I presented this at the United Benefits Advisors' spring conference in May - to answer the question, "Why would benefits advisors use social media?" I presented it like this:
The customer journey is non-linear and unpredictable. It goes online/offline/and more. You need to be on that path in as many places as possible. Social is a good chunk of that now.
5. 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 itâs necessary to attract talent!
6. Stimulus /
Trigger
Growing team.
Needed to think
about employee
retention and
talent attraction!
search
asking
colleagues
reading
reviews
my customer journey
7.
8. SO many questions!
1. Whatâs 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...
11. did I choose Harry James Group because of their social media presence?
12. NOit was actually a referral after a search
after another recommendation that led
nowhere.
...but the content, itself, did make the
choice pretty easy.
welllllâŠ.
13. lessons learned:
1. There is little to no content out there that helps small businesses navigate this
step
2. Knowing how the âsystemâ 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 donât understand what theyâre getting
5. The first person who had any information available that made this less stressful
is where I spent my money!
15. the customer journey is:
non-linear
highly personal
interrupted constantly
noisy
a paradox of choice
completely unpredictable
in the social era,
16.
17. Story: âI saw your big announcementâ
â...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 programâŠâ
18. 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.
20. myth #1:
busy decision makers donât have time for the internet.
fact:
According to Googleâs studies, 89% of B2B
researchers use the internet during the B2B research
process
22. fact:
This is closer to the truth and itâs changing rapidly. According to
Google, nearly half of all B2B researchers are millennials + they
heavily influence purchase decisions.
23. The Shift in the B2B Researcher Demographic:
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/the-changing-face-b2b-marketing/
26. HINT: Iâm not talking about social media, though that is part of it.
27. â
â
Nilofer Merchantâš
11 Rules for the Social Era
If the industrial era was about
building things, the social era is
about connecting things, people,
and ideas.
28. RULES FOR THE SOCIAL ERA:
1. EVERYTHING is social
2. The lines between social and professional are
blurred
3. The âconsumerâ 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.
29. lesson #2:
You canât say âwe donât need socialâ because EVERYTHING is
social. Itâs not a tool, itâs a cultural shift.
31. 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.
34. 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:
35. ââ
The aim of marketing is to know and
understand the customer so well the product
or service fits him and sells itself.
Peter Drucker,âš
Father of Management Theory
36. THANKS TO SOCIAL, WE HAVE CRAZY POWERFUL DATA AT OUR
FINGERTIPS:
1. Social Media Platform Analytics
2. Social Intelligence Tools
3. Social Listening
37. 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/
38. Facebook Audience Insights (free)
In Facebookâs business manager, you
can see all sorts of interesting
information about specific audiences.
Search:
Job Titles: Business and Finance,
Corporationâš
Location: United States of Americaâš
Age: 30+
15,000-20,000 monthly active FB
Users.
39. 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!
40. 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)
41. Affinities for people who talk about (or read about)
employee benefits:
People who mention the phrase
âemployee benefitsâ on Twitter, have the
following affinities:
â Health
â Insurance Industry
â Finance
â Health Care
â Affordable Care Act
â Management
â Law
â Entrepreneurship
â Leadership
â World News
â Science And Technology
â California
â Basketball
â Tennis
â Sales
â Local Business
42. 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:
â News (55%)
â Twitter (38%)
â Forums (4%)
â Reddit (2%)
â Blogs (1%)
288,533 posts
43. 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.
44. 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)
45. LinkedIN Sales Navigator
Probably one of the most powerful
tools available for social listening,
LinkedINâs Sales Navigator will tell
you when people and companies you
follow make any changes that may
create opportunities for sales:
â Company growth
â People moving between
companies + getting
promotions
â Shared articles/posts
â Suggest new leads for you
â Mentions in the news
â And more!
46. lesson #3:
Listening is the most important function of social. Youâve never
had so much insight into your audience (and lots of free tools)!
If you arenât using social, you will miss out.
48. 1. I know you
2. Iâm looking for you
3. Iâm comparing you to your
competition
4. Iâm buying from you
5. Iâm using your product
6. Iâm 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.
51. AWARE
Customerâs state:
Isnât looking for you, hasnât
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.
52. 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
youâll get for your buck.
http://seapointdig.com/impact-award/
54. 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).
56. SEARCH
Customerâs 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.
57. 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 âemployee
benefitsâ because of their blog
content.
BLOG
CONTENT!
61. MOST CUSTOMERS HAVE ALREADY DECIDED BEFORE
THEY CALL YOU
âToday'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.â
B2Bâs Digital Revolution, Think With Google
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-resources/b2b-digital-evolution/
62. SOCIAL TACTICS THAT HELP SWAY THE CUSTOMER
TO CHOOSE YOU
When it comes to making a
decision, itâs 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.
64. Customerâs state:
Time to purchase! The
customer is having their first
experience with your
product.
BUYING
65. 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. âAnd it all had to do with the fact
that we were answering questions that, at the time,
werenât even on the NYS [New York State] Department
of Insuranceâs website,â (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
71. Every time you or a happy customer posts
online, you create another opportunity to
appear on your potential customerâs 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.
72. 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 itâs
even more now.
The Final Takeaways
1.
The customerâs
journey is
unpredictable, so
being on multiple
points of that
journey is
important.
73. 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