HOW TO SELL THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA AND WHY B2Cs HAVE A LOT TO LEARN FROM B2BsDialogkonferansen 2014 / Strömstad, Sweden / @JonathanWich / 26.08.2014

The biggest question for marketers regarding social media?

“How can I use social media to sell?”

It’s difficult . . .

Someone has been lying

• The majority of companies using social media are off-track. • The problem? The efforts are led by marketers who do not understand social. • It’s called Social Media Marketing. • And it never worked (particularly well). • Only very few brands have what it takes to easily capture the social space, i.e. both interesting

products, an attractive corporate culture, and brand ambassadors who want to be involved and spread the story of the company.

• Nevertheless, social media has become big business. An increasingly big part of the marketing budgets are ending up at Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

MYTH #1 THE CONSUMERS ‘LIKE’ US

Wrong: Consumers couldn’t care less about brands.

• 68% of american consumers “always” or “mostly” ignore brand posts on social media. (Kentico, 2014)

• College students in the US: "Nearly half stated they didn't believe brands should be on social media or they didn't personally follow brands" and "nearly 70% report following three or fewer brand across all social media.” (Cocentric, 2014)

• "Most social media users feel negatively towards marketing strategies by companies on social media sites, with 35% saying that they often hide companies’ updates if they update too often.” (YouGov, 2013)

• Global survey: “83% of consumers have had a bad experience with social media marketing.” (Pitney Bowes, 2014)

MYTH #2 SOCIAL MEDIA GIVES CREDIBILITY

Wrong: Using social media does not make you more trustworthy as a brand.

• Only 2% of American consumers think a company’s social media profile is its most credible channel or platform. The credibility numbers are almost 90% lower for social media than for traditional advertising and website. (Adobe, 2013)

• Only 15% of American consumers trust social media posts from companies. Twice as many trust information on corporate websites. (Forrester, 2014)

• Social ads are among the least trustworthy forms of advertising, considerably lower than ads in traditional media. (Nielsen, 2014)

MYTH #3 FACEBOOK CAN OPEN THE DOORS TO NEW MARKETS

Wrong: Social media is not a good tool for acquiring new customers.

• More than half of consumers are ‘liking’ brands on Facebook because they are already customers. Only 1 out of 6 ‘like’ a brand because they might buy from the company one day. (Adobe, 2013)

• A research study of UK consumers concludes that “the followers / likers of companies are most likely to be current customers (33%) whose primary motivation is a desire to get something in return (34%).” (YouGov, 2013)

• In 2013, digital consultancy L2 investigated 250 prestige-brands and found that over 4 years less than 0,25% of new customers came from Facebook and 0,01% from Twitter. In comparison, 10% came from paid search and 7% from email marketing. (L2, 2013)

• As if that’s not enough: L2’s investigation also showed that customers acquired via social channels had lower lifetime value than customers acquired via e.g. paid search.

MYTH #4 MANY FANS AND FOLLOWERS IS GOOD

Wrong: There’s no connection between fan count and bottom line.

• In a study from 2012 of the 40 US companies on the stock exchange who have most Facebook fans and are tracked by American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) there’s a negative correlation (-0,3) between number of Facebook fans and CSAT. And no correlation (-0,1) between Facebook fans and stock price. (Augie Ray, 2012)

• The same is true for the top 50 US brands on Twitter. Their average score is below the median score in the NASDAQ index. (Augie Ray, 2014)

• Some specific examples: The sales numbers for Lady Gaga’s ARTPOP album were hugely disappointing even though she promoted it heavily on Twitter where she has the 4th largest profile; BlackBerry has hit the bottom financially even though it’s one of the most popular brands on Twitter; and Dippin' Dots went bankrupt just a few days after they reached their 5 million Facebook fans milestone.

MYTH #5 SOCIAL MEDIA CAN BOOST ONLINE SALES

Wrong: Consumers are not buying the products they hear about on social media.

• Even though there are many examples of social media content leading to sales it’s not feasible to claim that social media in general has a positive impact on the buying behaviour.

• According to one survey, 72% of American consumers “never” or “hardly” ever buy a product they heard about on social media. (Kentico, 2014)

• Another survey reports that only 18% of consumers buy a product they heard about on social. (PwC, 2013) • Finally, a third survey reports that only 19% of consumers buy a product they heard about on social.

(YouGov, 2013) • These survey based number are not promising. However, the measured numbers are much worse:

According to Experian social media provides only 7,7% of the traffic to retail websites (even though social media is the most popular activity on the web). (Experian, 2014)

• And on Black Friday last year IBM tracked conversions on 800 retail sites. The result?

Social media was responsible for only 1% of the traffic that led to sales on Black Friday last year…

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” - Upton Sinclair

“So can I not use social media to sell?”

You can in fact.

It’s called Social Selling.

And it’s primarily a B2B sales tactic.

• It’s all about training and empowering your employees (sales reps and thought leaders) to use social networks to network and share knowledge.

• By sharing relevant knowledge with their professional network (incl. both existing and potential customers) social sellers build trust and create a pull towards them. And then they sell (and they prospect too).

• By getting in early in the sales funnel (if such a thing really exists) social sellers are shaping buyers demand long before they buy.

• It’s part of a bigger trend: From price selling to value selling. • In 2012, CEB first identified this approach and saw astounding results.

Social selling: Empowering your thought leaders to teach where customers learn

A new approach is needed because the need to get in early is new (sic!)

• The customer decision journey has changed dramatically in recent years. • Today, buyers (except FMCG buyers) do up to 70% of their research online (websites, P2P, social media). • In many cases they make their purchasing decisions without contacting the supplier / sales rep.

The average purchase decision is 57% complete, and more than 10 information sources have been consulted, by the time a supplier is engaged.

Learn Define Needs Access Options Make Decision

Source: CEB, 2012

IBM: Ready-made social messages

• A marketing-led approach where both rep concerns of additional work and company concerns of rep-generated content are eased.

• Marketing should play a big part of it: Sourcing prospects, managing pipeline, producing content, training sales reps etc.

• Results? Both IBM and Morgan Stanley say they are generating “considerable sales”.

• In general: More opportunities, more likely to hit quota and more productive.

So what can B2Cs learn from B2Bs and social selling?

If you want to do marketing through social media you need to:

• Figure out how you can get in at an earlier stage of the buying process

• Understand your audience much better • Create content so valuable and relevant that

people would pay for it • Make more use of ambassadors (e.g.

employees) who can carry your story !

• Let go of the sales KPI’s • Focus more on storytelling • Be creative • Make it personal !• Market your company (hardware, employees,

brand), not your products • Be online day and night to constantly give!

Market your company, not your products.

Watch the video on http://vimeo.com/62085613

What social media can do for you !=

What social media cannot do for you != !DIRECT SALES + NEW CUSTOMERS + CREDIBILITY

BRAND PERCEPTION + SERVICE + INSIGHTS !

CULTURAL CHANGE + EFFICIENCY GAINS + INDIRECT SALES

A holistic (and cross-functional) approach is the only way forward

• Social belongs to the company, not a department (so stop fighting about it!). • Reach out to the other departments and get the management to understand the cross-functional value. • Make sure the efforts support the overall business goals and priorities (not just sales goals).

Mkt

Comms HR

OpsR&D  / BI

Social technologies

Sales

IT CS

Execs

From CRM over Social CRM to Audience

• Next up: A total view of your audiences, incl. customers, fans, followers, subscribers and employees. • Improve Sales and Service while reducing your media spend. • A new role is about to arrive: Audience Development Manager.

DM

Social Web

TV

CRM

Audience

Brimfield Police Department

• Small Ohio town of 10,000 people. • A police force which wants to build trust in its community. • Courage, integrity, community. Plus continuity and authenticity.

Any questions?Twitter: @JonathanWich www: jonathanwichmann.com / orcasocial.com