by tradesmeninsights | Jan 27, 2021 | Marketing Trends, Tradesmen Insights
by Jeff Pugel, CEO and founder, Ignition
…And How You Can Use Them To Grow Your Business
No matter what your company’s specific goals are, the ultimate aim is always to achieve sustainable growth.
Whether you want to increase your total number of customers, annual revenue, lead generation or overall market presence, you need an effective marketing strategy to grow your business.
You can get by on referrals and passive client acquisition techniques for a while but, eventually, the industry will pass your company by if it is not growing.
So, the question is, how do you achieve sustainable growth? Is there a competitive strategy being used by top U.S. companies that you can use yourself? How do you position your company so it is no longer at the mercy of fickle customer relationships and fluctuations in the market? How can you increase your market share while stimulating organic growth?
The best approach is to come up with a marketing plan that incorporates a proven go-to-market strategy that top companies use to generate new leads and sales. Below are five of the best business growth strategies used by top U.S. companies to gain a competitive advantage.
-
Define Your Company’s Ideal Buyer Profile
Stop chasing unproductive leads. It is a time consuming and unprofitable use of your resources.
Top U.S. companies in every industry do not waste time on leads that don’t translate to sales. There are some audiences that, no matter how skillfully you nurture them, will never be a viable option.
This is why you should create a reliable profile for the type of customer that is not only likely to become a sale but also the type of customer that is a good fit for your company’s services.
Stop concerning yourself with how you can attract the highest number of leads. Narrow your approach and focus on the most productive ones.
Which audiences have you worked well with in the past? Which characteristics set those audiences apart from your other customers? Answering these questions helps you narrow down the type of your ideal buyer.
Remember, top companies are extremely efficient. They do not waste time chasing down pointless leads. Neither should you.
-
Know When a Lead is Engaging With Your Company
The top companies know when to strike. They know when a prospect is showing genuine interest and how to take the next step.
You have to separate the people who are looking at you out of curiosity from high engagement leads that are indicating legitimate interest.
Again, the goal here is to make the best use of your time and resources. Don’t chase down leads that won’t make a purchase. Define the threshold where someone becomes a qualified lead that is worth pursuing.
Once a lead is determined to have shown genuine interest in your products and services, actively pursue their business and move towards the next part of the sales process.
-
Provide Your Leads With a Solution to Their Unique Problems
Top companies sell their products or services as needs rather than wants. They don’t say, “Here’s why you might like us.” They say, “Here’s why you can’t afford to be without us.”
There is no way around it, people these days have short attention spans. You need to stand out if you want any chance of securing new business.
The top U.S. companies find a way to make their products and services appear as a solution to a problem. To do this, you have to identify the problem first then show how you can provide the solution.
Identify a problem your ideal lead has then tailor your marketing content around a specific solution to it. What can you do for your prospect that the competition cannot do? Make your offerings appear valuable. This helps you transition them from a potential customer to a successful sale.
-
Separate Yourself From the Competition
Top companies know that to grow, they need to stand out in their industry.
Entering a crowded marketplace is difficult. You need to demonstrate your competitive advantage over others. Why should your leads choose you instead of someone else?
Growth depends on conversion. To convert leads into sales, discover what you do differently from everyone else in your industry. Find your niche and narrow in on it.
If the competition is doing one thing, do something different. Make sure your leads know that you offer an alternative to what the competition is offering.
-
Modernize Your Marketing Techniques
The top companies are not where they are by accident. They adopted the latest technologies and data capturing techniques to secure the biggest share of the market they could.
We are now firmly in the digital age. You need a strong online presence without question. Without one, you will not just fail to grow, but your company will become irrelevant. All of the top companies are taking a professional approach to managing their digital, online, and social media presences.
Go where the best leads are. If the leads you want are using a specific social media platform, have a presence there. Are you trying to target a younger client? Chances are advertisements on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter will resonate with them.
Do not overlook the effectiveness of LinkedIn. LinkedIn allows you to connect directly with the decision-makers at the businesses you’re trying to land as clients.
Do not neglect email marketing. Most people use email for the majority of their business conversations. You need to make your agency a part of those conversations.
Learn From the Best
In this day and age, there is no excuse for ignoring what the leaders in your industry are doing. Successful companies plan for growth and work for it.
Be like the top companies and do what it takes to secure the business that allows your company to grow.
These strategies are designed to help your company, but your efforts should not stop there. Study the top companies in your industry and keep evolving.
About Jeff Pugel:
Jeff’s goal is straightforward… to help serious business owners generate more clients, close more sales and increase their overall revenue and profits… quickly and inexpensively.
Jeff specializes in sales and marketing for small business owners. Over the years, he’s developed a keen understanding of the complex issues facing small business owners in the type of volatile economy we have today and foreseeable future.
A 20+ years career in marketing working with top marketers including AT&T Wireless, Intel, Advil, American Express, and Esurance prior to becoming a marketing coach has helped Jeff develop the skills to quickly and effectively teach small business owners how to successfully apply the right strategies in the right order that allows them to grow their business to its maximum capacity.
by tradesmeninsights | Jan 22, 2021 | Marketing Trends, Tradesmen Insights
by Rosemarie Ascherl-Lenhard, PR Foreman
Images make everything better.
It’s no secret that we are immersed in the “Age of Visual” culture, with cameras in everyone’s back pocket and with more than 2.5 billion camera phones in use, photos are becoming the “universal language.” If you’ve been paying attention to marketing and social media trends over the past several years, you know that the entire internet is becoming more visual. In fact, a picture might be worth far more than a thousand words now.
Shifts in the social media world are putting bigger emphasis on using high-quality photos in content. It should also be no surprise that the fastest growing social media networks are Instagram and Facebook.
Adding images to your content could be a lot more important than you might think. According to Jeff Bullas’ blog post 6 Powerful Reasons Why You Should Include Images in Your Marketing, images encourage people to engage with your content.
Thinking about your own news browsing habits, you have to admit that you are more likely to click on an article that has an intriguing image.
Jeff shared some interesting stats, including:
- Articles with images get 94% more total views
- Including photos or videos with press releases increases views by more than 45%
- Facebook engagement rates for photos are 37% higher than plain text
- In an ecommerce site, 67% of consumers say the quality of a product image is “very important” in selecting and purchasing a product
- In an online store, customers think that the quality of a product’s image is more important than product-specific information (63%), a long description (54%) and ratings and reviews (53%)
Read the rest of his blog post for some tips on integrating photos into your content.
by tradesmeninsights | Dec 23, 2020 | Agency Insights, Uncategorized
Whether in Cleveland, or on the North Pole, 2020 was the year the world recognized just how much we need our professional tradespeople to keep the lights on, the water running and the reindeer fed. We’ve all experienced major changes to our way of life, but Sonnhalter would like to extend our appreciation to all essential workers for whom the job never stopped.
We are also grateful for another constant in a most unpredictable year: the support we receive from our wonderful clients, business partners and friends like you. We thank you for another successful year, and we hope you and your family have a safe, wonderful holiday season.
Sonnhalter, your B2T partner – let’s build something together.
by tradesmeninsights | Dec 18, 2020 | Events/Trade Shows, Marketing Tips, Tradesmen Insights
by Lisa Michaels, guest columnist
If your company has recently missed an opportunity due to a trade show cancellation or the postponement of another event, it can have a significant effect on your bottom line.
This is especially true for manufacturers who market products and services to construction, industrial or similar markets.
Trade shows are a huge opportunity to promote your company, connect with potential clients, do demonstrations and network for referral opportunities. Therefore, if you miss one, you need a way to make up for the loss of revenue and business benefits.
In this article, we will discuss several ways to do damage control for these missed opportunities. With these strategies, you can turn a bad situation into something that helps your company grow instead.
Without further ado, let’s get started:
Deploy Your Sales Reps
When a business event gets cancelled, many potential clients that you were going to meet are now disengaged.
You should get your sales reps to reconnect with these companies and attempt to maintain the relationship and gain new sales deals. Here are some ways you can do that: (more…)
by tradesmeninsights | Dec 11, 2020 | News, Press Release, Tradesmen Insights
Sonnhalter wins Silver Davey Awards in the Print Campaign-B2B for Design/Print and Social Features-Best Community Building & Engagement for Social categories.
CLEVELAND – December 2020 – Sonnhalter, a communications firm marketing to the professional tradesman in the construction, industrial and MRO markets, won two Silver Davey Awards with its clients, General Pipe Cleaners and Kapro Tools. Sonnhalter won a Silver Davey with General Pipe Cleaners in the Print Campaign-B2B for Design/Print for General Pipe Cleaners’ new “Duotone Look and Feel” creative. Sonnhalter also won a Silver Davey with Kapro Tools in the “Social Features-Best Community Building & Engagement for Social” for the launch of Kapro’s influencer program. 
For the award it received in the category of Print Campaign-B2B for Design/Print, Sonnhalter wanted to give General Pipe Cleaners’ print and digital creative a completely new look and feel that felt more contemporary to today’s audience. By using a duotone, high-contrast effect, Sonnhalter was able to develop creative that felt very modern and allowed the products in their distinct orange color to pop.
For the award it received in the category of Social Features-Best Community Building & Engagement for Social, Sonnhalter worked strategically in finding and pitching woodworking, DIY and contractor influencers in the U.S. and Canada who would be willing to use Kapro Tools’ products on upcoming builds and give honest opinions on the product’s features. Sonnhalter drafted personalized letters to accompany each package of Kapro product samples. Since the launch of the program in 2019, Kapro Tools’ number of Instagram followers has grown more than ten times its original number of followers, and the company has greatly increased its presence and credibility across many crucial online communities.
With nearly 2,000 entries from across the U.S. and from around the world, the Davey Awards honors the finest creative work from the best small shops, firms, and companies worldwide. The Davey Awards are judged and overseen by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts (AIVA). The AIVA is an invitation-only member-based organization of leading professionals from various disciplines of the visual arts dedicated to embracing progress and the evolving nature of traditional and interactive media.
“These awards are a testament both to the collaborative relationship Sonnhalter has with our clients and our ability to incorporate the latest trends in order to help them resonate with a modern audience,” said Matt Sonnhalter, vision architect at Sonnhalter. “Sonnhalter is very pleased to be recognized for our efforts by these industry experts, and we extend our appreciation to them, as well as General Pipe Cleaners and Kapro Tools, who made winning these awards possible.”
About the Davey Awards
The Davey Awards exclusively honor the “Davids” of creativity, the finest small shops, firms, agencies, and companies worldwide. David defeated the giant Goliath with a big idea and a little rock – the sort of thing small agencies do each year. The annual International Davey Awards honors the achievements of the “Creative Davids,” who derive their strength from big ideas rather than big budgets. The Davey Awards is the leading awards competition specifically for smaller agencies as they compete with their peers to win the recognition they deserve. Please visit www.daveyawards.com for more information.
This is why you should create a reliable profile for the type of customer that is not only likely to become a sale but also the type of customer that is a good fit for your company’s services.
