This is a presentation I held for a group of students from Carthage College in Wisconsin, USA on Januray 16, 2017.

1. Smart online communication
Carthage College
January 16, 2017

2. Content Marketing for Business-to-Business
• Introduction around the table
• Short presentation of Skapa
• Social media overview with a few examples
• A few trends
• Strategies for social media and online
communication
• Conclusion

3. Skapa – smart online communication
• Founded in 1996
• Mostly B2B customers with
international opeations
• Focused on online communication
since the start
• Seven employees
• Working owners
• Located in cluster of export
industries in Gothenburg area

4. Skapa – Smart Online Communication
Communication and marketing
Online marketing is about understanding
the needs of your target groups and giving
them relevant content published in multiple
channels.
Web, technology and development
We build advanced and easy-to-use apps,
extranets, blogs and web based system
solutions that supply the data to the right
person at the right moment!

5. Presentation – Erik Ekholm, CEO
• CEO at Skapa
• Master of Science and Naval Architect at Chalmers
University of Technology
• Stena AB, Volvo Trucks, Rosemount Tank Radar
• Founded Skapa in 1996
• Specialized in online marketing for B2B operations
• Lecturer in online marketing at IHM Business
School, Stockholm School of Economics, West
Sweden Chamber of Commerce and Norwegian-
Swedish Chamber of Commerce.

6. The Skapa Team
Erik Ekholm
CEO
Lars Andersson
Chief Digital Strategist
Pierre Bendayan
Art Director
Kajsa Owenede
Copywriter
Joel Lunch
Solution Architect
Louise Sjöberg
Copywriter
Annika Ekholm
Marketing Manager

7. We Love Business-to-Business…
*US owned companies

8. Challenges for B2B Sales & Marketing
• Identifying your potential customers
• Understanding the customers’ needs
• Attracting the customers
• Creating a relevant communication
• Building trust and confidence –
persistently
• Being top-of-mind when the
purchasing decision is made

9. Skapa’s Philosophy for
Successful Online Marketing

10. Attract:
New business and develop loyalty
by delivering:
Relevant and updated content
that meets the customers’ :
Needs, challenges and questions
Content Marketing is Perfect for B2B

11. Greencarrier’s Knowledge Blog
• Build brand and strengthen brand awareness
• Content marketing in multiple channels
• Concept, design and development of websites for
blog and for each business area
• Extensive contacts database
• Developed in WordPress. Responsive.
• freightservices.greencarrier.com
• lineragency.greencarrier.com
• greencarriergroup.com
• blog.greencarrier.com
• Google examples: Advantages of air freight, air vs
sea freight, container train solution or container
rain.

12. Volvo Penta Nordic & Baltic Blog for Professional Users
• Blog for Volvo Penta’s Industrial and Professional
Marine customers
• Knowledge blog to attract highly valuable visitors
• Convert visitors into leads
• Concept, design & development of a modern blog-
website with responsive design in WordPress
• Content marketing: Article creation with knowledge
articles, customer stories, profile in focus (dealers,
employees), etc.
• nordicblog.volvopenta.com
• Facebook, Instagram

13. Elos Medtech – Expertise and experience
• Supporting sales by building confidence through
expertise and experience
• Building brand awareness
• Concept, design and development of a website
including a blog
• Investor relations information
• Developed in WordPress. Responsive.
• Content Marketing in multiple channels
• elosmedtech.com, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

14. Relevant Content Attracts Visitors that Become Leads
Visitors
Customers
Inspiration / Customer needs
Brand building / Company
Offer / Products / Services

15. Customer
Magazines
Relevant Content can Feed Multiple Channels
CONTENT
Sales Material
Website
Blog
Email-
Marketing
Social Media
Employer
Branding
Press

16. Investing in Content vs. Spending on Ads & Campaigns
TimeAds & campaigns
Content
Marketing value

17. Example of Skapa’s work process
Analysis
Online Strategy
Concept & Design
Implementation
Skapa MediaPac

18. Process for Sustainable Content Flow:
• Editorial group
• Goals and achievements for article
(summary, target group, purpose,
conversion, keywords/phrases, author)
• Publishing plan
• Content production (research, interviews,
material, copywriting, review and approval)
• Optimal publishing on blog, social media,
newsletters, …
• Metrics analysis and follow-up

19. 10 tips to have in mind for content marketing:
1. Pinpoint the customers and
understand their needs and
challenges
2. Create compelling content that is
relevant for the audience
3. Build confidence over time by sharing
your knowledge
4. Be top-of-mind when the purchasing
decision is made
5. Use multichannel communication to
increase reach
6. Use social media to make Google
aware of your content
7. Use embedded YouTube-videos with
correlating headline and description
8. Adapt your communication to mobile
users (responsive, but also timing,
email, etc.)
9. Have a long-term perspective – it’s not
a campaign but a process
10. Inform and activate your sales team
for social selling

20. Social Media

21. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odoYOuvwjDE

24. LinkedIn:
• 467 million acquired
users in 220 countries
• Owns Slideshare
• 3.6 billion USD in 2015
Twitter:
• 317 million monthly active
users
• 500 million tweets per day
• 2,4 billion USD in 2015
YouTube:
• More than 1 billion
active users
• 1,2 billion shows per day
• 100 h video uploaded/minute
• 6 billion hours shown / month
• 100% owned by Google
Facebook:
• 1.2 billion daily active users
• 1.1 billion daily active mobile
users
• 18 billion USD 2015

25. Social Media Strategies

26. ”Facebook? – Aber nein,
we are not that kind of
a company!”

28. • What if someone writes something negative about our
products?
• What if our competitors may learn something!
• We can only create one article per quarter – maximum!
• What do the sales people tell the customer if everything
has already been published?
• No one else in our industry does it
• The dealers don’t like that we have direct contact with
the end customers.
A few objections to using social media

30. COMPETITORS
EDITORIAL
CALENDAR
SEARCH
OPTMIZATION
POLICIES &
GUIDELINES
SOCIAL MEDIA
BUSINESSES
SEGMENTS
E-COMMERCE
RESOURCES
CHANNELS
PERSONALITY
& TONE
ONLINE
STRATEGIES
METRICS
RISKS
BRAND
TACTICS &
PLANS
PERSONAS
KPIs
COUNTRIES
MARKETS
GOALS
VISION &
TARGET
WORK
PROCESSES
ORGANIZATION
CONTENT
GOVERNANCE
NEEDS &
CHALLENGES
TARGET
GROUPS

31. The ultimate goal of your online communication? Is it to:
• Increase brand awareness?
• Improve client engagement? Build confidence/trust?
• Improve customer support efficiency?
• Attract and retain key staff members
• Support sales with valuable leads
Anything that does not support your goal/goals, has no place in your strategy!
Strategy – define your goal

32. “Our main goal is to get closer to the
customers”

33. ”Creating valuable local dialogues”

34. Peter Drucker. Popularized in 2006 by Mark Fields, president of Ford Motor Company
Ensure top management support and engage (inform & motivate) staff to make sure
your strategies are successfully implemented
True engagement and motivation is needed

35. A few trends…

36. • Trump as president?
• More aggressive Russia?
• Continued Euro crisis?
• Passified EU administration?
• Rise of nationalism in Europe?
• Clash for dominance in Chinese Sea?
• War in Syria?
• Rising terror with ISIS and other terror organizations?
Except for these influences…

38. VR – Virtual Reality
• Facebook Oculus Rift
• 360 videos in Facebook
• Facebook plans
http://nordic.businessinsid
er.com/facebook-fake-
news-and-virtual-reality-
2016-12/

39. • Google AI Translation tool invents its own language
• Marketing automation using AI
• Personal assistants that are actually like a person (Her,
Siri/Apple, Alexa/Amazon, Cortana/Microsoft,
Assistant/Google + Google Home) – how far have they
come?
AI – artificial intelligence

40. • Self-driving cars, then…
• Trucks, buses, ships, trains, airplanes, what else …
• Cleaning offices, homes, schools, hospitals using robots
• Mail (paper-based) and parcel distribution
• Food deliveries
• Pickup-clean-return laundry
• Well, manufacturing is already lost to robots
Self-driving whatever…

41. Videos provide strong communication
Communication with emotion

42. Kids always create a smile…

43. Animals and kids work even better…

44. But emotions always win, but take some time

45. Mobile data +55% from Q2-15 to Q2-16
http://www.akamai.com/stateoftheinternet/ (with data from Ericsson)

46. Google ”Limited space construction”
Check Ramirent Blog

47. Google ”power loaders zinc mining”
Check Volvo Penta Blog

48. • Develop your strategies
• Plan for governance of blogs and social media
• Mobile First!
• Always consider Google
• Measure and follow up!
• Be persistent!
• Just do it!
Conclusion

49. Discussion

50. Please stay in touch!
Erik Ekholm,
Skapa.se
Tel +46 31 3011151
erik.ekholm@skapa.se
twitter.com/erikekholm
facebook.com/erikekholm
se.linkedin.com/in/erikekholm

51. Copyright notice:
The information in this document may not, in part or in its entirety, be published, copied or distributed to
a third party, without the previous consent from Skapa Digital Design i Göteborg AB.