In marketing, there’s a lot of different forms of marketing as it keeps evolving. However, traditional marketing is not going away.
Following is a guest post from our friends over at Long & Short of It, masters of ideation, customer insights and market research. They like to say they “dig and find lots of data and then turn it into actionable insights.” Following is their guest post.
Traditional marketing is not dead. Take for instance something a bit old-school such as a plane pulling a banner through the sky. If you are ever in Cleveland over the summer, you will more than likely spot one flying over Progressive Field during a Guardians game. This past summer it was Geico.
Given the shot-gun approach of aerial advertising, we may not have been the target audience, but some definitely were. According to ESPN, the average estimated crowd size during an Indians (at that time) home game in 2019 was about 21,000 (that’s a bit sad in itself). 77% of auto insurance customers were either actively shopping or experienced an adverse event that triggered shopping (e.g., poor service or a rate increase) in 2020 according to . J.D. Power. It’s a good assumption then that Geico is reaching at least 6,300 people that may be their target at each game, plus the much larger number in the city that will also see the sign.
IT’S NOT THE MEDIUM – IT’S THE OBJECTIVE THAT MATTERS
Prior to World War II, aviation pioneer Arnold Sidney Butler, the owner and operator of Daniel Webster Airport in New Hampshire, created banner towing. That was then, and in our digital world today, it almost seems quaint and somehow out of place. However, in this example, the medium is a smart decision for Geico if their objective was to increase brand awareness and potential consideration. Plus, they didn’t have to pay for the naming rights to the stadium like their competitor. In the increasing world of digital marketing, it’s important not to decide on your tactic (your medium) before you first define your objective and understand your target audience.
KNOW HOW YOUR AUDIENCE CONSUMES CONTENT & WHAT’S RELEVANT
As digital continues to grow and in some cases dominates access to certain target audiences, it has also created an equal need to better understand your target audience. It’s more imperative than ever to know how they consume content and to deliver an authentic, on brand message that is relevant. Surprisingly, not many companies do a good enough job at understanding who their target audience is or their purchase decision journey (why they buy from you). It’s not just about demographics (see our other amazing article on this topic, Demographics Are Outdated).
DO YOUR RESEARCH!
If you don’t have the internal resources to conduct your own research, then find a reputable agency that has a clear and solid process to conduct the research first and not just sell you a solution. Don’t let them sway you with just secondary data either. It’s a good start, but those are often generalities of a market or segment. Conduct your own primary research that is tailored to your company. Think of it as an investment that will provide you better returns down the road through improved campaign performance.
So, don’t just settle for a tactic, traditional or digital unless you do your homework first. Remember it’s not the medium or the platform, it’s your objective that comes first. Understand who is buying from you, why, and what matters to them. Who knows, maybe you will be flying a banner behind a plane in addition to that digital banner across the screen.
My days as an intern at Sonnhalter are not what I expected them to be. For one, there’s way less grabbing coffee for everyone than popular media would lead you to believe. For another, they gave me a huge desk with a window view. The view is a cemetery, but beggars can’t be choosers.
I help ghostwrite blog posts for the Sonnhalter website than I can add to my portfolio, draft up press releases for tools I now know more about than I ever thought I would, conduct research and create social media content. I also sit in on meetings with clients and go to in-person open houses to get a better sense of what I am writing about.
One thing I enjoy about interning at Sonnhalter is that no two days are the same. Some days are more writing intensive, while others are more research focused, and I can switch between projects if I want to write more than research.
I have been learning a lot during my time at Sonnhalter and I am excited to take it with me into my future career.
User-generated content (UGC) is content that was created through images, videos and podcasts. Types of user-generated content could be product reviews, testimonials and educational material. User-generated content can come from your customers, influencers or your employees, and can be an added benefit to your brand.
Why is it important?
UGC can be beneficial in the buyer’s journey to add credibility as well as increase social media engagement and overall conversions.
Consumers are 2.4 times more likely to view user-generated content as authentic compared to content created by brands, so utilizing this strategy is important.
UGC can help build brand loyalty and can help grow a tight knit community for your brand. Often, businesses will create influencer programs so they can send out their products for influencers to post about. This allows the company to gain content that they can post across their social media channels.
Sharing audience content also works to develop and deepen audience and business relationships, driving more brand loyalty.
Cost-Effective
Instead of creating a campaign around one of your least popular items and having to spend money on a photoshoot, you can save money by sprinkling in UGC. When starting to use UGC, check your analytics across other posts. You should find that the UGC receives higher engagement and obviously didn’t cost an arm and a leg to create. UGC is a cost-effective way to introduce an innovative marketing strategy to the mix.
Conclusion
Utilizing UGC content can help benefit your brand, but understanding how using UGC can align with your goals is important. Sit down and review your marketing strategy and see how UGC can fit into your marketing mix, so you can use it to your full potential.
Donate extra inventory, demo models, tools and building materials that are no longer needed, during the month of August to support Habitat for Humanity.
CLEVELAND – June 2023 – Sonnhalter, a communications firm marketing to the professional tradesman in the construction, industrial and MRO markets, is partnering with Habitat for Humanity again for its 14th Annual Sonnhalter Tool Drive. Since the tool drive’s inception, Sonnhalter has raised more than $415,000 worth in donations for the organization.
From Tuesday, August 1 to Thursday, August 31, organizations, businesses and manufacturers are encouraged to donate extra inventory, demo models, tools and building materials to the Sonnhalter Tool Drive to benefit Cleveland Habitat’s mission of building homes and empowering families through safe and affordable home ownership.
“It is hard to believe this is our 14th year,” said Matt Sonnhalter, vision architect at Sonnhalter. “Thanks to the generosity of the community, clients and friends of the agency, we have been able to donate more than $415,000 to this great cause. Last year’s Tool Drive was a historic year for us, and we are hoping to be able to match that this year.”
The Sonnhalter Tool Drive encourages businesses and organizations to look through warehouses for extra inventory and overstocked tools or items.
Cleveland Habitat has helped more than 300 Habitat homeowners, including more than 1,000 children, have a safe and decent place to live. The donated items will be used for Habitat for Humanity projects or will be sold at the organization’s ReStore, discount home improvement stores with two locations in Cuyahoga County. Proceeds from ReStore sales are used to help Habitat build and rehabilitate homes for those in need.
Tools and materials can be shipped to Attn: Tool Drive, Sonnhalter, 1320 Sumner Ave., Suite 200, Cleveland, Ohio 44115. For information on how you can participate in the Sonnhalter Tool Drive, or to coordinate larger shipments, i.e., pallet size, please contact Rosemarie Ascherl-Lenhard from Sonnhalter at 216.242.0420 x130 or [email protected]. To make a monetary donation, please make checks payable to “Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity” and mail to Sonnhalter, 1320 Sumner Ave., Suite 200, Cleveland, Ohio 44115.
Established in 1976, Sonnhalter is the leading B2T marketing communications firm to companies that target professional tradesmen in construction, industrial and MRO markets. Sonnhalter is located in the historic Brownell Building in the heart of downtown Cleveland. Sonnhalter’s brand identity highlights its expertise in marketing to the professional tradesmen. Its tagline, “Not Afraid To Get Our Hands Dirty,” promotes the employees’ willingness to roll up their sleeves and dig deep into clients’ businesses, also, it refers to the market it targets: the tradesmen who work with – and dirty – their hands every day. Sonnhalter developed the acronym “B2T,” which stands for “business-to-tradesmen” to capture the essence of its specialty. For more information, visit the company website at Sonnhalter.com.
About Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity engages people of all faiths to eliminate substandard housing. Cleveland Habitat was founded as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in 1987. Since then, Cleveland Habitat has brought together community members, volunteers and sponsor groups to help more than 300 Habitat homeowners, including more than 1,000 children, have a safe and decent place to live. For more information on Great Cleveland Habitat for Humanity, visit: https://www.clevelandhabitat.org/.
It’s probably not surprising that 4 of the Top 5 channels are online/digital according to a recent report from Wunderman Thompson Intelligence, but I bet you the #2 channel is: In-store/at a vendor’s warehouse.
However, while US B2B buyers are searching on Amazon Business and the site commands an estimated 15% of their buying budgets, it’s not necessarily where buyers are starting their purchasing journey.
The largest share of US respondents say they most often start their journey in-store or at a vendor’s warehouse (26%), while fewer start on Amazon Business (16%).
The pandemic played a role in people purchasing online more but spending online is likely to decrease post-pandemic.
Here are some additional nuggets from the report:
Nearly all US respondents have switched suppliers for all (55%) or some (41%) business purchases during the pandemic
Almost half (49%) of all B2B purchases are made online
62% of buyers would like to have dedicated smartphone apps through which they can make B2B purchases
89% of B2B buyers in the UK and US find buying online more complicated than offline
Promotions and marketing are the #1 influencing factor in B2B purchasing
With a high percentage of B2B buying happening online, it’s important to have your suppliers get their online portals right. Online portals can change a customer’s shopping experience and leave them with a positive attitude.
Each month we’ll be featuring a blog post from our friends at MAGNET (Manufacturing Advocacy & Growth Network). MAGNET’s mission is to support, educate and champion manufacturing in Ohio with the goal of transforming the region’s economy into a powerful, global player. You can visit MAGNET online at manufacturingsuccess.org.
Remember the feeling of being assigned an essay in school, when you knew what you needed to write about, but didn’t know where to start or couldn’t find the right words to string together? Blog writing can elicit those same feelings, with the added pressure of having to work within the confines of SEO, brand and purpose. Ya, blog writing can be intimidating.
But, great blogs can lend huge credibility to your business and areas of expertise. Further, blogging is a low-cost way to connect with existing, new and potential customers; offers a quick, valuable source of social media content; and builds your brand. Ultimately, your blogs can share how much you know about your manufacturing field and put you ahead of a competitor who’s not blogging.
Recently, someone who is not a marketer asked me how to write a blog and if I could document the process. I immediately realized that anyone in business could benefit from understanding the full process. Subject matter experts in manufacturing need to position themselves as industry leaders and provide educational, thought-leadership content to their current and potential customers.
Here is the process I use when I write blogs for myself, my organization or clients.
Brainstorm a list of potential topics.
Organize those topics by top of funnel (awareness/educational), middle of funnel (consideration) or bottom of funnel (conversion/sales) content. This will help you create a balance of content to nurture leads along the buyer process, which will then keep them loyal and become your advocates.
Identify keywords that you or your company want to rank for in a Google search and include those in the blog (optimizing it for SEO). These keywords are best identified by using a tool that can tell you what the most popular searches are for your industry or what keywords your competitors are ranking for.
Make sure the topic you select is relevant for your audience.
I do some online research to see what’s already out there; sometimes, that helps me focus my topic further.
Some people do an outline, though I don’t. I just do a rough draft and then move things around. Back to the idea of a college essay, it has an intro, body and conclusion or a beginning, middle and end.
Make the language conversational and engaging. Show “personality.”
Keep sentences and paragraphs short.
Often, I interview someone for the blog by either emailing them questions. Sometimes we’ll have a phone or zoom chat, and I’ll taking notes if they are the subject matter expert or can provide a quote for my blog that will lend it credibility.
Create a headline that makes people want to read it. Often that is things like 10 tips, 5 ways, 3 things you can do.
If the blog is longer than a paragraph or two, I usually write subheads to break it up into digestible bites and so people can scan and see an outline of what’s covered. You also can make phrases that are important bold, so it is easily scannable.
People love lists; so, I usually use a bulleted or numbered list (see: this blog). That also makes it scannable and user friendly.
As for length, search engines like long form copy, which is about 1,500-2,000 words. But minimum wordcount should be 400 to 500; otherwise, Google actually penalizes you for thin content.
Check grammar!
Use an engaging image that catches attention and use video when you can.
Cite sources if you use outside info.
Put a call to action at the end. What do you want them to do? How do you capture them?
