by tradesmeninsights | Feb 2, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
You need great content to keep your readers coming back. And you need to shake it up a bit by using things like a YouTube video or Podcast of you interviewing someone of relevance to your industry.
People like a good news story, and an interview format fits the ticket just fine. Imagine if you could interview an industry expert, the president of a major trade association, or the executive director of one of the leading buying groups in your market segment. Wouldn’t you think your customers would like to hear what they are thinking and saying? Wouldn’t it be nice if you could get an industry scoop”?
I recently read an article by Ryan Malone in SocialMediaExaminer.com titled: 11 Ways to Improve Your Posts with Interviews that I thought was very interesting. The 5 top questions I got out of the article were:
- What are the 3 biggest benefits to your target audience and why?
- What are the top questions asked by your customers?
- If you had a list of best kept secrets (resources like websites, books, coaches), who would you recommend and why?
- What tips can you recommend that you’d only share with a close friend?
- Looking out 3-5 years, beyond the obvious trends, what do you think will be a game changer?
Have you had success using interviewing? If so, I’d like to hear from you.
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by tradesmeninsights | Feb 1, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
Sales and marketing departments usually don’t do a good job communicating with each other, and when you add in a new tool (social media), there is even a bigger disconnect. Salepeople often have little exposure and experience with social and tend to shy away from it.
The reality is social media can open up conversations with both existing customers as well as new ones, and bottom line is if the sales department would realize the potential. I recently read a post by Karlie Justus, More Ways to Connect B2B Sales Teams with Social Media that got me thinking. Here are some thoughts from me on how Karlie’s ideas would be relavant to our market in bridging the gap between Marketing and Sales.
- Create Social Media Updates – Show the salesforce what’s in it for them. Ways to engage customers and potentials.It could be just what’s needed to start a conversation. Explain to them why you’re doing a blog and what kinds of things you’re posting on Facebook and Twitter.
- Show Them How Important it is For Them to Be Involved – If they understand what marketing is trying to do for them, they can help you build customer/prospect lists from things like their weekly call reports. Who knows better what types of things a customer wants other than the sales person? They can tell you what types of products they’re looking at, what market they are in, and a host of other valuable marketing insights that we wouldn’t have otherwise. Make them more comfortable by giving them a handout with talking points on the back that they can share with customers. They can ask them to start reading your blog, go to your forum to talk to other customers. You can even get them talking about LinkedIn and get them connected with each other. Once they understand the potential power of social, they will be one of your best resources for data.
- Educate the Sales Team with Hands-On Training – Give them practical and personal examples and once they are more comfortable with it offer to help them set up their own pages. Don’t expect total buy in. You don’t normally get that with anything you introduce. But if you can get half the salesforce to embrace and understand the benefits of social, then you’ve won a battle.
- Track Leads and Give Them Monthly Updates – Hopefully you have some sort of CRM in place to track traditional leads like trade shows, PR and print ads. Add social as another line item so the salesforce can see what kind of activities social is generating. Give them monthly updates (high level) of what social is doing for the company. Ask them what they might want to see. Do they want to see blog visitors by geographic location? Would they like to know which pages on your website are getting the most hits from Social?
These are some ideas that might help you engage sales in the social media scene. I’d love to hear success stories from the field. Care to share?
by tradesmeninsights | Jan 27, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Traditional Marketing
So you want to build a relationship with the professional tradesmen. In order to do that, you need to be in front of them on a consistent basis. What I like about e-newsletters is that they are relatively easy to assemble, easy to deliver and it allows your customers to read it on their time line, and hopefully if they find something of interest, they will pass the newsletter on. Besides, we’re sure he checks his e-mail every day and might miss or misplace a traditional paper one.
Realistically you don’t have the time to visit him several times a month, and truth be known, he doesn’t want to see you that often! So how do you and your brand stay in front of him on a regular basis? A newsletter would be a great vehicle to build credibility and visibility for your brand, not only to your customers, but to potentials as well.
Newsletters today aren’t like what they used to be 10 years ago. I’d suggest you consider an electronic newsletter using one of the many services like Emma and Constant Contact to maintain your lists and your newsletter programs. They have several templates to choose from if you don’t want to design your own. They also can tell you how many were opened and by whom, and if they clicked through and how much time they spent on the site. You also can embed links into your newsletter, and if people are interested in learning more, they can click.
Here are some thoughts on why I think you should consider doing an e-newsletter and what you should do to make sure they are successful:
- Make Them Educational – keep the sales pitch for when you meet them face to face. Give them info that will benefit them. How they might improve their business. What’s happening in the industry or key associations. What trends should they be watching for? Yes, you can put in a small bit of self promo, but I’d suggest to keep it to a minimum.
- Make Them Easy to Read – seems pretty evident but sometimes you can go overboard. Keep the article short and to the point, and if you have appropriate links to other articles, by all means put them in. Keep them entertaining. Remember you want to engage your reader.
- Put Them Out on a Regular Basis – I suggest monthly, but in some cases it could be more often. You want people to look forward to your newsletter. Don’t think you need to have a set amount in each newsletter. Don’t invent things or postpone sending it out if you feel you don’t have “X” amount of things to share.
- Get Both Sales and Marketing Involved in Content – your sales force is in the trenches each day and can give you plenty of issues to talk about. Get them engaged so they can talk it up (they also can help you build your lists).
For those of you who have blogs, you should be putting out monthly an e-newsletter of the top 5 posts from last month. Just another way to touch the folks that follow you regularly. Those are some of my thoughts on newsletters. I’d like to hear about your successes.
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by tradesmeninsights | Jan 26, 2011 | Uncategorized
From time to time I have guest posts and today, since many of my readers are contractors, we’re going to hear from Emma Martin who writes for CB Structures, a family owned construction and engineering company. She is going to share her insights on ways to improve productivity. Enjoy.
5 Ways to Improve Construction Productivity
One of the major setbacks for any construction project is a loss of productivity that results in delays and loss of funds. And yet, this type of occurrence is largely considered par for the course on most build sites. While many would be quick to attribute holdups to lazy workers or inadequate supervision, it is far more common for bad planning or outright ignorance to muck up the works.
Here are five ways you can avoid delays, deal with problem areas, and get your construction project on track for timely completion.
- A dependable foreman. You can’t just leave a construction crew to police their own activities. Like any job, you need a manager on site to ensure that work is progressing on schedule, jump in if help is needed, report to higher-ups, and basically do whatever is necessary to promote an efficient work environment. You’ll need someone with experience (a background in skilled labor is just as useful as previous management) who is reliable and trustworthy. This is absolutely essential to the success of any construction project.
- Incentives. Employees who are paid well and have a stake in the completion of the structure may be more likely to give it their all. In short, you need to offer competitive wages for your crew (you could even consider benefits in addition to your site insurance since the risks of accident and injury in this profession are high). You may also want to consider giving a bonus upon completion or sale of the property as a way to get your workers in gear. Just be sure to keep an eye on quality.
- Training. In some cases, both quality of work and productivity can be gained by putting up the money to ensure that your crew (and supervisors) are properly trained. Let’s face it, construction is often a profession that is entered into without much formal education (anyone can swing a hammer, right?). By requiring your crew to sign up for instruction in carpentry, electrical, and plumbing (for example), you can ensure that they do the job right the first time, effectively cutting back on construction time and saving money down the road.
- Planning. The most common cause of stoppage in construction is waiting, and it is often due to improper planning. While there will be days when weather and other factors beyond your control compromise your crew’s ability to continue work. However, there is also a portion of waiting time that is directly associated with poor planning. Whether necessary equipment is unavailable, materials are in transit, or there simply aren’t enough people working to ensure that a project is completed on schedule, poor planning is likely the root of the problem.
- Security. Theft at construction sites is fairly common, especially when materials are left unguarded and out in the open. Instead of setting up a fence that anyone with four usable limbs can bypass, hire a security firm to provide a night-guard so that expensive copper pipes and lumber don’t simply get up and walk off the site, costing you both materials and labor.
Emma Martin writes for CB Structures, a family owned construction and engineering company that specializes in garage buildings and pole building design.
by tradesmeninsights | Jan 25, 2011 | Marketing Tools, Marketing Trends, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
Sonnhalter is deeply involved with the professional tradesmen. We recently completed a market overview on the construction industry. The purpose of this document is to give the reader a quick snapshot of the industry, its players and trends. Markets covered are residential, commercial (light commercial), highway/heavy, institutional and industrial/manufacturing.
Highlights include interviews with editors of top trade publications. Also included are associations, buying groups, trade shows/meetings, industry trends and media publications.
To sign up to receive a copy of the Construction Market Overview, click here.
by tradesmeninsights | Jan 20, 2011 | Marketing Trends, Social Marketing
Businesses are getting more comfortable with social media and are continuing to integrate it into their overall marketing programs.
I recently read an article in Social Media Examiner, 8 Social Media Trends Impacting Businesses that I thought made some good points. The article highlighted a recent study done by SmartBrief and Summus Limited to over 6,000 readers across a variety of industries. Here are some brief highlights:
- Companies are still new to social media – Most companies (66%) have adopted social media within the last 18 months.
- Businesses focus on the BIG 5 – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and blogs are where people spend most of their efforts.
- 2-year confidence mark – How long it takes most companies to gain confidence in their social media activity.
- Companies are broadcasting vs. connecting – Brand building is their primary purpose. Many companies are missing opportunities to build stronger relationships by listening instead of talking.
- Businesses turn internally for sources for social media support – Not surprising. They know the company, its products/services better than anyone.
- Social media obstacles – Lack of management support and confidentiality are the two biggest stumbling blocks.
- Lack of measurement – Less than 15% are measuring ROI. They are struggling with what to measure, how to measure it and how to interpret the data.
- Companies lack confidence in their social media strategy – Less than 15% of companies surveyed describe their strategies as “very effective.”
The good news is businesses are moving forward. What are some challenges your company is facing regarding implementation of a social media program?
[tweetmeme source= “johnsonnhalter” only_single=false]
People like a good news story, and an interview format fits the ticket just fine. Imagine if you could interview an industry expert, the president of a major trade association, or the executive director of one of the leading buying groups in your market segment. Wouldn’t you think your customers would like to hear what they are thinking and saying? Wouldn’t it be nice if you could get an industry scoop”?
