STATE OF B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 2015

STATE OF B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 2015 Research Report - June 2015

WHO WE SPOKE TO In a study that we did earlier this year on B2B marketing trends 1, we asked our respondents which distribution channels in their opinion will see increased adoption and usage in the year 2015. A majority 62% of respondents chose social media. In this study, we speak to senior B2B marketers to understand current trends in social media marketing and the challenges faced by them in implementing a social media strategy. We also find out which social media channels are popular, and which type of content in the social platform is effective in meeting pre-sale and post-sale objectives. The research was done globally with a fair mix of product and service companies. 1 Source : State of B2B Marketing 2015 REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 2015 / 01

KEY FINDINGS: 94% respondents choose increasing brand awareness as key objective of their social media marketing efforts» tweet this «93% marketers choose Twitter as the most used social media platform» tweet this «91% marketers choose LinkedIn as the most used social media platform» tweet this «82% respondents say their organizations invest in social media marketing» tweet this «82% respondents say they monitor social trends» tweet this «52% respondents say they expect their social media budget to go up in the next 12 months» tweet this «REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 2015 / 02

MAJORITY OF ORGANIZATIONS SAY THEY INVEST IN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 82 percent of respondents we spoke to, said their organizations invest in social media marketing. Interestingly, of those not investing currently, 57% said they would invest in social media in the next 12 months. Does your organization invest in Social Media Marketing? 82% Yes 18% No REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 2015 / 03

NEARLY EVERY MARKETER THINKS SOCIAL MEDIA IS IMPORTANT 99 percent of marketers rated social media as either very important or somewhat important for their organization. In your opinion, how important is social media for your organization? 59% Very important 40% Somewhat important 1% Not at all important REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 2015 / 04

SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGNS PRIMARILY TARGET CUSTOMERS & NEW PROSPECTS Social media campaigns are primarily targeted at new prospects (93%) and existing customers (89%); and not so much at trade partners like distributors (21%) and resellers (17%). Who is the target audience of your Social Media Marketing campaign? New prospects 93% Existing customers Partners Distributors Resellers 89% 54% 21% 17% REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 2015 / 05

INCREASING BRAND AWARENESS TOPS THE LIST OF KEY OBJECTIVES OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 94 percent of marketers we spoke to chose increasing brand awareness as the key objective of their social media marketing efforts. This was followed by lead generation at 69% and constant engagement at 67%. Given the power of social media to engage with customers, it is a little surprising to find brand awareness overwhelmingly top the list of key objectives here; probably a reflection, we think, of the fact that most organizations still largely use social media as a broadcast or advertising medium, and not as much for meaningfully engaging with customers. REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 2015 / 06

In your opinion, which of the following are key objectives of Social Media Marketing? Increase brand awareness Lead generation Constant engagement Delivering updates about company/product Promote products and offers Increase customer acquisition Increase customer loyalty Advocate our initiatives Increase customer support 94% 69% 67% 59% 56% 49% 47% 39% 23% REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 2015 / 07

TWITTER & LINKEDIN ARE THE MOST POPULAR SOCIAL PLATFORMS USED BY B2B MARKETERS Twitter (93%) and LinkedIn (91%) were the most used social platforms. The lower rating given to Facebook (68%) is understandable in a B2B environment. Given the rising importance of video as content 1, we expect YouTube (57%) to gain in significance in the coming years. Which of the following social platforms are majorly used for marketing in your organization? Twitter LinkedIn Facebook YouTube Google+ Vimeo Pinterest 93% 91% 68% 57% 23% 9% 7% 1 Source : State of B2B Content Marketing 2015 REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 2015 / 08

BLOGGING IS THE MOST WIDELY USED SOCIAL MEDIA TACTIC 79 percent of the respondents we spoke to, chose blogging / microblogging as a tactic they used to meet their social media marketing objective. Which of the following Social Media Marketing tactics does your organization currently use to achieve objectives? Blogging / Microblogging Website design / Management / Optimization Content sharing Webinar Social media advertising Social sharing button SEO for social sites Social media contents Social media news release Social media contests Interactive posts Social media apps Social bookmarking 79% 74% 74% 68% 66% 57% 43% 41% 40% 18% 16% 13% 4% REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 2015 / 09

LINKEDIN & TWITTER TOP THE LIST OF CHANNELS FOUND MOST EFFECTIVE IN CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT LinkedIn (64%) and Twitter (47%) were the most favoured channels for customer engagement during the pre-sale stage of the buying cycle; they led the pack for the post-sale stage of the buying cycle too, but at lower figures with LinkedIn at 51% and Twitter at 42%. Facebook found greater preference among marketers for post-sale customer engagement (30%) than it did for pre-sale (17%). Which social media channel proves most effective for customer engagement at the pre-sales stage of the buying cycle? LinkedIn 64% Twitter 47% Blog SlideShare YouTube 36% 29% 28% Facebook 17% Google+ 2% REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 2015 / 10

Which social media channel proves most effective for customer engagement at the post-sales stage of the buying cycle? LinkedIn 51% Twitter 42% Blog YouTube 42% 33% Facebook 30% SlideShare 23% Google+ 5% REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 2015 / 11

PREFERRED CONTENT TYPES DIFFER FOR PRE-SALE & POST-SALE STAGE 69 percent of our respondents chose case study as the preferred content type for their social media marketing in the pre-sale stage of the buying cycle. This was followed by blogpost at 62% and whitepaper at 59%. During the post-sale stage, blogpost (59%) was the most chosen content type, followed by article at 55%. Case study dropped to third place at 48%. This is understandable as case studies provide the reassurance that customers seek at the pre-sale stage, while blogs and articles provide the customer with regular updates which is more a requirement during the post-sale stage. What is, however, interesting to note here is the overall drop in the level of engagement in social media from the pre-sale to the post-sale stage, which is unfortunate, as social is a great platform for companies to engage with their customers and build loyalty in the long run. REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 2015 / 12

Which of the following content types reach your customers best via social media, at the pre-sales stage of the buying cycle? Case study 69% Blog post 62% White paper Infographics 59% 54% Articles 43% Video / Audio content Survey results 41% 40% Research report 36% Social media ad 21% Online game 4% REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 2015 / 13

Which of the following content types reach your customers best via social media, at the post-sales stage of the buying cycle? Blog post 59% Articles 55% Case study Survey results 48% 39% White paper 38% Video / Audio content 36% Research report 34% Infographics 30% Social media ad 7% REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 2015 / 14

MAJORITY OF ORGANIZATIONS HAVE INTEGRATED THEIR SOCIAL MARKETING WITH THE OVERALL MARKETING PROGRAM 88 percent of the respondents we spoke to, said they have integrated their social media marketing with their overall marketing program. 13 percent are yet to do so. Have you integrated your Social Media marketing with the overall marketing program? 88% Yes 12% No REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 2015 / 15

52 PERCENT OF ORGANIZATIONS WE SPOKE TO PUBLISH SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT MULTIPLE TIMES A DAY Of the rest, 27% said they publish social media content once a day. How often does your organization publish social media content? Multiple times a day 52% Once a day 27% Weekly once Monthly once Not sure 16% 2% 4% REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 2015 / 16

MOST ORGANIZATONS MONITOR SOCIAL MEDIA BUT KEEP THE PARAMETERS SIMPLE 82 percent of organizations said they monitor social trends. When asked what they monitor, 80% chose re-tweets / likes / shares / comments / mentions; 65% chose brand mentions; and only 37% chose sentiment analysis. When asked whether they track the demographic information of their consumers, only 34% of the respondents said they do; and when asked if they collected their consumers social graph data, only 27% said they do. It isn t surprising to find marketers stick to basics when tracking the metrics of their marketing programs as was reflected in our study on metrics & analytics done earlier this year 1. Does your organization monitor social trends? 82% Yes 18% No 1 Source : State of B2B Metrics and Analytics 2015 REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 2015 / 17

Do you conduct social media monitoring for your organization? If yes, what do you monitor? Re-tweets / likes / shares / comments / mentions 80% Brand mentions 65% Competitive brand mentions 50% Sentiment Analysis 37% Do you track demographic information (location, age, gender) about your consumers as a part of social media content? 66% 34% No Yes REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 2015 / 18

Does your organization collect social graph data (friends, contacts etc)? 73% 27% No Yes REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 2015 / 19

RE-TWEETS & LIKES ARE THE COMMONLY USED MEASURE OF SUCCESS Re-tweets / share (78%) was cited as the most commonly used measure of success in social media marketing, followed by fans / followers / likes (66%). Which of the following metrics are commonly used to measure the success of Social Media Marketing? Re-tweets / share 78% Fans / followers / likes 66% Comments Share of conversion against other channels 56% 36% Referrals 30% REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 2015 / 20

49 PERCENT OF RESPONDENTS SAY LESS THAN 10% OF THEIR WEBSITE TRAFFIC COMES FROM SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGNS 41 percent of respondents pegged the figure at 10% - 25%. We must hasten to add here that these figures may not necessarily be an actual measure of the effectiveness of the medium as responses would also be defined to a large extent by the content. What percentage of your website traffic comes from social media campaigns? Below 10% 49% 10% - 25% 41% 25% - 50% Above 50% 10% 0% REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 2015 / 21

INCREASE IN LEAD GENERATION & INCREASE IN TRAFFIC TOP THE LIST OF BENEFITS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 74 percent of respondents chose increase in lead generation and 66% chose increase in traffic as the benefit of social media marketing. Only 16% chose better business partnership, signalling the fact that social media was used more to engage with customers than with the trade. In your opinion, what are the benefits of Social Media Marketing? Increase in lead generation 74% Increase in traffic 66% Increase in global presence 50% Better prospect / lead insight 48% Increase in customer loyalty 44% Improvement in search ranking 42% Marketplace insight 40% Better competitive intelligence 36% Reduction in marketing costs 26% Improvement in sales 26% Helps in qualifying the leads Better business partnership 24% 16% REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 2015 / 22

ASSESSING EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING & MEASURING ROI STILL A CHALLENGE 71 percent of organizations we spoke to, said they were either not able to measure the ROI of their social media campaigns or were not sure how to; only 29% said they were able to measure it. When asked what the key social marketing challenges faced by them were, 57% said it was assessing the effectiveness of their social marketing activities; and 53% said it was generating actionable insights from social data. Interestingly, in an earlier study we did on B2B marketing trends, measuring ROI (along with converting leads to customers) was rated as the No.1 challenge that marketers would face in 2015 1. While only 27% of the respondents picked creating customer focused content as a social marketing challenge, we believe this would become an increasingly challenging area once customer engagement takes center stage in social marketing as opposed to building brand awareness, as it stands now. Is your organization able to measure the ROI of your Social Media campaigns? 29% Yes 33% No 38% Not Sure 1 Source : State of B2B Marketing 2015 REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 2015 / 23

In your opinion, what are the key social marketing challenges faced by your organization? Assessing the effectiveness of social marketing activities 57% Generating actionable insights from social data 53% Aligning social media strategies throughout different departments within the company 45% Designing social media strategy 43% Creating a Buy-in among company executives about importance of social marketing 39% Lack of qualified prospects / leads 31% No or little standard benchmarks due to rapid increase in number of social 27% Creating customer focused content 27% Lack of tool and techniques to gather relevant social data 23% Lack of expertise 20% Channels and changes in technologies Privacy rules, regulations and security compliance policies 18% 14% REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 2015 / 24

80 PERCENT OF RESPONDENTS SAY REVENUE GENERATED FROM SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IS LESS THAN 10% In comparison, the budget for social media marketing appears to be allocated more generously, with 28% of respondents claiming their social media spend to be between 10% and 25%. What percentage of your revenue is generated from Social Media Marketing? Below 10% 10% - 25% 25% - 50% Above 50% 80% 18% 12% 0% What percentage of your marketing budget is currently allocated towards social marketing? Below 10% 10% - 25% 25% - 50% Above 50% 65% 28% 7% 0% REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 2015 / 25

OVER HALF THE RESPONDENTS WE SPOKE TO, EXPECT THEIR SOCIAL MEDIA SPEND TO INCREASE IN THE NEXT 12 MONTHS 52 percent of respondents said they expect their social media budget to go up in the coming year; while the remaining 48% felt it would remain the same. How do you see your social marketing budget change over the next 12 months? 52% Increase 48% Remain the same REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 2015 / 26

FINAL THOUGHTS The significance of social media in the B2B space is no more a debate. According to a study done in 2014 by IDG Connect 1, 86% of IT buyers are using social media networks in their purchase decision process. It is, therefore, good to see a majority of organizations readily investing in it. Social media marketing today is largely used to build awareness and exposure. Given the stickiness of the medium and its power to engage, we would like to see organizations using the social platform more to engage with their customers and prospective buyers, and building a relationship with them. We also see a need for analytics to measure and monitor social media activities more rigorously, so companies can focus on channels that are working for them, and not have to invest in a social plan that covers as many channels as there are, which more often they do now. And finally, we would like to see companies leverage the power of user-generated content in the social space, something that we did not hear them speak much about in our study. 1 Source : Connecting conversations to content REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 2015 / 27

ABOUT THE ANALYSTS Nimish Vohra SVP, Principal Analyst Nimish, Senior Vice President, works with CMOs and senior marketing professionals. His research focuses on customer experience management, predictive analytics, mobile enablement and other emerging trends that help customers leverage technology as an enabler of marketing and business outcomes. Srinivasan Seethapathy Senior Marketing Manager Srinivasan s research is focused on optimizing customer experiences across all channels. His research is aimed at marketers who want to understand how they can spend their budgets more efficiently by improving customer experiences across marketing channels.

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