by tradesmeninsights | May 27, 2014 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing, Uncategorized
We all are working hard to create content in various forms, but what can we do to create the demand for it? If we build it, it will come philosophy won’t work.
In the b-to-b space where selling cycles can be long with numerous folks involved, you need to address several different issues along the way down the sales funnel, but do you know what they are?
I’ve long been a proponent of sales and marketing working closely together. After all, the objective of both is to sell more stuff.
I’m amazed that folks in the marketing department spend little or no time in the field talking with customers. I always recommend marketing folks spend time with the salesmen in the field, and I don’t mean a day or two. Spend a week or so and you’ll see customers in various stages of the buying process.
More importantly, you as a marketer have the unique opportunity, while in front of a prospect, to ask some really relevant questions that the salesman might not ask.
Questions like:
- What other types of info would be helpful in your decision-making process?
- What triggers a buyer to start the process?
- What kinds of concerns do your colleagues have that we might address?
- Focus on customers needs and concerns.
Why do I keep harping on getting in front of the customer? Let’s be honest. Most companies don’t know their customers well enough. They don’t know or understand the buying process well enough. They don’t have content framework to communicate with the potential buyer.
I read an interesting article recently by Jay Hidalgo in the Chief Content Officer magazine that outlines 3 steps to create a process to create demand for your content.
His User’s Guide consists of 3 things:
- Developing a buyer’s persona (know your customer)
- Define their buying process
- Developing a content framework for communicating with a buyer
He takes you through a process that engaged the combined efforts of sales and marketing resulting in a well-thought-out strategy, and content that will be on target that users will want to pass it on. You can read his entire article here.
by tradesmeninsights | May 22, 2014 | Marketing Trends
By Matt Sonnhalter, Vision Architect
The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and MarketingProfs recently released their fourth annual report on the content marketing practices of business-to-business (B2B) marketers working in the manufacturing industry.
In this report you’ll find answers to questions such as: What percentage of manufacturing marketers have adopted content marketing? What tactics are they using? How does their approach to content marketing differ from that taken by other B2B marketers?
This report also looks at how manufacturing marketers approach content marketing when compared with a wider group of B2B North American marketers representing a range of industry segments.
Here are some key highlights from this most recent study on manufacturing marketers and their content marketing efforts:
- 86% have adopted content marketing
- Only 30% say they are effective at content marketing
- Use the same number of tactics (13) as other B2B marketers
- 81% use YouTube to distribute content and rate it as the most effective social media platform
- Cite different goals for content marketing when compared with other B2B marketers
- Top challenges faced for their content marketing programs: 1. Lack of time, 2. Producing the kind of content that engages and 3. Producing enough content
- 46% plan to increase their content marketing budget over the next 12 months
Click here to read more details and download the full report.
by tradesmeninsights | May 21, 2014 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
Don’t have a plan to follow or nurture leads?
When was the last time you responded to an ad, e-blast or other form of communications about a new product and never heard from the company after they got you what you requested? Or if you did hear from them, it was weeks or months after the original inquiry.
I bet it’s more the rule than the exception, especially in the B-to-B world. What I can’t figure out is why. Unless your product is so unique, wouldn’t you want to let the prospect know why dealing with you is better?
Yet I see many manufacturers still today that have no formal plan to follow and nurture leads. If they are not going to follow-up the lead, then why are they promoting the product in the first place? It’s a waste of time and money.
Many pass the lead on to their distribution network before qualifying them as to what stage in the selling cycle they are.
Wouldn’t it make sense to follow-up with the prospect…
- to see if they got the info they requested?
- to see if you can answer any questions?
- to direct them to a local distributor?
- to possibly offer them some other help or info once you determine where they are in the sales cycle?
A lead that has been qualified and then passed on to either rep or distributor gives them a little better feel for what the prospect is looking for and the application. The lead doesn’t stop there; it’s only the starting point.
There are several CRM programs out there that can help you manage, track and nurture the leads. What I don’t understand is why folks are using them. One reason I found is that lots of sales folks don’t like lead tracking and nurturing programs because it identifies some weak links in the selling cycle. In the world of ROI, I would think Sales and Marketing would want to know where new business is coming from so you can do more of the same.
It makes sense if you qualify the lead before giving it out to follow-up with. You’ll get better results and salespeople might even call on them.
The sales cycle is only as good as its weakest link.
by tradesmeninsights | May 20, 2014 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
Today we have a guest post from Jason Schultz, former Director of Marketing for Great Lakes Integrated, a former strategic partner of ours.
Multi-channel marketing coupled with marketing automation is a powerful approach for manufacturing companies. Manufacturers have a unique opportunity to create interest and trust for their products by communicating with their customers and prospects through different types of media and employing automated responses to actions they take.
With manufacturer’s customers and prospects being both in the business to business world and also the business to consumer world messaging and responses need to be different. The automated responses need to be different as well.
Using multiple-channels has proven to increase response and desired actions being taken. Consider using any combination of print, mobile, email and landing pages to engage your customers in meaningful ways. The key is to link all messaging to personalized or static landing pages.
Using landing pages then allows you to gather additional information on the customer or prospects, solicit feedback, allow for registration, set meetings or start a conversation just to name a few. By utilizing a digital engagement you can gather information, analytics and automate the marketing process.
An automated response can come in the form of an email, physical collateral or product being sent, a text message or even an automated phone call. The automated response takes the initial follow ups off of sales and marketing and is a way to ensure your company is responding to the actions of customers or prospects in a timely manner.
Taking this process further, you can implement lead scoring to pre-qualify customers and prospects based on business rules and point values determined by their interactions with certain parts of your communication. Then, only the customers or prospects with the most potential get contacted by sales people to garner new or additional business. Time is not spent on those customers or prospects that have not shown an interest in what you are promoting.
Key takeaways are:
- to utilize multiple channels to increase the likelihood that customers and prospects will take the desired actions you want.
- design and messaging need to be appropriate, relevant and meaningful.
- digital components also need to be in place that allow customers and prospects to interact; allowing you to track those interactions to determine what is working, what is not and ultimately ROI.
- use marketing automation to efficiently and effectively respond to customers and prospects; increasing the likelihood of your ultimate success in adding or increasing new business.
The notion that a multi-channel approach with automation is difficult to execute and maintain is just the opposite. Today’s technology allows marketing support partners to take your campaign and feed it into the system. The system/technology then handles the deployment and execution of the different types of media and the automatic responses to customers and prospects (not to mention the gathering of all data and analytics). If you are new to this method of marketing, try a small test campaign and compare it with current efforts. Then make the determination for yourself.
by tradesmeninsights | May 15, 2014 | Social Marketing
By Rachel Kerstetter, PR Engineer, Sonnhalter
You’ve probably heard the word “viral” in relation to online marketing before. If you’re not quite sure what it means, here’s a very brief definition:
Vi-ral:
Adjective
: becoming very popular by circulating from person to person, specifically on the internet.
If something “goes viral” that means it has been shared a great number of times; there is no threshold number of shares to be reached before something can be considered viral, but in general you know when something has gone viral by the way it is talked about.
So here’s the secret to going viral:
The one aspect that every viral thing has in common is that it is a quality piece of content that resonates with your audience. Content that goes viral is often in the form of blog posts, pictures or videos.
Content can resonate with your audience in many ways, most of the time viral content resonates through humor. Content that is controversial or sparks a debate, as well as timely, helpful information will also resonate.
In our industry, content doesn’t often achieve viral status, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t resonated, sparked conversation or been effective.
As marketers, we cannot make content become viral. Content can only be made viral by your audience(s) – they have the power. Marketers and brands do not have the power to make anything viral.
Image via Scott Cresswell
If you’re disappointed that you know the secret to viral but can’t do anything about it, don’t lose heart!
The goal in any marketing initiative should not be creating viral content; it should be on creating quality content.
Marketers and brands have the power to create quality content that will resonate with audiences. If that content goes viral, then that is just a happy side effect.
by tradesmeninsights | May 14, 2014 | Marketing Tips, Traditional Marketing
Most of us try not to be all things to all people, especially in the B-to-B world. For those of you who are, I feel bad for you.
If part of your criteria for new business is “anyone with money” or “I hope to get paid,” I have to believe you’re not running a growing or profitable business.
We’re in the competitive niche of marketing and have taken the position of not being all things to all people. We have defined our niche as helping manufacturers who want to reach the professional tradesman and promote it appropriately.
Here are some tips that have helped us grow and prosper in our competitive space:
- Hire us to be effective, not efficient.
- We help clients become profit leaders, not market leaders.
- Category knowledge – intellectual capital.
- Don’t be afraid to focus – be afraid of mediocrity.
Make your value proposition clear because relevance and differentiation do matter.
You and your company only have so much time. Why not spend it on clients you choose? Remember, bad clients can drive out good ones! If you stay true to your positioning, new clients will find you.
