Marketing: How A B2B Brand Made The Most Out Of Social Media

26/02/2010

By John Bottom, Head of Copy, Base One

In early 2009, Andy Pearce of Powwownow was like most other B2B marketers in his view of social media marketing. There was no doubting the potential, but actually putting it to work in a constructive, accountable way was more difficult. Without proof, without hard marketing metrics, how could you be sure of success?

But he reasoned that, if his competitors also thought this way, they would remain stuck in old marketing and he had an opportunity to move ahead. There were enormous benefits for pioneers, just as long as they did it...

...right. Powwownow was, and is, a very successful and fast-growing conference call company. Its business is web-based, with over 100,000 registered users, and offers free conference-calling, with a small margin being made on the cost of the (national rate) phone call. Customer numbers are generated by a combination of search marketing, word of mouth, online advertising, and various other awareness exercises.

To help him manage the social media campaign, Andy turned to Base One, an agency that had been retained for the last six years to build and manage the Powwownow website, as well as helping to devise and produce creative campaigns. The fact that Base One would be managing the foray into social media made perfect sense: not only did they have the skills to understand and exploit the power of social media, they also had a deep understanding of the Powwownow brand and its customers. To extend activities into the social media sphere with such a trusted partner helped reduce the apparent risk of the venture.

Planning the content, establishing the channels whilst assessing the situation. It was clear that no lasting success could be achieved by wading into social media marketing without... continued on page two >

 

 

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