by tradesmeninsights | Feb 11, 2010 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
If you’re reading this post, I’m preaching to the choir, but it’s amazing the number of people who still don’t understand social media. If they have an idea of what it is they have, they don’t have a clue on how to use it in the B-to-B world.
I recently did a webinar for our clients and prospect list that is now housed as a webcast. If you know of someone struggling with the social media scene, this is a 35-minute overview of how to use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr from a B-to-B perspective. I showed practical examples of how real world companies are taking advantage of social. It’s my way of trying to spread the good news about social media.
by tradesmeninsights | Feb 10, 2010 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
With all the hype about social media, some marketers are going too far and have started ignoring traditional tools that have served them over the years, primarily PRINT.
Yes, we all should agree that social media is much more active currently, especially with the state of the economy. Social is cheap when it comes to outside costs, but you need to factor in internal costs for all your social media activities. Too many marketers this last year have bypassed print because of budget cuts and have concentrated more on social media.
You also need to realize that social is a long-term strategy of building thought leadership and relationships, while print ads are another way of hitting targeted audiences with specific calls to action that can translate into short-term sales. In our space of marketing to the contractors and MRO markets, print publications have already identified and have gained credibility with these folks. Books like Contracting Business have put together a good offering of both print and online offerings to reach their audience, the HVAC contractor.
Here are some things for you to consider from Magazines Publishers of America:
- Magazine readership increased over the past five years
- The number of issues read has gone up as well
- Subscriptions are the highest in a decade
- The number of consumer magazines remains high
- The age of magazine readers consistently trends younger than the total adult population
- Magazines are the #1 medium of engagement
- Magazine ad effectiveness continues to rise
- Magazines excel in driving web search
- Magazine readers are social networkers and word-of-mouth influencers
- Magazine brands continue to evolve
There’s a place for using all the marketing tools that are available to us. As we go into 2010, don’t forget who got you this far. It’s been primarily print in the B-to-B sector. If you don’t believe me, ask your customers.
by tradesmeninsights | Feb 9, 2010 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing
Manufacturers are missing an opportunity to build brand awareness and thought leadership if they don’t consider using a blog as part of their marketing mix. Contractors, plant engineers and maintenance workers are looking at ways to solve problems and learn quick tips on how to do their jobs better.
In a recent post on eMarketer, Bloggers and (personal) brand building, they cited a poll done by Technorati on the state of the blogosphere 2009 that showed that:
- Over 70% of those polled talked about products or brands on their blog.
- Nearly 60% said they were better known in their industry because of their blog.
- 63% had converted prospects to customers.
- 56% have seen their blog bring their company recognition as a thought leader.
So why aren’t you considering a blog for your business to reach your audience?
by tradesmeninsights | Feb 4, 2010 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Trends, Social Marketing
According to recent surveys, small businesses are going to spend more time and effort on social in 2010. Most are aware of social media but are lacking in education of how to use to benefit their business. This appears to be the biggest stumbling block in them using social.
I can concur when talking to contractors…many do acknowledge social, but don’t have a clue on how to use it. The biggest reason for push back on using social media is that small businesses have the perception that their customers don’t use it. The second biggest reason is that they don’t have time or the staff to manage it. Both of these obstacles can be overcome if someone took the time to show them how they could use social as a way to generate leads.
If you’re a manufacturer, trade association or buying group, this could be a golden opportunity for you to set yourself apart and teach these small businesses, whether they be distributors or contractors, how to use this medium. In the long run, as leads are converted into sales, you’ll all benefit!
According to a small business marketing forecast for 2010 from Ad-ology, lead generation is the primary reason small businesses use social media. Also cited was it was a way to keep up with industry news and monitor on-line chatter. Facebook was the most beneficial followed by LinkedIn.
What can you do to get your company, buying group or trade association doing something to help generate new leads using social media? I’d be willing to help. I’ve done webinar’s, “Social Media 101” for trade associations and buying groups. Contact me if you’re interested at [email protected] .
by tradesmeninsights | Feb 3, 2010 | Marketing Trends, Social Marketing
I’ve always said that I believe small businesses have the advantage in social media. Two of the most important reasons are that small business owners are passionate about what they do and can react quicker than larger corporations when responding to something online. That’s the beauty of social media—its success is based on building relationships. The reader doesn’t care if you are from a big corporation or an entrepreneur as long as they get good info.
I recently read a post on business.com on social media marketing to small businesses, that documented some of my beliefs. The report that surveyed over 1700 people showed that the way decision makers react and use social media varies from B-to-C and B-to-B companies. You can gain some good insights into the evolution of business social media usages by looking across industries to see the different levels of involvement.
A free download of the 40 page report is available, “Engaging Small Business Decision Makers Through Social Media.”
Here are some highlights:
- Smaller businesses (under 9 employees) aren’t engaged in Social Media in any meaningful way.
- Industry type has a major impact on the number of social media resources used for businesses.
- Most popular social media resources for small businesses are webinars, podcasts, user reviews of product or services, and profiles of LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter.
- Speed and Convenience are two main reasons for using social media.
With the great growth rate of social media in general, can you imagine if all the small businesses started to embrace the technology what would happen? Most small businesses I come in contact with are contractors, and while some have started to embrace social, many either don’t understand it or don’t see the benefit in how it can help their business.
What kind of small business stories can you share on social media successes?
by tradesmeninsights | Jan 28, 2010 | Marketing Trends, Social Marketing
Kudos to the B-to-B marketers who have embraced social media. I recently read an article in eMarketer.com that I thought I’d share some highlights. Even though we are outnumbered and less experienced than our counterparts in B-to-C, we appear to be more active according to research from a 2009 benchmarking study from business.com.
Areas where we excel are in maintaining company-related profiles on social sites, microblogging and participating in 3rd party discussion sites.
The only areas where B-to-B lagged were on Facebook and MySpace. It was interesting to note that B-to-B users were more active in measuring things like web traffic, brand awareness and prospect lead quality and volume. Web traffic for both categories was the top metric .
Keep up the good work and let’s stay ahead of our counterparts in B-to-C.
