For those of you that are going to San Antonio this weekend for the ISA Show, Sonnhalter has put together an Insider’s Guide to San Antonio by asking friends and business associates about gems in the city that you might not be aware of. It includes Restaurants, Nightlife, Events and more. It’s available here.
We hope you have a good show. See you there.
A recent report by MarketingSherpa outlines the top priorities and challenges facing those of us that use this marketing tool. A free copy can be downloaded here.
This report re-emphasizes the fact that email marketing is not only alive, but is still an important part of the overall marketing programs of most companies.
Top 5 process priorities for B-to-B marketers include:
It makes sense that to grow and retain subscribers, you need to deliver good and meaningful content. Another important consideration is list size isn’t as important as the quality of the list. You should be interested in building lists of followers who are active and want to share information.
B-to-B marketers usually have longer sales cycles, so it’s important to engage and take your prospect through the various stages of the buying process. This is reflected in 70% of B-to-B companies identifying this as an area for improvement.
The top 5 barriers facing B-to-B email marketers include:
So tell me about your priorities and what your biggest challenges are with email marketing.
Social media is a great tool for new business, but it is the creation and curation of content that will provide success. Creating content is difficult. If you are going to write effectively, you must read and your reading will fuel your writing.
Constantly using search engines to find your resources is not only a huge waste of time, but you can easily get distracted. How often have you started a search for something in particular and 1-1/2 hours later, you can’t even recall what you were looking for?
The key to creating good content is to have a simple system that brings an organized approach to your online reading.
One of the most effective time management tools for an online reading program is an RSS Feed. There are a number of RSS Readers to choose from. My personal preference is Google Reader.
Once you have clearly identified your audience, Google Reader can help to organize your resources around their interests. You can be sure you are on the same page as your audience, reading what they are reading, discovering their trade publications, information and research from their associations, etc. You can also glean important information from sources that are not specifically relevant to your audience.
Here’s a sampling of what Google Reader will help you do:
I have established the mornings as my daily reading time. Google Reader is set as the Home Page for my browser. It is the first thing I open each day. My readings are gathered from resources all over the internet and organized into a central location. It becomes my own personalized Continuing Education program.
If you read feeds on the iPhone or iPad, I recommend using Reeder, a nice app that can be used for that purpose. You will be able to view your feeds in “stacks” based on the folders that you have assigned to them.
Reader for iPhone: iTunes $2.99
Reader for iPad: iTunes $4.99
How are you researching for good content?
I’m sure you’ll answer yes, but are you talking with them or at them? We all assume that email or phone calls are the best way to communicate with your customers. I’m surprised when I ask our clients that question that it’s based on their assumptions on how their customers wanted to be contacted.
It’s interesting that we all want to build relationships and engage our customers, but if you think about it, you’re doing it on your terms not necessarily on theirs.
Here’s what I’d suggest. Have your customer service department contact your customer base and ask them how they want to be contacted (most of this can be done on regular inbound calls), for example, regarding new products or new training that’s available. You may be surprised at their answers.
For new products, they may want a one-on-one with their salesman, and for training, they may want to be contacted by email. They should touch most of your customers in a normal period of a month or so, and for those that are reached from inbound calls, start an outbound campaign to those that haven’t purchased for some time. It will give your customer service people a reason to reach out, and who knows, they might even sell something!
I’m assuming you’re working with some sort of CRM system that can be updated, and when new things come up that need to be shared, you have a better chance of getting that message out if you deliver it the preferred way the customer wants.
Give it a try and let me know how it works for you.
I was invited to an industry roundtable event recently in conjunction with a regional trade show for the electrical industry, Electro Expo 2012 in Cleveland. The event was the brainchild of Rob Fisher from Madison Electric, which also hosted the event.
What was so unique about the event is that there were manufacturers, distributors, electrical contractors, electricians, building inspectors and even representatives from the IBEW and NAED there. Topics included industry landscape, building partnerships, media revolution, marketing best practices, emerging technologies and innovation and culture.
The event was two hours and the groups were broken up into tables with each disciple represented to discuss specific topics. At the end, someone from each table gave a summary of the issues and possible recommendations on solutions. A white paper will be issued and when it is, I’ll post a link.
It was a great event, and my compliments to Madison Electric for hosting it. Too bad other industries aren’t doing something similar to get all the stakeholders together to talk about common goals and ways to make doing business easier.