For companies and industries with long sales cycles, large ticket purchases and highly complex products, social media is more important than ever in the marketing mix.

1. Social Media
for B2B/Enterprise
Dr. Augustine Fou
http://linkedin.com/in/augustinefou
Marketing Science Consulting Group, Inc.
May 21, 2012 1

2. Top Marketing Challenges
in B2B
May 21, 2012 2

3. Empowered customers…
• Research products online
• Find information via search
• Trust peers most
Source: Forrester Research Q3 2010
May 21, 2012 3

4. Generating Quality Leads
“Carpet Bombing” “Surgical Strike”
using traditional enabling the right
advertising like print potential customer
ads, hoping the right find exactly the info
person would see it. they need to inform
their purchase.
May 21, 2012 4

5. Very Long Sales Cycles
If sales cycles are “years” and not months,
how do you effectively cultivate valuable
prospects during their long “consideration”
phase?
In-person sales calls are costly; self-serve
social media is less expensive and longer
lasting.
May 21, 2012 5

6. Adding Perceived Value
Beyond the features and
functionality of the product itself ...
… timely and relevant service and
support through social channels
adds perceived value.
May 21, 2012 6

7. Case Examples
May 21, 2012 7

8. B2B – Software/Services
Client Challenge:
Client sells commodity trading software
platforms. Traditional marketing using
trade journals, tradeshows, and in-
person sales force was limited and not
measurable.
Solution Overview:
Use social media combined with search
[X]
Client Name Withheld
insights to identify and cultivate
prospective buyers and allow new ones
to self-identify over very long sales
cycle.
May 21, 2012 8

9. B2B – Information Services
Client Challenge:
Sales of company profile reports were
declining drastically. SEM and SEO
were already maxed out. Company
needed to identify new products/services
with high margins.
Solution Overview:
Leveraged their historic reputation to
create a trust community of member
businesses, enabling them to move away
from selling information to selling trust.
May 21, 2012 9

10. B2B – Medical Devices
Client Challenge:
Physicians were increasingly turning to
online resources to find information about
these products; there was a lot of negative
content from a prior recall that was
dominating search results.
Solution Overview:
Use analytics to identify what physicians
were looking for; create new content
including demo videos that could be used
to “jump to the head of the line” in search
results.
May 21, 2012 10

11. B2B – Pharmaceutical Drug
Client Challenge:
The Client’s new drug was being
launched into a mature market
dominated by 2 main competitors’
[X]
drugs. Salesforce and in-person events
were being scaled back.
Solution Overview:
Use search and social media to
understand physician’s information Client Name Withheld
needs. Created iPad app which educated
physicians on the specific points they
were asking about (helped make limited
sales calls more impactful).
May 21, 2012 11

12. B2C – Fashion Wholesaler
Client Challenge:
Client has been a fashion wholesaler
and has never directly interacted with
consumers. It needed to jumpstart
direct sales through ecommerce.
Solution Overview:
Use ecommerce website to get a real
time pulse on what consumers
demand, in order to inform supply
chain and retail partners.
May 21, 2012 12

13. B2B – Intel Enterprise
Client Challenge:
Reach hard-to-find IT professionals
more frequently than once at year at
their developer conferences; provide
enough detailed, technical information
to support large purchases.
Solution Overview:
Use video demos with properly SEOed
transcripts on YouTube to allow super-
technical IT professionals to find
specific content to address their
questions.
October 20, 2011. 13

14. So what?
“It is more critical than ever for b2b
companies to leverage digital channels and
tactics to reach customers and let the right
customers reach them in very long-lead-time
sales cycles and big ticket purchases.”
- Dr. Augustine Fou
May 21, 2012 14

15. Dr. Augustine Fou – Chief Digital Strategist
Dr. Augustine Fou is an industry-recognized thought
leader in digital strategy, search and social media
marketing and former Group Chief Digital Officer of
Omnicom's Healthcare Consultancy Group. Dr. Fou has
over 16 years of management consulting and digital
strategy consulting experience, advising CMOs,
marketing executives, and global brands. He pioneered
the application of the Unified Marketing™ framework
to optimize marketing across both traditional and
digital channels and tactics.
FORMER CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER, HCG (OMNICOM)
MCKINSEY CONSULTANT
CLIENT SIDE / AGENCY SIDE EXPERIENCE
PROFESSOR AND COLUMNIST
ENTREPRENEUR / SMALL BUSINESS OWNER
PHD MATERIALS SCIENCE (MIT '95) AT AGE 23
ClickZ Articles: http://www.slideshare.net/augustinefou
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/augustinefou
May 21, 2012 646 867 0826 acfou@mktsci.com 15