by tradesmeninsights | Feb 7, 2012 | Marketing Trends, Traditional Marketing
Moving forward in 2012, is mobile media going to be part of your overall marketing strategy?
According to a recent survey by the Association of Strategic Marketing (ASM), 2011 Trends in Mobile Marketing, 58% of respondents indicated that they were not using mobile marketing.
As a matter of fact, mobile seems to rank somewhere in the middle of overall marketing practices behind email (which ironically is number one) and SEO. The 42% that do use mobile in their marketing plans are optimizing their websites and emails and are beginning to use QR codes.
If you like this post you might like:
Is Mobile Marketing the Best Way to Reach the Professional Tradesman?
What Are You Doing to Reach the Young Professional Tradesman?
The Mobile Marketing Trends Study was created to allow marketing folks to see what similar organizations were doing. Some highlights of mobile marketing goals include:
- Sales/revenue – 33%
- Product service info – 25%
- Customer retention – 15%
- Lead nurturing – 11%
- Customer opt-in – 10%
- Alert reminders – 6%
For those of us in the B-to-B space, and especially for those of us trying to reach the professional tradesman, mobile should be a part of your marketing plan.
Not sure where to start? The easiest place to start is to optimize your website for mobile. Secondly, consider sending mobile-optimized emails.
The key is to make a plan and do something, monitor the response and do something else. As I’ve said before, I don’t believe mobile is going away, and there are many opportunities to reach our target audiences.
by tradesmeninsights | Feb 2, 2012 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Trends, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
Today’s Internet-enabled customer has made it clear that they decide what content looks like and how it should be distributed. Content Marketing has emerged as the primary mode of engaging business prospects. This holds true especially in the technology sector where Eccolo Media, in the fall of 2011, released a report on the trends in marketing collateral. The survey, Eccolo Media 2011 B2B technology Collateral Survey Report is available free.
Customers expect that your collateral material will provide them with info they can use – not info on a particular product. Highlights of the survey include:
- Users are consuming more content, but from a greater number of resources.
- Social sharing buttons influence all type of content – 77% said if they had an easy way to share, they do.
- Collateral goes Mobile – 37% consume content on tablets or smartphones.
- Collateral goes interactive like embedded videos – 92% of users say it positively affected overall influence.
About the survey. This is the fourth year Eccolo Media has done it. They surveyed C-level executives and the survey represents 501 usable respondents.
One of the key take aways from this is that those of us who are developing content should be considering a library of suitable content for their marketing efforts.
by tradesmeninsights | Jan 25, 2012 | Marketing Tips, Traditional Marketing
Are you using email newsletters to keep in touch with customers and prospects? If not, you should be considering it. They are relatively easy to do, especially if you do a blog.
Using a CRM service like Emma, Exact Target or Constant Contact it will give you access to templates to use for formatting, and more importantly, it will give you tracking data on who opened the email and where they spent time. The metrics will also tell you where and on what subjects people are attracted to. They also give you room for special messaging and links to appropriate sites.
Here are 4 reasons why you should consider a newsletter:
- Helps you stay in front of customers and potentials.
- Helps you establish thought leadership in your area of expertise.
- Helps identify potentials who sign up for and keep coming back to your newsletter. Maybe someone should call on them?
- Build a mailing list. Use it as one touch point to get your brand in front of your audience.
Frequency will depend on a few things. If you do a blog, I’d suggest you do it monthly and highlight the top 5 posts of the month. Most templates give you room for a customized message, like look for a new product launch coming next month or promotion of a webinar.
If you don’t do a blog, assembly of info for the newsletter may be a little more time-consuming and I would suggest doing it at least quarterly. You could assign responsibilities to various people within your company. Customer service, sales and marketing. The key is to give the reader relevent and timely info.
by tradesmeninsights | Jan 11, 2012 | Marketing Trends, Traditional Marketing
INDUSTRY OVERVIEW/TRENDS/ISSUES
A lot of our clients know they need to get into the “green” arena but do not know how to approach it or how to bring value to the “green” market. Thus, the following is both an overview of the alternative energy industry (focusing on certain segments within the larger context) to be used as a means of educating, and a list of trends and issues to be used for planning for the types of products and services needed in the future.
Renewable Energy Consumption in the Nation’s Energy Supply, 2008
This overview covers the following portions of the Alternative Energy market:
•BioMass/BioFuels/BioProducts
•Geothermal
•Hydropower
•Solar
•Wind
For those of you who might want to look at this market, the 54-page report highlights the industry, trends and issues. We also touch on associations, training, codes, trade shows and publications that cover this market. You can sign up to receive a copy here.
by tradesmeninsights | Jan 3, 2012 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
It’s that time of year again where we review the Top 10 viewed posts on our blog. If you missed them, here’s a listing:
- How Do You Thank Someone For a Retweet?
- Social Media: Who Uses It and Why?
- B-to-B Marketing Trends 2012 Study
- Social Networking is on the Increase Among Older Adults
- Google+ and B-to-B Users: How to Get Started
- Market Overviews
- 5 Reasons Why Social Media Doesn’t Work
- Content is King: 10 Tips on Effective Writing
- 5 Ways to Improve Constuction Productivity
- QR Codes: Are Manufacturers Missing an Opportunity?
by tradesmeninsights | Dec 15, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Traditional Marketing
Yes, I know the stats are overwhelming that of all smartphones today, over 50% connect to the Internet that way, and by 2014, 90% will be using mobile as a main way of staying connected.
A recent survey by Equipment World Magazine on those contractors that had smartphones:
- 85% view emails
- 81% use it to text
- 71% connect to the internet
- 52% use apps
- 24% visit social sites
- 20% watch videos
- 4% don’t use it for any of the above
Those are some impressive numbers and should tell us all that we’re missing the boat if we’re not including mobile marketing into our overall program.
But before you jump in right now, why don’t you ask the guy in charge of your web analytics to see how many people are coming to your site currently via a mobile browser.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t consider a strategy, but a QR Code isn’t a mobile marketing program.
I get a kick out of QR codes that go to the regular website that’s virtually unreadable. DON’T SEND PEOPLE TO A NON-MOBILE SITE.
If QR codes are going to be part of your strategy, then WOW them where you take them. That’s been one of the biggest complaints (disappointments) from most users that scan the code. If you put them on product packaging, make sure, for example, a how-to-use video is short and clear. Make them glad they went to the extra effort. Also tell them what to expect to get if you scan the code, i.e. a coupon, how-to video, chart to find the right size tool.
Beyond using a QR code, apps that help the tradesmen do their jobs are really a good way to connect with them. Calculated Industries has mobile apps for phones that allow a contractor to download specific calculators onto their phone. RIDGID has a digital level download for your phone. Something useful that a contractor can use.
Are you starting to think about a mobile strategy, or maybe you already have one in place? I’d love to hear about your success stories.
If you like this post, you may want to read:
What are You Doing to Reach the Young Professional Tradesmen?
Tablets and Smartphones are Changing the Way Manufacturers Will be Reaching the Tradesmen.
What are You Doing to Insure a Successful QR Code Campaign?
Are you Considering Mobile Media as a Strategy to Reach the Professional Tradesman?
