There are all kinds of buzz words out there—integrated marketing, 360 degree marketing, etc. They all have the same goal in mind, and that is to take your marketing message and share it across all methods of communication. Place your customer in the center of your efforts and then deliver your information in various ways so they can get it in the format they prefer.
Heidi Cohen had an interesting post recently, 360 Degree Social Media Marketing, where she shared 37 different tactics that you can use.
Here are some highlights that manufacturers should consider:
Be consistent – Develop content on a regular basis so you can start to build a relationship.
Selective use of social media – Use the appropriate media to get in front of your prospects. Make sure you use photos and videos in making your points.
Utilize customer service – they are talking to customers all the time. Create a FAQ segment to share. Give your customers options on ways to contact you other than on social.
Collect customer feedback and input for research purposes. Hear firsthand their compliments and complaints on your products/services.
Utilize social in your PR efforts – We all have brand advocates. Work with them to help build your visibility. Start a blog to establish thought leadership.
I cringe when I hear someone say that phrase. Past actions will not ensure future success. Manufacturers who have this mindset are missing out on many opportunities. You literally need to think outside the box.
In today’s market, there are so many other options to consider. Some may not be appropriate for you, but you have to evaluate and pick the ones that might be useful for you. One basic change we all need to make is change how we reach out to potentials. If you’re trying to sell features/benefits to a prospect, you’re going to be disappointed.
Here are some tips to consider:
Take a different approach – Instead of talking about you, help your customer solve a problem. Always answer the question from your customer’s perspective of “What’s in it for me?”
Friendly website – If you count on your website as a way of selling your brand, come at it from a customer’s perspective and make sure that your site is responsive (have different versions for smart phones and tablets). Make it easy to find what they are looking for.
Limited social media – Most manufacturers don’t need to utilize all the options that are available to you. You should focus on those areas that will bring you the most bang for the time you have. You already may have existing things like how-to videos (YouTube) or Power Point presentations (SlideShare) on the best way to solve a particular problem. If you’re in specific market segments, join and participate in the conversations (LinkedIn). If you have the resources, starting a blog would be an ideal way of setting you apart from your competitors and putting you out as an industry expert. Places like Facebook and Twitter, for the most part, are not ways to communicate with contractors and professional tradesman.
The key is to do something different, and as I’ve shown you here, in most cases you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You have valuable info and insights on how to solve your customer’s problems. Don’t keep to yourself – share it.
The folks at the top got there, for the most part, because they know the industry and your customer base. Unfortunately, as they move up the corporate ladder, they spend less and less time with the customer and what’s really on their mind.
An interesting book Made to Stick by the Heath brothers talks about the “knowledge curse” of the C-S. Basically, it means that the better we get at generating new insights and solutions, the harder it gets for them to communicate those ideas clearly. In other words, once we know something, it’s hard to imagine everyone already knowing it and when we go on with the thought, we bypass an explanation and go on to make the point, thus losing the audience.
The key with blogging is giving people valuable info that can help them do their job. The challenge for most of us is how do we get that knowledge from between the ears of the big boys and into the hands of the actual user? So what can we do to help get the valuable info out of the C-Suite and yet make it understandable to our target audience? Here are a few tips:
Narrow the focus of the article
Give them only a few choices to write about
Give them a deadline
Be prepared to edit out buzz words and what I call corporate speak and put it in terms your audience will understand
Edit for readability
So don’t give up on getting valuable info out of the corner office and into the hands of your customers.
Let’s face it, in an ideal world we’d all want our customers to love us! We all know that’s not going to happen, but I’ll bet you might have more advocates for your brand than you think.
Why are brand advocates important? Studies show that people rely on peer recommendations and reviews before purchasing goods. Contractors are no different, especially if you’re introducing a new product or application they haven’t used or seen before. They certainly don’t want to be the first to try something.
Brand advocates are more than loyal customers. They are your ambassadors in the trades. I’ve seen contractors with tattoos of company logos. That to me is the ultimate.
Some brand advocates will surface on their own by commenting on your blog or website several times or talking you up on an online forum. Others might offer positive comments on a survey or warranty card. Don’t forget to ask your sales staff in the field who are calling on contractors, as well as your customer service department. They certainly should be able to identify a few. Hopefully a few will be high-profile folks within some associations that you are a part of.
One of our clients in the plumbing market was able to identify and nurture several advocates over the years. Once they brought the top 10 contributors into the main office and treated them like royalty for 2 days and then sent them home. They got a plant tour, a look at what was coming down the line as new products and met with customer service and technical people that they interface with on a regular basis on the phone or with emails. You wouldn’t believe the results of that effort. They became ambassadors on steroids!
Once you’ve found them, then what? You should set up a brand advocacy program that will give them ways to help you grow the brand. Here are a few ideas:
Ask them to write testimonials or reviews on new products. Then ask them to share them.
See if they would be willing to do a case history for you.
If timing permits and you can meet them at an association meeting or trade show, see if they would let you interview them both for a podcast and testimonial video.
Ask them for referrals.
Have them test and evaluate new products before they are brought to market.
Have them identify potential new products.
This needs to be an ongoing effort so you’re always adding new advocates to keep the message current and fresh.
Don’t miss a golden opportunity for your customers to help sell your brand.
With all the marketing trends and new things over the last several years, email still seems to be the “workhorse” for most people’s marketing efforts. Recent research from Gigaom reports that over 75% of smart phone users check their emails on their phones. What I find remarkable, if you look at the chart below, 5 years ago paid search, SEO and digital ads would have been at the top of the list. Oh, how the more things change, the more they remain the same.
When you’re on the job site, how many times have your conversations been interrupted when a contractor has to take a call or his email dings?
Email is considered in this research as the most effective in reaching their goals – awareness, acquisition conversion and retention. Pretty powerful stuff!
It’s not surprising then that most marketers are planning on spending more time and money on email marketing. The key is what are you doing? Here are a few things to think about and they aren’t costly to implement.
make sure your email is mobile optimized – most services like Emma and Constant Contact have that option
make an editorial calendar of email topics and schedule them on a regular basis
make sure you test and review results to make sure you’re getting the most out of them
give them a link to something of value that will help them do their job better
The key is to use email as an effective marketing tool to get your message across.
