Marketo’s view on how B2B social media marketing drives inbound leads

Jon Miller from US-based marketing automation and lead management specialist Marketo, recently posted an interesting article.

The post looked at how B2B social media marketing drives inbound leads.

Miller writes that the B2B buying process is far from rational or simple and refers to Enquiro's research into the B2B buying process.

This research found that “managing risk plays a much bigger role in buying decisions than previously thought” and as Miller writes “that companies that can manage the ‘risk gap’ will be at a significant advantage for driving new business”.

The post summed up some ‘risk control mechanisms’ that buyers use to mitigate risk:

• Personal experience. We trust those we know.
• Approved vendor list. If a vendor is on an organizations "approved" list, the risk of choosing that vendor is transferred to the person that put the vendor on the list. 
• Referrals from trusted sources. A recommendation from peers, co-workers, or existing vendors goes a long way to mitigating risk. 
• Wisdom of crowds. If we don't have personal experience with a vendor, or know someone who does, we generally trust in the wisdom of crowds.>

“The more B2B marketers can tap into these mechanisms, the stronger position they will be in to capture their prospect's business”, Miller says.

As we wrote so often in this blog customers today decide how and when they will get in touch with your company and they control their own buying journey.

According to Miller “This means that the companies with the strongest brands — built using referral and the wisdom of crowds — will enjoy the best flow of highly qualified inbound leads”.

And that is, according to the post “the hard-to-measure but undeniable connection between brand building and lead generation, between buzz and demand, between social media and inbound leads”.

You can read the full post on Marketo’s blog.

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Comments

[Jon Miller]

Glad you enjoyed the post -- and I definitely recommend reading the entire Enquiro BuyerSphere report. Enjoy!