Manufacturers: Target Marketing to Tradesmen Maximizes Results

by | Mar 28, 2009

tradesmenWhen marketing to tradesmen, don’t outspend your competition, outmarket them. Target marketing is more cost-effective and provides better leads.

Most B-to-B marketers have a very finite market, and even within those markets, they have many different audiences and messages to deliver. Sometimes even a targeted trade publication or web site targeted at a specific industry may be too broad a reach.

Today’s technology allows you to specifically target industries, job function, buying influence, geographic and the list goes on and on.

To maximize your budget and generate solid leads, think outside the box from the traditional tactics you’ve used in the past. Here are a couple of examples to kick-start your thinking:

Print Advertising
Instead of taking an ad out in a vertical publication with a circulation of 100,000 design engineers when your product only has applications to a small percentage of the total circulation, why not consider doing an insert targeted at those specific NAICS codes in the magazine, or a targeted e-mail campaign where you can be very specific about the features and benefits and how they could meet their needs.

If your product is technical in nature, again using these targeted techniques, get them to a webinar where you can demo the product with some of the experts back at corporate that know the product inside and out, but don’t have an opportunity to interface with customers very often.

Engineers like to talk to other engineers. They feel more comfortable. Let them set the hook and then let your salesmen begin reeling them in.

Outdoor Advertising
Most B-to-B manufacturers wouldn’t think about using outdoor. But outdoor could be pinpointed so that your message would be seen several times a day. Here’s an example:  Suppose a manufacturer of a building material wanted to increase its share in a certain market to union electricians in a certain city. Outdoor could be used outside their union halls or nearby major new building sites where your message could be seen several times a day for an extended number of days.

You get the idea, don’t do the same old thing. To outmarket your competition, you don’t have to outspend them.

Have other examples? Share them in the comments section below.

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