The Magic Circle of Social Media, CRM and Sales

The Magic Circle of Social Media, CRM and Sales

At a recent 4N networking meeting, Zoodikers shared a platform with Katie Williams from CRM consultancy Enterprise Views to shed some light on the magic circle of Social Media, CRM and sales.  Here’s an extract of that presentation.

Aligning social media with business goals

The start point for any marketing campaign has to be an examination of your overall business strategy; without this, it is futile. This process involves the identification of your key target audiences and the ways in which they are likely to be influenced, for example via a LinkedIn Group, direct or at a networking event.

Once this has been established, your social media activity can be used to create noise in the platforms that have the greatest exposure to these target audiences. At the same time, this can be used to drive traffic to ‘the hub’; typically your company website or blog.

According to a recent presentation published by E-Consultancy, those companies which have been most successful in their use of social media are those who have approached it in three phases:

• Firstly, using the channel as a listening platform to understand the conversations that are taking place between your prospects, clients, partners and other influencers.
•   Secondly, as a place to encourage interactions with both current and potential clients around activities /subjects that are of interest to them.
• Finally (and rather inevitably), the platform should also be used as a sales channel in order to enable and accelerate purchase.

A process to drive leads via social media

It is the question of how this data and insight is used to generate sales after interactions have taken place over social media that can often leave businesses mystified. The answer is Social CRM; following up on these interactions via e-shots and other means of communication, and recording this activity.

As the following chart from E-Consultancy shows, social media is not typically integrated well with 

CRM.

Creating a two-way communications strategy

CRM has always been a strategy used typically by ‘customer facing’ departments such as marketing, sales and designated customer service. Creating a joined up data platform so that the customer experience is seamless and painless has increased. A CRM application now can be expected to provide critical tools to enable smooth internal communications, staff empowerment and motivation, post sales service above customer expectation and management information which really delivers the facts and figures needed for future planning.

Your social media strategy is part of the overall CRM mix. It is commonly acknowledged now that organisations cannot simply ‘choose’ to get involved in social media. Rather that they will be left behind if they don’t embrace it. And that is not simply because competitors are embracing it so we feel we must, but much more importantly that our customers are expecting it from us.

Using data that you have already collected on your existing prospects, customers and other audiences can help to shape your social media strategy. If you were to profile your top 20 (or 50, or 1000) customers, what would that profile look like? Simple demographics can point you in the direction of the channel(s) that will ‘speak’ to a wider audience of a similar profile, effectively targeting your communications.

Using contacts that you already have such as customers, and reaching out through them (retweets, Facebook comments, LinkedIn contacts) engages a whole new audience who respect your customer and their opinions. Getting testimonials out there is a great step, but engaging in a ‘conversation’ which others can be part of and contribute to is even more powerful.

Using your CRM application to capture the details of this new audience and engaging with them as soon as possible after they have communicated with your organisation via social media, enables a new level of communication to be established, where more traditional methods of marketing and PR can become the next steps in your sales process.

Measuring the results by tracking the success of leads and sales in your CRM application is really bringing the whole process full circle. You then have results which can directly impact your strategic planning, and you’ll be in no doubt about the direct and indirect effect of a social media campaign on your bottom line.

For further social media/PR advice contact Katie King - @katieeking @Zoodikers and katie@zoodikers.com

For CRM support contact Katie Williams - @KatieEVU and katie.williams@e-vu.com

Getting Leads from LinkedIn

LinkedIn has long been the online networking forum for professionals internationally; but has your business really benefitted from it?

A recent whitepaper produced by Hubspot reveals that 57% of companies using LinkedIn have acquired a customer through this channel. There are, therefore, 43% of businesses using LinkedIn that are failing to use the channel to generate leads.

As the Managing Director of a PR and social media agency, you would expect me to tell you that LinkedIn is very effective when used properly. Hubspot’s whitepaper reinforces this message.  A lack of time can no longer be an excuse for a lack of results from LinkedIn –you can conserve time by remaining focused on lead generation.

The Hubspot model below classifies those aspects of LinkedIn (and social media more generally) which should be attractive, and those which are distracting.

It classifies those things which are good for business as the ‘attractions’, and those which are bad for business as ‘distractions’.

The aspect that most people are interested in, or should be interested in, is how this time investment can result in lead generation for their business. Hubspot quite clearly states that you need to be using LinkedIn in one of two ways; either for indirect marketing or direct marketing. 

 If you are creating compelling content that is of interest to your connections, and taking ownership of the space, then you are raising awareness and the overall profile of your business. This type of indirect marketing alone has the potential to generate leads.

As you are reading this, I expect that you are thinking about the ways in which you are engaging with your prospects and contacts on LinkedIn. Have you joined relevant groups to give valuable inputs to discussions? Are you connecting with old business associates? Have you fully exploited the opportunities that LinkedIn apps present?

Do you regularly offer a contribution to LinkedIn Answers? Have you ever utilised LinkedIn Polls to gain market insight? Do you remember to ask current/former clients to provide a recommendation?

At Zoodikers, we work with clients across many sectors; all ultimately focused on how this can impact their bottom line. Each client is interested in the way in which all social media platforms, not only LinkedIn, can be used to generate leads.

We have always been of the opinion that a mix of traditional marketing tools with a social media overlay is the most effective way of generating leads. A good example of this is the way in which we work with our professional services clients, for example to execute joint social media campaigns with partners both offline via business seminars and online via a joint LinkedIn Group.

It’s time to stop thinking of LinkedIn as merely a professional network. The influence and scope of its effective use can have a real impact on sales, and should feature in any informed marketing plan.

Hopefully this blog will highlight the importance of using LinkedIn in a strategic manner. Hubspot stipulates a very precise number of groups that you should join, comments you should make and associates that you should connect with. I am not that prescriptive, but do believe that LinkedIn can generate real leads for your business.

Have a look at the Hubspot  research; let me know your thoughts. If you’d like to chat about any of this, please feel free to contact me through the Zoodikers’ website.