by tradespeopleinsights | May 4, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
Blogs are a good center piece for your marketing strategy, but they are time-consuming, and if not taken seriously, will fail long before they have time to succeed.
I’ve created a list of things you need to do to ensure your blog’s success:
- Establish a niche – You have to be able to blog about something specific. This helps identify your target audience and a strategy to reach them.
- Identify possible topic categories – Based on your target audience, you should come up with several different topic categories to write on.
- Establish frequency – You can’t build a following when doing few posts a month. People who have the same passion on the subject want to be touched on a more regular basis. I find that 3 posts a week work for me and my audience.
- Keep ahead of the curve – If you’re going to do several posts a week, you don’t want to wake up on those days and HAVE to write a post. What if you get writer’s block or God forbid a customer takes up your time. I try to have a least a few weeks of posts in the can and ready to go so the pressure isn’t on.
- Identify guest bloggers – Once you’ve identified your market and your niche, you’ll be able to find other bloggers who share your passion on the subject and can offer a different perspective on a subject.
- Build links – These are important in SEO. Link to relevant sites.
- Promote your blog – That’s why it needs to be an integral part of your overall marketing program where you can leverage and promote across all mediums.
- Respond to comments on your blog – One of the main reasons for the blog is to get conversations going. What a great way to start a relationship.
- Comment on other blogs – If your comments are sincere and on point, other bloggers will check you out and start a conversation with you that might end up with you reciprocating in doing guest posts.
These are my tips. I’m sure you have others you’d like to share and I’d love to hear from you.
If you like this post, you may want to read:
Increase your Visibility by Commenting on Blogs.
B-to-B Blogs Can Help Increase Marketing Efforts to the Professional Tradesmen.
2011 Trends for B-to-B Blogging.
by tradespeopleinsights | May 3, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
Blogs can play an important part in your overall marketing plan. By integrating them with other marketing tools like e-newsletters, other social sites and your existing website, as well as offline activities, you can enhance your efforts and results.
I have found that we are getting more activity as far as page views on our blog than our website.What’s more important is that I have regular readers who view my posts via RSS feeds and everyday, new readers find the site through key word searches.
We have also gained insights into our readers, and by their responses, we know what they want to hear more about. We even use surveys and polls to help us get answers directly from the readers as to what is important to them. We can look at monthly results to see which topics are having more traction than others.
Our long-term plan is to gain the readers’ trust and become their go-to resource when it comes to marketing to the professional tradesmen. By being informative, creative and reliable in what we say, and the examples we give, we build trust with our readers.
Ultimately, we want to gain new business opportunities, and a blog helps you do that. We recently won a few pieces of new business from companies that were following us on our blog. Many are virtual clients who feel comfortable doing business with us even though they never met us in person because they like what we said on our blog.
These are a few things you should expect from a company blog. We use it as a marketing centerpiece that we position our other activities around.
I’d like to hear some of your success stories around your blog successes.
If you like this post, you might like:
B-to-B Blogs Can Help Increase Marketing Efforts to the Professional Tradesmen.
2011-Trends in B-to-B Blogging.
by tradespeopleinsights | Apr 28, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
There is no simple solution to social media. Yes, you might get a bright idea and put it out there and then what? If you can’t answer that question, then you’d better rethink what you’re doing.
Why would you think that a social media strategy would be any different from any other marketing one? Unfortunately, some folks think social is different.
Here are 5 pointers that might help in developing a social media strategy:
- Define your audience – Not all of your current or potential customers are into social. Identify who’s following you as this will dictate messaging.
- Define the message – What’s the overall message and the other components that will support it?
- Define the participants – Depending on your target audiences, you will want to involve others in the company on the team for their expertise.
- Integrate into other marketing elements – Social isn’t a stand-alone strategy. Make sure to integrate it when possible into other activities to maximize your efforts.
- Make sure all your ducks are in a row before launching – Don’t get anxious and pull the trigger too fast. Make sure all elements are locked and loaded before starting.
I’m sure you could add to the list and I’d like to hear from you on other elements that you’ve included in your programs.
If you like this post, you might like:
2010 Highlights of the State of Social Media for Business
For Social Media to be Successful Sales and Marketing Must Work Together
by tradespeopleinsights | Apr 27, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Marketing Trends, Traditional Marketing
I’m sure you’ve seen these strange looking symbols and some of you (over 60% according to a recent post in eMarketing.com) know what they are.
These Quick Response codes are showing up more than in consumer applications to get people to use their smartphones to interact and get more info on the spot. They may take you to a video, coupon or an e-commerce site. The key is that once your initial communication stops them, whether it’s an ad or billboard, the QR code enables them to go to the next step on the spot using their phone.
So if you’re not using them in your marketing efforts, maybe you should try them. I’m curious how many of you are currently using QR codes and where are you sending them?
If you like this article, you may want to read:
U.S. Leads in Global Use of Mobile Barcodes
5 Practical Ways Manufacturers Can Use 2D Bar Codes
by tradespeopleinsights | Apr 26, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that I’m very high on LinkedIn as one of the best social media tools for B-to-B businesses, and it is one of the tools that is most overlooked. In March of 2011, LinkedIn passed its 100 million member. It’s currently averaging about 1 million new members a month (more than one new member per second).
I recently read an article by Heidi Cohen that outlined ways businesses can successfully use LinkedIn.
Here are some highlights:
- Position your company – Let people know you exist and what kinds of thing you do.
- Offers credibility – Position your company as a thought leader.
- Expands your contact base – of friends, business associates and prospects.
- Expands company network – The more members of your team that are on LinkedIn, the greater the exposure is for your company.
- Source for new employees – LinkedIn was originally a HR network and still is.
The key is to have a plan for your company and get as many people involved. Make sure the description of your company and what it does is the same on everyone’s pages as this helps in being found on search engines.
by tradespeopleinsights | Apr 21, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Marketing Trends, Traditional Marketing
By now most of you have seen these strange little boxes somewhere in your life. You may have seen them in one of your favorite consumer magazines. They’re even showing up in some trade books.
For those who don’t know what a QR code is, it’s a 2D bar code that allows you to connect to additional info using your smart phone that has a camera. Since there are more smart phones being sold now than PCs, maybe it’s time you consider doing something that will take advantage of this technology. One of the nice things about QR codes is that they are contextually relevant. In other words, you can target info based on where you place them and each can be individually tracked.
Here are six real world practical ways manufacturers can utilize QR codes in their marketing activities:
- Trade advertising – Put a QR code in that will take the reader to a testimonial video or a product demo.
- Trade shows – Pre-show and at-show promotions. Add a code with show specials or other reasons to visit your booth, like a new product introduction.
- In-store signage – Other than the big boxes where they control most of the “look and feel,” use signage to drive them somewhere like a video that shows them why your product is better than the competition.
- Product packaging – Again, you can make a case for your product over the competitors, or you can give assistance to those who aren’t sure which hole saw or drill bit to use.
- Product literature – From sell sheet to direct mail, use to connect to reasons why they should buy, i.e. videos or other important features/benefits to help them prefer your product.
- Premiums – For your next distributor open house or counter day, have your guys wear tee shirts with a clever saying and a QR code. It’s a great way to stand out in a crowd.
These are easy to use, free, each are trackable and they are a good way to set yourself apart.
If you’d like to learn more about QR codes, these additional posts may be of interest:
QR Codes: Are Manufacturers Missing an Opportunity?
What’s Augmented Reality?
White Paper: Trends in Mobile Media
