by tradespeopleinsights | Feb 16, 2012 | Social Marketing
I always like stories of the little guys who take on the 800# gorilla and win the battle. One of the benefits of social media is you don’t have to be an 800# gorilla to succeed. In my opinion, it’s the one who is consistent on providing good content and responding in a timely matter that really counts.
All too often larger companies need to go through a “process” that is very time-consuming for both posting content and answering questions.
Madison Electrical Products is a small, privately held manufacturer that services the electrical contractor marketplace and is one example of doing social media correctly. The family business was purchased a few years ago by an individual that thought there was some opportunity to grow and build value in the company. When he bought the business, Madison was considered a third-tier player that competed on price. Bringing in industry experts, they identified opportunities that they thought a company of their size could take advantage of.
According to Rob Fisher, Director of Marketing for Madison, what he found out was he couldn’t outspend his competitors, but he could outmarket them by using social.
“We started off slow, initially created basic Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. The first few months, we did a lot of monitoring and listening to discover what electrical contractors and distributors were discussing. Once we began participating, we kept the focus on addressing industry issues and trends.
We keep the self-promotion to a minimum. For us, we’re much more interested in using social media to learn from and talk with our industry peers. We also want to be a resource to help others in the industry, which is why we began blogging.”
Realizing that a “commodity product” approach would limit potential growth, Madison launched the Sparks Innovation Center, the industry’s first crowdsourced approach to product development. Contractors and electricians can submit product ideas for consideration through the Sparks page on Madison’s website. To date, Madison has received more than 120 submissions, with six products already launched and several more in the pipeline.
What a unique concept: Listen to what your customer wants and give it to him/her. Thanks to Madison’s commitment to online engagement and listening, coupled with their increased involvement in industry associations, they have become known as thought leaders and are currently making new products that aren’t commodities. Now, when Madison attends regional distributor meetings, they don’t have any problem filling up their dance card.
This is just one example of what a smaller company can do if they are committed to an ongoing program using social media. (By the way, these guys aren’t clients of ours.)
by tradespeopleinsights | Feb 15, 2012 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing
It’s good to see that others share my thoughts on social media as an asset to a manufacturer’s marketing plan.
Today we have a guest post from Derek Singleton from Software Advice. Software Advice is a free online resource that helps businesses with their software research and selection. In addition to providing reviews of enterprise software, they also cover relevant technology and trends in the markets that we work in.
The manufacturing industry has been somewhat slow to accept social media as a marketing tool. This is largely because it can be difficult to see how social media plays into the larger business-to-business (B2B) marketing strategy. That, however, appears to be changing. According to a Forrester Report released in March of 2011, 30 percent of global manufacturers intended to increase social media investments in 2012.
As global manufacturers increase their social media spending, the case for small- to mid-sized manufacturers to invest in social media grows stronger. The opportunities are particularly attractive in the contract and job shop manufacturing segments, which have traditionally relied on word-of-mouth marketing to win new business. I’d like to share three ways that manufacturers can start using social media today to improve their brand visibility and win more business.
1. Create a Blog to Tell Your Story
Blogs give manufacturers an opportunity to do more than just promote their brand. Blogs allow manufacturers to communicate with their customers and prospects using a richer form of media with longer-form stories. They’re also a great avenue for sharing company information and providing industry knowledge. Manufacturers can use blogs to announce major company milestones, such as getting ISO 9001 certification, as well as share general industry trends and news. By striking a balance between promoting a brand and sharing useful information, manufacturers can gain a thought leadership position that will help win customers later down the road.
2. Start a YouTube Channel to Enrich Content
YouTube can be a great tool that educates buyers while subtly marketing through video. With the dramatically decreased cost of video production, creating a decent quality video is affordable and relatively easy today. Manufacturers should consider creating a YouTube video that provides a demonstration of products and processes, a tour of the factory, or showcases customer testimonials. Of course, the challenge is sticking to a video format that customers find relevant and engaging. As an example, one of my favorite YouTube videos produced by a manufacturer is this Carr Machine and Tool video. The video provides customers a walk-through of how their orders are handled while showing the company’s dedication to service.
3. Use LinkedIn to Help Fill the Sales Funnel
A final tool that I’d like to highlight here is LinkedIn. For manufacturers, getting the most out of LinkedIn requires more than just becoming a member of the social network. Manufacturers can use LinkedIn to prime to sales funnel by using their networks to gain access to sales prospects. Once you get a few hundred contacts, your typical network usually reaches in the millions. This network can be used to get an introduction to a potential sales contact – or at the very least to connect with someone who can help strategize on how to contact the prospect. LinkedIn can also be a great place to demonstrate industry expertise by participating in relevant community discussions. Answering a difficult question in a Q&A forum, for instance, could very well lead to an unexpected contract.
This article is adapted from an original piece by Software Advice, an online resource MRP systems and other manufacturing applications. You can access the original article at: HowManufacturersCanUseSocialMediatoWinBusiness.
So what are you doing to utilize Social media?
by tradespeopleinsights | Feb 9, 2012 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
Let’s face it, the reason we all blog is because we want to share something that is relevant and might be useful in our readers’ day-to-day business. But how do we motivate you to share my info with your peer group?
I recently read an interesting post on problogger.net by Dan Zarrella, What Motivates Readers to Share. He’s done studies on what people share and why. He even has his “Top 10 Lists” of both the best and worst words to share or not to on Twitter and Facebook. Some pretty interesting stuff. He’s written a book, Zarrella’s Hierarchy on Contagiousness if you’re interested in learning more.
We obviously need to get you exposed to my content,whether it’s following me on Twitter, liking me on Facebook, be LinkedIn with me or having you subscribe to my RSS feed. Then I have to be sure you are aware of the content and read it. Lastly, how can we motivate you to share my thoughts with your peer groups?
All three of these elements are important if your blog is to be successful. It really becomes a numbers game. The more followers you have, the more sharing they are apt to do. So what do you have to do to insure success?
- Increase followers, fans, friends on your social networks as well as increasing your email list.
- Create good content that’s worth sharing.
- Include a powerful call to action.
The key is if you have good content and are listening to your audience, you will get your messages shared and that’s what it’s really all about. So we all have to do our homework to insure our messages are getting out.
What are you doing?
by tradespeopleinsights | Feb 8, 2012 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing, 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.
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.
I recently downloaded an e-book, Optimizing Landing Pages by Sarah Goliger from Hubspot that outlines the basics on what needs to be included, how to get them shared, using them as a lead nurturing tool and thanking them for responding.
Here are some highlights:
- 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.
So if you’re not using landing pages, you may want to give them a try. I think you’ll see that you’ll not only get more leads, but better quality ones.
If you like this post you might like:
Product Landing Pages: Tips on How to Improve their Performance
The Best Way to Reach Professional Tradesmen: Drip or Closed Loop Marketing?
by tradespeopleinsights | Feb 7, 2012 | Marketing Trends, Traditional Marketing
Moving forward in 2012, is mobile media going to be part of your overall marketing strategy?
According to a recent survey by the Association of Strategic Marketing (ASM), 2011 Trends in Mobile Marketing, 58% of respondents indicated that they were not using mobile marketing.
As a matter of fact, mobile seems to rank somewhere in the middle of overall marketing practices behind email (which ironically is number one) and SEO. The 42% that do use mobile in their marketing plans are optimizing their websites and emails and are beginning to use QR codes.
If you like this post you might like:
Is Mobile Marketing the Best Way to Reach the Professional Tradesman?
What Are You Doing to Reach the Young Professional Tradesman?
The Mobile Marketing Trends Study was created to allow marketing folks to see what similar organizations were doing. Some highlights of mobile marketing goals include:
- Sales/revenue – 33%
- Product service info – 25%
- Customer retention – 15%
- Lead nurturing – 11%
- Customer opt-in – 10%
- Alert reminders – 6%
For those of us in the B-to-B space, and especially for those of us trying to reach the professional tradesman, mobile should be a part of your marketing plan.
Not sure where to start? The easiest place to start is to optimize your website for mobile. Secondly, consider sending mobile-optimized emails.
The key is to make a plan and do something, monitor the response and do something else. As I’ve said before, I don’t believe mobile is going away, and there are many opportunities to reach our target audiences.
by tradespeopleinsights | Feb 2, 2012 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Trends, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
Today’s Internet-enabled customer has made it clear that they decide what content looks like and how it should be distributed. Content Marketing has emerged as the primary mode of engaging business prospects. This holds true especially in the technology sector where Eccolo Media, in the fall of 2011, released a report on the trends in marketing collateral. The survey, Eccolo Media 2011 B2B technology Collateral Survey Report is available free.
Customers expect that your collateral material will provide them with info they can use – not info on a particular product. Highlights of the survey include:
- Users are consuming more content, but from a greater number of resources.
- Social sharing buttons influence all type of content – 77% said if they had an easy way to share, they do.
- Collateral goes Mobile – 37% consume content on tablets or smartphones.
- Collateral goes interactive like embedded videos – 92% of users say it positively affected overall influence.
About the survey. This is the fourth year Eccolo Media has done it. They surveyed C-level executives and the survey represents 501 usable respondents.
One of the key take aways from this is that those of us who are developing content should be considering a library of suitable content for their marketing efforts.
