by tradesmeninsights | Jul 16, 2014 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
What is Content Curation?
Content curation is the process of sorting through the vast amounts of content on the web and presenting it in a meaningful and organized way around a specific theme. The work involves sifting, sorting, arranging and publishing information.
Why is it important to Manufacturers who want to reach the Professional Tradesman?
Chances are you have lots of bits and pieces of information on your products/services. They are scattered all over from catalog, tech sheets installations sheets, presentations, etc. We as marketers are so focused on creating content, and in most cases, your first priority is to consolidate all relevant info on a product or service in one place. Once you see what you have, it will be easier to identify the pieces that are missing and need to be created.
Professional tradesman are always looking for help in solving problems, and it benefits both you and them if they can go to one source and get all their questions answered.
Wouldn’t it make sense for a potential customer who is interested in left-handed widgets to find one source that could:
- help evaluate your situation and options available
- give you an independent industry perspective on possible solutions
- give you guidelines on what products to consider for the project at hand
- give you tips on installation
- give you troubleshooting suggestions
- give you tips on maintenance
So if the number-one challenge to marketers is lack of time, doesn’t it make sense to organize first, then prioritize how you’re going to fill the holes?
Heidi Cohen wrote an interesting article, The Top 10 Reasons You Need Content Curation in Your Content Marketing Mix where she outlines her reasons to use content curation.
Here are a few that caught my attention:
- it provides a variety of perspectives which helps increase its credibility
- positions you as a thought leader in your field
- good content will be shared leveraging other people’s audiences
- builds your brand
- content can be segmented for social media and drive folks to your curated site with more information that they requested
So don’t take the ready-fire-aim approach to developing content. Take an inventory of current assets before developing new ones. Also don’t try to do everything at once. If you have products that serve several markets, pick one, do it well, document results and then plan the next one.
by tradesmeninsights | Jun 17, 2014 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing
I don’t know about you, but referrals are a great source of leads and customers for us.
It takes you down the sale funnel much more quickly if someone says something nice about you and recommends they talk with you.
Now we may all do this in person by networking and asking for referrals from people who now like and trust us. But have you taken that to the next level with your online contacts?
Referral marketing engages people online through daily interactions on the web. By recruiting customers to help drive new business using online is more relevant because you share the same interests and values as your existing customers.
Extole has an ePaper out, Fact vs Fiction: 5 Referral Marketing Myths. They give examples of what companies are doing and focus on:
- Referral marketing as a high impact strategy for driving new customer acquisition.
- Referral marketing reaches audiences SEO and SEM don’t.
- New customers acquired by referral marketing have high retention rates and stronger loyalty.
- Referral marketing is cost effective.
The paper is an easy read and you can download it here.
by tradesmeninsights | May 27, 2014 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing, Uncategorized
We all are working hard to create content in various forms, but what can we do to create the demand for it? If we build it, it will come philosophy won’t work.
In the b-to-b space where selling cycles can be long with numerous folks involved, you need to address several different issues along the way down the sales funnel, but do you know what they are?
I’ve long been a proponent of sales and marketing working closely together. After all, the objective of both is to sell more stuff.
I’m amazed that folks in the marketing department spend little or no time in the field talking with customers. I always recommend marketing folks spend time with the salesmen in the field, and I don’t mean a day or two. Spend a week or so and you’ll see customers in various stages of the buying process.
More importantly, you as a marketer have the unique opportunity, while in front of a prospect, to ask some really relevant questions that the salesman might not ask.
Questions like:
- What other types of info would be helpful in your decision-making process?
- What triggers a buyer to start the process?
- What kinds of concerns do your colleagues have that we might address?
- Focus on customers needs and concerns.
Why do I keep harping on getting in front of the customer? Let’s be honest. Most companies don’t know their customers well enough. They don’t know or understand the buying process well enough. They don’t have content framework to communicate with the potential buyer.
I read an interesting article recently by Jay Hidalgo in the Chief Content Officer magazine that outlines 3 steps to create a process to create demand for your content.
His User’s Guide consists of 3 things:
- Developing a buyer’s persona (know your customer)
- Define their buying process
- Developing a content framework for communicating with a buyer
He takes you through a process that engaged the combined efforts of sales and marketing resulting in a well-thought-out strategy, and content that will be on target that users will want to pass it on. You can read his entire article here.
by tradesmeninsights | May 21, 2014 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
Don’t have a plan to follow or nurture leads?
When was the last time you responded to an ad, e-blast or other form of communications about a new product and never heard from the company after they got you what you requested? Or if you did hear from them, it was weeks or months after the original inquiry.
I bet it’s more the rule than the exception, especially in the B-to-B world. What I can’t figure out is why. Unless your product is so unique, wouldn’t you want to let the prospect know why dealing with you is better?
Yet I see many manufacturers still today that have no formal plan to follow and nurture leads. If they are not going to follow-up the lead, then why are they promoting the product in the first place? It’s a waste of time and money.
Many pass the lead on to their distribution network before qualifying them as to what stage in the selling cycle they are.
Wouldn’t it make sense to follow-up with the prospect…
- to see if they got the info they requested?
- to see if you can answer any questions?
- to direct them to a local distributor?
- to possibly offer them some other help or info once you determine where they are in the sales cycle?
A lead that has been qualified and then passed on to either rep or distributor gives them a little better feel for what the prospect is looking for and the application. The lead doesn’t stop there; it’s only the starting point.
There are several CRM programs out there that can help you manage, track and nurture the leads. What I don’t understand is why folks are using them. One reason I found is that lots of sales folks don’t like lead tracking and nurturing programs because it identifies some weak links in the selling cycle. In the world of ROI, I would think Sales and Marketing would want to know where new business is coming from so you can do more of the same.
It makes sense if you qualify the lead before giving it out to follow-up with. You’ll get better results and salespeople might even call on them.
The sales cycle is only as good as its weakest link.
by tradesmeninsights | May 20, 2014 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
Today we have a guest post from Jason Schultz, former Director of Marketing for Great Lakes Integrated, a former strategic partner of ours.
Multi-channel marketing coupled with marketing automation is a powerful approach for manufacturing companies. Manufacturers have a unique opportunity to create interest and trust for their products by communicating with their customers and prospects through different types of media and employing automated responses to actions they take.
With manufacturer’s customers and prospects being both in the business to business world and also the business to consumer world messaging and responses need to be different. The automated responses need to be different as well.
Using multiple-channels has proven to increase response and desired actions being taken. Consider using any combination of print, mobile, email and landing pages to engage your customers in meaningful ways. The key is to link all messaging to personalized or static landing pages.
Using landing pages then allows you to gather additional information on the customer or prospects, solicit feedback, allow for registration, set meetings or start a conversation just to name a few. By utilizing a digital engagement you can gather information, analytics and automate the marketing process.
An automated response can come in the form of an email, physical collateral or product being sent, a text message or even an automated phone call. The automated response takes the initial follow ups off of sales and marketing and is a way to ensure your company is responding to the actions of customers or prospects in a timely manner.
Taking this process further, you can implement lead scoring to pre-qualify customers and prospects based on business rules and point values determined by their interactions with certain parts of your communication. Then, only the customers or prospects with the most potential get contacted by sales people to garner new or additional business. Time is not spent on those customers or prospects that have not shown an interest in what you are promoting.
Key takeaways are:
- to utilize multiple channels to increase the likelihood that customers and prospects will take the desired actions you want.
- design and messaging need to be appropriate, relevant and meaningful.
- digital components also need to be in place that allow customers and prospects to interact; allowing you to track those interactions to determine what is working, what is not and ultimately ROI.
- use marketing automation to efficiently and effectively respond to customers and prospects; increasing the likelihood of your ultimate success in adding or increasing new business.
The notion that a multi-channel approach with automation is difficult to execute and maintain is just the opposite. Today’s technology allows marketing support partners to take your campaign and feed it into the system. The system/technology then handles the deployment and execution of the different types of media and the automatic responses to customers and prospects (not to mention the gathering of all data and analytics). If you are new to this method of marketing, try a small test campaign and compare it with current efforts. Then make the determination for yourself.
by tradesmeninsights | May 15, 2014 | Social Marketing
By Rachel Kerstetter, PR Engineer, Sonnhalter
You’ve probably heard the word “viral” in relation to online marketing before. If you’re not quite sure what it means, here’s a very brief definition:
Vi-ral:
Adjective
: becoming very popular by circulating from person to person, specifically on the internet.
If something “goes viral” that means it has been shared a great number of times; there is no threshold number of shares to be reached before something can be considered viral, but in general you know when something has gone viral by the way it is talked about.
So here’s the secret to going viral:
The one aspect that every viral thing has in common is that it is a quality piece of content that resonates with your audience. Content that goes viral is often in the form of blog posts, pictures or videos.
Content can resonate with your audience in many ways, most of the time viral content resonates through humor. Content that is controversial or sparks a debate, as well as timely, helpful information will also resonate.
In our industry, content doesn’t often achieve viral status, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t resonated, sparked conversation or been effective.
As marketers, we cannot make content become viral. Content can only be made viral by your audience(s) – they have the power. Marketers and brands do not have the power to make anything viral.
Image via Scott Cresswell
If you’re disappointed that you know the secret to viral but can’t do anything about it, don’t lose heart!
The goal in any marketing initiative should not be creating viral content; it should be on creating quality content.
Marketers and brands have the power to create quality content that will resonate with audiences. If that content goes viral, then that is just a happy side effect.
