Implemented by the Manufacturing Institute, National Manufacturing Day takes place on the first Friday of every October and this year it’s October 6th. Manufacturing Day is part of the Manufacturing Institute’s initiative to inspire the next generation, diversify the workforce and positively shift perceptions about the manufacturing industry.
In celebration, thousands of manufacturers across the U.S. host events to showcase the realities of modern manufacturing and address labor shortages in the industry that are open to students, parents and/or educators.
Manufacturing Day is a chance for manufacturers to emphasize their work and their workers and to inspire a future generation of skilled workers.
In marketing, there’s a lot of different forms of marketing as it keeps evolving. However, traditional marketing is not going away.
The 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.
The reputation you have with your customers is critical.
That should not come as new news to anyone running a business. How your customers perceive your products and services has a direct impact on future sales and it directly affects prospects consideration. The online community can be both a huge boost as well as a land-mine. Anyone with access to the internet, so basically everyone, can impact how you are perceived. So, what to do?
If you have read any of our articles, there is often one common theme in there, have a plan. It’s better to proactively manage your reputation than to let the social media world run it for you and be in a reactionary mode, especially if there are negative comments.
Assess where you are now
Start with an assessment of where you are today by taking a fresh look at your social media accounts. Understand where your customers are and that’s where you want to be. Depending on the size of your company and the resources you have, you may not need to be everywhere. For example, in our company, and given our target audience, we don’t need to be on TikTok. Then take the time to read the comments and the level of engagement your audience has with your posts. Get a good sense of what people are generally saying and how much is positive, negative, or just neutral.
Engage and boost
This is where the heavier lifting comes into play. It’s increasingly important to engage with your target audience online and this applies to B2B as much as it does in B2C companies. Are you posting regularly? How often you need to varies by the type of company and the channel. For some it might be a few times per week and for others at least once every two weeks. Your marketing team or agency can help determine the proper cadence.
Stay on top of the questions or comments
Try to respond to customer questions within 24 hours if possible. If someone states something incorrectly, it is appropriate to provide the correct answer. If someone says something negative, don’t react until you can assess the validity of the statement and provide a professional response. And given that anyone can say anything, not all comments necessitate a response. Ensure you have a trusted person responsible to answer questions with clear guidelines to help them understand when to escalate or bring in specific expertise.
Content matters
Finally, review what you are posting. Don’t always make it a sales push, but look to educate, inform, and at times, entertain – just be sure to keep it in your brand voice. Be sensitive to the medium you are using. With LinkedIn for example, keep it primarily business oriented. It’s fine to let your personal or company brand personality come through, but it’s probably best to avoid touchy societal topics
Take the time to assess where you are, continuously engage with your target audience and never stop generating content that matters to your target audience. Your brand reputation is critical to maintain, and as Warren Buffet once said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
CLEVELAND –September 2023 – Sonnhalter, a communications firm marketing to the professional tradesman in the construction, industrial and MRO markets, partnered with Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity for a 14th year during its annual Sonnhalter Tool Drive, which ran the entire month of August and collected over $100,000 worth of donations of tools and building materials. Since Sonnhalter began its efforts in 2010, it has collected $517,000 in donations.
Organizations, businesses and residents were encouraged to donate new and gently used tools, as well as building materials, furniture and appliances, to Sonnhalter to help benefit Habitat for Humanity’s cause of eliminating substandard housing and homelessness.
“Every year we are amazed at the amount of donations we receive from our clients and community to support Habitat for Humanity,” said Matt Sonnhalter, Vision Architect at Sonnhalter. “This year, we collected more than $100,000, making it our biggest donation since we started our tool drive initiative.”
“Helping our community is extremely important to us and with the Sonnhalter Tool Drive it allows us to provide tools to work on our houses, in our tool shop and be sold to the general public,” said John Litten, president/CEO of the Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity.
Community participants in the 14th Annual Sonnhalter Tool Drive included Berea Recreation Center, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Berea Branch, Frangos Group, Rising Star Coffee Roasters, Skidmark Garage, St. Mary of the Falls, The Wine Spot and many individuals living in the community.
Trade industry participants in the 14th Annual Sonnhalter Tool Drive included Babcox Media, Buyers Products, General Pipe Cleaners, Jergens, Inc., Kapro, Lakeside Supply, NIBCO, Samsel Supply, Shop Supply & Tool Company, Sutton Industrial, Woodhill Supply and Wright.
All donations that Sonnhalter collected benefited Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity. The donated items will be used for Habitat for Humanity projects or will be sold at one of the organization’s ReStores, recycled building materials and home furnishings stores. Proceeds from the ReStore sales are used to help Habitat build and rehabilitate homes for those in need.
About Sonnhalter
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 backgrounds 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/.
This September 15th, join Sonnhalter in celebrating National Tradesmen Day. Taking place on the third Friday of September, National Tradesmen Day honors the men and women who helped build America with their hard work and unique skillset. These skillsets and hard work are what set tradesmen apart – whether there is a bridge to be built or a power grid to be set up, there is a tradesman to see it done.
The demand for skilled workers is only growing. Skilled trades are one of the fastest-growing sectors in the job market and are a major influence on the economy. Training is offered in almost every type of skilled trade in the job market.
Tradespeople are the heart of our nation. They’ve built our homes, roads, hospitals and schools, and without them our way of life would be lost, so join us in saying “thanks” to a tradesman.
I think we can all agree that influencers are good at… well, influencing. Sometimes it’s like I can’t go more than two days without buying something that a stranger on the internet told me I just couldn’t live without. But is the Goliath of influencer marketing about to meet its David?
Meet “de-influencing.” – the anti-thesis of influencer marketing in which a content creator tells their followers what not to buy or what “life hacks” not to try. As of this blog post, there have been over 700 million videos tagged with #deinfluencing on TikTok. This new trend of debunking trends has more to it than meets the eye, however.
Here is one example of de-influencing in action. This TikTok content creator posts multiple videos where he does a voiceover on top of a compilation of “life hacks” and explains why you shouldn’t do them. This is just one type of de-influencing, where the content creator tells you flat out not to fall into something just because it is trendy.
Another way of de-influencing that is becoming more popular is alternative influencing, or “don’t buy that trendy product that you’ve seen a thousand times, buy this less trendy product that will actually help you.”
So, why is de-influencing becoming popular? One reason might be because consumers are moving further and further away from the mass consumerism that has been creeping its way into our culture since the pandemic, when the only thing left to do with your day was online shop.
Another reason behind de-influencing is because content creators want to be as transparent with their followers as possible. Transparency and reputation are on the front of content creators’ minds. Can you really believe someone who is getting paid to support a brand who may not have your best interests in mind? Consumers are beginning to question the authenticity of influencers’ suggestions – are they truly helpful products, or is this influencer just trying to make a buck?
So, what does this mean for you and your company? First, it means that you will have to choose your influencers wisely. If you wish to do an influencer program, make sure you choose one that will accurately review your product and not one known to post de-influencing videos.
Make sure you are also being as transparent as possible with your product. If viewers appreciate honesty with influencers, they will also appreciate it with brands. Accurately promote what your product can do and how it will help, and this will ensure that your product will not get a negative review for not being worth it.
On the flip-side, it also means you have an opportunity to get your product out there if you believe it is a more efficient alternative to more trendy products. One benefit to de-influencing is that it can appeal to more niche audiences and help push your products towards an audience that would otherwise never know it existed.
De-influencing can be an opportunity for your brand, but only if you let it. How will your company join the trend of anti-trends?
Rome wasn’t built in a day. Rome also wasn’t built without a plan. Planning is essential to almost every human activity. Do you need to go to the grocery store? Okay, first write your list, then grab your keys, then get in the car, and so on. Are you going to start a new project around the house? Not without a plan you’re not.
Planning is not only meant for general ideas, but also for every aspect of your company. Planning is important for marketing, social media, video content and more. For instance, companies research tirelessly to analyze their consumers and find out how to best appeal to them. Once they have their research, they formulate a plan to attract potential buyers and tailor a marketing campaign around that plan.
Here are five reasons why planning is one of the most important things you can do.
#1) Plans help you set appropriate goals
The whole point in doing anything is to accomplish a goal. Creating a plan helps you determine if your goal is realistic or not. After you develop your plan, you may discover that you have to refine your goal a little bit to make it more achievable.
Use the acronym S.M.A.R.T. – Smart, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-bound – to decide whether or not your goals are achievable and adjust as needed.
#2) Plans help you reveal strengths and weaknesses
In order to develop a plan, you have to look at it from every possible angle. This is where you will notice the strengths and weaknesses of your plan and, while no one likes to see a weakness in their idea, this is essential to planning. Without dissecting your plan’s weaknesses, you may end up steamrolling ahead and sabotaging yourself. Notice your weaknesses and adjust accordingly.
#3) Plans increase your efficiency, confidence and credibility
Efficiency is the goal in everything you do. Plans will help you manage time, talent and money. A project may not entirely fail with poor planning, but it will use more resources than necessary to complete. Along with increasing efficiency, planning will increase your confidence. Well thought out plans boost your confidence, and boosted confidence means an increase in certainty. Creating plans, especially when working in a group, is a great way to earn credibility. A strong plan will establish your credibility among your team and push you into a place of leadership.
#4) Plans reduce risk
You’ll never be able to predict the future, but you can prepare for it. A good plan prepares for risk and uncertainty so that, if you come across a roadblock, you are ready to deal with it and continue on the path towards your goal.
#5) Plans encourage peace of mind
Perhaps most importantly, plans relieve stress. Planning alleviates a lot of uncertainty in the future and lends to your confidence. You will feel much better knowing that you have thought through every possible scenario and have discussed the pros and cons. Stress will be present, but never overwhelming with a strong plan.
Not planning or poor planning can lead to poor management of time, money and other resources that could have been allotted elsewhere. Beyond affecting yourself with your lack of planning, you can impact those around you and the brand you represent. You could hurt not only your reputation, but the reputation of your company as a whole.
The planning process is vital to any project you will take on, whether it is personal or for your company. Take it seriously and don’t cut corners, because the last thing I’d want to say is “I told you so.” Remember these five tips for planning, and your next project will be a breeze.
