by tradesmeninsights | Mar 26, 2014 | Marketing Trends, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
Progressive contractors, I believe, are changing the way they are interacting with their manufacturers. When I ran across this research recently, it verified in my mind that it holds true.
HVACRBusiness recently released a new research study, “HVACR Contractors: Trends in the Adoption of Products/Systems & Management Approaches,” (download here), that highlights new trends on their involvement with manufacturers. I did a podcast interview with Terry Tanker, the publisher, to talk about the results of the research.
Here are some highlights.
They define a “High Yield” contractor as being more active in managing their business, have substantial revenues and are experiencing significant growth. In other words, The “A” players in the field.
- 93% get involved in the early stages of the selection process of new products.
- Contractors have even greater expectations for products/systems than 5 years ago.
- Contractors are expecting manufacturers to do more to help them compete and operate efficiently.
- The selling environment has become more business like and competitive.
The bottom line is that these “High Yield” contractors have made significant changes in their relationships with their manufacturers and expect more out of them. Among them the top three are:
- Making manufacturers more accountable for their products/systems.
- Offer more support.
- Make more objective decisions about products/systems/brands.
Bottom line – 70% are more likely to evaluate additional manufacturers and their products. You can’t depend on your sales rep going to see them personally to introduce a new product. By the time they get there, the contractor may be well down the selection process. Contractors, no matter what kind, are looking for good information, not a sales pitch, but information that can help them do their jobs. If you can do that, it will help keep you in the game.
by tradesmeninsights | Mar 19, 2014 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Marketing Trends
HVACRBusiness released a research study, “HVACR Contractors: Trends in the Adoption of Products/Systems & Management Approaches,” that highlights new trends on their involvement with manufacturers. I did a podcast interview with Terry Tanker, the publisher, to talk about the results of the research.
Listen to the podcast here.
You can sign up to get a copy of the study here.
by tradesmeninsights | Feb 19, 2014 | Marketing Trends, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
As the year gets under way, we are all completing our plans and strategies for the upcoming year. Last fall, ExactTarget completed a survey of over 2,500 marketing executives who gave their insights on what they will be doing this year. You can download the full report.
The main takeaways are:
- Increasing conversion rates
- Improving brand awareness
- Collecting, measuring and using behavior-based data
Other points of interests:
- Acquiring and developing strong relationships with new potentials.
- Email is not dead, on the contrary, it will be a core driver in ’14.
- Responsive websites will be the norm moving forward.
- Mobile is big – there are now more mobile devices connected than there are people in the world.
The key is to develop a strategy, implement it and evaluate it. If some things are doing well, try something else. Make sure you use both the traditional, as well as some of the newer digital options in your mix.
Hope you have a great 2014.
by tradesmeninsights | Feb 12, 2014 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Trends
As marketers in the industrial B-to-B space, I think we all recognize that our potential customers have several options beyond the traditional ones we’ve used for years. The challenge for us is to identify where they are getting their info and to make sure we’re there when they start looking. That means we need to embrace the digital world, and a recent study by IHS GlobalSpec shows that only about 35% of industrial marketers are satisfied with their online efforts.
IEEE GlobalSpec offers a white paper, Taking a Strategic Approach to Digital Media that gives you some guidelines and recommendations on developing a plan and monitoring results.
Some highlights that I found interesting were:
- Almost half of the industrial professionals visit 10 or more work-related websites each week.
- Top four resources for these professionals are search engines, online catalogs, supplier websites and GlobalSpec.
- 56% of buyers don’t contact a vendor until the research phase is done, and 19% wait until they are ready to buy.
What does that mean to us who don’t want to miss these opportunities?
- It means that we need to identify the channels that our customers use to gather info. The best way to do that is ask them.
- Once you identify the channels, you need to develop content for the different stages in the buying process for your product.
- Implement and monitor a program. The beauty of digital is we can immediately get feedback on what’s working and what’s not.
Don’t let digital scare you. It’s just another way to communicate with customers. Don’t worry about reinventing the wheel on content. Chances are you already have great stuff, you just need to identify it and maybe change the approach of features/benefits on how your products can help customers with their issues.
by tradesmeninsights | Jan 21, 2014 | Marketing Trends, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
Content marketing is becoming more of a focus with all of us, and for it to be effective like any other tool, you need to have a plan and strategy.
Content can be developed in many forms and this can be an overwhelming task, all the more reason to have a plan.
I recently read a post by Heidi Cohen, 2014 Content Marketing Predictions that I thought was interesting and wanted to share some of the highlights of her 7 points:
- Content Marketing should be part of an integrated program – content needs to be created in different formats as people take in information in various ways and we need to make sure we’re touching them several times.
- Content Marketing expands to all corporate communications – it’s no longer limited to marketing.
- Managing Content Marketing assets – track and maintain assets identifying those that need updating and those that need to be created.
- Track Results to sales – start by nudging readers to some call-to-action to start an engagement and then follow it through to a sale.
What kinds of actions are you taking in 2014 to improve your content marketing?
by tradesmeninsights | Jan 15, 2014 | Marketing Trends, Traditional Marketing
I know for most of us, 2013 was a positive experience. Most of our clients and the folks I talk to in the industry had good growth this past year and are expecting the same this year.
According to a recent article in eMarketer.com, 80% of small business are forecasting a better 2014. Here’s what they are saying they will be concentrating on in 2014.
While the small business owners are optimistic about 2014, economic uncertainty and government policies are still on their mind.
So what is your outlook for the new year and where are your challenges? Do any of them match up with what the survey indicates?
