by tradesmeninsights | Mar 29, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing, Twitter
Twitter is an under-utilized tool that businesses should be using more.
There are well over a hundred different Twitter tools that have been developed. Recently Michael Gass, my social media mentor, came up with a helpful list.
Below are his top 5 tools that he uses for new business that will help you create an online community of your best prospective clients. Each makes Twitter a more powerful marketing tool for your online new business efforts.
TweetBeep
This tool is like Google Alerts for Twitter! Put in a keyword or website, and get emails when others tweet it! Keep track of conversations that mention you, your products, your company, anything! You can even keep track of who’s tweeting your website or blog.
TweetScan
You can search public messages and user profiles with results available via email, RSS, JSON, and Twhirl. You can even download your own personal Twitter archive!
TweetLater (now called SocialOomph)
Keep your Twitter stream ticking over with new tweets even when you’re not in front of your computer. Publish tweets when your international followers are online and you’re asleep. Send automated thank you notes to new followers, and automatically follow new followers, if you choose to do so.
Splitweet
Easy management for multi Twitter accounts and brand monitor. Splitweet allows the Twitter users to compose a list of accounts and distribute their tweets, choosing their release in one or more of their accounts. You can also follow your contacts’ tweets from all of your managed accounts in Splitweet. And you can easily monitor your brand(s).
Tweeter Karma
Basically, this is a Flash application that fetches your friends and followers from Twitter when you click the “Whack!” button, then displays them for you, letting you quickly paginate through them. By default, the list contains all your friends and followers and is sorted by last update, showing those who most recently updated first. You can sort the list alphabetically either ascending or descending by Twitter ID. You can filter the list in several ways: only friends or only followers, all friends or all followers, and mutual friends.
by tradesmeninsights | Mar 17, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Traditional Marketing
2D bar codes are growing in use across the world (usage quadrupled in 2010) and the USA for the first time leading in the number of scans according to 3GVision.
Businesses that don’t understand how to use 2D codes think that they’re just a way to drive people through to a mobile landing page. But businesses that get it are using them in a variety of new and innovative ways — all of which lead to increased customer loyalty and greater revenue per customer. I recently read a post by Jamie Turner from 60 Second Marketer that outlined several ways businesses can take advantage of these 2D codes. I’d like to share some highlights from his post along with some insights from my perspective:
- Websites – Add a 2D code to the contact page so visitors can download your contact info to their smartphones.
- Business Cards – Add the code to your card for the same reason as the website.
- LinkedIn & Facebook – Add the code and position yourself as a forward innovative thinker.
- In-Store Point of Sale & Coupons – Provide instant coupons at the counter of your distributor.
- Packaging – A great way to differentiate yourself at the store level and give your customer reasons to buy. It also helps in the Big Box stores where you are restricted to their rules on merchandising and promotions.
These are some of the ways I see manufacturers using 2D codes to set themselves apart.
What are you doing to capitalize on these codes?
If you like this post, you may be interested in:
QR Codes: Are Manufacturers Missing an Opportunity?
by tradesmeninsights | Mar 1, 2011 | Marketing Tools, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
Times they are a changing. Last year, the tablet category essentially didn’t exist. Today with the iPad revitalizing the category, it’s expected to reach 81.3 million units by 2012 according to eMarketer.
This and the fact that there are more smart phones being sold each month than PCs means we need to rethink mobile as a viable means to getting to those younger folks (tradesman). A recent survey from Nielsen showed that iPad users were more likely (even more than iPhone users) to click on ads, videos, multimedia and interactive offerings.
There’s an opportunity for marketers to target these tablet users who are engaged and prime to purchase. The demo for the tablet users are high income 18-34 year olds – predominantly male. So, for those of you trying to reach that elusive young tradesman, this might be a way to do it.
If you like this, you might like the following:
White Paper: Trends in Mobile Media
by tradesmeninsights | Feb 16, 2011 | Marketing Tools, Marketing Trends, Social Marketing
According to a recent article in eMarketer.com, interest is high for smart phone users who are relying more on their phones when they are out and about. They use their phone to get pricing information and check their status on loyalty programs for coupons or to access their points.
Now it may be a bit premature for manufacturers who are targeting the professional tradesmen to focus all their efforts on this medium, but I think it would be a mistake not to include them in current or future loyalty programs. Consider these facts from a survey conducted in October 2010 for Hipcricket by Zoomerang:
- 35% of those surveyed would be interested in a mobile loyalty program
- Only 9% currently participate in such a program.
There was even greater interest in loyalty programs members could join via brand’s pages like Facebook. That’s the good news. The bad news is that most brands are not letting them participate in this manner.
The bottom line here is to keep this option on your radar screen because the trend is moving that way.
If you like this post, you may like:
QR Codes: Are Manufacturers Missing an Opportunity?
White Paper: Trends in Mobile Media
by tradesmeninsights | Feb 8, 2011 | Marketing Tools, Social Marketing, Uncategorized
Life as a marketing person isn’t as simple as it once was. With the arrival of social media, new expectations from your boss and new buying processes, where do you turn? Marketo recently released their new e-book, The Marketing Manifesto which outlines ways you can get quality leads and keep your ears on your entire market.
Highlights include:
- Exposing your beliefs – what’s your company’s passion?
- Value proposition – why should I believe in you?
- Think beyond digital – integrated engagements are the ones that last.
It also identifies 6 B-to-B weapons including content marketing, testing, analytics, lead nurturing, search and community.
It’s a good read.
by tradesmeninsights | Jan 27, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Traditional Marketing
So you want to build a relationship with the professional tradesmen. In order to do that, you need to be in front of them on a consistent basis. What I like about e-newsletters is that they are relatively easy to assemble, easy to deliver and it allows your customers to read it on their time line, and hopefully if they find something of interest, they will pass the newsletter on. Besides, we’re sure he checks his e-mail every day and might miss or misplace a traditional paper one.
Realistically you don’t have the time to visit him several times a month, and truth be known, he doesn’t want to see you that often! So how do you and your brand stay in front of him on a regular basis? A newsletter would be a great vehicle to build credibility and visibility for your brand, not only to your customers, but to potentials as well.
Newsletters today aren’t like what they used to be 10 years ago. I’d suggest you consider an electronic newsletter using one of the many services like Emma and Constant Contact to maintain your lists and your newsletter programs. They have several templates to choose from if you don’t want to design your own. They also can tell you how many were opened and by whom, and if they clicked through and how much time they spent on the site. You also can embed links into your newsletter, and if people are interested in learning more, they can click.
Here are some thoughts on why I think you should consider doing an e-newsletter and what you should do to make sure they are successful:
- Make Them Educational – keep the sales pitch for when you meet them face to face. Give them info that will benefit them. How they might improve their business. What’s happening in the industry or key associations. What trends should they be watching for? Yes, you can put in a small bit of self promo, but I’d suggest to keep it to a minimum.
- Make Them Easy to Read – seems pretty evident but sometimes you can go overboard. Keep the article short and to the point, and if you have appropriate links to other articles, by all means put them in. Keep them entertaining. Remember you want to engage your reader.
- Put Them Out on a Regular Basis – I suggest monthly, but in some cases it could be more often. You want people to look forward to your newsletter. Don’t think you need to have a set amount in each newsletter. Don’t invent things or postpone sending it out if you feel you don’t have “X” amount of things to share.
- Get Both Sales and Marketing Involved in Content – your sales force is in the trenches each day and can give you plenty of issues to talk about. Get them engaged so they can talk it up (they also can help you build your lists).
For those of you who have blogs, you should be putting out monthly an e-newsletter of the top 5 posts from last month. Just another way to touch the folks that follow you regularly. Those are some of my thoughts on newsletters. I’d like to hear about your successes.
If you like this post, please pass it onto a friend.
