by Sonnhalter | May 2, 2017 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Tradesmen Insights
By Rachel Kerstetter, PR Architect, Sonnhalter
You probably set up a Facebook page and a Twitter account a few years ago when social media was the new shiny object for marketers. But now, your social media is anything but new and exciting … and it doesn’t help you reach contractors. You might be wondering if you’re wasting your time on these channels or if you’re better served by switching to the newest social trend.
As a longtime leader in Business-to-Tradesman marketing, we’ve developed 12 helpful tips that will help you use social media to effectively reach contractors.
In “12 Tips for Reaching Contractors with Social Media,” you’ll learn how to evaluate the social media you’re already using and pick the right avenues for connecting with contractors. The tip sheet shares best practices for social media in this niche space using content and integrating it into your overall marketing programs.
Download 12 Tips for Reaching Contractors with Social Media by signing up here.
by tradesmeninsights | Apr 18, 2017 | Marketing Tips
By John Sonnhalter, Rainmaker Journeyman, Sonnhalter
I think we all can agree that content marketing is playing a vital role in everyone’s overall marketing plans. Everyone wants lead generation and engagement, and to get both, you have to provide good content!
Many manufacturers focus more on their brand than trying to help solve their customers’ problems. Don’t focus on selling. Focus on solving. And more is not better. Give them good content not a lot of content.
According to recent article in Content marketing institute: (more…)
by Sonnhalter | Mar 21, 2017 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
By Chris Ilcin, Account Superintendent, Sonnhalter
According to a recent survey from The Content Marketing Institute 89% of B2B Marketers use LinkedIn as a way to distribute content.
But if a potential customer isn’t already following you, all you’re doing by posting it to your company page is having a closed conversation with friends. While that’s good for strengthening relationships, it’s not an effective strategy for growing business, brand or thought leadership in your industry.
So, short of requiring all employees to share everything you post, what’s a marketer to do?
Join Groups.
If you’re not familiar with them, LinkedIn Groups are smaller “communities within the larger LinkedIn community where people and companies can connect by shared interest rather than work or personal connections.”
The advantage here is that instead of waiting for people to find you or your company, you can use your industry, process or other qualities to go out and find them.
How do you find the right group, and what do you do once you’ve found them? A lot of things you’re already doing. (more…)
by Sonnhalter | Mar 8, 2017 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Public Relations, Tradesmen Insights
By Rachel Kerstetter, PR Architect, Sonnhalter
More than a year ago, we released an extensive database of thousands of vocational education programs across the country. We recently updated that list, adding about 1,000 new programs, separating them out by state tabs and standardizing the descriptions to make it even easier to search, sort and use.
Why would a marketing communications firm make such a resource? We hope the tool will bridge the gap between manufacturers and educational programs. The database serves as a helpful tool for companies looking to implement more grassroots campaigns to recruit the next generation of professional tradesmen.
There are a myriad of ways to take advantage of a tool like our database. I’d love to name a thousand ways to use it (given enough time and coffee I probably could too!) but I’ll leave you with a few suggestions of how to make our work, work for you.
Fill the Talent Pipeline
(more…)
by Sonnhalter | Mar 1, 2017 | Marketing Tips
By Chris Ilcin, Account Superintendent, Sonnhalter
Use images on your website to de-clutter, increase SEO and tell a better story.
One of the biggest pitfalls in manufacturers’ websites (and trade shows, and product literature and more) is the overriding desire to SAY TOO MUCH.
And it’s easy to see why. Most manufacturing companies are led by Engineering or Sales. Both of these disciplines are highly verbal. You want to talk about how great a new process or product is in order to show the leap you’ve made in innovation. You want to make sure the customer has all the information in order to close the deal.
The problem becomes that marketing, and effective electronic communications, are becoming increasingly visual. Part of it is screen size. More than half of all internet use is by devices other than computers, the vast majority of which have screens smaller than a laptop. And some of it is just the pace and speed at which web browsers now expect information to be presented to them in the instant search era we live in.
So, it’s imperative to get your value proposition across in less time than it will take someone to hit the back button and open the next search result. (more…)
by Sonnhalter | Feb 1, 2017 | Marketing Tips, Tradesmen Insights
By Chris Ilcin, Account Superintendent, Sonnhalter
By now, if you have a presence on social media, and are involved in sales or marketing, you’ve seen this:
Well, bad news.
- “Fourth” isn’t spelled that way
- The National Sales Executive Association doesn’t exist
- There’s no study to be found that supports any of these statistics
There’s a great blog here that goes in to more detail. But I’d rather focus on something else:
Why do we want this to be real?
(more…)
