SOCIAL ERA
understanding the customer journey in the
by: Tara Hunt, Truly Social Inc.

8 months ago, I presented a version of this
presentation to your colleagues.

THEN(5 employees)

NOW(12 employees + still hiring!)

NEEDED: a good benefits package!
p.s. In Canada, our average cost per employee per year is around $1,200 (compared
to $9,727 in the US) and there are no rules about having to pay for health coverage
(as we have free public healthcare), but it’s necessary to attract talent!

Stimulus /
Trigger
Growing team.
Needed to think
about employee
retention and
talent attraction!
search
asking
colleagues
reading
reviews
my customer journey

SO many questions!
1. What’s the standard insurance offered in my industry?
2. How much should the company pay for versus the
employee?
3. Should we pay for family benefits, or have the employee
pay for that?
4. What *should* the benefits cost?
5. 80%? 100%? Mental health? Life? D&D?
So many different answers. So many different approaches. So
much confusion!
I googled everything. My assistant called around. I went back and
forth to various Slack, Facebook, and LinkedIN groups...and
finally...

FINALLY!our health benefits information session…!

of course, they’re pretty great at social ;P

did I choose Harry James Group because of their social media presence?

NOit was actually a referral after a search
after another recommendation that led
nowhere.
...but the content, itself, did make the
choice pretty easy.
welllll….

lessons learned:
1. There is little to no content out there that helps small businesses navigate this
step
2. Knowing how the “system” works is confusing
3. Figuring out industry standards is impossible (and it most likely ranges a great
deal in different areas)
4. Employees want everything, but don’t understand what they’re getting
5. The first person who had any information available that made this less stressful
is where I spent my money!

customer
let’s talk about the
journey

the customer journey is:
non-linear
highly personal
interrupted constantly
noisy
a paradox of choice
completely unpredictable
in the social era,

Story: “I saw your big announcement”
“...we work with several small businesses like
yours who are growing. I believe we might have
some ideas for you to improve your health
benefit program…”

lesson #1:
the customer journey is unpredictable and varied, so anything you
can do to show up along that journey will help you lead to a sale.

the decision
let’s talk about your customers:
makers

myth #1:
busy decision makers don’t have time for the internet.
fact:
According to Google’s studies, 89% of B2B
researchers use the internet during the B2B research
process

myth #2:
this is what the CFO making the decisions looks like

fact:
This is closer to the truth and it’s changing rapidly. According to
Google, nearly half of all B2B researchers are millennials + they
heavily influence purchase decisions.

The Shift in the B2B Researcher Demographic:
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/the-changing-face-b2b-marketing/

Employee influence on purchase decisions:
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/the-changing-face-b2b-marketing/
81%of non-
C-Suite
employees
influence
purchase
decisions.

social era
and wth is the
anyway?

HINT: I’m not talking about social media, though that is part of it.

”
“
Nilofer Merchant
11 Rules for the Social Era
If the industrial era was about
building things, the social era is
about connecting things, people,
and ideas.

RULES FOR THE SOCIAL ERA:
1. EVERYTHING is social
2. The lines between social and professional are
blurred
3. The ‘consumer’ is no longer passive - they are
PROsumers
4. Sharing communicates identity - people share
what they want others to think they are
5. Relationships are more important than ever.
Transactional interactions will be
disintermediated by technology.

lesson #2:
You can’t say “we don’t need social” because EVERYTHING is
social. It’s not a tool, it’s a cultural shift.

let’s lay the
foundation
to becoming truly social.

there is a huge universe of tools to connect
with your audience (or at least stalk them)
if there was EVER a great use for social media, it is to learn more about your audience.

BEING SOCIAL STARTS WITH
KNOWING YOUR AUDIENCE:

listeningshould be the vast majority of your social plan.

WHO ARE MY CUSTOMERS?
HOW DID THEY FIND ME?
(OR) HOW DID I FIND THEM AND
HAS THIS CHANGED?
WHY DID THEY CHOOSE ME?
WHAT WAS THEIR JOURNEY?
HOW HAS THIS CHANGED?
have you asked:

”“
The aim of marketing is to know and
understand the customer so well the product
or service fits him and sells itself.
Peter Drucker,
Father of Management Theory

THANKS TO SOCIAL, WE HAVE CRAZY POWERFUL DATA AT OUR
FINGERTIPS:
1. Social Media Platform Analytics
2. Social Intelligence Tools
3. Social Listening

SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM ANALYTICS
Social media platforms
offer up everything from
demographics to deeper
psychographics,
interests, and incomes
like Twitter analytics.
https://analytics.twitter.com/

Facebook Audience Insights (free)
In Facebook’s business manager, you
can see all sorts of interesting
information about specific audiences.
Search:
Job Titles: Business and Finance,
Corporation
Location: United States of America
Age: 30+
15,000-20,000 monthly active FB
Users.

LinkedIN Insights
LinkedIN has all sorts of insights into who
is visiting your Company Page, reading or
watching your content, viewing your
profile, and more!

SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE TOOLS
Social Intelligence tools pull data
from social networks to analyze
interests and affinities of audiences.
You can tell a lot about people by
who they explicitly follow online.
(not free, but mind-blowing
and make learning about your
audience instantaneous)

Affinities for people who talk about (or read about)
employee benefits:
People who mention the phrase
“employee benefits” on Twitter, have the
following affinities:
● Health
● Insurance Industry
● Finance
● Health Care
● Affordable Care Act
● Management
● Law
● Entrepreneurship
● Leadership
● World News
● Science And Technology
● California
● Basketball
● Tennis
● Sales
● Local Business

And this is what they
talk about...
This is practically a roadmap for the kind
of content you should be creating to
attract your audience!
Data pulled from the past two years
across:
● News (55%)
● Twitter (38%)
● Forums (4%)
● Reddit (2%)
● Blogs (1%)
288,533 posts

You can even find the thought leaders
they follow:
There are lots of tools to find out
who your audience follows. We use
Klear to find out who is influential
for a particular segment.
This is just a snapshot of the CFO
influencers.

SOCIAL LISTENING
There are several free
and inexpensive social
listening tools that help
you keep track of the
ongoing conversation
around #insurtech,
#digitalhealth, #HealthIT,
#HRtech and more.
Tweetdeck (by Twitter)

LinkedIN Sales Navigator
Probably one of the most powerful
tools available for social listening,
LinkedIN’s Sales Navigator will tell
you when people and companies you
follow make any changes that may
create opportunities for sales:
● Company growth
● People moving between
companies + getting
promotions
● Shared articles/posts
● Suggest new leads for you
● Mentions in the news
● And more!

lesson #3:
Listening is the most important function of social. You’ve never
had so much insight into your audience (and lots of free tools)!
If you aren’t using social, you will miss out.

CUSTOMER JOURNEY
let’s take a walk through the
and see where else social can help you out...

1. I know you
2. I’m looking for you
3. I’m comparing you to your
competition
4. I’m buying from you
5. I’m using your product
6. I’m reviewing you
THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY
p.s. It is actually NOT as neat and clear as this, it just
looks that way to be pretty to look at.

AWARENESS

AWARE
Customer’s state:
Isn’t looking for you, hasn’t
heard of you. Lots of other
things on their minds.
Get in front of your future
customers early, so they think of
you when they need you.

SOCIAL ADS/BOOSTED CONTENT
Social ads will help raise
awareness if targeted
correctly to the target
industry.
The better your content
and the more targeted
your ads, the more bang
you’ll get for your buck.
http://seapointdig.com/impact-award/

EARNED MEDIA/CONTENT
When online influencers share your
excellent online content with their
audience, creating a buzz.

USE SOCIAL LISTENING FOR
PROSPECTING
Get out there and start
building those relationships
early on...before they need
you!
Share your knowledge,
follow prospects and
interact (with value).

SEARCH

SEARCH
Customer’s state:
Actively looking and researching for a
good option in your product category.
It is better if you are already part of
the consideration (built awareness),
but there are other ways to get you in
the search path.

GREAT CONTENT WILL RAISE YOUR SEO
Blog posts, YouTube videos,
Tweets and other fresh
content ranks very high in
Google Search results.
Zane Benefits is on PAGE 1 of
a search for “employee
benefits” because of their blog
content.
BLOG
CONTENT!

Case study: LinkedIN Articles

COMPARE

COMPARE
Customer’s state:
Narrowing down options to
find the very best one. Most
likely made her mind up, but
may be swayed by reviews
and differentiation.

MOST CUSTOMERS HAVE ALREADY DECIDED BEFORE
THEY CALL YOU
“Today's business buyers do
not contact suppliers directly
until 57 percent of the
purchase process is complete.
The challenge for marketers is to be
present in these channels at all times with
content that educates buyers and helps
guide commercial decisions.”
B2B’s Digital Revolution, Think With Google
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-resources/b2b-digital-evolution/

SOCIAL TACTICS THAT HELP SWAY THE CUSTOMER
TO CHOOSE YOU
When it comes to making a
decision, it’s not just about price.
If you have social content (helpful
videos and posts) and lots of
people talking about you positively,
it will help to steer the decision in
your favour.

BUYING

Customer’s state:
Time to purchase! The
customer is having their first
experience with your
product.
BUYING

SOCIAL THAT CAN HELP THE
ONBOARDING EXPERIENCE
Helpful content can make the difference
between a new customer being lost and feeling
educated.
One of the videos in particular generated close to
$30,000 of revenue. “And it all had to do with the fact
that we were answering questions that, at the time,
weren’t even on the NYS [New York State] Department
of Insurance’s website,” (Ryan) Hanley said.
State of Content Marketing: Insurance
Contently, July 1, 2015
https://contently.com/strategist/2015/07/01/state-of-content-marketing-
insurance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyrt84STlgE

USING

USING
Customer’s state:
They’ve signed up. But how
can you enhance their
experience?

DEEPENING CLIENT RELATIONSHIPS
THROUGH CONTENT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXtlh_Ei5hc

ADVOCATING

ADVOCATING
Customer’s state:
They love you (of course!),
now how can you give them
the tools to help them spread
the word?

Every time you or a happy customer posts
online, you create another opportunity to
appear on your potential customer’s journey.
to more strategically appear on that journey, you can *also* use social
tools to find out where to be and how to do it right.

4.
Social media and
content is a great
tool to use to get
in front of your
customer along
their journey.
3.
You find out how
to find your
customers by
using social first,
and foremost to
LISTEN.
2.
EVERYTHING is
social. It always
has been, but it’s
even more now.
The Final Takeaways
1.
The customer’s
journey is
unpredictable, so
being on multiple
points of that
journey is
important.

THANK YOU!
Tara Hunt, CEO + Partner
Truly Social Inc.
http://www.trulysocial.ca
http://www.youtube.com/tarahunt
http://twitter.com/missrogue
tara@trulysocial.ca