Marketing in the 21st century has become a high-stakes game for the office technology dealership community. Traffic on the information superhighway (now there’s a 20th century term) is cluttered at best, and bumper-to-bumper action can make it difficult for a business’ message to be heard. This is why a “me, too” approach to social media interaction is only a starting point for success. After all, if you attend a Chamber of Commerce meeting and sit quietly in the back row, you’ve accomplished nothing.
This month’s state of the industry look at digital marketing strategies will explore several fronts in our newsletter, beginning with the impact and opportunities offered by social media. By internet standards, social media marketing is a relatively new phenomenon; just as it took at least 10 years for many businesses to escape the clutches of brochure websites, it has taken some time for dealers to develop an online strategy with business and personal social media accounts. But like our lurker example at the COC gathering, what you do once you’re there will go a long way toward dictating your effectiveness.
For Prosource of Cincinnati, social media is a key element in its inbound marketing strategy that plays a role in building brand awareness, increasing discoverability, distributing content and—perhaps most importantly—establishing thought leadership and driving engagement. The value in social media is its ability to be tracked via visitors, views, followers, likes, shares and website traffic. But according to Amy Mersch, marketing manager, social media provides a golden opportunity to showcase Prosource and how it does business.
“As a company, Prosource radiates a warmth and a personal approach to business,” Mersch said. “On social media, we pair that warmth with our industry expertise and thought leadership content to give followers and prospects a more holistic view into who we are as a company and as a trusted advisor.”
Driving Engagement
Prosource also relies on social media as a tool to drive engagement among customers, prospects, its communities and the dealer’s employees. “We love sharing stories about our communities, strengthening our relationship with the organizations we support,” she said. “Internally, our employees are our best brand ambassadors, and they enjoy seeing and sharing the Prosource story on social media.”
The various platforms, particularly LinkedIn, are key social selling tools for Prosource account managers. It’s a fertile ground, particularly for touching base with prospects and establishing the company as a subject-matter expert, which aids in cultivating relationships.
Social media is also an integral element in the marketing playbook of Blue Technologies. The Cleveland-based dealer uses relevant trend posts to entice customers within a given vertical market. LinkedIn is used to develop conversations around business-related issues as well as recruiting employees. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram also serve as a resource for recruiting, as well as documenting the company’s philanthropic endeavors.
“Creating social posts that link back to our blogs page has driven activity to our website,” noted Cyndi Konold, Blue Technologies’ marketing director. “In turn, we are seeing an increase in activity and engagement.”
Buying Journey
Mary Steffl, marketing manager for Loffler Companies of Bloomington, Minnesota, notes that social media has become a source of information for customers and prospects along their buying journey. The dealer’s social media specialist has crafted a strategy to create a robust presence across LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Loffler Companies also budgeted and created a strategy for sponsored ads on many of the platforms.
“We see social media as an excellent way to offer educational content to people, most often in their leisure/downtime,” Steffl said. “That’s a time when they’re not so harried by the pressures of the workday and are more open to exploring what we have to offer them.”
Recognizing the importance social media can potentially play in the company’s marketing strategy, Impact Networking of Lake Forest, Illinois, hired a dedicated social media coordinator in June of 2018 to quarterback the company’s social media channels. The coordinator spent her first year aligning the dealer’s organic strategy and brand voice.
Thus far, Impact Networking has witnessed a significant spike across every platform (LinkedIn, Facebook, Instragram and Twitter), which averaged a 50% boost in audience growth year over year. Impressions rose 99% over the previous year to 2.4 million. The 77,200 engagements produced represented a 220% increase, illustrating the success that accompanies a dedicated point person in charge of the initiative.
“It is important that all our digital marketing efforts are aligned, and social media plays a huge part in this,” said Karlee Ricks, Impact Networking’s marketing manager. “The content that we are creating in promoted through social media and by looking specifically at engagement and audience retention metrics, we can constantly be revising our strategy.”
Constance Barbian, director of marketing and communications for Benchmark Business Solutions of Lubbock, Texas, sees social selling as playing an integral role as part of the overall marketing blueprint that includes multiple digital channels. “Today, our campaigns often involve a combined strategy of email, social, video and retargeting,” she said. “While we remain active on a number of platforms, we have seen the best results from LinkedIn for our industry.”
