Diagnostic
Partner Corner
How to influence purchases and
win friends along the way
Innovation Journal > Issue 6: Spring 2017 > Partner corner
Millennials’ social media activities exceed Baby Boomers’ by 150 to 250%. What are you doing about it?
by Vincent Brissot, Global Head of Channel Marketing, HP
HP Social Media Center is a reservoir of curated content that partners can publish to their own channels. It spans four key areas of focus: mobility, security, education, and healthcare. Partners can draw from this content to share relevant news and information through their Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn channels, helping them connect and engage with their customers.
When you’re already looking at too few hours in the day to run your business, it can be daunting to try to maintain a corporate Twitter feed, Facebook page and LinkedIn presence. The commitment to refreshing content can slide right off the company radar without fanfare. The HP Social Media Center in HP Sales Central has emerged as a power tool for helping partners generate vibrant, updated content that drives online sales and customer engagement.
Active presence on social channels is no longer merely a “nice to have.” Nine out of 10 buyers say online content has a moderate to major effect on purchasing decisions, according to a recent CMO Council report.
This is hardly surprising: The new connected customers are more informed and more available for online engagement than ever before. They can easily access all the information they need to move themselves at their own pace through the awareness and consideration cycles, and on to purchase. They compare prices. They read reviews. They can decide for themselves what the most credible information sources are.
In a single sitting, your customer or prospect can call upon industry analysts, experts, product and service information, the opinions of peers and colleagues, customer videos, and more. B2B buyers report that 67 percent of purchase decisions have already been made before ever talking to a sales rep, according to “The Digital Evolution in B2B Marketing,” a study by the Corporate Executive Board.
Meeting this customer where they live means meeting them online, much of the time, and trading the one-way noise of a sales pitch for a conversational exchange. Social marketing works when you are providing useful and relevant information tailored to their needs or interest. Customers are clearly influenced by companies who provide smart, useful information that is relevant to them on a regular, continuous basis.
We’ve been pleased to hear from numerous channel partners who have been using the tools in HP Social Media Center to establish, or reinvigorate, their presence in social channels. We hear stories about the return our partners have seen in increased engagement with customers as a result of leaning into Social Media Center. The new and more meaningful conversations with customers are inspiring interest in, and attention to, the essential role of social media channels in sales engagement. Below you’ll find examples of how two partners used Social Media Center to jumpstart their online engagement.
Social Studies
California Surveying & Drafting Supply
HP Social Media Center supports social selling strategies
We hadn’t seen a return on social media, but that’s all changed since we engaged in HP’s social selling offer and started using the HP Social Media Center. We now have a whole new perspective on social marketing.
California Surveying and Drafting Supply has been providing customers with the tools, training, and support they need to succeed in the AEC and Geospatial industries since 1986.
With a small marketing team of three to support their business, CSDS needed a feasible and sustainable solution that would allow them to deliver value to customers and prospects and generate demand for color printing within the industry.
Utilizing Marketing Development Funds (MDF) from HP, CSDS took advantage of a six-week lock-step course to dramatically overhaul their existing profiles and their approach to social marketing. With the structured program, Lori and her team completed weekly routines that helped develop their voice, cadence, and strategy behind their posts to social media.
CSDS is now sourcing content to address customer challenges, innovation opportunities, market trends, and other insights that will engage new prospects and current customers alike. Lori notes that while they are still in early stages and anticipate that the results will increase over time, they are already noticing an increase in their number of followers across all platforms. So far there has been a 12% increase in LinkedIn followers and 8% increase in Twitter followers. Each time they post they gain new followers, and their engagement is growing every week.
Social Studies
Cannon IV
HP Social Media Center grows audience and online engagement
The Social Media Center is wonderful as a tool for Cannon IV. What would usually be a time consuming, labor intensive chore, is now an effortless way to share meaningful, relevant content to our social networks.
At Cannon IV, a leading independent Managed Print Service (MPS) provider and reseller of imaging and printing solutions, improving the company’s social media presence was a top priority for the year. They wanted to get their customers to engage more, through their social channels. The sales reps are knowledgeable on the products and the industry; their social media activity makes this visible and apparent to prospective customers.
Before Cannon IV started using the HP Social Media Center, they were averaging fewer than 400 impressions per month. After using the tool for several months, they are seeing an average of 7,000 impressions per month, roughly 17x growth over the numbers they were seeing before. They also now average over 150 profile visits per month and are acquiring new followers daily.
The marketing team has noted that, to their surprise, their sales representatives have also gotten involved. When sales team members see posts to social media, they start to engage with the content themselves. In doing so, they expand the reach of each post, giving Cannon IV access to networks they were not able to access before under a corporate account. The sales team amplifies the social media strategy implemented on a corporate level while also building visibility for themselves.
Vincent Brissot
Navigating the future:
HP 2017 Megatrends report
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