Social media is excellent for B2B marketing. Google Ads, Twitter, and LinkedIn play an essential role in digital marketing, but arguably, it’s Facebook for B2B that delivers the biggest impact.
Before diving into the ways Facebook for B2B marketing can help your business, you must understand your role in all of this. As a Managing director, CEO, or member of senior management your personal Facebook profiles have an immense value that can be leveraged for your company. While this may seem odd to ex-pats new to Southeast Asia, it’s the nature of the region that there’s little separation between “private” and “business” spheres.
You may not expect your partners, employees, and customers to be checking out your personal Facebook profile, but trust me, they are.
The underlying reasons can be given many names, but fundamentally it all goes back to credibility and trust. In ASEAN the adage “It’s not about what you know, it’s about WHO you know” is a way of life, and checking out who YOU know is part and parcel of any serious due-diligence on their part. Rather than being upset – You should be happy – If they’re checking you out, and adding you as a friend, it means their interested…
Your personal Facebook profile has a hidden superpower – It can join groups. Being active in groups relevant to your business sector – responding, sharing, and contributing, is the virtual version of going to networking meetings. It’s your opportunity to become known in your area for the expertise you have in your field, and it has a few advantages:
Finally, if you haven’t done so already, you need to create a Facebook “Page” for your organization. I can’t stress enough how important this is, but if you need a final push – Consider that as of October 2019 there are over 5bn downloads of the Facebook Android app – That’s more than half the planet engaging with Facebook on their mobiles – most likely on a day-to-day basis.
Global stats aside – Facebook has a massive audience in Southeast Asia. Consider Singapore – The country has only ~5.8 million people. Of these 200k are millionaires, and around 4.1 million are Facebook users. The math is easy – If you’re looking for HNWI, you’re likely to find about 70,000 on Facebook in Singapore alone.
Of the other 4.1 million Singaporean Facebook users many will be business leaders who may be interested in your offers but have never heard of your organization. If you’re not yet targeting this audience, you should, and if you have no marketing strategy to do so, ask yourself how much longer can you afford to ignore this opportunity?
A prevalent thought with bigger and more conservative industries is that Facebook for B2B isn’t the right place for them. This may have been the case 5 years ago, but times change quickly. A recent survey conducted by the Content Marketing Institute found 86% of B2B marketers ALREADY use Facebook for digital marketing purposes. If you’re not on the bandwagon – you’re about to be one of the last to join.
Of course, just being on Facebook doesn’t mean it’s going to be useful for you.
B2B Facebook marketing is HARD WORK offline and online as well. It’s crucial that you adapt your social media marketing strategies so they focus on building your brand and increasing engagement with clients and stakeholders.
As with everything – you need a strategy, and for that, you need clearly defined goals:
Whatever your goals are – they’re valid and require a plan to have any chance for success.
One of the questions we hear most often is “But how do we sell on Facebook?”
The answer is – Facebook is a place where PEOPLE meet – so selling there is the same as you sell in real life – B2B marketing is characterized by longer sales cycles that rely on the intensive relationship and trust-building. Keeping that in mind it’s clear that Facebook and social media can be leveraged for filling your pipeline, but just like in the offline world, it’s a bad idea to try starting a relationship with an aggressive sales pitch.
You wouldn’t go to a networking meeting and start yelling “BUY MY STUFF!”. Don’t do it on Facebook either.
A better approach is building your funnel by leveraging the platforms’ tools to:
Remember – You’re looking to build a long-term business relationship, not close an immediate sale.
Not every visitor to your Facebook page will engage in dialogue, but there are many other ways Facebook supports businesses and their customers. The custom call-to-action buttons offered at the top of the page are a great opportunity to leverage.
Facebook offers a variety of buttons that you can consider:
Each of these has a unique purpose – Choose the one that best suits your audience and sales funnel.
To learn more about how you can get more leads for your business by leveraging Facebook pages and ads reach out to us today – We’ve been helping B2B companies in ASEAN with digital marketing since 2010.
