by tradesmeninsights | Jan 25, 2011 | Marketing Tools, Marketing Trends, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
Sonnhalter is deeply involved with the professional tradesmen. We recently completed a market overview on the construction industry. The purpose of this document is to give the reader a quick snapshot of the industry, its players and trends. Markets covered are residential, commercial (light commercial), highway/heavy, institutional and industrial/manufacturing.
Highlights include interviews with editors of top trade publications. Also included are associations, buying groups, trade shows/meetings, industry trends and media publications.
To sign up to receive a copy of the Construction Market Overview, click here.
by tradesmeninsights | Dec 9, 2010 | Marketing Tools, Social Marketing
While blogs have been around for over a decade, it hasn’t been until the last few years that traditional media (journalists) have embraced the tool. Companies similarily were slow to adopt, but now blogging has become an important marketing tool for both large and small companies alike.
eMarketer estimates that 34% of US companies will be using blogs in 2010, and they estimate that it will continue to grow to 43% by 2012.
The main reasons companies are starting to blog are:
- Develop thought leadership
- Develop leads
- Brand building
- Full control over content
- Searchable database of information
- Key word searchable
These reasons coupled with the fact that when journalists are looking for sources and info, guess where they go? Search engines, and if you do your homework, they will be calling you instead of the competition.
If your company hasn’t started blogging, maybe this will help you make the move.
If you like this post, please pass it on to a friend.
by tradesmeninsights | Nov 30, 2010 | Marketing Tools, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
One of our strategic partners, Ultimate Leads, has come up with an intriguing service to help you identify who’s coming to your site by company. Russ Hill, the company president, explains how it works and has given our readers a free trial.
More than 95% of visitors to B2B websites leave sites without requesting additional information according to recent research. Visitors may click links to “Find a Distributor” or download a document without you knowing who they are. And if they arrived at your site via a “pay-per-click” banner ad, wouldn’t you like to know who they are?
Now you can! LEADADVANTAGE is a program that helps you identify companies that visit your website, their interest (pages viewed), and key contacts at that company and more. Great stuff for the B2B marketer interested in generating new leads and targeting new prospects. Visitors finding their way to B2B websites usually get there because they were seeking out information on particular products or services. (Do business people have the time to visit websites about things like lift trucks, hydraulic fittings, or industrial electronics for fun?)
Who’s Looking at YOU?
Simple reverse IP address look-up technology has been around for a while. Website traffic counts, page views, cost-per-click and return visitor numbers are standard fare in Google Analytics, WebTrends and other sites. These counts are little more than the old method of counting raw “Bingo” card inquiries and trade show booth visitors by previous advertising generations. B2B marketers need more. LEADADVANTAGE pulls detailed company and contact information from sources like LinkedIn and Jigsaw. For B2B marketers, it’s not enough to just know how many are visiting your website, but who!
Identifying and capturing website visitors is an excellent way to develop “soft leads” of prospects and new sales opportunities. It’s also a good way to learn which of your existing customers are visiting your website in search of information. Remember, these are companies that sought you out. Don’t let these opportunities elude capture.
To learn more about how to gain the LEAD ADVANTAGE, call 800-323-0550 for a no obligation 10-Day Free Trial.
by tradesmeninsights | Nov 18, 2010 | Marketing Tools, Traditional Marketing
Are you looking for a repeatable way to provide training to your customers so your sales people can focus on selling?
Explore options for online training, best practices, what not to do and how you can launch a course in under a week. The presenter, Lisa Bordeaux from Bluevolt, a leading online training source for suppliers, distributors and end users, will be our presenter.
Join us to learn more about how manufacturers are developing product training courses that educate people on their products and building product experts in the field.
Our research shows that Distributor sales people recommend products to customers 2-5 times per day. They recommend what they know and most of the products they sell they have never seen in application. Learn how others are bringing those products to life online and making it easier to educate and market to the channel with partners, buying groups, customers and others.
Details:
Tuesday, December 7th, 2-3 PM EST. Registration is closed.
by tradesmeninsights | Nov 17, 2010 | Marketing Tools, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
If you are, there’s a new association that started in 2009 (good timing isn’t it) that deals with the construction industry and best practices to market to them. It’s called Construction Marketing Association (CMA) and they are out of Chicago. I’ve joined it as I think it’s important for those of us that play in this market can get together with our peers and look at what’s working and what’s not.
The founder, Neil Brown, has been in the construction industry on both the client and agency side for the past 15 years. Neil’s vision is to support marketers with a broad range of resources from monthly webinars, e-newsletters, blog, databanks and a network of professionals you can talk with on a regular basis. Neil is trying to start regional chapters as well, and I’ve agreed to head up NE Ohio.
The CMA is a start-up operation, but I think it has legs. The bottom line is in order for anything to be successful, it needs people to join and interact. Individual memberships are $169/year and there are corporate rates for 5 or more.
Take a look at their site and consider joining. I know there are some great marketing minds out there with a vast amount of experience in this channel. Won’t you share your knowledge?
by tradesmeninsights | Nov 1, 2010 | Marketing Tools, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
We’re taking a poll to see how B-to-B marketers are currently tracking leads (all kinds). It’s a short survey (7 questions), and if you want to get a copy of the results, there’s a place for your e-mail at the end of the survey; we’ll be happy to share the results.
To take the survey click here.
Share with your business associates. The more info we gather, the more meaningful the results.
