Vital statistics for B2B marketers – The case study

Back in June, Earnest began its very own social media experiment. Take a whole selection of statistics from the heady world of b2b. Add our own unique Earnest spin on things – and turn them into a jaunty 3 min 48 sec video. Then spread the word. This is the story of the how and the why – and what we learnt along the way.

The start of the idea

Each week the social web turns up a whole plethora of facts and figures – occasionally insightful, sometimes jaw dropping and now and then, just plain bemusing. In March of this year, we thought it would be worthwhile to piece together some of this research (call it content curation if you will) to tell a meaningful story on the state of the nation for B2B marketers.

It started out as a simple blog post and to be honest, revelations there were aplenty. From B2B companies being ahead of their B2C rivals in social media adoption to the truth about how active C-level execs are online, the post painted an interesting and pretty compelling picture of what was going on out there.

However, enlightening as it was, the blog post wasn’t really getting a huge amount of traction – and Vital Statistics for B2B marketers looked destined to be far less vital than we had hoped for.

Fast forward about a month: We were in an internal meeting debating how we could put Earnest, as a relatively new agency (just 6 months old at the time), firmly on the map. We were toying with the idea of a more traditional campaign, when it dawned on us, there was a real opportunity to do something different – and practice what we preach. And with that, the idea of Vital Statistics for B2B Marketing – the video, was born.

Objectives

• Raise Earnest’s profile – and put our agency firmly on the map
• Use the video as a potential showreel to demonstrate both our strategic and creative prowess
• Optimise our online presence – increasing our search performance
• And optimistically, generate new business opportunities

We also decided to set some hard and fast targets including:

• 1,000 video views in 6 weeks
• 30% increase in Twitter followers
• 20% increase in average weekly website visits
• 20% increase in inbound links
• 2 new business opportunities

The making of the video

Using the content in the blog as a starting point, we began by planning and storyboarding each sequence. What followed was lots of fun, games, procuring of Greek busts and flash magic – with hearty debates about the soundtrack and length of the video thrown in for good measure (yes, okay it’s a little long) – and then our rich media sensation was complete.

Spreading the word

Our aim was to spread the video as far and wide as possible through a number of different channels, however the two specific groups we really wanted to hit were senior marketing professionals in B2B organisations and key influencers in the B2B space.

YouTube branded channel: First off, we added the video both to our YouTube channel and website. We decided to use a Hootsuite shortened trackable link to the YouTube video across the majority of our activity as we felt that a YouTube video would be more readily shared. A caption below the video also provided a Hootsuite trackable link to the original blog post featuring all the stats and research sources.

Twitter: We recognised Twitter could play a key role in helping us spread the word about the video – not only to our humble following but also enabling viewers of the video to share it with their peers. Eager not to Tweet the hell out of the video and hack off our following, we only tweeted about the video 3 times over the course of the first 6 weeks. Yet within a week of the video going live, over 30 tweets mentioned it. Just goes to show how word about good content can travel fast within the b2b community.

Email: We worked hard to identify a group of key commentators and influencers in the b2b marketing space – from established publishers to influential bloggers. Individuals were sent tailored emails bringing the Vital Statistics video to their attention – highlighting some of the top line stats. We knew if we could get these people to publish the video on their own blogs, we’d be onto a winner.

LinkedIn: With a bit of clever footwork and the help of a blog post, we worked out how to embed video as a Google Presentation into our professional profiles on LinkedIn. We decided to post a link to the video in appropriate groups, such as B2B Marketing and B2B Social Media. Where appropriate, we also commented on relevant discussions – where we felt the video would provide valuable content to participants.

Facebook: The video was placed on our Facebook page for any ‘Likers’ of Earnest to view at their leisure – and again extend its reach further.

PR: Press releases with details of the video and links were sent out both to key journalists and via free online newswires with instant results and coverage.

Blog comments: Finally, we also kept our ears to the ground and listened out for potential conversations where a comment including the Vital Statistics story would not be amiss.

The results:

We created a dashboard, updated on a weekly basis, to track the performance of the campaign. The results after the first 6 weeks were as follows:

• 6,500 video views (550% over target)
• A 42% increase in Twitter followers – including a number of senior marketing professionals and influential figures in b2b
• Over 90 mentions on Twitter
• A 30% increase in weekly website visits to our corporate site: http://www.earnest-agency.com/
• Inbound links to our corporate site up 70%
• A 77% increase in weekly visits to the Earnest blog
• Inbound links to blog up 87%
• Over 20 blog posts covering the video
• Various media coverage
• Significant improvement in natural search performance
• 2 new business opportunities

Just one blog using the video

B2B influencer CK spreading the word

Feedback:

‘A very well put together video that packs a stats punch, perfect for those B2B companies pondering whether social media is right for them’ - redcubemarketing-blog.com

‘I want to compliment the folks at Earnest for making this video so entertaining (and downright snappy!)’ – ck-blog

‘Do you think B2B social media is not worth it? You will change your tune after you look at this video’ - marketing-automation-software-news.com

 

So what did we learn from the process?

Video wins out over text based content any day: there’s no substitute for quality content yet rich media is clearly being embraced with open arms by the B2B community. Without the video, our guess is our original blog post would still be sat gathering cobwebs.

CIOs do block YouTube – we should have paid attention to our own video:  we did get contacted by a couple of senior client-side marketers who were interested in the video but couldn’t view it at work as their IT team blocked it on YouTube. Fortunately, as a plan b, we’d also streamed the video on our corporate site. 

Influencing the influencers amplifies your reach:  there’s no denying one of our most effective activities was identifying and targeting influential figures, with their own loyal followers, to amplify the reach of the video.

We like Twitter and LinkedIn, we’re not sure about Facebook: yes we love it for looking at our best mate’s drunken photos, but our verdict is still out on whether its right for b2b. We’ve made the concerted decision of late to use it to promote our employer brand moving forward. But forgive us if we do a U-turn and say how great it is at some point in the future.

Join the dots and measure everything:  making sure everything points to everything else and where possible uses trackable links gives you a great insight into where you’re getting most traction. But you knew that anyway.

The bottom line:

 The Vital Statistics for B2B Marketing video argues that social media is an effective tool in the B2B Marketers’ arsenal – and not to be ignored. Our campaign to promote the video has only served to validate the research from our perspective – showing social media can reach audiences in ways traditional media sometimes can’t.