by tradesmeninsights | Jul 8, 2015 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
By John Sonnhalter, Rainmaker Journeyman at Sonnhalter
I’m amazed by the stats that more than half of those on social media don’t have a plan to respond to negative social media posts. Social media isn’t new, isn’t going away, and if you’ve followed or read anything about this space, you know there have been numerous posts about the subject.
Customer service departments are usually the place where traditional issues are handled. But when it comes to social media, most don’t know how to find complaints and have a process of responding in a timely manner. Customers especially on the internet want a response and want it now (42% want to be responded to in an hour or less).
I recently read a great article by Jay Baer from Convince and Convert on Why You Need a Customer Service Response Road Map that highlights ways to identify, prioritize, assign responsibility and set deadlines that’s well worth reading.
Negative issues need to be addressed and what better way to hear about issues than on social platforms. Don’t you want to know what customers are saying about you? You’d better be monitoring them and jump in with a plan to respond. There are several monitoring options out there that will help you. Here are some free ones: Social Mention, Google Alerts, Hootsuite and TweetDeck.
I recently had an experience with a major faucet manufacturer about a replacement. We had to get a new tub at home and my wife wanted to update the faucets, which we did. The manufacturer sent the wrong spout and it took our plumber almost 2 months to get the replacement for it. They weren’t good at customer service, just making excuses. I made mention (by brand name) on a tweet what my frustration was, and true to form, heard nothing back.
In the short run, ignoring me may not be a big deal to them since I had already purchased the tub set, but in the long run, my wife is planning to replace all the faucets in our 3 bathrooms. Guess who isn’t going to be considered for that purchase?
In a world where we have alternative plans for everything, don’t overlook social responses to negative posts. It’s better to address them straight on or they will fester and come back to bite you when you least expect it. Have a plan in place as negative reviews will affect your SEO.
Unless you are offering something you can’t get anywhere else, then you’re going to have competition from someone. So what makes your customers or potentials want to do business with you instead of them?
Assuming you have a good product, then I’d say the customer experience would be the major deal sealer or breaker. Customer service starts the moment someone from your company answers the phone through the sales process and follow-up with your customer service department if a question or problem arises.
I guess what I’m trying to say is your company’s customer service should start with every employee. Those that are on the front line (be it a CS or delivery man), they have the one-on-one contact with the customer and can sway future purchases by their actions or inactions. We all build our business around repeat sales, so everyone in the company needs to be good will ambassadors. The challenge for all of us is to find the friction in our process and smooth it out.
Here’s a good test. Make a complaint on social media about one of your products (under a name they won’t recognize) and see what kind of response you get.
by tradesmeninsights | Jul 7, 2015 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Trends, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
By John Sonnhalter, Rainmaker Journeyman at Sonnhalter
In today’s world, trust is a more important marketing asset than the product or service you’re trying to sell. Think about that for a minute. Would you buy something off of someone you don’t trust? Chances are, the answer is no.
Trust is something that’s earned and it’s always been important. But in today’s world, you can’t BS your way through it. People want to see proof. With the internet and social media, the potential customer has several options to gain access to you and how you’re actually performing in the market.
That’s why building trust should be a long-term goal.
I read an article by John Jantsch from Duct Tape Marketing, 5 Ways to Make Trust Your Most Important Marketing Asset, that brings home this point. Here are some highlights:
- What do others say about you – These third-party comments say a lot about how you really do business. Customer reviews impact SEO.
- Who are you connected with – Who do you hang out with, how do you add value, who do you collaborate with? All help shed a light on who you really are.
- How do you react – How do you react to questions or negative comments? People are watching.
- Are you easy to do business with – Convenience has become a value proposition. Actually go through your own process to see how easy it is to really do business with you.
by tradesmeninsights | Jun 30, 2015 | Marketing Tips, Traditional Marketing
By John Sonnhalter, Rainmaker Journeyman at Sonnhalter
Distributors in general are their own worst enemies when it comes to the value they bring to the table and charging customers for it. As their customers are asking for more and are willing to pay less, the distributors’ margins are being reduced and they don’t know how to change the momentum.
If you’re a general line distributor, I wish you the best of luck as you are destined to go out of business if you continue to follow this path. Most distributors who have a specialty like cutting tools/abrasives, power transmissions, bearings, etc. have a distinct value to the proposition, but many aren’t taking advantage of it.
Traditional brick and mortar distributors can’t compete with online catalog sites on price, but what if there’s an on-site production problem? Over the years, I’ve been on several joint end-user calls where the distributor and manufacturer are going in to solve a production problem.
Long ago, the distributors just solved the problems and didn’t charge for it (by the way, it wasn’t usually the product the distributor sold them; it was how the customer was or was not using it correctly).
I recently read an article in Industrial Distribution by Bill Moore from SKF on how distributors can put a dollar sign on the valuable services they offer. Here are some highlights:
- Understand your value stream – Are you taking advantage of all the support your manufacturing partners are offering such as training or engineering assistance? All can contribute to a cash value at the customers.
- Understand the customers’ challenges – Instead of selling him cutting tools, find out what type of production issues they’re having using the tools. Help him solve that. Add value they can’t get somewhere else.
- Valuate your services – What do you bring to the table that they’d have to hire an outside consultant to do? What price can they put on not having to shut down a production line?
Bottom line is, take advantage of what your supplier partners have to offer. They can help you improve your value and add $ to your bottom line.
by tradesmeninsights | Jun 24, 2015 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
By John Sonnhalter, Rainmaker Journeyman at Sonnhalter
We all want to get our message in front of contractors. In order to get more out of your content, you need to tie it to your strategy.
We’re all concerned on getting the message out that we sometimes miss other opportunities to use the same content (message) and deliver it differently.
I read a post by John Jantsch, 10 Ways to Use One Piece of Content, that brings this into perspective. Contractors get their info in several formats. Have you tried any other ways of delivering your message?
Here are some highlights from John’s post:
- Turn your post into a series of videos that the sales folks can send out on an individual basis
- Do a webinar and feature it on your website
- Use a Slideshare deck that you can use both on Slideshare as well as on your LinkedIn profile
- Develop an infographic and send it out in an e-blast
- Testimonials. Get contractors who are already happy customers to give you testimonials, either written or on video.
John’s point is that it’s not the amount of content, but its intention.
What are you doing to maximize your content?
by tradesmeninsights | Jun 23, 2015 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
By John Sonnhalter, Rainmaker Journeyman at Sonnhalter
I don’t know why folks think that more is better. Better than what? Why do you have to focus on the latest and greatest new thing that comes out? From a marketing perspective, I think we’d be better off if we focus on some key initiatives and do them extremely well.
We can’t be all things to all people so identify your USP (unique selling position) and focus on a marketing strategy that addresses your points of differentiation. Once that’s in place, identify 2-3 key initiatives that you can focus on to show your thought leadership in your area of expertise.
Think outside the box when identifying ways to promote your USP. Identify where your business is coming from. Is it from presentations or referrals? If so, you need to nurture them. Do blogs or e-blasts perform better for getting your message out? Then make sure your content is strong and spot on.
By limiting the number of tactics, you can spend more time doing less but doing it better. Not only can you focus on good content, but you can also measure your ROI.
What are your top 2-3 ways of promoting yourself?
by tradesmeninsights | Jun 17, 2015 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing, Uncategorized
By John Sonnhalter, Rainmaker Journeyman, Sonnhalter
One of the biggest challenges we all face is getting more out of our marketing budgets. Most of us, when thinking of developing content, think of it as a new task that we have to start with a clean sheet of paper.
Some overlook the fact that you may be sitting on a gold mine of existing content, but have you maximized your existing content (content curation)? Heidi Cohen’s post, Internal Content Curation: What Most Marketers Miss, shows how to give new life to content you’ve already published.
By changing headlines, graphics or focusing it on a specific industry or application, you can get more mileage out of it. Or utilize the content in a different format, i.e. SlideShare or an infographic. It’s a great way to get more content out there to incremental audiences without spending lots of money.
Heidi lists 10 steps to maximize your internal content curation. Here are a few that caught my eye:
- Audit existing content – This is low hanging fruit. Look at the gems that get the most attention. Are there content sections missing or that are weak and need to be bolstered up?
- Gather content from across the organization – Look outside the marketing department for relative content. Don’t overlook customer service, tech service and engineering as good resources. Collect questions they get from customers on a regular basis and make sure you address them.
- Monitor content analytics – What kind of content attracts the most traffic? What keywords do best? Is one platform outperforming others?
What are you doing to maximize your ROI on content?
