Eight simple steps in launching a successful social media marketing promotion!

It’s not a bandwagon: it’s a change in how businesses approach marketing, and that includes B2B marketing, too.  So how can you, as a B2B marketer, successfully and simply set up a successful SMM promotion?

1. Set goals, first and foremost. What are you after – more Likes?  More website traffic?  CRM opt-ins?  Sales?  Figure that out first, not just for your first promotion but for your entire social media promotion calendar, and get alignment from internal stakeholders and external resources before you make a single move.  And while you’re setting goals, make sure you’ve got detailed budgets in mind, too!

2. Before you promote, build a strong community. Start by trying to develop a Facebook, Twitter or blog community that has real interest and engagement in your brand.  Don’t rely on a promotion or sweepstakes to build a truly engaged, viral audience; it’s a mistake to think respondents to a sales promo will prove to be long-term loyalists.  So start with a kernel of evangelists who are themselves social – they’re a great foundation to reach other users!

3. Keep it simple. It’s all very good to create an elaborate, multi-tier promotion – but that’s often a waste of effort.  Whether consumers or B2B customers, people want simple, easy-to-grasp promotions they can respond to quickly and simply.

4. Make it rich. You should make it easy to enter – but you need to make the prize attractive and significant; “make the grand prize grand,” as an old axiom goes.  It’ll drive much greater awareness and engagement.

5. Know the rules. Facebook, for example, has explicit Promotion Guidelines (that change regularly) – but there are often industry guidelines and local laws you need to keep in mind, too.  Stay within the law or the rules of the game.

6. Use the right tool. There are plenty of social media promotions tools and firms out there, from Volvant to Strutta, with various levels of features and sophistication.  Look for the vendor or tool that offers the most flexibility and suitability for your business.  Most of these offer free trials – so take advantage of them!

7. Track and adjust. You can create and launch an online promotion very quickly, thanks to the new tools at your disposal. That gives you the ability to quickly assess and adjust your program(s) to maximize results, sometimes even as the program is underway.  Cumulatively, you’ll also gather a large amount of valuable data about your audience and their interests that can be good as gold in future marketing efforts.

8. See things their way. Always put yourself in the place of your audience – and if the promotion, prize or offer doesn’t excite you, why would you expect to excite them?  They’re constantly inundated with offers and promos, so take the time to get inside their point of view – and create a program that really engages!