Social media outreach by businesses is beginning to show true value, according to a recentHubSpot study on inbound marketing. The research also finds that business-to-business companies are seeing success in using social media, countering claims that social media may only be able to move the needle for consumer-facing companies.
The study found that using blogs and social media for lead generation and customer acquisition is less expensive than using traditional outbound methods like cold-calling, email marketing, and trade shows. The average inbound lead was generated for $134, 2.5 times less than leads generated by outbound methods.
While B2C companies had more overall success acquiring customers from blogs and social networks, more than 1/3 of the B2B companies using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and corporate blogs reported acquiring a customer through those methods. LinkedIn proved to be the most successful for B2B companies, as 45 percent of companies that used it reported gaining sales from that channel. B2C companies saw the most success on Facebook, as 68 percent of users acquired a customer from Facebook Fan page outreach.
The HubSpot study shows that interactions on social media can deliver true ROI in the form of sales, not just soft metrics like brand awareness and customer satisfaction. Demonstrating business value from social media and blogs is becoming easier as the correct metrics are now being observed by the marketers implementing campaigns.
Businesses beginning a social media campaign should perform benchmarks of leads, traffic, and customer acquisition cost prior to the campaign launch. Once a base case is established, growth from social media can be established and the cost of generating positive outcomes can be calculated. In these tight economic times, bringing the cost of customer acquisition down is an excellent way to maintain margins and profitability.
