INSIGHTS

First off, you may be asking, what is B2B social media marketing?

B2B is short-form for business to business. B2B social media marketing refers to using social channels to promote ideas or products to other companies–in hopes of sales, networking, or thought leadership.

B2B marketing requires strategic thinking to cultivate long-term corporate relationships that result in large scale purchases.

Nearly half of Millennial B2B customers would rather not engage with sales reps at all. Therefore, digital marketing agencies in Toronto consider social media as an essential method of lead generation.

Let’s consider these crucial B2B statistics:

• By 2025, roughly 80% of B2B sales will occur online
• 83% of B2B marketers use social ads or promotional posts–up from 60% in 2020
• Nearly Half of B2B digital marketers increased their social media budget due to COVID-19
• Nearly 25% of internet users browse social media for work-related research and networking
• In the U.S alone, businesses will spend an estimated $1.64 billion on LinkedIn ads this year. Spending will increase to $2.33 billion by 2023

By now, you likely see why B2B strategy is VITAL for social media marketing firms in Toronto! Read on to become an expert at crafting effective B2B strategies.

How to create B2B social media strategies for your clients

Let’s start by defining your client’s business goals–and how we can use B2B social marketing to achieve them.

Recent research shows that marketing firms in Toronto should prioritize the following objectives:

1. Create brand awareness:
   

   the first barrier to overcome is letting the world know who you are–and eventually stand out within the highly saturated B2B space.

   Luckily, social media is the perfect place to define who you are! Short explainer videos, infographics and status updates can be used to paraphrase complex information–and lead to longer-form content.

2. Educating audiences:

   a B2B path-to-purchase involves more than just viewing a website or pricing information. Oftentimes, business shoppers will research competitor offerings–doing independent research and supporting the company they find most credible.

   Educating your prospective customers is a powerful means of instilling buyer confidence. B2B content should focus on blog posts, white papers, how-to videos and e-books, all with a clearly defined call to action. As previously mentioned, social postings such as status and infographics can summarize and provide linkage to longer-form pieces.

3. Building credibility and trust:
   building trust with your audience starts with “humanizing” your brand–but what does this mean?Most consumers are under the impression that B2B communications are overly technical and boring: avoid talking like a robot at all costs! Instead, using a conversational tone makes your brand seem more approachable–and can work wonders on your engagement.Remember–there are humans on both sides of the screen! No matter your product or service, social media is an excellent means of sparking buyer engagement. Comments and direct messages are becoming a customer service staple and provide a transparent place for consumers to state their questions, concerns and feedback.No matter how technical or niche your product might be, customer engagement can immediately make your brand feel more personable.

   Proactive customer service does more than show you care–it can lead to positive accolades! Previous testimonials, reviews and awards are paramount for instilling trust in potential buyers. To build further trust, you may want to include previous customer stories on your social channels–sharing them is an excellent method to make them feel valued while highlighting your services without coming across as a hard sell!

The top B2B networks for digital marketing agencies in Toronto

To save you time, we’ve consolidated the top five best channels for B2B marketing. You may want to focus on creating quality content for one or two channels to start–to avoid spreading yourself too thin.

LinkedIn: an excellent B2B network for employee engagement, sponsored ads and thought leadership.

Statistics show that 96% of B2B marketers used LinkedIn for content marketing–and as previously stated, U.S businesses alone are estimated to spend $2.33 billion on LinkedIn Advertising yearly by 2023.

Facebook: most B2B marketers use Facebook for ads, but it’s also a good space to showcase culture and other employee-focused content.

Instagram: ideal for visuals such as: carousels, infographics, and bite-sized explainer videos–in addition to showcasing company culture and employee advocacy.

Youtube: an excellent medium for product demonstrations, interviews, presentations, how-to tutorials and advertisements.

Twitter: a great network for interacting with customers, starting conversational threads and studying trends.

Now that you’ve chosen your networks, we must decide how to measure your efforts.

Using Analytics to Measure B2B Social Media Marketing in Toronto

For the sake of optimizing returns, reporting and analytics are non-negotiable requirements for B2B social marketing. You must determine which networks are the most effective–and the exact conversion rates on your spending.

These following B2B social media tools can help you report, listen and measure results:

• Google Analytics: track how visitors found your site and the actions they take.
• Sprout Social: dashboards for reporting, listening and measuring engagement.
• Brandwatch: Track your competitors, brand mentions, customer loyalty and more.
• Hootsuite: Helping you schedule, listen, report and measure overall ROI.
• UTM Parameters: Assists your analytics tools by providing deeper info on
  the links you share.

By now, you can likely see why Toronto marketing agencies cannot shy away from offering B2B social media strategies. Following these practices can increase sales, build awareness, and shed positive light on company culture.

Now that you have a strong grasp of B2B social practices, be sure to check out our article on strategizing email marketing!