Why Online Videos Help Attract Professional Tradesman
Manufacturers should not lose site that videos are a powerful informational tool when it comes to building credibility with contractors. Consider if you will that next to Google Search, the next highest searche is YouTube. That alone should tell you something.
LinkedIn: 5 Ways It Can Be A Powerful New Business Tool
I tell everyone if they only could use one social media tool to generate new business, I’d use LinkedIn. While my blog is important (long term), and Twitter is very useful once you get your followers, LinkedIn offers you a way to be more proactive. Before you start utilizing it, you first have to make sure that your page is updated and as near to the 100% mark as you can get it. Once that’s done, dig in and have some fun.
2010 Outlook: B-to-B Marketers Plan On Increasing Social Media Budgets
According to a recent survey by emarketer.com, B-to-B clients are going to increase their spending in the social media arena in 2010. It certainly makes sense that the ones who have tried various aspects of social must be getting some traction or they wouldn't be...
Businesses are Moving From Adoption to Utilization of Social Media
I think it’s safe to say that social media is here to stay. For those of us who have accepted that fact, we are moving on from adoption to trying to understand how businesses can take advantage of social in a work context today. A recent 2009 Business Social Media Benchmarking study (download a copy) was compiled from approx. 2900 responses and is an excellent overview of how businesses are trying to utilize this media. The report covers both how businesses are using social media to find relevant information and how they judge its success.
Social Media: Integrate Into Your Core Marketing Plan to Maximize Effectiveness
When we talk with clients about social, they are so focused on the “how” instead of the ” why.” “How” isn’t relevant if you don’t have plan on “why” you’re going to integrate social. Marketers need to realize that by integrating social into existing programs, the net result will be better because social lets potentials identify you!
B-to-B Marketers: Analytics Key To Your Internet Success
With more marketers jumping on the social media bandwagon, they are so focused on the content that they sometime ignore the metrics to see if what they are writing is being read, and more importantly, acted upon. Analytics are a crucial component to successfully generating traffic to your blog, Web site and inbound new business leads. But for many manufacturers, best practices for using analytics isn’t understood at all.
Your Most Valuable Asset When Reaching the Professional Tradesman: Thought Leadership
As a B-to-B marketer, Thought Leadership is one of the most valuable assets of your brand. When reaching out to the professional tradesman, you have several audiences that you need to build relationships with – Distribution, Buying Groups, Associations and ultimately, the Contractor or End User. Messaging to each of these markets while sharing common traits can and will be different. The sooner you begin building relationships in the buying cycle, the better off you’re going to be. Thought leadership and brand building should be an ongoing process.
Why Webinars Are A Good Marketing Tool To Reach Tradesmen
Webinars are a good way to mix up the way you deliver your message to tradesmen. They allow you to set yourself apart as an expert, gives you visibility, credibility and immediate feedback on your topic. They take a lot of work, but if done right, will reap you benefits for a long time. You can also repurpose them as webcasts and put them on your web site so the contractors can view them at their leisure.
Will Email Be Replaced by Social Media?
We don’t think so. Email is still an important tool and one that’s used not only in regular communications, but also is a good new business tool. The rise in popularity of social media only enhances email. The two can work powerfully together. Here are 20 reasons why.
10 Ways to Engage Tradesmen
When we communicate with our target audiences, whether it’s through traditional methods or the use of social media, we want to inform and hopefully engage them. It’s through the engagement process that we start a dialog with them which hopefully will turn into something more (hopefullya sale). I’ve enclosed some tips on how we successfully engage tradesmen: