by tradesmeninsights | Sep 22, 2009 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
I’m always trying to give manufacturers ideas on how to reach the professional tradesman by using social media. I’ve asked a friend of mine and fellow B-to-B blogger Nicky Jameson to offer her comments and insights on how the tradespeople can utilize social to build their business. I think you will enjoy her comments in this 2-part series. Enjoy.
Many tradespeople feel they don’t really need to have anything to do with social media. Perhaps because their business comes mostly through referrals, or they don’t see immediate value in social media, or they feel it may take up too much time and they need to be out getting new business. And many tradespeople feel intimidated by social media.
Getting business is important and should never take a back seat to your marketing activities. Social media tools are exactly that – tools. However social media is an opportunity you don’t want to miss because it can actually help you target local business more effectively. More importantly, it can help establish you as a trusted person to do business with. Trust, engagement and relationships are the building blocks of business – and social media.
If you’re a tradesperson, you rely on word of mouth to spread the word about your business and services. Did you know social media can help you take this to a new level?
Here are 3 ways Tradespeople can use social media to benefit their customers and business:
1. Use social media to establish trust with consumers
Did you know that one of the top concerns consumers have with regard to allowing tradespeople into their homes is trust? Put yourselves in your customer’s shoes for a moment. As a customer, you’re alone in an emergency. You need a plumber or an electrician… or another tradesperson to fix something you can’t do yourself. You’ve never met the tradesperson, yet there you are about to let a complete stranger into your home for an unspecified time. Most people are uncomfortable about allowing strangers into their homes at any time and they usually have no way of knowing who’s trustworthy and who isn’t.
According to Hattie Hasan of UK plumbing company Stopcocks, trust has never been more important and consumers are becoming increasingly cautious when hiring tradespeople. They also want to ensure they spend their money wisely… on jobs well done.
When you join a social network that operates on a trust basis with other tradespeople, it helps you establish trust with consumers. When they search for you online and see you are in a trust-based social network, it helps build confidence in potential customers.
Part two will cover :
Using social media to build a positive word of mouth
Using Social media to establish yourself as an authority
See Part 2 here.
Nicky Jameson is an online copywriter who specializes in improving B2B websites. She’s also a blogger on using social media for business. Nicky blogs at http://nickyjameson.com and her website is http://copywritingstudio.com
by tradesmeninsights | Sep 16, 2009 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
I’ve never been much for beating around the bush. I like to get to the point and move on. Much like a missile, which when programmed, is focused and keeps on track to its target…so should a good post. I guess that’s why I like Twitter so much, because it makes you choose your words carefully, not only to communicate the message, but to be impactful as well. I read a post recently on Copyblogger by Michelle Russell, How to write with a knife, that gives great insight into how to sharpen your message. She does an excellent job showing you how to get the wheat away from the chaff. So enjoy.
Here is some other interesting reading:
Why most Blogs Fail
5 Tips on How to Improve your Blog
by tradesmeninsights | Sep 9, 2009 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
The answer is they don’t… they scan!
One of the main keys for an effective blog is to understand how people read on the web and tradesmen are no exception.
And how do users read on the web? The answer is, they don’t... they scan.
Nielsen Norman Group’s research found that 79 percent of their test users always scanned any new page they came across; only 16 percent read word-by-word.
For your blog to be effective, your text must be scannable.
Jakob Nielsen offers this advice:
- Highlighted keywords (hypertext links serve as one form of highlighting; typeface variations and color are others)
- Meaningful sub-headings (not “clever” ones)
- Bulleted lists
- One idea per paragraph (users will skip over any additional ideas if they are not caught by the first few words in the paragraph)
- The inverted pyramid style, starting with the conclusion
- Half the word count (or less) than conventional writing
Nielsen’s research also found that users detested “marketese;” the promotional writing style with boastful claims.
I’ve often said that…
“the moment you start to sell on your blog is when you will lose your audience.”
You need to understand how people read on the web and learn to write for them effectively. One of the best resources that I have found was Jakob Nielsen’s website. This is very dated material, 1997, but you will find that the top blogs follow Nielsen’s style guidelines remarkably well. How Users Read on the Web
Jakob Nielsen has been called:
Web users generally prefer writing that is concise, easy to scan, and objective (rather than promotional) in style.
There are additional, interesting findings about users’ detailed reading behavior in Nielsen’s eyetracking studies.
by tradesmeninsights | Sep 8, 2009 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
If you’re just starting out with a blog, I know the scariest thing for me was wondering who in the world was going to find my blog, no less take the time to read it. If you’re passionate about a subject, market or cause, you may have more people than you think that would be interested in reading and sharing their thoughts. Ours is a passion to get to the Professional Tradesmen.
From a B-to-B perspective, here are some simple ways to get the ball rolling so you can become the super star blogger you always knew you could be. Don’t ignore the obvious. You already have a business network to tap into.
- Current customers
- Potential customers
- Suppliers
- Distributors
- Fellow employees
- Industry groups
- Associations
Here are some inexpensive ways to promote your blog:
- Add your URL to your email signature (have everyone in the company do it)
- Add your URL when printing letterhead, cards, invoices, etc.
- Make it very visible on your web site
- If you do trade ads, add to the signoff as one of the calls-to-action
- Promote through your social media pages
One of the best ways to identify readers is using LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Most of my new readers come from one of these sources. Weekly I go up on my LinkedIn page and post a topic on either the discussion page or the news page that directs them to my blog. The key here is to have groups to link to, but that’s another post. Facebook is the same way — at least once a week I post something. With Twitter, I use socialoomph (formerly Tweetlater) to put out posts hourly. I have over 100 tweets a week going out automatically. The point is it’s no good having these social media pages if you don’t use them. Remember, the power of social lies in it being viral. All it takes is a few readers who have a big following to like what you’re saying and Bingo, they will introduce you to a whole new audience.
Enough about how I find readers. I’d like to know how you do it. Please share.
Other posts that might be helpful:
5 ways to improve your blog
Blogs: How to take advantage of them to reach Professional Tradesmen
by tradesmeninsights | Sep 2, 2009 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
Everyone in the manufacturing sector is feeling the pressure from around them to get in on this social media phenomenon. So you open a LinkedIn account, set up Twitter and even get a Facebook page set up. Wow, that was easy, now all I have to do is to wait until somebody finds me. Unfortunately, this scenario is much truer than one would like to think. Social media is no different than any other marketing program you have. You have to have a strategy in place before you go and start implementing it. You need to determine why you’re on the social media scene before you implement the how. Here are some helpful hints:
- What’s your point? Do you want to build awareness, build loyalty or generate new leads?
- What’s your point of differentiation? You have to define a niche or specialty.
- Do some research into how your target audience uses Social. You may find contractors use Facebook more to try to promote their local business or maybe it’s Twitter. Do you know?
- How will you determine whether your social program will be successful? You need to determine expectations before starting a program.
Jason Baer wrote a great post recently, Develop a social media strategy in 7 steps, that you might find interesting reading.
by tradesmeninsights | Aug 25, 2009 | Marketing Tips, Traditional Marketing
Interesting fact about recessions – they end.
In our practice, most of our clients have been hit exceptionally hard in ’09 due primarily to their ties to the construction market. Some have opted to cut spending and ride out the storm. Others have reduced their budgets, but have continued to launch new products and support existing ones. It’s gratifying to see those that continued to promote themselves gained interest, inquiries and sales even in this downturn.
According to Industrial Supply, housing starts were up 2% in July. This was the 5th consecutive increase. Building permits for future projects climbed nearly 8%.You can read the entire USDH report here.
Here’s an interesting fact from some recent research from the Kauffman Foundation – More than half of the Fortune 500 companies were launched in economic downturns. For marketing purposes, if you don’t currently have something in the pipeline, this year is done.
All economic data indicates that the worst is over and we should start seeing an uptick as quickly as the 4th quarter for some industry segments.A recent online survey by StrongMail of 979 business executives in various industries show an optimism about the economy. The survey indicates that 85% are planning to maintain or increase their spending for the remainder of the year. But enough about ’09.
Yes, soon the trend lines will start to go up, but not as sharply as they came down. B-to-B marketers need to look forward and should be starting to crank up their plans for ’10. Inventory levels at distributors are at their lowest levels in years, and manufacturers need to be ready to respond. Spend smartly and monitor what you do. Try something new. If you haven’t added social media to the mix, consider it for ’10. Do something! There are contractors out there buying stuff!
