by tradesmeninsights | Mar 26, 2010 | Uncategorized
Today is name your own holiday. Since we focus on manufacturers who want to reach the tradesmen, we thought it would be appropriate to declare March 26 National Tradesmen Day.
Where would we be without them? The unsung heroes of American Industry.
At Sonnhalter, we know tradesmen well. They are the customers of the clients we serve. They’re construction workers and maintenance professionals. Electricians and plumbers.
We can think of no better way to honor the people who work with their hands than by declaring today National Tradesmen Day.
Please join us by thanking the men and women in the trades. It’s truly a day to celebrate.
by tradesmeninsights | Feb 2, 2010 | Uncategorized
My target audience is manufacturers who want to sell stuff to contractors and professional tradesmen.
Any of us who have been around this industry (no matter what field) know that the biggest challenge facing contractors is lack of qualified people. So long term if the professional tradesman goes away or certainly doesn’t keep up the current need, who are we going to sell our stuff to?According to The KiplingerLetter, there’s not a labor shortage but a dearth of talent.The Baby boomers who represent about 40% of the current work force is in the process of retiring. How are we going to replace these educated and skilled workers?
A friend of mine by the name of S.A. Habib writes a blog called Blue Collar Branding where he addresses several of these issues. He brought to my attention a recent interview on the Fox News Network of Joe Lamacchia who recently wrote a book named, Blue Collar and Proud of it.
High schools do a poor job letting kids know they have options other than going to college. I think manufacturers should step up to the plate, either individually or together with their trade associations, to start a grass roots campaign at the high school level to insure we have enough tradesmen moving forward, for everyone’s best interest. Kids should know that these jobs are in high demand, pay very well and won’t be shipped off shore.
What are some ways you think we could spread the message?
by tradesmeninsights | Aug 5, 2009 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Twitter, Uncategorized
There are many traditional ways of generating leads, i.e. pay for click, list rentals, etc. But social lets you go beyond some of these typical methods and lets people find you. In my mind, one of the biggest benefits to social media is the ability to identify and start conversations in a low-key manner with potential contractors. The two top tools I use are LinkedIn and Twitter.
LinkedIn – I find that this is a very useful and friendly site for B-to-B users. The group section is a great way to join groups with common interests and start participating.
- I’ve joined groups like E-marketing Association Network and The Air Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration Institute. Both are targeted and are great ways to see what the hot topic of the day is and how people are reacting to it. You can even start your own group and invite people to join.
- It’s a great spot to throw out a question to the group or put your two cents in on an area where you are an expert.
- I’ve also used these groups to do short surveys and I post at least once a week and sometimes twice a recent relevant post from my blog under the news section. This helps drive folks to my blog and hopefully position me as an expert.
- You also need to update your status regularly and make sure your co-workers do the same. We’re in the process of organizing a webinar and will not only post it on my page for folks to register, but also put it as a news item on my group pages.
Twitter – I use Twitter to communicate to my followers many times a day to promote my most recent posts.
- I use Tweetlater to schedule and manage my daily tweets. There are several other applications out there that do the same thing.
- If you want to reach people who don’t follow you, include relevant hashtags. Experienced users will search for those terms.
- Encourage re-tweets. In order to do so you need to keep your message shorter than the 140 characters so the person who is doing the re-tweet has room for their name and message.
These are some things I do to use social to generate leads. I’d like to hear from you on how you utilize social.
Here’s an article that might prove to be of interest, 5 Ways to Find Prospects on Twitter.
Today is name your own holiday. Since we focus on manufacturers who want to reach the tradesmen, we thought it would be appropriate to declare March 26 National Tradesmen Day.