Integrate Social Media and CRM to Reach The Professional Tradesmen
As social media continues to grow, B-to-B marketers better be on board or the train will leave them at the station. In a recent Social Media Marketing Industry Report, it interviewed nearly 900 marketers. 88% were already using social media and 64% were using it 5 or more hours a week.
Their top 3 reasons for using social were exposure, increasing traffic and building new business relationships.
Does this sound like something you’d like to do? The professional tradesman is no different than any other consumer. Their time is limited and they choose the way they receive info both on a personal and professional level. The key for us marketers is to integrate social into our existing CRM programs. Steve Nielsen of Partner Up recently wrote a post on ways this could be accomplished. Here are some of the highlights:
- Online communities are more than networks; they’re end-to-end marketing engines that allow you to address customers’ concerns in real time.
- Online communities have the capacity to yield instant insight into brand awareness and reputation.
- Social media is a disruptive force turning traditional marketing and CRM on their heads. Those that can harness this disruption stand to gain the most ground.
According to Nielsen, companies seeking to re-energize their marketing should integrate online data into their existing CRM programs. Companies that follow this will become more relevant by transforming customer relationships and generating measurable business results.
So what are you doing to use social to reach those professional tradesmen? I’d like to hear from you.
