So How Did 2013 Turn Out?
As we wind down 2013 and look forward to 2014, I’d be interested in how you fared and what your crystal ball looks like for the future.
Would you take a quick poll?
Smaller Companies Doing a Better Job with Content Marketing
Smaller B-to-B companies (under 100 employees) seem to be doing a better job maximizing their content marketing efforts according to Content Marketing and Marketing Prof’s B2B Content Marketing 2014 Benchmark, Budgets and Trends Research.
Heidi Cohen does a good job highlighting important nuggets from the report. Among them:
- Over 90% of B2B marketers are using some sort of content marketing.
- 42% of marketers think their content is effective and 20% thinks theirs isn’t.
- 48% of smaller B2B organizations have a documented content strategy compared to 41% of bigger organizations.
- 78% of smaller companies have someone specific overseeing content marketing as opposed to 58% of larger companies.
More people are planning on spending more of their budget on content marketing. If you’re like the rest of us, budgets aren’t getting any larger next year and we have to do more with less. Heidi suggests looking in other people’s budgets to help the cause.
The biggest challenge still is producing good relevant content no matter what your budget is. That’s why a content marketing strategy is the most important thing you can do to ensure good content on a regular basis.
Are these findings consistent with what’s happening in your world?
Tradesmen Are People Too – Put the Cool Factor Into Your B2T Branding
Most B-to-B companies don’t take connecting with their customers on an emotional level as a serious tactic in their branding strategy. They contend that customers base decisions on facts, not opinions or not on silly things like emotion.
Yes, it’s important to talk about quality and the features and benefits that set you apart from the competition. But contractors and tradesmen as a whole are also influenced by other outside influences, both in making personal as well as business decisions.
You need to set yourself apart from your competitors and have customers not only remember you, but want to buy from you.
Let’s take an example of buying a motorcycle. If you went on the facts about performance, you’d probably buy a BMW; if it was reliability, you’d buy a Honda, and if you wanted to be cool (emotion), you’d buy a Harley.
Harley’s brand is built on emotion, and those contractors buy that Harley because emotions play an important part in the decision-making process.
Manufacturers who realize this have built a brand that includes using emotion as part of their overall strategy. Emotional branding is a business imperative because emotions are inevitability part of the decision-making process.
So when planning your next marketing effort, what will you be riding?
What Are You Doing to Improve Your Content Marketing Performance?
When you go to all the work to create great content, don’t miss out on opportunities to share it. We’re all guilty of getting into a routine when creating content and rarely deviate from it, whether it be because of time constraints or just laziness. The point is, we need to shake it up a bit sometimes.
According to 2014 B2B Content Marketing Trends, there are over two dozen tactics that you could use. Here are some that I think are important in going after the professional tradesman:
- Offer useful info on your website – Make sure to include topics that help folks through your selling cycle.
- Industry newsletters – As you collect email addresses, send out a regular newsletter quarterly or monthly. If you are selling to several different audiences, segment the newsletters so they will be more meaningful for those who read them. A plumber probably isn’t interested in something a HVAC guy would be. Don’t be concerned about the size of it, but the quality of it. I’d rather be regularly communicating with 500 key prospects than 5,000 unqualified ones.
- Case Studies – By market or application are in high demand by your target audience. Tradesmen like to see what their peers are doing and the results. Post on your website, use it as an e-blast to your targets and have them reprinted so your sales force has something to hand out.
- Videos – How to and feature and benefit videos are an easy way for you to get your point across. Put it on your website, and put it on YouTube (create your own channel) with the appropriate search terms.
- Online Presentations – Take those PowerPoints you do everyday on why you’re better than the other guys and put it on your website, along with putting it on SlideShare with appropriate key words.
- Podcasts – Even if you don’t have a blog, you can utilize this tactic. Interview an industry leader on the issues of the day or what’s coming down the line that might impact your reader. You can use it again on your website and do e-blasts to targeted audiences.
Those are some highlights from my point of view. Whether it’s utilizing these tactics or others, step outside the box and try other things. You’ll be glad you did.
Perspectives from 2013 International PRSA Conference
Today we have a guest blog post from Rosemarie Ascherl, PR Foreman at Sonnhalter, who recently attended the International PRSA Conference in Philadelphia to learn the latest trends in public relations.
Earlier this month I had the opportunity to attend a motivational week of education and networking at the 2013 PRSA International Conference. The entire three days of the conference I was bombarded with incredible amounts of expertise and thought-provoking ideas, but several of the impressions stood out.
We are in an era of change. It is time to think differently and recognize that to be successful we must discover new ways of reaching our audiences. We need to be open to change and figure out how to tell our stories, our experiences, to influence and change behavior. We need to evolve.
Measurement is important. While there are many schools of thought on PR measurement, one point is clear: measurement is important. If you aren’t measuring anything, you need to start. Measuring can get very complex, but if you start simple, and add additional metrics as you move forward, the value of your PR efforts can be better understood.
Traditional metrics of assigning advertising value equivalency (AVE), now better termed advertising cost equivalent (ACE), can be a good place to start, but there are many additional metrics that can be examined such as sentiment, social media engagement and search rank. Employing metrics to directly tie the results to business performance or sales is ideal and helps to build the case for PR delivering great efficiency.
The press release is not dead. Press releases are very much alive. They just need to adapt to the changing media models to generate results. One of the ways we can do that is to make the press release more compelling for today’s incredibly visual audiences using graphics, from high quality photos, videos and interesting infographics. With traditional media on the decline, we have to find other ways to get our information to our audiences and consider alternate uses for the press release—such as social media, websites and blogs. Our messages need to be effective for today’s environment.
2013 STAFDA Recap
Just returned from the 2013 STAFDA Show in Las Vegas. According to STAFDA, attendance was up to around 4,900 participants.
The show for the most part was upbeat, and the economic forecast for the next few years looks promising for the construction market.
I talked to several manufacturers and they seemed happy for the most part on the turnout for the trade show. The last day didn’t set any records, but most trade shows don’t.
In talking with several distributors and a few buying groups that were there, they confirmed that they were having great growth in 2013 and expect it to continue into 2014.
It was nice to go to a distributor/manufacturer meeting where both sides were positive. Hopefully the crystal ball will be right.