by tradesmeninsights | Feb 21, 2012 | Marketing Trends, Traditional Marketing
According to a recent article in BtoB Magazine, Making the Most of Mobile is beginning to change. Here’s an interesting stat – in December of 2011, eMarketer released a study that showed mobile had surpassed print readership. Mobile increased by 30% in 2011 to 65 minutes a day compared to print at 44 minutes. Magazines are finding that their content consumption on smartphones and tablets are beginning to boom.
This trend isn’t just in the B-to-C market. B-to-B publications are beginning to focus on different delivery options. Summit Media Group who owns Packaging World found in a recent survey that 46% of their subscribers owned a tablet and that 78% planned to own one by the end of the year. Of those that currently own tablets, 74% said they read work-related digital magazines on these devices. They have incorporated “responsive design” into their websites which allows for optimum readability automatically.
Ziff Davis, a tech media company, is moving ALL its print magazines to digital and mobile and is clearly a leader in this endeavor. Newer media companies like WTWH Media which just started a few years ago focuses heavily on the digital aspect. Cygnus Business Media, Penton Media and others are starting to follow suit.
So bottom line for those of us that are trying to reach professional tradesmen, we now have another opportunity and avenue to reach them. Benefits of digital are:
- We can measure responses
- We can enhance our message by including links to videos, testimonials, etc.
If you haven’t included digital in your marketing plans, maybe it’s time you consider it.
by tradesmeninsights | Sep 14, 2011 | Marketing Tools, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
Contractors are busy people and they rely more and more on devices that they can use in the field. Between smartphones, tablets and even internet cards for your laptop, you had better have a mobile strategy either in place or on the drawing board or you will be missing opportunities to communicate and connect with your audience.
No one could sum it up any better than Noah Elkin, eMarketer principal analyst for mobile, “The rapid expanding smartphone and mobile internet user populations raise the stakes for marketers and make mobile web more of an imperative than ever.”
Here are some facts you need to consider:
- Almost 100 million consumers will be on the mobile web this year
- Smartphones represent 38% of mobile users this year
- In 2010, 96% of all tablets were iPads (15 million)
According to Bill Siwicki, managing editor of Mobile Commerce, The up-and-coming web programming language HTML5 enables developers to create mobile web sites that are more like apps, and to create apps that require little modification to operate on a variety of mobile operating systems. However, an HTML5-based app can’t do everything an app written specifically for Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android can, he adds.
So the question is, what’s your plan? Don’t miss out on an opportunity to touch and engage your audience.
Here are some other posts that might be relevant:
Mobile Marketing to the Professional Tradesman: What Are You Waiting For?
56 Mobile Marketing Facts
by tradesmeninsights | Oct 13, 2010 | Marketing Tips, Traditional Marketing
Email marketing should be a major part of your traditional marketing communications plan. But do you have a plan on how you want to use it for maximum ROI? In the B-to-B world, even opt-in lists are only being opened on an average of 25%.
Today we’re all bombarded with emails and it’s estimated that the sheer volume will increase by up to 80% by 2013. So the challenge is how to stand out in this sea of emails and if you do get them to open it what’s next? Here are a few helpful suggestions you may want to consider:
- Keep your mesage simple – and to the point of (what’s in it for me). Folks aren’t going to read long emails.
- Give them a call to action – Use emails to “nudge” folks along. Link them to a website, video or coupon offer.
- How do your prospects like to be contacted – Is it traditional email or mobile marketing? Most contractors are on the jobsite most of the day and rely on their smart phones to stay in touch.
- Temper frequency of contacts – Yes they may love you, but they might not want to hear from you on a daily basis. Contact them when there’s something of value to share.
Those are a few hints that we use. Hope about you? What things do you do to make your email programs zing?
