by tradesmeninsights | Feb 22, 2018 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing, Tips, Tradesmen Insights
By Chris Ilcin
Everyone (and especially marketing communications firms) creates an aura that content marketing is some huge, time consuming mystery. But the real secret is that it’s all about having a clear, consistent message and then placing the right part of that message into the right format. To demonstrate that, we’ve created the following infographic that shows how we repurposed the content from a single, 45-minute interview with our client’s product engineer, into numerous pieces of content across multiple platforms, where the messaging received thousands of views.
Check out our infographic, “A White Paper Life Cycle.”
How are you repurposing content?
SaveSave
SaveSaveSaveSave
by Sonnhalter | Feb 28, 2017 | Tradesmen Insights
By Rachel Kerstetter, Public Relations Architect, Sonnhalter
If your content marketing program includes a blog, you’ve felt the pressure to produce a lot of content. Blogs are hungry little monsters that need a steady stream of new information to be effective.
But never fear! It is possible to feed the content beast and not lose a finger in the process.
(more…)
by tradesmeninsights | Sep 16, 2015 | Marketing Tips
By Chris Ilcin, Account Superintendent at Sonnhalter
“Content Marketing” has been a buzzword for a few years now, and quite frankly, it can be a confusing term to translate to your everyday marketing strategy. But for manufacturers, it all boils down to one simple sentence:
Be a resource.
You have a product, your competitors have a product, but now more than ever, your current and potential customers need information. Just like you, they are dealing with a skill gap. Just like you, they need to establish a way to transfer knowledge and training to a new generation of workers. Be there to help, and sales takes care of themselves.
via Contently.com
For generations, John Deere has published The Furrow. Currently, Lincoln Electric has garnered justified publicity and acclaim for taking what was The Stabilizer and updating it as Arc Magazine. And there are more examples.
For all their marketing and CRM uses, the real purpose of both is to be a resource. Both companies have chosen to make best practices, product information and collective knowledge a matter of public knowledge, and in so doing, they have engendered customer loyalty and established themselves as “industry experts.” They have become the resource. They have transcended the marketplace of products and become the leaders in the marketplace of ideas.
The key to an effective program is to make the same essential information accessible in multiple formats and repurpose it as much as possible.
As an example, take a newly developed solution and:
- Develop a press release
- Write a white paper
- Host a webinar based on the white paper
- Take the questions from the webinar and develop short videos for posting on social media
- Use the video links as the basis of an email campaign
- Use responses to the email campaign to feed your lead generation system
- Write a success story about a company that implements the solution, showing gains in productivity or cost reductions
So, the same essential information has now been repurposed seven different ways, generating leads and exposure all along the way.
And best of all, when a customer you never even knew about searches for information on that solution, they find you.
by tradesmeninsights | May 15, 2014 | Social Marketing
By Rachel Kerstetter, PR Engineer, Sonnhalter
You’ve probably heard the word “viral” in relation to online marketing before. If you’re not quite sure what it means, here’s a very brief definition:
Vi-ral:
Adjective
: becoming very popular by circulating from person to person, specifically on the internet.
If something “goes viral” that means it has been shared a great number of times; there is no threshold number of shares to be reached before something can be considered viral, but in general you know when something has gone viral by the way it is talked about.
So here’s the secret to going viral:
The one aspect that every viral thing has in common is that it is a quality piece of content that resonates with your audience. Content that goes viral is often in the form of blog posts, pictures or videos.
Content can resonate with your audience in many ways, most of the time viral content resonates through humor. Content that is controversial or sparks a debate, as well as timely, helpful information will also resonate.
In our industry, content doesn’t often achieve viral status, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t resonated, sparked conversation or been effective.
As marketers, we cannot make content become viral. Content can only be made viral by your audience(s) – they have the power. Marketers and brands do not have the power to make anything viral.
Image via Scott Cresswell
If you’re disappointed that you know the secret to viral but can’t do anything about it, don’t lose heart!
The goal in any marketing initiative should not be creating viral content; it should be on creating quality content.
Marketers and brands have the power to create quality content that will resonate with audiences. If that content goes viral, then that is just a happy side effect.
by tradesmeninsights | Oct 2, 2013 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
We’ve talked many times about the importance of having a mobile strategy when wanting to reach the professional contractors. Their office is a jobsite and they need to be and stay connected. Mobile is changing the way we reach these important people.
A recent article by Bob Oord in marketingprofs outlines the explosion in this market and ways we can maximize our efforts there. An amazing stat is that their usage has doubled in just 1 year! The integration of mobile apps with CRM and business intelligence has changed user expectations.
TOP MOBILE TACTICS TO CONSIDER:
- Responsive website – so it can be read on any device
- Mobile-friendly campaigns – optimize landing pages.
- Mobile advertising – can be tailored by location, time and device so take advantage of them.
- Mobile email – make sure your HTML can be read properly on these devices.
- Mobile apps – apps let you secure a prominent presence on your customer’s device.
Please note that a recent report by Forrester, “Don’t Confuse Tablet And Mobile Marketing,” a B2B marketer needs to differentiate between smart phones and tablets. Smart phones have a much smaller screen for content experiences and is used “on the go,” while tablets are used more at home and in the office offering rich content opportunities.
If you liked this article, you might want to read:
Mobile Marketing to the Professional Tradesman: What are you Doing?
Why Mobile Marketing is Important for the Professional Tradesman.
