by tradesmeninsights | Jul 11, 2012 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing
For those of you who read me on a regular basis, you know I’m high on LinkedIn and what it can do to help you grow your business contact list. With over 161 million business members, there are certainly opportunities there if you know where and how to look.
That’s why I’m always trying to improve how I use this important business tool. As Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn says, “It’s better to be the best connected than the most connected.”
Jeff Korhan wrote a great post recently in social media examiner that outlines and shows examples of 10 LinkedIn Tips for Building Your Business. All the tips are free to use. Here are some highlights:
- Use appropriate key words and phrases in your heading and title – they are different and your heading gives you an opportunity to elaborate on your skills and areas of expertise.
- Make sure your online and offline business network are housed within LinkedIn – By linking in other business contacts you ensure its completeness of your entire network.
- Tag your skills and expertise – this helps reinforce your capabilities for those who come across your profile and you can use up to 50 tags.
- Personally welcome those new connections – It only takes a minute and it’s the first step in starting a relationship.
Hopefully you are using and benefiting from using LinkedIn.
by tradesmeninsights | Jul 10, 2012 | Uncategorized
Recently, our President, Matt Sonnhalter, was part of a webinar and he’d like to share some highlights of what’s to come in regards to mobile. Enjoy.
I was recently a co-presenter for a B2B Mobile Marketing webinar sponsored by CFE Media. During the course of my research and prep for this webinar, I was overwhelmed by some of the mobile stats I came across…here are just a few:
– Mobile will be the “first screen” for all Web usage sometime between 2013-2015 (Gartner/Morgan Stanley) – which means mobile devices will finally overtake PCs
– 5.3 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide (ITU) – more than the combined penetration of PCs, landlines and TVs
– 50% of American adults own a smartphone as of February 2012 (CTIA)
– 29% of US adults own a tablet/eReader as of January 2012 (Pew Research Center)
There also continues to be tremendous growth in pretty much all aspects of mobile marketing tactics:
– Revenues from mobile apps will reach $46B by 2016 (ABI Research)
– Mobile video views increased 958% from Q2 2011 to Q1 2012 (Millennial Media Study)
– 20 million QR code scans were recorded alone in Q3 2011 – a 440% increases year-over-year (ScanLife)
– Almost 40 million US mobile users access social media sites daily (comScore)
So why is mobile relevant for B2B marketers trying to reach the professional tradesmen? Smartphones are an integral part of today’s professional tradesman toolbox. These guys are always “on the go;” on the job site and in the field…they need to be able to access information whenever and from wherever they want…these guys are not sitting behind a desk in front of a computer screen. And I’ve got news for you; if your company has a website…you are already playing in the mobile space! So how can you make sure your brand/company is represented well? Here are two simple steps to help get you started with mobile marketing:
1) Optimize for Mobile – make sure all of your Web content is “optimized” for the mobile environment; look-and-feel for smaller size requirements (e.g. easy to read text; no Flash; images that load quickly); but you also have to make sure your content is transformed into: quick answers, bite-sized units (e.g. 100-200 words) and easy-to-digest formats (e.g. audio podcasts and/or video)
2) Integrate – before you run out and develop a completely separate mobile marketing strategy and plan, take a look at your existing marketing programs and determine how you can start integrating mobile components; such as QR codes on print or collateral pieces or optimized e-newsletters so they are legible on mobile devices
I think it is fair to say that “mobile” is certainly here to stay, so make sure it is part of your overall marketing program moving forward.
Click image below to access the archived webinar.
If you like this post, you might want to read:
Reaching Contractors via Mobile. See What Grainger is Doing.
Are you Targeting Emails for Your Mobile Marketing?
Why a Mobile Strategy is so Important to Reach the Professional Tradesman
What’s your Mobile Media Strategy for 2012?
by tradesmeninsights | Jul 3, 2012 | Marketing Trends, Traditional Marketing
It’s been a few months now since Amazon announced its serious entry into the MRO market with Amazon Supply. The new service directly goes head to head with Grainger, Fastenal, McMaster Carr and MSC Direct.
If you already sell through any of these, what are your feelings about another player in the market?
More importantly, what about all those independent distributors in Hometown USA? I have to believe most of you get more sales from them (and more profits) than you do from the big boys. How do you think this will affect them?
Here are our three takeaways:
1) User Interface – which will challenge the current online transaction experience from established industrial suppliers/distributors; b-to-b commerce will be competing against a better and more established b-to-c customer experience standard
2) Price Transparency – which industry observers say will lead to reduction in pricing and margins
3) Expansion into Other Verticals – potential for Amazon Supply to expand beyond MRO into other vertical markets
What are your thoughts?
by tradesmeninsights | Jul 2, 2012 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
For those of us who write blogs, we do it with the sole purpose of sharing insights and tips that hopefully make your job easier. Our biggest challenge once the killer content is written is to make sure as many eyes as possible see it. Professional tradesmen are always on the go, and I want to make sure they get what they want in short concise bits of information.
It’s true optimization is usually associated with search, but you can insure that your content performs well on social media platforms. I recently read a post by Heidi Cohen, 11 Tactics to Optimize Your Blog that I found very interesting and wanted to share some of the points she makes:
- Focus on just a few keyword phrases – prioritize them by the words you want to cover.
- Create great headlines – you need to catch their attention so they stop and smell the roses.
- Use good photos/graphics – It’s true a picture is worth a thousand words and it attracts readers.
- Make your posts easy to read – use headings and bullet points. It also helps search engines.
- Make content spreadable – RSS feeds, emails or social media.
Those are some thoughts. Care to add to the list?
by tradesmeninsights | Jun 27, 2012 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Traditional Marketing
It should come as no surprise to anyone that smartphones and tablets are changing the way we all communicate and do business. This couldn’t be more true, especially for small businesses like contractors. These guys are “time starved” and are not sitting behind a computer all day. They are out taking care of business.
A recent survey by Cargo and Inc. Magazine in emarketer.com showed the vast majority (915) of U.S. small companies place importance on wireless communications and smartphones for their businesses. Tablets were not far behind at (64%). You can certainly bet that contractors of all kinds are on the top of this list.
So, if you’re not considering mobile as a key way to communicate with those professional tradesman, you should be.
Here’s a simple tip to get started: Adapt your mobile web presence for Apple OS-based devices (iPads make up 79% followed by Android devices at 39%).
by tradesmeninsights | Jun 26, 2012 | Marketing Tools, Traditional Marketing
No matter what kind of promotion you’re doing, when going after the professional tradesmen, the bottom line is you want them to ask for more info and ultimately a sale. You can’t do that in an ad (print or digital) by itself. You need those that are interested in whatever it is you’re selling to go somewhere to get more info. Effective landing pages make it clear what visitor is going to do/get for the site.
A landing page is ideal for a next step in the lead process. A good landing page will target a particular audience using a unique page that allows visitors to download the appropriate content (you wouldn’t have the same offer for say a tradesman and for a design engineer). They also help you track and monitor activity by offers so you know what works and what doesn’t.
Landing pages help segment markets, capture leads and make it possible to monitor advertising effectiveness.
- By directing them to a specific page with an offer and the appropriate form to fill out, it makes it more likely that they will complete the form and convert to a lead.
- If your visitors decide to download your offer, why not invite them to share your content?
- Lead nurturing is a very important part of the process. 50% of those who respond aren’t ready to buy just yet.
- 78% of sales that start with a web inquiry get won by the first company that responds.
- By sending a follow-up thank you to those that downloaded material, you have the opportunity to offer them additional info and downloads, as well as asking them to share this with others via social media.
If you like this post, you might want to read:
Product Landing Pages: Tips on How to Improve their Performance
The Best Way to Reach Professional Tradesmen: Drip or Closed Loop Marketing?
