by tradesmeninsights | Jul 2, 2013 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
So you’re creating content and are using both traditional as well as social media to get the word out. The key question is, what are you trying to accomplish? Have you set goals and identified the appropriate target market you want to go after?
A recent article by Heidi Cohen, 53 Actionable Content Marketing Metrics caught my eye. Her metrics support your content marketing goals.
- Build your brand
- Attract new prospects
- Increase customer engagement
- Improve search
- Build thought leadership
- Increase leads
- Drive sales
- Increase customer loyalty
- Reduce costs
She gives clear action items we all can use. Hopefully these will help all of us get more out of content marketing.
by tradesmeninsights | Jun 25, 2013 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
Content marketing is not a new phenomena. It used to be called “information” that helped set you apart from your competitors. The name might have changed, but we all know great content can make or break you in the B-to-B world.
Unless you have a product/service that no one else has, you’re going to have to differentiate it from the hoards of competitors who are vying for the same sale. So what do you have to do to set yourself apart? According to Robert Rose in a recent post in the Content Marketing Institute, your content must be remarkable!
According to Robert, there is no “try,” you either evolve or fail. That’s a scary statement at the onset, but let’s consider how we go to market. For those of you who’ve been around for a while (no matter what business you’re in), I bet none of you would say you’re doing business the same way you did 10 years ago. I’d bet most would say the same statement holds true for five years ago.
So we are evolving both in what we sell and how we sell it and that’s why it’s so important to have a differentiating story to tell your prospects. This point of difference needs to be communicated across all channels of communication to your targets.
So what’s your point of view?
Robert states that “only the combination of advancing questions, meaningful insight and applied creativity will drive value from data both big and small.”
Here are three basic questions he says you need to ask yourself:
- Why is content important to your customers?
- What value will they derive from it?
- How will it differentiate us?
Lots for us to think about. How would you answer the questions?
by tradesmeninsights | Jun 18, 2013 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
Over the past several years, marketers have been focusing more of their efforts (both time and money) on social media.
Especially in the manufacturing B-to-B space, social certainly has a place to help set you up as an expert in your field of expertise, but it won’t replace more traditional ways of communicating like email. If you really want a tradesman to read something from you, which would you use, social media or email? I’d be willing to bet email.
Let’s face it, the life blood of your business (both existing and potential) lies in the quality of your database. The question is, how do you increase the size and quality of that database and what’s the best way to use it? By using traditional methods like trade shows, PR and direct mail along with social tools like YouTube, SlideShare, Facebook and Twitter, you can start identifying potential customers and start gathering email addresses for your database.
Think about this – if you go to sign up for a new social site, what’s one of the first things you have to give them? Your email! Even they know the best way to communicate is using this tool.
Consider some of these facts:
- The fact of the matter is folks respond better to emails than they do to social channels
- Email also lets you personalize your message
- They are checked more often than social sites
- It’s easier to sell through email than social sites
I listened to a podcast recently on socialmediaexaminer.com where they interviewed DJ Waldow the co-author of The Rebel’s Guide to Email Marketing. He shares his thoughts on how to use social to support your email activities. I’d recommend you take the time to listen.
by tradesmeninsights | Jun 11, 2013 | Traditional Marketing
I just got back from San Diego and the ISA Convention. For those not familiar, ISA is an association that consists of both manufacturers and distributors that sell into the industrial markets.
That market has had some tough times of recent years, but they seem to be bouncing back. But attendance didn’t reflect it. The manufacturers outnumbered the distributors 15 to 1. It’s a bad sign the first day of a show when you can throw a bowling ball down the aisle and not hit anyone.
What’s impressed me over the past several years is that they are not doing the same old same old. They try different things to get and keep the distributors and manufacturers engaged. But to have engagement, you need folks to engage. The manufacturers certainly showed up, but they can’t talk to themselves. What if we went back to having distributors in the booth?
With all the trade shows and meetings we all go to, it becomes difficult to sometimes justify the ROI on an event like this. Hats off to the ISA for at least trying. I don’t have the answer, but if this is a sign of what’s to come, the ISA won’t be around for long.
by tradesmeninsights | May 28, 2013 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Marketing Trends, Traditional Marketing
Most of the manufacturers we deal with sell through various distribution channels. The relationships range from true partnerships to a necessary evil. Most manufacturers have missed an opportunity to build relationships by not utilizing an old technique called a distributor council. We did a survey to a group of manufacturers who sell through distribution and 85% of them haven’t used this marketing tool.
I think with the market changes after 2008 and the rise of social media, that some of the old traditional ways of building relationships were put on the back burner. If your goal is to build lasting relationships with key distribution partners, you might want to consider a distributor council.
The group has several purposes:
▪ Reinforce your commitment to the industry
▪ Discuss industry trends
▪ Identify ways you can better serve them
▪ Identify new product opportunities
It’s a great way to say thanks to those who have been loyal to you and a way to build loyalty with some distributors that have you on as a supplier but is splitting the business with one of your competitors. I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve seen those kinds of distributors come to a meeting like this, and after hearing stories from your brand-loyal distributors on how you really bring value to the table that orders start increasing.
Here are the basic items for you to consider for a distributor council:
- Identify 10-12 key distributors. Ask them for a 3-year commitment (rotating 3 off each year to be replaced by new ones). Make sure they know this just isn’t a social event.
- Have two meetings a year. One at your facility so they can interact with other members of your team, and one somewhere nice and warm in the winter.
- You pick up all expenses.
- During the course of the year, if a new opportunity surfaces or you want feedback on a possible new product, get their input.
Possible Topic Areas to cover in meetings:
1. Product Training
▪ What kind of training are they looking for?
▪ What are other manufacturers doing?
2. Sales Force
▪ How can they help you sell more product?
▪ How do you rate our salesmen (weak/strong points)?
3. EDI
▪ How important is it to you?
▪ What systems are you currently working on?
▪ How many of your other manufacturers offer EDI?
4. Marketing Support
▪ What can we do to help you sell more products?
▪ What kind of support do your other manufacturers offer?
▪ Review and evaluate marketing support we currently have.
▪ How important is the Web in your sales operation?
▪ Would you use direct mail programs targeted at end users if we supply them?
▪ What do other manufacturers do that work well for you?
5. New Products
▪ Ideas on new products?
▪ Ideas on improvements to current products?
6. Pricing/Service
▪ How do we stack up against the competitor?
▪ What are our strengths and weaknesses?
▪ What are our competitor’s strengths and weaknesses?
The key is to put together an action item list coming out of the meeting and get back to them on items you will be taking action on. This will show them that their input has been heard and is valuable. Let them know upfront that anything can be on the table, but that doesn’t mean that all items will be acted upon.
Distributor council meetings can be worth their weight in gold if handled properly. Have you had an opportunity to participate in any? I’d like to hear your thoughts.
by tradesmeninsights | May 1, 2013 | Marketing Trends, Traditional Marketing
Sometimes as marketers we tend to gravitate to the newest or hottest thing out there to give it a try. What I might suggest we all do is go back to some basics like email marketing. This is a proven method of communicating with both existing and potential customers.
Lauren Fisher from eMarketer recently did some benchmarking on email marketing which included key data, trends and metrics. Here are some highlights:
- Emails are increasingly accessed by mobile devices.
- Personalization using triggered emails are increasing.
- Daily email use is higher among mobile phone users.
- There are over 546 million mobile email users in 2012. That number will triple by 2016.
- USA mobile users are estimated at nearly 116 million users.
- Nearly 33% of all emails are opened on a mobile device.
- Internet users still trust email messaging.
- Less that 22% of marketers are optimizing their emails for mobile devices.
