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B2B E-commerce SMM Marketing Guide: Promote Your Products & Services To The Right Audience

A hand arranges wooden blocks depicting business-related icons: a growth chart, a shopping cart, a customer relationship symbol, and a block labeled "B2B E-commerce.

Since the advent of the Internet, businesses have undergone significant changes, just like many other industries.

With the advent of e-commerce, shopping has become easier and more convenient for both merchants and customers alike. The rise of B2B online business has opened up a plethora of opportunities for people to explore a wider range of products and services, as they can easily compare prices and find the best deals available.

According to Forbes, 79% of shoppers, shop online at least once a month. As a result of the growing digitalization of modern life, online transactions enable customers to do business anywhere in the world.

This article will discuss the benefits of B2B e-commerce for targeted product and service promotion, including effective social media marketing strategies.

What is B2B E-commerce Social Media Marketing?

Business-to-business e-commerce is the online marketing of your products and services using social media platforms. It involves creating and sharing content, running social media ads, and building and engaging with a community of potential customers. Social media users are projected to increase by almost 6 billion in 2027. That’s a lot of people to potentially build your brand and optimize your website to generate sales. 

Social media marketing is a relatively cost-effective way to reach your target audience. Whеn you sharе high-quality contеnt and gеt pеoplе to engage with it, you are sending signals to sеarch engines that your wеbsitе is authoritativе and relevant.  

How to Promote B2B E-commerce Business Online Using SMM?

Before we delve into the SMM strategies, let’s understand the importance of the B2B buyer’s journey. The buyer’s journey consists of three stages:

  1. Awareness Stage: The potential customer has learned about an issue and becomes aware of a problem to solve.
  2. Consideration Stage: The buyer has identified a few potential solutions. They are now evaluating and comparing them. 
  3. Decision Stage: The buyer has finalized the solution and is ready to purchase. 


At the decision stage, businesses strive to make their products or services accessible to purchase.

Each stage of the B2B buyеr’s journey is essential, and businesses must tailor their marketing and sales efforts accordingly. By understanding thе buyеr’s journey, businеssеs can increase their chancеs of convеrting lеads into customers.  

After understanding the buyer’s journey, let’s explore our B2B social media marketing best practices.

Knowing Your Audience

The first step to creating a successful social media strategy is understanding your brand’s objectives. Your goals should be to create brand awareness, build credibility, and educate your audience. Rendering sales can generate revenue, but first, focus on your goals to identify your target audience for B2B social media marketing. Specify, 

  • Is your social media marketing intended to reach a specific audience? 
  • What are their needs and pain points? 
  • What are their interests? 

To answer all these questions, you must create a buyer’s persona (semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer) by thoroughly conducting your market research, analyzing customer data, and talking to their sales team. 

Once you know your ideal customers, could you determine their social media platform? You can use social media analytics to find out more about your audience. You can find out your target audience’s preference for which type of content they watch and how they want to consume it. Do they love to engage with the brand or prefer to consume from other sources, like influencer marketing?  

Developing a Social Media Marketing Strategy

The first step in creating a strategy for social media is to set your objectives and goals. Be SMART, specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Analyze what you want to achieve. What are the ideas that you want to pitch? Once you know your goals, you can set specific and measurable objectives. 

4.88 billion people are using social media platforms. Remember, not all social media platforms are created equal; some are better suited for B2B marketing than others. For example, 

  • LinkedIn is a better platform for reaching B2B decision-makers
  • Twitter is a good platform for sharing news and updates
  • Facebook is a good platform for building brand awareness and connеcting with a widеr audience
  • Instagram is a good platform for sharing visual content and еngaging with customers on a morе pеrsonal lеvеl
  • TikTok is a video-sharing platform popular with both consumers and businesses. Sharing creative and engaging videos can connect you with a younger audience and maximize your TikTok followers

Consider using multiple social media platforms, each with unique features and approaches. Furthermore, it is also essential to track your metrics to measure the results and success of your social media marketing strategy. 

Creating Compelling Content

Creating compelling content is essential for any business that wants to succeed on social media. Please ensure your content is informative, engaging, and relevant to your target audience. Visual appeal and readability are also important. People are busy and need more time to read rambling posts. Use a strong hook to grab the user’s attention. Use high-quality videos, infographics, and videos in your posts. There are different types of B2B content you can share on social media, like:

  • Blog posts and articles
  • Videos
  • Infographics
  • Case Studies
  • Testimonials
  • Quotes
  • Industry News and Updates
  • Contests and Giveaways
  • Behind the Scenes

When creating content for social media, your focus should be quality rather than quantity. Make sure the content is accurate and up-to-date. Remember, visuals capture more attention than text alone, but it should be relevant. You can use social media hashtags, a great way to make your content visible to a broader audience. You can also use content calendars to plan and schedule your posts in advance. Consider the following when creating content calendars for your posts:

  • The type of content you want to share
  • Frequency of your posts
  • The platform you are posting on
  • Your target audience

Most social media platforms offer built-in analytics to track your results. You can also use third-party social media analytics tools for more detailed insights. 

Running Social Media Ads

Every B2B or B2C business should have a social media presence incorporating paid ads, SEOs, and SMM marketing tips. According to Insider Intelligence, social media is the most effective B2B channel for driving revenues in 2023. Therefore, running ads can be a very effective way to generate leads and sales. 

Social media ads include powerful targeting options, allowing you to reach specific demographics, interests, and behaviors. It ensures that your ads are seen by various people likely to be interested in your product or service. You can use various types of ads on B2B social media marketing platforms like:

  • Image ads
  • Video ads
  • Product ads
  • Carousel ads
  • Collection ads
  • Story ads
  • Lead generation ads
  • In-feed ads

Ads can increase audience engagement and enhance brand awareness on social media platforms, especially Instagram. You can gain Instagram followers by encouraging marketers to shop from your website through ads. Your ad should look as engaging as possible based on the goals of your campaign. This should be clear, concise, and persuasive with a call to action. 

Building and Engaging with Your Community

Indeed, social media is essential for any business that wants to succeed. According to LinkedIn’s insights, more than 65 million users are decision-makers in the business world, and 80% of them have some influence on those decisions. The first step in building a community on SMM is to attract new followers. Here are some tips:

  • Create high-quality content
  • Use relevant hashtags
  • Run challenges and contests
  • Your website should be linked to your social media accounts and vice versa

People are more likely to share and engage with content that is informative and relevant to their interests. Once you have attracted new followers, it’s time to engage with them actively. Follow these B2B SMM marketing tips:

  • Responds to comments and questions
  • Answer all the queries
  • Ask questions
  • Run polls and surveys
  • Share behind-the-scenes
  • Host live sessions
  • Be authentic and genuine
  • Tackle negative comments intelligently 

Post consistently and engage with your followers more often. Use social media insight tools to analyze your performance, identify trends and topics, and optimize your social media strategies. Your key metrics should include reach, engagement, website traffic, leads, and sales generation. 

Case Studies of Successful B2B E-commerce Businesses that are Using SMM Strategies

The following are the case studies showing the results of successful B2B e-commerce business campaigns on various social media channels. 

Shopify

Shopify is an e-commerce platform that allows businesses to create and manage online stores. In 2018, Shopify partnered with Gary Vaynerchuk, who has more than 10 million followers on Instagram, for the social media campaign under the hashtag #ShopifyPartner. The goal is to encourage Shopify partners to create and share content about them on social media.

This campaign was a huge success and helped Shopify increase brand awareness and generate leads. Over 10,000 Shopify partners participated in this campaign, and 1 million pieces of content were shared on social media. This campaign generated over $1 million in revenue.

Canva

Canva has successfully used TikTok to market its graphic design platform to businesses of all sizes. Canva is an official TikTok Marketing partner to create several co-branded challenges and campaigns. The viral Canva Design Challenge has encouraged users to create and share Canva designs inspired by a specific theme. 

The challenge was a huge success, with over 100,000 users participating and creating 10,000 designs. Canva is using TikTok to reach new audiences and generate leads, whereas TikTok is using Canva to provide users with new tools and ways to create content. 

Adobe

Officially named Adobe Systems, an American software company known for its multimedia and creativity software products. Adobe got over 2 million views on its second video when it joined TikTok. Emilesam, who has 5.2 million followers and 6.2 million likes on TikTok, used Adobe’s After Effects to create a fighting sequence scene against himself, which gained a massive reach. 

Adobe generated over $10 billion in revenue in 2022 with After Effects. Adobe’s After Effects is used by over 90% of Hollywood studios.  

Wrapping Up

Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads. This encompasses the successful campaigns launched through social media marketing messages to generate leads and grow businesses. To achieve success with SMM, B2B e-commerce businesses should use various strategies to manage their presence more efficiently. Build buyer personas and create social media content that resonates with your business goals and objectives. 

It is also essential to track the results of SMM campaigns using social media analytics tools. By following the above B2B and social media marketing best practices, you can implement more successful and effective campaigns on multiple social media accounts.

Author’s Bio:

Hafsa Shahzad 

SEO Content Writer-Blogger

LinkedIn

Hafsa has been working as a writer and blogger for over three years now. She’s got a knack for writing engaging content that hits the sweet spot, especially in Digital Marketing, Big Tech Industry, and AI. When she’s not glued to her writing desk, you might find her sketching beautiful portraits or preparing her favorite coffee in the kitchen.

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