by tradespeopleinsights | Jan 27, 2010 | Marketing Tips, Traditional Marketing
Sometimes we take things for granted and can tend to become complacent when using tools like e-mail marketing. We think we know it all since we’ve been doing it for so long, but we may have lost sight of what made e-mail so successful in the past.
A recent post by Curtis Jackson, What are the top 10 e-mail marketing mistakes, got me thinking that we should all evaluate the processes we have in place regarding e-mails. Here are my 5 top things to avoid:
- No Strategy – When you first started using e-mails, didn’t you have a written strategy of what you wanted to accomplish and how you were going to measure it? How are you doing?
- List updates – When was the last time you updated your list? Have your open rates been increasing or decreasing? How about undeliverables? That brings us to the next point.
- Ignoring metrics – If you’re actively doing e-mail marketing, you have to be using some tool like Constant Contact to help you manage your programs. They have metric tools built in to see how successful the actual e-mail was (both in content and delivery).
- Missing an opportunity in your top line message – Chances are your message will be viewed in a preview pane. Make sure your top line message includes a link to a web-based version.
- Timing – Tuesday at 10 a.m. may not be the most opportune time to reach your audience. Test out different combinations to see what works best for your audience.
Those are my thoughts. What are you doing to ensure you are getting the most out of your e-mail marketing?
by tradespeopleinsights | Jan 26, 2010 | Marketing Trends, Traditional Marketing
As most of you know by now, our marketing company works primarily with manufacturers who sell to the contractor marketplace. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that the economy in 2009 wasn’t good to most contractors, especially those whose primary market was new construction.
To that end, we did phone interviews with 22 contractors across the country in the last quarter of 2009, primarily in the HVAC and plumbing markets, to get a better sense of how they are surviving and what’s on their minds. We chose these types of contractors because they not only do new construction, but also do service and replacement work which we thought would give us a better read on the consumer as a whole.
Here are some highlights:
- Contractor’s sales – Were off between 7 to 15%. Some were off as much as 25% and some (2) had actual sales increases in 2009.
- Commercial business – Started to come back late 3rd and early 4th quarters.
- Government stimulus package – Helped in increasing sales (more in HVAC than plumbing).
- Biggest concerns – Tight credit, finding qualified people and big government.
2010 – Most contractors are cautiously optimistic. They know they will have to work smarter in ’10, but believe the opportunities will be there from both new business as well as competitors going away.
A link to get a copy of the white paper will be sent to you when you sign up for my newsletter here.
by tradespeopleinsights | Jan 21, 2010 | Marketing Trends, Social Marketing
Small businesses must have been listening when it came to PSEO. According to data from WebVisible, search advertising has sharply increased in Q3 of ’09. According to a recent post on eMarketer.com, small business search spending by smaller companies was up 91% year over year. The average number of key words purchased was also up.
Other highlights from the study showed spending shifts among the key search engines with Google losing about 5% and Bing gaining almost 3%. Bing brought the small business owner the highest click through rates than any search engine. (Not a bad stat since they’ve only been around since June of this year.) Most click throughs went to the advertiser’s Web site and the fastest growing conversion action was video viewing.
Vertical Response cites that 45% of small businesses planned to up their spending next year.
So what are your plans?
by tradespeopleinsights | Jan 20, 2010 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
When it comes to social media, many marketers first concern is on “How” are we going to use social before the “Why.” They should really first consider the “who” are we trying to connect with and “What” do we bring to the party. Although marketing, most of the time, takes the lead in social media, it really involves the whole company starting with those that touch the customers – sales, customer service and tech support are a few that come quickly to mind. Marketing can’t create a spin campaign and push it out to customers. Social isn’t about you, it’s about the customer and what they want and need.
Valeria Maltoni in a recent post, Developing a B2B Content Strategy: Starts With the Who, outlines issues that marketing should consider when developing a social strategy. She notes that to stay ahead you need to adapt and evolve using your experience and expertise to serve your customers. It’s a good read.
What are you doing to get better connected with your audience?
by tradespeopleinsights | Jan 19, 2010 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Trends, Social Marketing
For those of us who I will call “Seasoned Veterans” (been in the B-to-B world for more than 15 years), we’ve seen major changes in they way people get info and go through a buying process. Those who are successful today are the ones who have adapted and embraced the changes as they have come along. Let me explain the evolution.
Before the Internet: Product info wasn’t easily accessible, and the only way you could get info is to talk to a salesman. The salesman controlled the buying process and in many cases, they weren’t trusted. It was a one-way conversation where the salesman was doing most of the talking.
Introduction of the Internet: Now customers were able to go on web sites (yours and your competitors) and investigate what was out there to make a better informed decision. They found what they were looking for by going to this new tool, e.g. Google, that allowed them to search by using key words and phrases. Some sites even told you where you could actually buy the product. More advanced sites “in the day” even let you buy the product online. The role of traditional sales was changing. With the introduction of e-mail, people could now ask more questions and make more informed decisions. Marketers had to create content for the web with webinars and white papers trying to convince prospects to buy. The playing field now was more even where the customer had more options and control over the process.
Introduction of Social Media: More and more information is available now, and it’s not necessarily from your web site. People now access LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to see what’s been said about your product or ask questions of their peer group on which products are better and why. There are blogs, forums and online communities where you can go and get an honest answer (recommendation) from another consumer. You’ll notice I haven’t mentioned anything about the company sales force being engaged to this point. With social media now on the scene, buyers take control of the buying process and as a result, don’t engage a salesman until they are much farther down the sales cycle.
For those who still aren’t convinced Business.com recent Social media best practice:Question and Answer forum report interviewed over 1400 individuals of which 69% currently work at a business that uses social media.The chart below indicates what social can do for you.
So what does this mean to us old timers?
- It means times are changing.
- It means that the consumer is now driving the bus.
- It means if you don’t jump on in some fashion, the bus will leave without you.
- It means we all have to change.
We as humans don’t necessarily like change. It makes us get out of our comfort zone. Social media is just another way we can do our jobs better. It can be a place to follow market trends, monitor brand sentiment, network and even identify unhappy customers. Don’t be afraid of it and don’t be overwhelmed. Start somewhere, go slow, ask for help. As marketers, we need to adapt.
by tradespeopleinsights | Jan 14, 2010 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
For those of you who want to get a great overview of ways to build relationships, both off-line as well as on-line, I’d suggest you read Trust Agents, by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. What you learn are common sense ways to let people get to know, like, and trust you, and hopefully do business with you.
Most of the things you should already be doing in one form or another, but they show you how, by tying them all together, you have a better result. It’s an easy read, and they don’t bore you with the how to get the best out of Twitter or other social tools. They are concerned about the basic processes of building trust which will never change.
Gentlemen, good job.
