Written by Natalie Metcalf, Social Media Manager
Okay, I’ll say it – the Barbie movie marketing was overhyped.
Don’t get me wrong, there were some cool ideas, and a lot of great PR, but how hard is it really to create an unforgettable marketing campaign when you have a seemingly limitless budget, huge A-List stars, generations of established fans, and a subject matter that’s interesting and fun?
The Barbie movie was everywhere – with over 100 creative brand collaborations, unexpected crossovers (who watched Barbenheimer in one day?) and the ability to somehow drench the world pink. Lauded by marketing experts and film fans alike, the campaign is now the 14th highest-grossing movie of all time, with a lifetime value of over $1.4 billion.
Warner Brothers’ approach certainly offers valuable lessons, such as its brilliant ‘breadcrumbing’ and use of every single element of the marketing mix—hence the huge number of articles and interviews detailing its strategy. However, I found myself wishing for more easily replicable techniques and examples, ones without seemingly unlimited budgets and heritage brand power.
My somewhat jaded view on this was confirmed on a recent Brandwatch webinar (which was amazing, by the way!). While the very experienced speakers discussed social media campaigns from Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, global fashion houses and household-name FMCG brands, the comments section was flooded with requests for something closer to home.
“I run the socials for a local accountancy firm… do you have any advice?”
“Will you speak about B2B??”
“What should I do if we’re in a boring industry and no one has heard of us?!”
Although it’s less glamorous to admit, most of us in the marketing and social media space don’t work on these fun, glitzy, B2C brand accounts. Instead, we’re trying to gain followers for smaller B2B businesses, waxing lyrical to often cautious owners about the importance of brand awareness and fighting against tricky algorithms.
What are the main problems in B2B marketing?
In this blog series, I’ll break down the main problems B2B social media marketers face, and suggest some tips and tricks on approaching your strategy to improve its performance – without the need for Ryan Gosling.
We will cover:
- Brand Awareness
- Audience
- Resources
- Business Landscape
- Investment and Returns
- Evaluation
(Yes, it does spell out Barbie).
This first instalment focuses on brand awareness and suggests 5 ways to boost your brand’s visibility when starting from scratch or trying to grow in a niche or difficult market.
Brand awareness for B2B companies
Smaller B2B companies don’t have the luxury of inherited brand awareness and often need to grow their social media presence from scratch. Engagement and reach will be slow off the mark, as your audience takes time to find and trust your content.
On top of this, the industry may be highly specialised and contain a lot of niche content, which limits widespread appeal and shareability.
To overcome this, you can use these 5 approaches.
5 approaches for winning B2B social content
1. Leverage partnerships
B2B businesses often benefit from relationships with specialists in their field. Capitalise on this by asking experts to contribute to guest blogs or feature on a podcast, which you can turn into engaging social media snippets or posts.
You can also showcase user-generated content (e.g., a customer using your product or service) and ask them to provide testimonials or photos. This builds social proof and trust, which is important on a platform like LinkedIn, where decision-makers are scrolling daily.
2. Consistent branding
Having a consistent brand tone of voice and visual identity is essential for any brand. But for a B2B company, this will help your social media profile appear even more professional and legitimate. Try and vary the types of content you produce (video, infographics, team photos, etc.) and analyse the results to see what works for your audience.
3. Engage with your audience
Did you know that the first 15 minutes are crucial for LinkedIn posts? Polls, surveys, and asking questions in captions are all great ways to encourage engagement. Start asking company employees to like, comment, and share the post as soon as it’s live to try and improve your reach.
You can also venture into the real world by attending trade shows and networking events or keep it virtual with webinars—this shows great community engagement and provides some interesting content.
4. Thought leadership
Thought leadership is crucial for B2B brands. If you build a reputation, the industry will consider you an authority, which can help boost brand awareness.
You can do this by offering information and resources such as in-depth industry reports, whitepapers, and ebooks or even speaking at events. This type of high-quality content isn’t just great for socials, but it’s also loved by Google. In fact, it’s one of the key components of E-E-A-T.
5. Optimise for SEO
If you’re not getting a tonne of shares or new followers (and don’t have the budget for a paid social ads campaign), you need to work on your SEO. All social media platforms include some form of search optimisation, including TikTok, Instagram, and LinkedIn. This doesn’t just mean hashtags, though. For instance, LinkedIn is seeing a gradual decline in hashtags as users rely on keywords to increase their post reach to relevant audiences.
So what are the most important aspects of social media SEO? First, use the right keywords, create an authentic present and share people-first content. This will give your account a better chance of reaching your target audience.
In this blog, you’ve learnt some practical techniques for boosting brand awareness for B2B companies. In the next instalment, I’ll assess the types of problems B2B businesses face regarding their audience and cover some helpful tips and tricks to overcome them.
Want advice on your organic social strategy? We’re here to help
At Trio, our team is experienced in social media and marketing strategy, no matter what size your business is or what industry you’re in.
Let’s partner up. Talk to our team today to see how we can take your social media to the next level.