by tradesmeninsights | Dec 8, 2015 | Marketing Tools, Marketing Trends, Social Marketing
By John Sonnhalter, Rainmaker Journeyman, Sonnhalter
I think we’re all in agreement that Content Marketing is here to stay and is becoming a more integral part of overall marketing programs. Some of the reasons are that technology is broader, easier to use and more accessible. People are trying to do more in less time and are motivated to seek self-serve product information to reduce pre-purchase decisions.
Heidi Cohen recently wrote an excellent post on B2B vs. B2C Content Marketing: How They Differ that explains the differences. Here are some highlights:
The mistake most marketers make is not developing a content strategy, because the B-to-B objectives are going to be different from its B-to-C counterpart. That’s why you need a written plan. Make sure they include:
- Develop better content, not more
- Pick one problem to start
- Tie content to business goals
- Focus on the user experience
The top 3 tactics for B-to-B:
- Social media
- Case Studies
- Blogs
The top 3 effective tactics for B-to-B:
- In-person events
- Webinars
- Case Studies
The top 3 social media platforms for B-to-B:
- LinkedIn
- Twitter
- Facebook
The top 3 content marketing goals for B-to-B:
- Lead generation
- Sales
- Lead nurturing
The top 3 metrics to measure B-to-B metrics:
- Sales lead quality
- Sales
- Higher conversation rates
by tradesmeninsights | Sep 30, 2015 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Marketing Trends, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing, Uncategorized
By John Sonnhalter, Rainmaker Journeyman at Sonnhalter
Contractors and professional tradesman often don’t have time to read the latest trade publication or look at the magazines’ website on a regular basis and might miss your message. Chances are, unless you only make one product, their interest at any given time may be on another product.
When they do go looking for things, the first place most go to is the internet, and the chances are that they are looking for a solution just as much as they are looking for a specific product. That’s why search is so important in the big scheme of things, and what makes you go up in search – good meaningful content!
Heidi Cohen had an interesting article regarding advertising vs. content driven messages that had some good points for the B-to-B market.
B-to-B lags behind the consumer counterpart in doing research before they contact a manufacturer or distribution point. But even at 57%, you’d better have some skin in the game from a search perspective or you’re going to be left at the curb.
Razorfish found that:
- 50% of U.S. consumers will do anything to avoid ads
- 75+% of U.S. consumers hate hearing or seeing ads multiple times
- 65% of U.S. consumers use a DVR to skip ads
Those are some scary numbers, and even though they are consumer driven, remember that those same consumers may be buying your products at their workplace. So what’s the alternative?
- 86% of U.S. consumers value brands that are useful over those that have interesting advertising.
Translation: give your customers the info they need when they need it. Here are some tips:
- Leverage the social media platforms where your customers hang out.
- Supply product info for potentials to seek out.
- Tap into sources your customers trust, like trade associations.
- Make sure the info you give prospects enhances the product value.
- Skip the promotion and show them best practices when using your products.
- Re-promote your content. Once is not enough.
So the question is, how much effort are you using to create great content?
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?
by tradesmeninsights | Jan 27, 2015 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Traditional Marketing, Uncategorized
Do you know that the average office worker checks their email 30 times an hour? Can you imagine what the stats are for contractors out in the field?
The point is that emails are very acceptable ways of communicating with each other. The key is to have relevant and timely info for your prospect.
Heidi Cohen gives us several reasons why email trumps social media:
- Email provides directly measurable ROI – You know immediately how many opened and read your message.
- Email is content format agnostic – It’s user-friendly and you can use text, images, videos, audio, PDFs.
- Email can deliver both long and short content – Content can vary from a link to several pages in length.
- Emails you can control delivery – Whether it’s now or delayed.
- Emails can be read on anything – Smart phones, tablets, laptops, no apps required.
- Emails build customer relationships – Once someone allows you to communicate with them, it represents a certain level of trust.
So since you have such a powerful tool, we need to make sure we’re using it correctly to get the best bang for the buck. eMarketer, in a recent article, stated that we all should get ready for more personalized emails and companies plan on spending more money to accomplish this.
These triggered and transactional emails can be part of a nurturing campaign. The key is getting the right message in the hands of the right people at the right time. You need to ask the right questions to see where they are in the sales funnel so you can address that immediate need.
If we use and target emails correctly, whether you’re going after a contractor or a plant manager, the result improves with the more segmenting you can do. So do your homework and take advantage of a great marketing tool.
by tradesmeninsights | Jan 7, 2015 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
It’s a new year, and before we start doing the same old thing, we should take a minute to make sure what we’re doing is getting us the results we want. Makes sense, doesn’t it? We do it in our personal lives this time of year.
I recently read a post by Heidi Cohen that did just that. Here are some highlights:
- Document your content marketing strategy – only 35% have a written plan that they can share with their team.
- Know who you’re talking to – create personas to reach each of your targeted audiences.
- Get other employees involved – both in creating and distributing content.
- Expand your visual content – people like pictures and there are several options to help you deliver them.
- Incorporate video into the mix – next to Google, YouTube is the most searched. Show your prospects why your product is better.
- Get your audiences involved – ask them to share images or rate your product.
Heidi has others, but the point is, take a few minutes to evaluate what you did last year and improve on it this year. Make 2015 a good one.
