A successful social media strategy can bring huge gains: customers who engage with your brand online spend up to 40% more than those who don’t. Needless to say, a social media presence is essential, regardless of the size of your customer base. Recently, B2B marketing has increasingly adopted the trends and tactics we would usually associate with B2C marketing. The emphasis is now placed on personalisation and the individual needs of the customer.
Results appear to support this shift: B2B businesses that personalise their online CX have 30% higher revenue than competitors. While businesses and consumers have different motivations when buying a product, being able to focus on first-class CX is imperative, regardless of the size of the purchase.
The social media networks you choose in 2023 should be driven by the voices of your customers, whether they be large businesses or individuals. The challenge for many marketers is figuring out the best mix of platforms for their customers and their brand. For B2B businesses, a mix of LinkedIn and Twitter for written updates, and YouTube for longer-form videos, will help youto communicate with businesses, industry leaders, and clients in your network.
B2C businesses should also explore a variety of platforms, both social and video, to maximise following and meet customers where they are. Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter are good places to start in seeing which platforms best engage with your core demographic. Focus on creating a variety of appropriate content across different networks to increase the breadth of your following.
As we head into 2023, there are three key steps decision-makers should be considering, to make to ensure their social media presence is as effective as possible in the coming year.
Let the Voice of the Customer dictate your social media presence
As a business, having an active profile in your comments section and on social reviewing platforms such as Google reviews, TripAdvisor and Yelp is essential. Over 95% of consumers read online reviews before making purchasing decisions. These sites allow customers to share their opinions on their experience with your brand.
Customer behaviour online influences customer behaviour offline. Your business must adapt accordingly to attract, retain, and increase CX. In 2023, integration with short-form video formats, such as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook Reels, or YouTube Shorts,should also be a priority. With 19 hours of online video content consumed weekly, on average, there are plenty of leads to be generated through this form of easily-digestible content.
People no longer want prices and products, but an experience. Futuristic platforms, such as the metaverse, are on the horizon. It won’t be long before customers start looking for your business in the virtual world as well.
3 KPIs you should track
Choosing and setting social media KPIs helps to measure the success of different marketing strategies. Growing your brand on social media takes time and dedication – which is why setting clear KPIs helps keep you on track. You can monitor interactions from posts – whether it’s clicks, reactions, likes, comments, shares, saves, or DMs.
- Engagement rate. Keeping track of each post’s engagement rate will help you to compare the performance of earlier campaigns against newer ones, even with large variations in audience size. You can also take a look at the data you gathered from previous marketing campaigns and see which ones garnered more impressions. This provides an overview of how campaigns perform over time.
- Click through rate. Another useful KPI to consider in social media marketing campaigns is the Click-Through Rate (CTR). This particular metric will help when trying to identify which campaign type works best for your audience. Then, you can prioritise effective campaigns in future.
- Return on Ad Spend. In addition to CTR, you also take a fiscal approach to advert campaigns with the Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). To see which post performs best within the constraints of your budget, you will want to compare campaign results. In addition to CTR, Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) is for now the most helpful metric to apply.
Unify channels through integration
The integration between social media platforms is important to create consistent brand messaging and a seamless experience. Focus on integrating information from every channel, such as websites and email. This will give your front-line staff a 360-degree view of the customer. This omni-channel capability means that customers can seamlessly move between channels viewing content personalised for them. This retains 89% of customers, as opposed to just 33% for businesses that have little to no omni-channel capability.
When customers reach out for support via social media, don’t leave their message on “read”. Almost half of your online customers expect a response in less than five minutes. Companies that don’t reply to customers reportedly experience a 15% higher customer churn rate. If your customers consistently experience long wait times for responses, integrating chatbots canallow you to respond instantly to customer queries. This can help to reduce the time it takes to answer simple questions.
Integrations such as these are relatively inexpensive and can elevate the perception of your brand instantly. As part of a seamless omni-channel experience, sending automatic updates, such as shipping information, can reduce the number of customer queries and help improve CX.
When considering your business’s 2023 social media strategy, the key is to approach the customer journey as a whole. Whether you’re a new B2C start-up or an established B2B giant, put personalised content and an integrated communications strategy at the forefront of your brand.