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 | Oct 24, 2012 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
The correct answer in my mind is today. We all get caught up in the day-to-day to do list and putting out the most recent fire, but we should be aware of our brand daily.
Branding is about your whole organization, from the way you answer the phones, to the attitudes of your CSRs. It’s about a culture, things that are out of the control of the marketing department. Yes, marketing can control the look and feel of promotional materials, but once we’ve hooked a prospect, what happens when they contact the company and actually talk to a human being?
Heidi Cohen, in her post, Why Brands Matter (And Size Doesn’t), highlights several attributes we can all use to help in our long-term objectives.
Here are some highlights:
- Are you providing value to your customers – understand your target markets and their needs
- Are you relevant to your customers – be where your customers are
- Extend your brand beyond the product – provide useful info at every step of the purchasing process
- Have a brand personality – needs to be consistent in all dealings with customers
- Creating a trusting relationship – earn your reputation every day. Don’t assume anything.
What’s your company doing on a daily basis to make sure your brand is living up to expectations?
by tradesmeninsights | Aug 14, 2012 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
Social media is no different from any other marketing tool. In order for it to be successful, you need to have a specific plan with action items that can not only be attained but measured. Once you have a plan, get the C suite to buy into your goals and objectives and keep them in the loop as things move forward.
Once you get approval, make sure you integrate social media programs into your other marketing plans. It can’t and shouldn’t stand alone.
I recently read a good article by Heidi Cohen that outlines seven social media goals. Here are some highlights:
- Build brand awareness – a great way to engage directly with prospects.
- Protect your reputation – you need to know what folks are saying about your brand.
- Learn more about your customers – use social as a kind of market research.
- Increase customers or prospects – based on your content you can engage new potentials.
What are you doing to ensure your social media program is a success?
by tradesmeninsights | Nov 23, 2011 | Social Marketing, Uncategorized
Yes, there are rules (even though some should be self-evident) on the do’s and don’ts on Twitter. Heidi Cohen does a great job identifying them in a recent post giving you 24 guidelines. Here are just a few:
- Use a recognizable Twitter handle – keep it short and align it so it can go across several platforms.
- Brand your page – make sure your Twitter page has the same look and feel as the rest of your branding efforts.
- Twitter bio – should be there to help others figure out what you’re all about.
- Let followers know if you’re going to be increasing your tweets – an example would be going to a conference or trade show.
- Give credit where it’s due – acknowledge the originator.
- Beware of TMI (too much info) – tell what time it is, not how to build a watch.
- Pay-it-forward – contribute helpful info and re-tweet and support others without expecting anything in return.
What can you add to the list?
by tradesmeninsights | Oct 26, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Traditional Marketing
For those of us who are doing blogs, we sometimes get so focused on the social media side of things that we forget to use traditional methods of promotion to promote it.
I recently read a post by Heidi Cohen, 34 Ways to Raise Blog Readership Without Using Social Media. Although all her suggestions aren’t relevant to the manufacturing segment that’s trying to reach the professional tradesman, I’ve highlighted some of the points that hit home to me.
- SEO – using keywords maximizes your reach.
- Promote on your website – we even have the three most current posts on our home page to draw attention to the blog.
- Do an email – to the appropriate audience with link.
- Packaging – promote on outside of box.
- Press release – not for every post, but certainly for important ones that have to do with industry research.
- Include your blog on your business card and on your email signature.
If you’re doing a blog, what ways are you promoting it other than by social?
