Finally! A B2B social media success story
Oct 19th
At long last, I bring to you my valued {grow} folks, a true B2B social media success story that can really be measured by MONEY. I believe this is the only one in the world. ; ) And it is GENIUS!
Best of all, the success comes from one of our very own {grow}-er’s, Nathan Dube aka @DubiousMonk, a frequent comment contributor.
Nathan works in the marketing department of Expert Laser Services of Southbridge, MA. The company is a managed print services provider and provides printer/copier sales, service and supplies. Nathan’s challenge was to increase awareness for his company through social media initiatives.
His idea was to let people release their technology angst by finding the most creative ways to destroy their printer — on video. The “Destroy Your Printer Video Contest” was promoted through the company’s blog, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. The oddball humor of the contest gave it a great buzz and more – web traffic more than doubled and the company gained more than 100 new inbound links. Recycler magazine did an Internet TV special about the contest as well as an article which was the most-read topics on the site for several weeks.
The submissions can be found here and they are hilarious. The winning entry involves a backhoe (but I think the dynamite should have won: “We’re approaching the target!”).
Momentum for the contest picked up as people fell in love with the crazy ways people destroyed their printers. One fan was an employee of nearby Telesian Technologies, who called up Expert Laser Services and asked them to be their new service provider.
That’s right. New business. Money in the bank from a social media victory.
Nathan said getting a new customer was just icing on the cake. “The focus of the contest was not ‘let’s get customers’,” he said. ” The focus was to drive more traffic to the website, build inbound links, and create good content. The fact that we landed a new service and repair customer was not our goal, but it happened.”
And to make a happy ending even happier, the winner of the contest, Cottage Revolution of Wales, MA, donated their winning toner cartridges to Catholic Charities.
Five reasons B2B companies should reject social media marketing
Sep 15th
In yesterday’s post, I demonstrated that even in the case of the most extreme B2B sales situation (one customer, long sales cycle, few competitors), there could be a place for social media marketing. Today I’ll tell you why it isn’t that simple.
Does my schizophrenia seem strange? I’ve been around long enough to know that even when there’s a slam-dunk business case for something, it doesn’t mean a company will do it. This has been quite apparent in B2B where hard-dollar social media successes have been few and far between, despite a lot of hype. Here are five good reasons why some B2B’s should NOT adopt social media right now:
1) The economy sucks. Unless a customer is screaming for social media, it’s not likely a struggling company is going to voluntarily get into a brand new marketing effort in the teeth of a recession. Even though most social media is “free,” it still takes valuable time and resources many companies don’t have right now. (On the flip side, your competitors are in the same boat – why not get a jump start on this now?)
OK, please let me pre-empt a few hot-blooded retorts bound to show up in the comment section … I’m not saying DON’T do social media. You know me better than that. I know that every one of these reasons I listed could be turned around as a reason TO DO social media marketing!
The case for social media marketing and "Extreme B2B"
Sep 14th
At one point in my career, I had one of the largest (if not THE largest!) sales positions in the world. I had just one customer and they bought more than US$1.5 billion of goods and services from my company every year. That’s what I call Extreme B2B. Long sales cycle. High stakes. Extraordinary power in the hands of the buyer.
Is there a place for social media marketing even in “Extreme B2B?” Before applying any tactic like social media — in any situation — you first need to consider the strategy. In my position, there were four strategies I employed to keep and grow this mega-customer:
Apply high-touch throughout the organization. With a customer that large, you can imagine that operations were dispersed throughout the world. So my contacts were broad … and they were also deep – from the CEO to the machine operator on the floor, from Purchasing to R&D. There were dozens of people who influenced the purchasing decision and I had to earn trust with all of them! It was also a challenge connecting all the communication synapses between the two companies: executive, manufacturing, R&D, etc.
Raise switching costs through service innovations. Not only did I want to grow my business at this customer, I wanted to do it at the most profitable plant locations. To achieve this, I wanted to provide some extraordinary service that would make it painful for the plant to switch to a competitor. For example, at our most profitable customer location, we designed a special truck that could haul away their waste material after delivering a shipment of finished product, saving them waste hauling fees. Those trucks made us a lot of money!
Improve profitability through incremental cost savings. With an account that large, the purchasing power is extreme and that keeps margins low. It was always a challenge to find small ways to save money, especially if it also provided a win for the customer. With revenues that large, even an improvement of a fraction of a cent per unit could have a dramatic impact on profitability.
Listen better, act faster. Listening to my customer was serious business. We actually conducted formal “listen to the customer” visits using trained facilitators. Information from these visits, conducted throughout the world, was carefully compiled, thoroughly analyzed and used to create our marketing and R&D plans.
In summary, my strategy was: Be accessible, innovate through service, lower costs, and listen effectively. Hmmm … doesn’t that sound like a PERFECT business case for social media applications? Even in a case of extreme B2B there are likely applications for these new tools, right?
Yes … and no. I’m sure you can think of many great social web applications to support these strategies, but that doesn’t mean that B2B companies will necessarily act on them. Why not?
Even with a strong business case, there may be very good reasons why a B2B company should reject social media marketing (gasp!). More on that in the next post!
The world’s most broken marketing process
Sep 4th
Marketing is all about the consumer. Realtors make it all about themselves. What other industry routinely plasters their faces on business cards, billboards and print advertising to sell a product? This is like marketing a new Internet service by publicizing the computer. Instead of ads and messages that promote truly helpful services and information, realtors proclaim “I’m a “million dollar seller” or “who’s who in Paducah real estate for 2005.” Is this going to sell a home? Serve a customer? WHO CARES?
Where are most of their ad dollars spent? Print. Where are most customers? Internet. In fact, 90 percent of all real estate searches begin there. One local real estate conglomerate just started a new full-color glossy magazine for home sales. What marketing genius is making these decisions?
And social media? Blank stares.
Here’s another marketing anomaly. The open house. Who comes to an open house? Nosey people who have nothing better to do on a Sunday afternoon and people scouting for a robbery. Success rate of this activity? Near zero. One realtor said in 10 years she had never sold a home through an open house.
Of course there are exceptions, but here is the marketing strategy of most realtors: “Do what everybody else is doing — which is what has always been done. And then collect a 6 percent commission.
The process of enlisting an agent, dealing with a lender and closing on a home is enveloped by mountains of paperwork and waste. Money is thrown at inspectors, appraisers and a host of other paper pushers who have no incentive to provide true value or improve their services. This is an enormous business opportunity for an enterprising person. Here’s a free “new real estate” business plan:
Now wouldn’t you sell your home through a company like that?
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-Mark SchaeferFollow Mark
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