by tradespeopleinsights | Apr 20, 2009 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Trends, Traditional Marketing
I’m reminded that we should stay on top of new trends but not to throw out or ignore all those traditional things you’ve been doing like e-mails. In other words, “don’t throw out the baby with the bath water.”
E-mails are still the most accepted way of receiving info so why not use it to push some of your new social media toys.
We all want to be part of the newest and sexiest stuff. Social media is a hot topic. It is extremely popular, in part because it is inexpensive and can easily be measured. But it can and should be integrated with more traditional strategies such as broadcast e-mail programs.
I read a post this morning on B2B online marketing, Traditional marketing:not hot but still important, that I thought would be appropriate to share with all the B-to-B marketers out there.
Here are some simple reminders:
- Adopt an integrated approach. Mix the new with the old. Want to promote your blog or e-newsletter? What better way than using your e-mail list.
- Re-evaluate best practices you’d applied in the past. Find out what works best for your audiences. If you’re not sure ask them via a survey, focus groups or really do it the old fashioned way and pick up the phone and call them.
- Stay on top of new trends for old strategies. New tools won’t serve you well if the foundation is weak. Here are some recent tips they found for email marketing,landing page optimization and lead nurturing during a recession.
What are you doing to stay ahead of the game?
by tradespeopleinsights | Apr 17, 2009 | Marketing Tips
You need to connect quickly in the subject line in order for them to open an e-mail. Look beyond pitching your product and talk about issues that hit their hot button. Don’t know what those are? ASK!
Tradesmen are busy people like the rest of us, and when they get a marketing e-mail, you had better make clear (WIIFM) what’s in it for me in the subject line. They want to know how your product or service will help them on a jobsite.
According to MailerMailer, 74% of all e-mails are opened within 24 hours. Which means if the email isn’t opened soon, then it probably wont be.
I read a post recently form Arthur Middleton, Making your B-to-B e-mail campaign a success, which he outlines 4 tactics that will help you become a reliable source of info. Here is my take on them as it relates to my audience, the professional tradesmen:
- Be a e-newsletter publisher. Look beyond just promoting your products and talk about industry issues that are affecting tradesmen. Give them inside information on marketing trends.
- Leverage the knowledge you get from these contractors. Find out how and why contractors make their decisions. Ask them to be on an advisory panel or participate in a contractor study.
- Preview your e-mail. Make sure preview panes are very much on point because if you don’t make your point quickly, they won’t open your e-mail.
- Create a mobile version. These contractors use mobile devices to stay connected, so make sure to use a smaller version of your logo, and state your claim (WIIFM) within the first few sentences.
Those are my thoughts, I’d like to hear yours.
by tradespeopleinsights | Apr 17, 2009 | Marketing Tips
B-to-B marketers are so busy pushing out messages using traditional methods to promote their brand that they sometimes forget about the strength of social media to self-identify themselves by searching for solutions or information on the Internet.
Social Media is the most powerful set of tools for branding that has ever existed for connecting with customers on an emotional level.
The brand that a marketer is selling is not merely a logo, a package or a sign on a wall. A brand is not what you want it to be or what your ad says it is. A brand is not even the definition you give to it.
Quite simply, a brand is how your audience feels about you. It’s what they say about you when not encumbered by advertising promotion. Or unencumbered by the paid media around you. So when your “friend” on Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin says they just found the best hot dog in town, you believe them. Much more so than a TV spot.
What better way to receive an endorsement for a product than to get that endorsement from a trusted friend? And that’s what social media is all about.
It’s a simple idea and it works.
by tradespeopleinsights | Apr 17, 2009 | Marketing Tools
For those of you who are trying to get your arms around Twitter and how to use it for your B-to-B marketing, here are a few thoughts on how you can engage tradesmen and supply them with useful info. The problem is where are they and what (or who) are they talking about. Use “Search Twitter.”
Search Twitter is real time window into who and what your customers and prospects are talking about. Gain insights on what their hot buttons are and then provide them answers to demonstrate your expertise.
Here’s an example: Your company sells products to professional tradesmen. You search using key words and review the posts. If there are questions pertaining to what you do, offer them a solution.
Now here’s where it gets scary. Twitter has an advanced search that’s a great tool that you could use for phrases or key words that plumbers would recognize. You can even search tweets by dates, locations, etc.
You can even write your own detailed searches. Who would have ever thought that Twitter could be used as a data mining tool. That’s the cool cool thing about compiling all that data in one place. You can slice and dice it almost any which way. It’s just another tool in the marketing tool box.
I’d like to hear how you’re using Twitter Search to help identify you targets.
by tradespeopleinsights | Apr 17, 2009 | Marketing Tips
I can’t tell you how many corporate blogs I’ve been on that are treated as just another venue to sell product or try to pump up stock prices. They just don’t get it and wonder why blogs aren’t working.
Companies need to learn it’s not about them anymore, it’s about your customers. They call it social media for a reason – because it’s about people.
If companies want to have a successful blog they need to deliver relevant content that talks about ways to solve your customers’ problems. They need to deliver it in a conversational (human) way using terms that their customers are familiar with.
It’s all about people and that’s why it’s called social media, not marketing media.
A recent post by Chris Baggott, How to make the most out of your corporate blog, highlights ways for companies to be successful:
- Research the key words that drive your business.
- Create titled, individual blogs for different market segment and target those key words.
- Encourage employees to create content.
- Solicit feedback from your customers.
In other words, do your homework and think strategically. Business blogging is a way to make your customers/searchers happy they found you because you have answered a need.
by tradespeopleinsights | Apr 17, 2009 | Marketing Trends
They are the hard-working men and women of America. They drive the products to market. They build the towers of business. They dig the foundations of dreams. They serve America in every capacity.
They are the blue collar tradesmen, working class heroes we sometimes overlook.
They have been all over this social media stuff long before the rest of us jumped on board. They have been building relationships with friends and business associates from around the world, across the country and around town for decades. They adopted these amazing communication technologies not as a narcissistic plaything but as serious tools of industry.
They are the ham radio operators, the CB truckers and the Nextel two-way cell users. They go by names like Gladys and Night Rider and Bubba and they are the real pioneers in social media.
What makes any of us think this group of users will avoid this brave new world? They are logging on in record numbers. According to one survey, while the universe of blue-collar social media users is less than 10%, they are the fastest-growing segment.
As their jobs dwindle, they are learning new trades and finding new jobs through the use of SM.
Blue-collar men and women are a critical part of the conversation.
