B2B Lead Generation through Social Media in India A PRESENTATION BY

B2B Lead Generation through Social Media in India A PRESENTATION BY

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 2

Globally, 70% of B2B Marketers 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 3

69% of India B2B Marketers confirmed Social Media Marketing to be one of the primary content marketing activities in 2014. Source: The Digital DNA State of emarketing India 2015, Octane Research 4

The Myth & Facts about B2B Social Media Marketing The Myth Social Media is used primarily by junior people who do not have the influencing/ purchasing power. 5

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 6

Status of B2B Content Marketing and Social Media Marketing (2014-15) in India 7

B2B Content Marketing in India 23% B2B marketers generate 30%+ of revenues through content marketing. 20% of smaller businesses generate 50%+ of revenue using content marketing. Source: The Digital DNA State of emarketing India 2015, Octane Research 8

B2B Social Media Marketing in India 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 Source: The Digital DNA State of emarketing India 2015, Octane Research 9

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 10

Success Stories of Social Media Marketing in India Deskaway, iyogi, TCS, Suzlon 11

DeskAway Company Snapshot Challenge DeskAway is an online Project Collaboration Web app that allows small and large teams to work together on projects. 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 audience 2. Established effective market reach 3. Successful in creating brand awareness 4. Lead generation 12

iyogi Company Snapshot Challenge iyogi is a remote technical support company. It launched Digital Service Cloud, a new cloudbased product offering targeted at large telecommunications companies and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). 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. 13

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%) 14

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. 15

Key benefits of Social Media Marketing for B2B companies in India 40% of B2B companies have generated sales leads from social media in India Source/Graphic Courtesy: The Digital DNA State of emarketing India 2015, Octane Research 16

Global Patterns in B2B Social Media Marketing 17

Social media has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than outbound marketing 1 54% of B2B marketers have generated leads with social media marketing 40% of those who generated leads have generated revenue 2 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 Sources: 1. State of Inbound Marketing, 2012 2. Whittington Consulting 18

B2B companies generate 3 times more leads through social media than traditional channels Social media conversations increase the speed of closing by 20% Sources: 2015 B2B Lead Gen Report, Pinpoint Market Research and Anderson Jones 19

Lead Generation for B2B Marketers through Social Media What it means 36% 49% 69% 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. LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Sources: 2015 B2B Lead Gen Report, Pinpoint Market Research and Anderson Jones 20

Other Exciting Facts 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 Sources: Social Buying Meets Social Selling: How Trusted Networks Improve the Purchase Experience, IDC, February 2014 21

Key benefits of Social Media, Global Source/Graphic Courtesy: : 2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, Social Media Examiner 22

Key success metrics 1. Customer Engagement 7. Sales 2. Social Reach 6. ROI 3. Visitor Growth Rate 5. Lead generation 4. Conversion rate 23

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 24

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 25

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 26

Tips for success, Contd 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. 27

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 28

Other References: Social Samosa Linkedin 2015 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, Social Media Examiner http://www.rickwhittington.com/blog/b2b-demand-generation-with-social-media/#sthash.i8wqzz1y.dpuf http://www.ey.com/publication/vwluassets/ey-social-media-marketing-india-trends-study-2014/$file/eysocial-media-marketing-india-trends-study-2014.pdf 29

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