by tradesmeninsights | Apr 8, 2015 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
By Chris Ilcin, Account Superintendent at Sonnhalter
If you’re like me, you’ll flip the channel when commercials come on. Hopefully, unlike me, you’ll remember what you were watching when the break is over.
Well tradesmen are the same way, so don’t expect them to actively seek out a 5-minute commercial on YouTube. All the search terms in the world won’t make people sit through a video that does nothing more than pat yourself on the back for making such a great product.
If you want eyeballs, and the increased search results they equal, you need to show how your product fixes their problems. Here are a few tips:
- Make it
Solution Based – Why does this product exist? What problem does it solve, or how is it best used. Make the solution, not the product the focus. This also gives you a chance to showcase your “total” solution; customer service, technical support, anything else that sets your solution apart from the competition.
- Keep it, and Your Customers Moving – Just like a good commercial, an effective video should drive the customer somewhere, in the shortest amount of time available. Website, local distributors, a call center. Figure out where you want them, and give them a reason to get there.
- Be Yourself; or Have Someone Else – If you’re not funny, don’t try to be now. Work with what you have. Or better yet, add another person. They can bounce ideas and concepts off each other instead of the camera and both will feel more natural. One set up I’ve always liked is a “Product Expert” being interviewed by an “Everyman.” This way they can tease the pertinent info out, rephrase it in common language and keep the conversation moving.
- Know What You’re Good At – Even the best message can get lost with poor delivery. Now isn’t the time to hire your Brother-In-Law’s cousin. Highly qualified freelancers are available across the country. Put out feelers through friends, social media, your PR people and vendors, and get quotes. And not just for camera, but sound, direction, editing and production. Done correctly, a video will become the first interaction a potential customer will have with your company, so make it count.
- It’s All in the Prep – Just like painting a room, most of the work should take place before the job gets started. Have a script, a shot list, a location, talent, and props in-hand. Make sure everyone is on the same page about goals and message. Editing is great, but it can’t make words or actions you never shot magically appear.
- Say It or Show It; Not Both – A picture is worth a thousand words, so save the words for something else. It’s a video, not a book (or blog post) so keep text to an absolute minimum.
- Multitask – As long as you’re hiring freelancers, setting up lights and everything else, cover a few other bases. Product photography, other solutions or products that can be shown in the same set-up, video for trade show use and social media all can be taken care of. With a well-choreographed crew, you can shoot 3-6 short videos in one day. So make the most of it, but keep to your priorities.
- Consider All Platforms – Where do you want your video to be watched? Everywhere. On your website, YouTube, Facebook and mobile devices. So keep it as short as possible. Even the best smart phone right under a cell tower won’t play a 10-minute video without a pause or two, so don’t try your viewer’s patience.
- Don’t Re-Post; Re-Direct – Once you’ve uploaded the video to YouTube, make sure you let everyone know. But do it through links and redirected placement. For instance, don’t embed the video on the product page; embed the YouTube link. That way all the views are being accumulated in one place, increasing that number and moving it up the search results.
- Tag, So You’ll Be It – Think like a customer, or potential customer. They don’t know the products part number or trademarked name. So while all that should be in the tags, so should more generic terms and phrases, as well as your competitors’ names, terms and phrases.
- Keep An Eye On It – Once it’s posted, track it. How many views does it get after a week, a month and a year? Use the Analytics options on YouTube (all free) to see how people are finding it, how long they’re watching it and re-post it someplace every few months.
- Don’t Take Comments Personally – By now you’ve been living with this project for a few months, and feel pretty happy about the end product. So negative comments, which are almost guaranteed in the internet age, are going to feel like a personal attack. They aren’t, and the biggest mistake you can make is to feed the trolls. Address legitimate concerns as diplomatically and quickly as possible, but don’t add fuel to a fire.
Video is an incredibly powerful tool. It works in almost any setting; in an office, on a sales call, or in the field. Make it as effective as possible, and it can sell the product, reinforce your brand and be relevant for years to come.
by tradesmeninsights | Apr 7, 2015 | Marketing Tips, Traditional Marketing
By Robin Heike, Production Foreman at Sonnhalter
Project meetings for marketing activities are so important for all who will be working on them, so let’s make sure we make the most out of them.
We usually start out with a creative brief initiated by the lead person for the project. This sets the tone and objectives for the project, so when the team does get together, they have a clearer picture of what needs to be done.
We use a creative brief to get the process going, and it might help you if you don’t have a formal process.
Here are the key elements:
- Project description – Give overall scope of what needs to be accomplished.
- Background – What are your current problems? What are possible key solutions? What are the current beliefs and what are the desired ones?
- What do you want the communication to do – introduce a new product or service?
- Target audiences – who are your primary and secondary audiences?
- Unique Selling Proposition – what sets a product or service apart from your competitors?
- Support points – give back-up features and benefits.
- Mandatories – logos, association bugs, tag lines.
- Tone – informative, leadership, etc.
- Deliverables – ad, e-blast, event, product sheet, blog post?
- Timeline – when is it due?
- Budget – Self explanatory.
Complete info includes direction/message to convey, any background info including examples, photos if they are being supplied, deadlines for completed project (who is responsible for what or where we can gather needed info/pieces and when and how a project will be presented).
Written details supplied on all project paperwork is so important since each person usually has more than one project in the works/on their mind.
Project meetings are most effective when all info that will be available is discussed with everyone who will be working on the project.
by tradesmeninsights | Mar 25, 2015 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
For a major new purchase, do you think a contractor or tradesman just walks into a distributor and asks what’s new, and then just buys it? Of course not.
They hear or read about a new or better solution to help them do their job better and more efficient. They research what other tradesman think about the idea, either on forums or in person. They research it online and download information to help them. It’s at this point they may contact their local distributor or manufacturer to get more questions answered or ask for a product demo.
The point is, the contractor has done lots of research long before they identify themselves to you as a potential sale.
Marketing’s role is to make sure that the right information is in the right place for contractors, whether it’s in trade publication ads, testimonials, product reviews, customer ratings, PR or social media. The fact is, B2B customers are 60-90% the way through a purchasing decision before they contact you! Yikes.
Heidi Cohen recently posted an article on how the 2015 B-to-B purchasing decision process has changed.
Here are some and points to consider:
- 5% of website visitors provide an email address
- 20% of marketing emails are opened
- 1% of leads are nurtured
These types of challenges require some sort of marketing automation tools to help you better reach and engage prospects. You need to determine what content they want, put it where they want it and understand the next steps in their process.
What are your biggest challenges?
by tradesmeninsights | Mar 24, 2015 | Traditional Marketing
According to an article by Andy Szal on Inddist.com, even the Federal Government has identified good paying jobs that don’t require a 4-year degree.
The agency expects those jobs to grow by 17 percent through 2022 and that prospects for qualified applicants “should be very good.”
Most of the other positions on the agency’s list worked in building maintenance or construction, including building inspectors, iron and steelworkers, electricians, pipefitters, masons and elevator installers. Many jobs receive on-the-job training or post-secondary training.
According to Jeff Owens, president of Advanced Technology Services, “the retiring baby boomer generation has a huge impact on the skilled labor shortage.” With the youngest of this generation approaching their mid-fifties and older, boomers are retiring at an average of 10,000 per day according to the Washington Post; American manufacturing is facing serious challenges. “The fact that the retiring workforces acquired their skills through high school industrial arts and company-sponsored apprentice programs that are not available to today’s youth only exacerbates the problem.”
Associations are even getting into the picture to try to help members recruit good talent. One such association is the PMPA that publishes a blog, Speaking of Precision, to let young people know there are viable alternatives to a 4-year degree.
As manufacturers, I think our responsibility is to get involved in our local communities with career days. Talk to guidance counselors and offer tours of your facilities and have your HR people be available to talk to students about manufacturing. We can’t sit back and wait for kids to come to us if they don’t know the opportunities exist.
by tradesmeninsights | Mar 18, 2015 | Marketing Trends, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
A new study published by The Content Marketing Institute identifies tactics that are working for manufacturing. The B-to-B sector has always been known to be slightly behind the curve when compared to consumer goods, but the manufacturing side is even farther behind.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that this sector is willing to try things, and this study shows that they are now identifying things that work and are focusing on improving them.
Beyond brand awareness, their primary concern is sales, and to get to sales, they need to generate leads. Ironically, even though they identify sales as the top goal, fewer than half use sales as a measure of content marketing success. One of the challenges is getting everyone on the same page as to who you are and what you want to accomplish. Mixed or multiple messages don’t work.
Manufacturers top 5 effective tactics are:
- In-person events
- Videos
- Webinars/webcasts
- Case studies
- White papers
Manufacturers are presently working on:
- Converting website visitors
- Organizing content on website
- Creating better, more engaging content
- Better understanding their audiences and how/when they consume content
- Finding more/better ways of repurposing content
So how do these results stack up with what you’re doing?
As a side note, this fall, Content Marketing World will have a whole day focused on the manufacturing sector and it’s worth attending. Great speakers and ideas.
by tradesmeninsights | Mar 3, 2015 | Marketing Tips, Traditional Marketing
One of the biggest challenges B-to-B marketers face is developing/identifying content that can be used in e-newsletters, e-blasts or just plain emails as part of a nurturing program.
I think a major stumbling block is that some think they need to produce all-original content themselves or have control of all the messaging. The whole point of a nurturing program is to engage potentials with RELEVANT and INTERESTING content. Follow a rule that of three things you talk about, make one of them about you and the other two about ways they can improve their jobs.
That doesn’t mean highlighting the news widget in your line. Too many people make the mistake of always trying to sell you something or are always talking about themselves. When was it when you were at a social or business gathering and got stuck with someone who only talked about themselves? Not a very engaging conversation and I’m sure it didn’t last that long.
To the contrary, you need to give the reader something that will help them do their job better (relevant) and you want to get their attention (make it interesting).
What some don’t realize is that there are numerous options out there that are free for the taking if you know where to look, and they might be right under your nose. You need to look at good secondary sources. Here are some:
- Trade associations – They are always addressing issues that are relevant to your space.
- Trade publications – Most have archives of great written relevant articles that address applications or processes in your area. They also have articles/views on industry issues that could be shared. Write a small comment and link to their website.
- Other manufacturers’ sites – Other non-competing manufacturers in the same space you are might be publishing great insights on an application or how-to article that would be a benefit to your audience. Again, write some comments and link to their site.
Not only will you engage more prospects, but you can increase your audience. If people receive things that are valuable, they will share it with others. So a by-product of good content would be an increase in your list size.
What kind of secondary resources are you using?
