by tradespeopleinsights | Jul 29, 2009 | Marketing Trends, Social Marketing
I’ve used Global Spec online marketing for several of our clients who target engineering, technical manufacturing and industrial professionals. They are well respected and a great source for qualified leads. During the 1st quarter of ’09, they surveyed marketing executives on trends and challenges facing them for the balance of year. 555 surveys were completed. There are really no big surprises here–marketers are going to have to do more with less and online is going to be used because of accountability. Here are some of the highlights:
- 73% stated that customer acquisition and lead generation is their primary goal.
- Top 3 challenges: 1-too few resources. 2-not enough qualified leads. 3-improve ROI
- Top 3 marketing channels: 1-online directories/websites. 2-e-mail marketing to house lists. 3-SEO
- 29% spend more than 50% of their budget online
- 48% will spend more of their budget online
You can read the entire white paper here.
by tradespeopleinsights | Jul 28, 2009 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Traditional Marketing
The answer is both depending on how you’re developing and nurturing prospects. Today both Drip Marketing and Closed Loop marketing are seen to be online strategies. Truth be known, these have been going on long before we had the use of the Internet tools. Effective marketing programs today should utilize both. We are fortunate to have these tools that help us monitor and measure our activities in infinite ways. Here are some suggestions on how to reach the Professional Tradesman using both Techniques:
Drip Marketing – I define this as an ongoing way to communicate and deliver product info and thought leadership to contractors and tradesmen who have identified themselves to us. It can use traditional methods like direct mail with things as simple as a series of postcards or other mailers to touch folks on a regular basis (monthly, weekly or daily). With the advent of the Internet we can add links to our e-mails to landing pages that can expand on content, offer incentives and interact with tradesmen.I’d suggest that to be effective, run and monitor these campaigns using an automated system.These automated systems will help you create and deliver messages and gives you the metrics to monitor open rates,click throughs and opt outs.They will also help reduce spam complaints and increase delivery.
Closed Loop Marketing – I define this as a more complex system that involves marketing working closely with sales to work a contractor through the sales process. It utilizes many if not most elements that are in a Drip program but goes beyond just delivering information based on a previous actions and their place in the buying cycle. Marketers literally “close the loop” by working with sales to provide the right info at the right time based on contractors responses. “Close the Loop” marketing provides feedback through reporting on each step and can adjust both timing and content based on feedback.
Both Drip and Closed Loop are great tools for B-to-B marketers. Deciding on which use or in what combination will be dependent on your own circumstances. If you’re trying to decide where to get started you might want to read a free white paper from DemandGen – calculating the return on lead nurturing.
by tradespeopleinsights | Jul 23, 2009 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
With all the “noise” around you in the sea of posts, how do you stand out in the crowd? In a crowded marketplace, your “Brand” is what will make you stand apart from the other fish. Your brand involves the look and feel of your blog, the style in which it is written, the emotion and tone all are part of your Brand. Here are 5 tips that might help you differentiate yourself:
- Find a niche – Most successful blog including this one identifies a specific market or expertise that they build upon.
- Design page to be unique – Have a consistent look and feel and make the site easy to navigate.
- Define and refine a writing style – Be yourself. Make your comments conversational and consistent.
- Take a fresh approach – Look at the issue possibly through another angle or perspective.
- Quality over quantity – Make sure you post good stuff, not a lot of stuff. Remember, your brand is about your expertise.
These are some of the ways I try to stand out. What kinds of things do you do?
Here are some other posts that might be of interest:
5 Tips on How to Improve Your Blog
Blogging Has Come Too Far To Be Ignored By B-to-B Marketers
Blogs: How to Take Advantage of Them to Reach the Professional Tradesmen
by tradespeopleinsights | Jul 22, 2009 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
I continue to be amazed sometimes as to which of my posts do better than others. Sometimes there is no rhyme or reason. Just as you check the other metrics on how you’re doing, I think it’s important as a part of your own self discipline to review the low performers and see if there are ways to improve. We are all guilty sometimes of not putting our best foot forward and our audience lets us know it. Darren Rowse, in a recent post titled, Why did your last blog post fail? 13 questions to ask, outlines a pretty good checklist for evaluating your posts. I’ve highlighted 5 of the most important ones that I make sure I use.
- Post title – Did it have enough zing to get people to stop? I’m in the ad business and no matter what medium you’re using, you only have a fraction of a second to get someone’s attention.
- Opening lines – Once you stop them with a great title, you’d better tell them quickly “WIIFM” (What’s In It For Me).
- Was the post to the point – Did you stay on point and make your point easily understood.
- Was there enough meat on the bones – Did your post have sufficient depth (both from content and links)
- Did it fulfill a need – Why would someone want to read it?
I’m sure you have other thoughts and I’d like to hear them.
by tradespeopleinsights | Jul 21, 2009 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
Social media has dominated the news lately, and many marketers are considering moving out of traditional e-mail programs and focusing more on social. My advice to them is that neither one is the answer by itself, especially when it comes to reaching professional tradesmen who are slower to jump on the social bandwagon.
Social elements are just more tools marketing can use to gain attention and begin a dialog. Until social media came along, a good e-mail campaign only had their web site to fall back on for support. Social media complements e-mail efforts. B-to-B marketers who want to stay on top of their game must learn how to make them work together.
Here are 4 tips to get the best out of both worlds:
- Create ONE strategy – Create the objective and then see how each element can help you meet those objectives. By working towards one goal, you’ll be much more effective in the long run.
- Create content simultaneously – You need to make sure messages are coordinated (and are using the same voice) and are working together and not against each other. You don’t want to be duplicating content.
- Utilize sites like Facebook and LinkedIn – These and other sites allow groups to their group members. Make sure when sending messages to these groups to target your message.
- Use e-mail to give them something special whether it’s a sneak preview of a new product, a discount on a current one or some scoop about an upcoming company event or trade show activity. Then make it easy for them to share. Encourage them to share the news with their friends on LinkedIn or Facebook.
Make the most out of your marketing program by making the elements work together.
I’d like to hear what you’re doing to maximize your efforts using social and e-mails.
Here are some other posts that might be of interest to you:
7 Ways to Combine Social Media with E-mail to Reach the Professional Tradesman
Stay Up on New Trends But Don’t Forget Old Friends
by tradespeopleinsights | Jul 16, 2009 | Marketing Tools, Social Marketing, Twitter
Finding your best prospective client online audience is not yet an exact science. But for now you can be in the right ballpark. The same is true regarding Twitter. There are plenty of search applications out there, but all have their limitations. The following five sites have been the most helpful to me in locating prospective client “tweeps” to follow.
1. Twitter Search – Twitter’s built-in people search is the easiest place to start, but isn’t necessarily the best way to find people on Twitter. Twitter Search is much better, especially using their advanced search page. Be sure and check out their search operations pages for some handy examples for your search query.
2. Twellow – Is an excellent search tool for prospective clients with over 6.2 million Twitter user profiles now indexed in Twellow and placed into a huge number of categories. You can search the entire lot of profiles, or confine searches to a single category. Twellow also operates a local directory called the “Twellowhood.”
3. Tweepz – Allows you limited searches to specific parts of Twitter’s user information (such as name, bio and location). Through the advanced search filter results by follower/following numbers, location, and other extracted terms, enhances your search results.
4. Twitterel – You can search for prospective clients to follow by doing keyword searches of tweets. This service can update you by email, direct message, or @reply when it finds new people it thinks you might be interested in following. It’s similar to Google Alerts.
5. WeFollow – Is a Twitter user directory that organizes people by hashtags. WeFollow is user-generated and anyone can add themselves by tweeting @wefollow with three #hashtags that describe them.
If you have helpful search sites/directories that have been helpful to you, please share them in the comment section below.
