement customer relationships, but the most prominent success stories in books and the media have been about customer markets. The potential for the same tools to transform B2B marketing has been mostly overlooked.Until now. Social media visionary Paul Gillin and strategic corporate communications consultant Eric Schwartzman have teamed up to present research, stories, and recommendations targeted exclusively at B2B companies.Social Marketing to the Business Customerpresents a compelling case for using social media to revolutionize customer outreach, bringing companies in contact with their customers in unprecedented ways and creating dialogues that drive repeat business and reveal new revenue opportunities.B2B relationships are inherently social, and Gillin and Schwartzman show how to use the new breed of tools to uncover the human potential in every business and involve customers at every stage of the development, sales, and support process. You'll learn how to:Create an organization that integrates online conversations seamlessly and comfortably into its cultureDevelop an engagement strategy that reaches all the stakeholders in a decisionPlan marketing campaigns that take full advantage of social media tools—separately and in combination with each otherFind the communities that attract your customers and target markets—and become an essential member of themCalculate ROI using real-world metrics that business executives understandFrom the basics of social media tool selection, to keyword strategies that get your products and messages on the first page of search results, to the widely varied forums that you can use to build and sustain meaningful dialogues,Social Marketing to the Business Customermakes this diverse and often-confusing world accessible and quantifiable. It is the ultimate primer that enables B2B marketers to create a customized, targeted strategy that maximizes outreach while maintaining your message.