Ana Gotter — April 24, 2018 — April 24, 2018
Some businesses have it easy when it comes to getting likes on Facebook; others will have a little more of a challenge. Accounting firms, after all, aren’t as inherently glamorous as the hottest restaurants or boutiques that house the latest fashions.
B2B Facebook marketing is a little more of a challenge than B2C Facebook marketing for this very reason, with B2B businesses having their work a bit more cut out for them. This isn’t LinkedIn, after all, and when most people use Facebook, the last thing they’ll be automatically thinking about is work. It may take a little more effort to get them there.
It is, however, more than possible to rock Facebook marketing as a B2B business when you understand how to do it and implement the correct strategies. In this post, we’re going to show you exactly how to get results and build an engaged community with B2B Facebook marketing in a way that feels organic and authentic.
Tell Stories
It’s easy to create emotional attachments to some types of B2C businesses. The jewelry store where you bought your fiancé her engagement ring will always have a special place in your heart, and it’s easy to want to stay up to date with the art studio that hosts painting classes you love with your friend.
This emotional connection can be harder to establish for B2B customers, because business isn’t as inherently emotional as the experiences we have in our personal life. Think about it this way: are you more loyal to your hair dresser, or the business card supplier you use?
Stories can help you build that emotional connection and the type of customer relationship you need to create a Facebook community and long-lasting client relationships. You can tell both your brand’s story and, by extension, the stories of your customers. Sometimes you can do both at the same time.
An example of B2B brand storytelling that will do well on Facebook includes Freshbooks, which uses case studies of successful businesses who use their accounting software to showcase to tell their customers’ stories and show how valuable their platform is.
Use More Video
Almost every social media post that you read right now will at least mention video. Video gets more engagement than other types of posts without it, and it can help you portray more information in a shorter amount of time. This is true for both video ads and organic video that appear in users’ feeds.
Even more importantly, storytelling and video go hand-in-hand. Fifteen seconds of video gives you a lot more room to tell a lot more story than a text-based post, which can be overwhelming to read and is more likely to lose user interest.
The video below from Salesforce is a strong example of how to use compelling stories in video format if you’re a B2B business. They tell several different stories of conference attendees, explaining first who they were so you developed an attachment to them, and then to how the program affected them.
Go Live
We’ve already mentioned that people sometimes have trouble connecting with B2B businesses the same way they do with B2C businesses. Because it requires a certain amount of professionalism, it can be difficult to show your authentic personality. The way around this is to feature the actual, real people behind the brand.
An excellent strategy you can use for this purpose is Facebook Live.
Facebook Live is broadcasted in real time, and it’s a fantastic way to show users your actual personality. It’s not edited, and even if it’s scripted, you’ll able to still be reacting in the moment to user questions and anything else that comes up.
And, after your live is over, you can even save it and share it to your feed later so other users can check it out even if they missed it the first time.
It’s also worth noting that lives get higher than average engagement and views, giving your content even more of an edge.
Consider Creating Groups
If your business has enough momentum, consider creating private Facebook groups for customers only. You can offer the group to certain high-tiered customers, or to all customers. Within this group, you can invite users to ask questions that will be answered by experts on your staff.
Imagine having a private, customer-only group for an accounting firm that can answer basic customer questions during tax time, like “When is the deadline?” and “How do I claim a home office deduction?”
This is an excellent way to offer additional value to your customers through Facebook, and since group postings show up more often than other types of posts in users’ feeds, it can give you a distinct edge. After all, your value to B2B customers may come more in the form of educating them than entertaining them.
AdEspresso is one business that does this exceptionally well. Members of the AdEspresso University get full access to a private group, where all your Facebook Ad questions can be answered by a panel of AdEspresso Ad Experts.
This can work on a much smaller scale, too. The Facebook group “Finance School for the Self Employed” is run by a freelance CPA named Katelyn Magnuson, who uses the group to subtly promote her services and courses for self-employed people. She answers accounting questions, and builds strong relationships that encourages users to book her. Since she does remote work, this is an excellent way to attract clients. Overtime, people engage and post on their own, which is a tell-tale sign of an excellent community.
Adjust Your Ad Strategies
Unsurprisingly, B2B Facebook Ads will look a lot different than the average B2C ad. There’s several things that you should keep in mind.
This includes targeting the right people. You aren’t just going after certain demographics, after all– your product and brand serves a distinct purpose. Freshbooks helps small businesses with invoicing software, while Agorapulse helps with social media management. Each of these businesses may be targeting different types of audience members.
Freshbooks, for example, might run ad campaigns targeting self-employed individuals, or those who list themselves as freelancers.
Agorapulse might target social media practitioners or business owners. Essentially, you’ll try to target users who are likely to not only work for the organizations you want to gain as clients, but will be the decision makers who would actually select you.
You should also keep in mind that ad campaigns may focus on different pain points than B2C campaigns, though pain points will depend on industry and size of the business. A small business, for example, will be more concerned with affordability and low cost than a large corporation.
Some examples of pain points or appeals may include:
- Scaling and growing in size
- Outsourcing tasks
- Time management, or products that can streamline tasks
- Finding high quality services, regardless of cost (especially for larger businesses)
Final Thoughts
B2B Facebook marketing doesn’t have to be boring– and it shouldn’t be. Instead, you should show the human side of your business with storytelling and brand building, while putting effort into building relationships with your audience. Being accessible to your audience to solve their problems and show them what makes your business tick (you!), you’ll be able to set yourself apart from the competition and build both a following and an engaged community.
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