by tradesmeninsights | Feb 17, 2015 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Marketing Trends, Social Marketing
I don’t know about you, but LinkedIn continues to be a top performer for me and my blog posts. The top referrer is search engines, but LinkedIn is a strong second and Twitter is third for getting the right eyes on my blog.
A recent article in eMarketer.com confirms the fact that among top social sites for B-to-B, LinkedIn remains on top for both usage and effectiveness.
I use LinkedIn exclusively to share my posts with not only the folks that linked to me, but to the numerous LinkedIn groups that I belong to. I’ve had clients who have great success in recruiting the right kind of talent using their paid job searches.
Are you using LinkedIn, and if so, are you having similar success?
by tradesmeninsights | Jan 27, 2015 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Traditional Marketing, Uncategorized
Do you know that the average office worker checks their email 30 times an hour? Can you imagine what the stats are for contractors out in the field?
The point is that emails are very acceptable ways of communicating with each other. The key is to have relevant and timely info for your prospect.
Heidi Cohen gives us several reasons why email trumps social media:
- Email provides directly measurable ROI – You know immediately how many opened and read your message.
- Email is content format agnostic – It’s user-friendly and you can use text, images, videos, audio, PDFs.
- Email can deliver both long and short content – Content can vary from a link to several pages in length.
- Emails you can control delivery – Whether it’s now or delayed.
- Emails can be read on anything – Smart phones, tablets, laptops, no apps required.
- Emails build customer relationships – Once someone allows you to communicate with them, it represents a certain level of trust.
So since you have such a powerful tool, we need to make sure we’re using it correctly to get the best bang for the buck. eMarketer, in a recent article, stated that we all should get ready for more personalized emails and companies plan on spending more money to accomplish this.
These triggered and transactional emails can be part of a nurturing campaign. The key is getting the right message in the hands of the right people at the right time. You need to ask the right questions to see where they are in the sales funnel so you can address that immediate need.
If we use and target emails correctly, whether you’re going after a contractor or a plant manager, the result improves with the more segmenting you can do. So do your homework and take advantage of a great marketing tool.
by tradesmeninsights | Jan 21, 2015 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Marketing Trends, Public Relations, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
Everyone today is so focused on Content Marketing that they may overlook an old standby, PR, that could help in getting that all-important content out there. Content marketing drives long-term thought leadership goals. PR can help you short-term to meeting these objectives. After all, both disciplines are working toward the same goals.
Here are a few reasons to use PR in conjunction with your content marketing program:
- PR builds corporate credibility – Foster good relationships with key editors in your field and let them tell your story.
- PR increases brand awareness – Use your new content to attract focused audiences and new leads.
- PR makes your content team focus on your public – Instead of selling features and benefits, use fresh insights and angles on how others have solved similar problems. Be relevant and timely on issues.
If you like this post you might like:
8 Tips for Media Interviews
The Scary Side of PR
by tradesmeninsights | Jan 14, 2015 | Marketing Tips, Traditional Marketing
I have found that there’s no better way to position yourself as a credible source than by having a third party sing your praises. Most companies, if pleased with what you did or supplied, would be happy to not only give you a recommendation, but in some cases, a testimonial.
Here are some things to consider:
- Keep the requests to unique applications or markets. This helps you focus on something that sets you apart.
- Ask when the project is complete – when everything is fresh in every bodies mind.
- Get proper clearances upfront – when dealing with bigger companies or unique situations, it’s smart to get an approval upfront and let the customer know what you want to accomplish and assure them that they will have final approval before it’s used. If you have a PR department or agency, they are used to vetting out potential before you waste time and resources.
- It’s best you control the writing. Most customers are not writers, they’re contractors. Besides, they aren’t aware of the big picture of what you’re ultimately trying to accomplish. Write an outline of what you want to accomplish and then let someone interview the contractor and write the story.
- Utilize info in multiple places – try to get it featured in a leading trade magazine. Post it on your website. Have a sell sheet made up for your salesmen to use. If you’re on social media, post it there with links back to your web. Here’s a good example of Viega that uses case studies very effectively.
Don’t miss out on one of the best ways to have customers tell your story and build your credibility.
by tradesmeninsights | Jan 13, 2015 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
Hopefully, as part of your strategy to move prospects along the selling cycle, you are using landing pages in order to deliver on what you promised. It’s also a great way to track responses. It could also be a way of losing a potential customer.
Here are some tips that might help results:
- Keep it simple – Deliver on what you promised to get them there in the first place.
- It’s not about you – How can you help them with a problem that got them there in the first place.
- This is not an ad – They’re not looking for a sales pitch, but answers to specific questions.
- Powerful content – Keep it relevant. Don’t focus on key words. Instead, make what you say useful and valuable.
Copybloggers infographic gives you some great pointers.
![The ABCs of Landing Pages That Work [Infographic]](https://i0.wp.com/copyblogger.com/cdn-origin/images/650/copyblogger-infographic-abcs-of-landing-pages.png?w=650&ssl=1 "The ABCs of Landing Pages That Work [Infographic]")
Like this infographic? Get landing page advice that works from Copyblogger.
by tradesmeninsights | Jan 7, 2015 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
It’s a new year, and before we start doing the same old thing, we should take a minute to make sure what we’re doing is getting us the results we want. Makes sense, doesn’t it? We do it in our personal lives this time of year.
I recently read a post by Heidi Cohen that did just that. Here are some highlights:
- Document your content marketing strategy – only 35% have a written plan that they can share with their team.
- Know who you’re talking to – create personas to reach each of your targeted audiences.
- Get other employees involved – both in creating and distributing content.
- Expand your visual content – people like pictures and there are several options to help you deliver them.
- Incorporate video into the mix – next to Google, YouTube is the most searched. Show your prospects why your product is better.
- Get your audiences involved – ask them to share images or rate your product.
Heidi has others, but the point is, take a few minutes to evaluate what you did last year and improve on it this year. Make 2015 a good one.
