by tradesmeninsights | Jun 9, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
This is for those of you who are still on the fence on social media and how it might fit into your overall marketing strategy.
According to Forrester research, over 90% of B2B buyers are already using social media tools, often to research and execute purchases.
Consider these facts:
- Facebook – There are over 500 million active users.
- Twitter – 175 million and growing. In 2010, there were 25 BILLION tweets!
- YouTube – 35 hours of video are uploaded every minute.
- Flickr – 3000+ photos uploaded every minute.
Needless to say, B2B marketing needs to look at the opportunities social may bring to the table. Most B2B relationships are established through direct interfacing and building relationships. It’s amazing how many people in this arena share their knowledge and build networks. What better place to demonstrate thought leadership.
If you’re looking to buy something and you’re looking for feedback from someone who already has made the decision, social is an ideal place to get that feedback. B2Bento has a white paper, Social Media for B2B Marketing that’s worth reading. It outlines strategy and guidelines and shows examples of what others are doing.
Are you ready? Jump in the water is fine!
http://www.b2bento.com/whitepaper/SocialMediaB2B.pdf
by tradesmeninsights | Jun 8, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
Some people can come up with excuses for everything. Have you heard this before? I have and after asking a few questions of prospects or clients, it comes down to this:
- No corporate goals for how social should be integrated into the overall marketing plan – You wouldn’t initiate a PR or direct mail campaign without identifying a strategy, tactics and how it would integrate into the bigger picture.
- No one minding the store – They don’t have a go-to person who is responsible for the program. It doesn’t have to be a full time position (most don’t need to be), but it should be included in someone’s job description to make them accountable.
- Recyling content – Why would you go to the time and expense only to republish existing stuff? Remember, one of the objectives of social is to become a thought leader, not a recycle king.
- Building a community – You’re looking for a specific audience right? May be engineers, electricians, whatever. You need to dig a little to see where they are hanging out (forums, LinkedIn groups, etc.) and you need to start building your community. That’s the beauty of key words and phrases so you can look for like-minded people on Twitter for example.
- Social media isn’t free – Everyone thinks social is free. While it’s true outside start-up costs are minimal, there is human capital that needs to be spent. Realize this and make sure management knows the associated costs. One nice thing about social is it is relatively easy to measure activity.
Those are my thoughts on why social media doesn’t work. Are there other issues you’d like to add?
by tradesmeninsights | Jun 7, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
In the social media arena like in the real world people need to know, like and trust you in order to have a meaningful relationship. In the social media space, things are somewhat different in that you can’t choose the people following you.
Bear in mind that more people are watching than participating. According to Heidi Cohen, your typical social media audience is comprised of about 90% who are lurkers (just watching and listening but aren’t jumping into the conversation). Of the balance, about 8% are actually participating in conversations and less than 2% are highly engaged.
Here are some tips on how to be who you are (transparent):
- Let people know who you are if you plan on jumping into a conversation – Believe me, they will eventually find out and if you’re doing this as a representative of a brand, not only will you suffer but so will the brand.
- Listen before you leap – Don’t jump right into a conversation. See what others are saying and don’t just talk for talking sake. If you can’t contribute something, just continue to listen.
- Use human speak – In other words, talk like you normally do in a conversational tone. Leave the corporate speak out of this arena.
- Be responsive – If you do a post and someone responds, acknowledge and answer the question even if it’s with an I don’t know but I’ll get back to you answer. It’s just common courtesy and if you want to build a relationship, you need to have more than a one-way conversation.
- Don’t overshare – This is especially true when it comes to sensitive or confidential material from your company. Remember, you need to set limits and once it’s out there, it will be there forever!
Those are some of my thoughts on the subject. If you’d like to add to the list, please feel free to.
If you like this post, you may want to read:
Social Media: 10 Rules to Abide By
Social Media Introverts: Here are Ways for You to Come out of the Closet
by tradesmeninsights | Jun 1, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Marketing Trends, Traditional Marketing
Webinar will focus on: How to Plan, Measure and Market using QR Codes and how B-to-B marketers can take advantage of them.
Marketing trends and tactics are ever changing and keeping up can be overwhelming. Mobile technologies are the next big deal in marketing and QR codes are a large part of that. QR codes can get a passive prospect to take immediate action by turning a standard ad, for example, into an interactive mobile call-to-action.
Please join us Wednesday, June 29th at 2 PM (EST) for this free webinar. Scott Chapin, head of the Circle 44 Mobile unit of DigiKnow, will provide insights and the ins-and-outs of QR Codes, how to use them, how to develop them, and how to measure a program’s success.
Don’t miss this must-attend Webinar on June 29th.
This webinar is available for viewing on our YouTube channel – click here.
Please forward this to a friend or business associate that might be interested.
by tradesmeninsights | May 26, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
We have used webinars successfully for several years now to promote new services and to share industry information and trends. They are a great tool to get the message out to many people at one time, and then you have the ability to archive them for people to come and view at their leisure.
Webinars are effective, and to get the most bang for your buck, you really need to cross the T’s and dot the I’s. There’s a lot that goes into a successful webinar starting with the topic itself. You need to give the professional tradesmen something they can take and make their own.
Andrew Spoeth from Marketo recently had an interesting post, How to Manage Successful Webinars: A Checklist that has several good points that you may want to look at.
I’m going to outline my top 10 tips on ways to improve your webinars:
- Build a great landing page – Clearly state your value proposition up front so the reader can see what’s in it for him.
- Set the time for the webinar outside of normal business hours – Let’s face it, these contractors have to make a living and they have crews to supervise. Consider doing a webinar later in the day, say around 4 PM. That way a contractor may have some of his tradesmen also sit in on the session. It’s better to inconvenience you than your customer.
- Registration form – Make it easy and don’t ask 20 questions in order for them to sign up.
- Give them an option of getting a copy of the slides without attending the actual webinar – In the world of contractors, shit happens and they may not be able to attend. This will get you their contact info for further follow-up.
- Use Social media – Both in the actual sign-up form so they can invite their friends, but also use it to promote the event.
- Promote – You need to build a schedule and build a good series of reasons why these tradesmen need to attend.
- Get your sales force and distributors involved – Have them pass out postcard size flyers when making calls and talk it up. If a distributor does a monthly newsletter or has a site, have him put it on there as a co-sponsor. You do all the work and he shares in the credit.
- Practice, practice, practice – Try to keep the presentation 20-30 minutes long and allow time for questions even though they may be via e-mail.
- Design a follow-up e-mail– Have yourself graded on the topic, how it was presented and what they might like as future topics.
- Get those names out to your sales force and distribution network for follow-up – Everyone should have at least had a phone message within a week.
Those are my thoughts. The key to a successful webinar is good planning.
If you like this post, you may want to read:
Webinars: Tips on How to Promote using E-mail.
Why Webinars are a Good Marketing Tool to Reach the Tradesman
by tradesmeninsights | May 25, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Traditional Marketing
I believe the rule of thumb is it takes 5 times as much effort to get a new customer than it does to keep an existing one. All too often we focus so much on getting new customers that we forget about who’s supporting us now!
Have you ever calculated what a customers worth is over time? Say you have a 30-year old contractor that usually buys $5,000 worth of your stuff a year. Doesn’t sound like much, but if you keep him happy, you probably will have him for 30 years before he retires. So assuming he doesn’t grow his business or you don’t come out with anything new for him to buy over the next 30 years, he would have spent $150,000 with you. Is he worth keeping? I’d say so. So what are you doing to keep him happy? Unless you’re selling a proprietary product, your competition is knocking on his door every chance they get.
I know many of you who follow me don’t buy shoes online, but I’d bet that if you asked your wife if she’s heard of Zappos, she’d say yes. I picked them as an example and even wrote a post on their book, Does Customer Service Deliver Happiness, where they show that by even selling name branded shoes online, they could, in many cases, outsell the brand itself in the online arena. The way they did it was with customer service.
So here are some points for you to consider when evaluating your Customer Service department:
- Try to keep the personal touch (human being) as the initial touch point if you can.
- Empower your CS people to solve a problem immediately without having to go through 3 levels of supervisors.
- Reward customers with a loyalty program as a way of saying thanks.
- Customer surveys are a great way to get feedback, not only on how you’re doing, but for getting ideas for future products.
I’d also suggest if you haven’t done so in a while to call your customer service department and see what your experience is. If you aren’t impressed, what do you think your customers will feel like?
I’d also suggest reading Delivering Happiness that shows how Zappos grew to be a billion dollar company using customer service to set them apart from their competition.
