The Value of PR

May 2, 2013

Here is a post from Rosemarie Ascherl, PR Foreman at Sonnhalter, discussing the value of PR. Small PR programs can yield big results.

pr results

The Value of PR

Don’t have the budget for an elaborate, integrated, multi-faceted public relations program? For smaller companies with more limited marketing communications budgets, a PR program that involves a minimal investment and enlists the basic PR tools can generate a huge return.

Measuring PR is a controversial topic, and the industry as a whole agrees that it is difficult, if not impossible, to accurately measure. Traditional metrics of volume and outputs, like ad equivalency and impressions, can provide a snapshot of the PR program’s effectiveness. Assuming the sentiment of the PR results is positive and the delivery is appropriate, right now these metrics are a useful indication of PR’s success. One could actually argue that completely earned space with credibility should actually be worth MORE than comparable ad space.

Of course, it is important to remember the media outlet’s relevance in reaching a company’s audience. While it can certainly be an “ego booster” to receive coverage in USA Today, many of our business-to-business [or as we like to call them, B2T, business-to-tradesmen] clients would be better suited to receive coverage in a targeted trade journal with a circulation of 3,000.

As an example, at Sonnhalter we have a smaller, long-standing industrial-focused client with a small PR budget. This client places a priority on PR initiatives over other marketing communication initiatives. In the past year, a basic press release program combined with a modest media relations effort garnered quite a bit of media coverage [if using the traditional metrics, it generated 1,000 percent of its PR investment], which increased brand and company visibility.

Recently this client acquired another company, and it turned to Sonnhalter for assistance in announcing this news to the industry. As its business continues to grow, so does its PR program. Proof that an effective PR program doesn’t always need a large investment.

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Podcast: SEO in Manufacturing – 3 Things You Need to be Doing

April 24, 2013

398ec611a0fdc5c8cae3000b4a116c50I recently caught up with Sage Lewis, president of SageRock, a digital marketing agency that’s one of our strategic partners, to talk about the importance of SEO, especially in the manufacturing sector.

Search engine optimization is an ever-moving target. It has never been harder to rank well for your targeted key phrases than it is today. We will discuss the 3 most important things manufacturing marketers need to be doing in search engine optimization today.

Sage gives us some good tips and references to use.

Enjoy!

Listen To Podcast

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Tools of the Trade: How to Handle Negative Reviews

April 23, 2013

The following is a guest post from Kimberley Laws, a freelance writer and small business owner. She knows firsthand how tough it is to survive in the business world and hopes to use her writing to empower fellow entrepreneurs. 

This may be tough to hear, but not everyone is going to love—or even like—your business and the products it offers. In fact, some may come away from your company hurling expletives like Yosemite Sam on crack. And, thanks to social media, these unhappy customers can now share their negative thoughts with a massive on-line audience.

But don’t panic. There is no need to wave the white flag or pull up stakes just yet. With a little know-how and a touch of finesse, you can turn these negative reviews into positives—and win over a new batch of clientele.

white flag

There is no need to surrender to bad reviews. You can reclaim your shiny on-line image.

Image courtesy of http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1381436. 

Here is some negative review advice that can help restore your on-line reputation.

Get Acquainted With Social Media.

Many business owners are unfamiliar with the social media tools that are being used against them. How can you respond to a negative tweet on Twitter if you don’t know how to use it? You can’t. That’s why it is important to become adept at using social media platforms. You also need to become knowledgeable about the most popular review sites like Yelp and Angie’s list.

Mastering these internet tools will enable you to respond to unhappy customers and keep on top of future negative reviews.

 hugging laptop

To tackle negative on-line reviews successfully, you must embrace technology.

Image courtesy of http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Computing_g368-Man_With_Computer_p34425.html.

Don’t Hit the Snooze Button.

You need to respond to negative comments quickly. Ignoring them will make you look like you don’t care, which serves to validate the original complaint. Delaying your response will allow others the chance to pile on further negative reviews—turning the proverbial molehill into Mount Vesuvius.

Don’t Be a “Right Fighter.”

This is not the time to make excuses or argue with an unsatisfied customer. It doesn’t matter who was right or who was wrong. As the owner of the business at fault, you must take full responsibility for what has transpired and apologize. A sincere “I’m sorry” will go a long way to mending the relationship. Plus, it will make you look like a caring professional in the eyes of those watching the exchange.

right

Who cares who is “right?” All that matters is that you get the complaint resolved.

Image courtesy of http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1095399.

Encourage the Happy People.

Customers seem to be much more motivated to share bad experiences rather than good ones on-line. Let’s face it—humans love to gripe. But it is important that you encourage your happy customers to share their joy as well.

Ask long-time clients to post a positive review. A barrage of positive feedback will make the negatives appear less important to potential clientele.

But never falsify a review. If you have to fabricate positive customer experiences, you have a bigger problem than a simple negative on-line review.

thumbs up

Encourage happy clientele to give you “two thumbs up” on-line.

    Image courtesy of http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Learning_g376-Students_Showing_Thumb_Up_p96826.html.

The best defense against a negative on-line review is, of course, to provide the best customer service possible in the first place. But even the most top-notch service provider can’t please everyone all the time. This is why it is so important that every business owner become well versed in the techniques for handling a bad internet review.

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Are Sales and Marketing Missing an Opportunity to Work Together?

April 10, 2013

I don’t know why, but in some companies, sales and marketing hardly talk to each other, no less work together. Don’t they realize that they are on the same team? It’s a shame because by working together they can identify, qualify and close more sales. The answer is to open a two-way communication.

Marketing is (or should be) managing the conversations with potentials and helping move them through the sales funnel and then handing them off to sales for the close.

Ironically though, for marketing to move the prospect through, they need to address relevant issues and that’s where sales comes in. This will help build your credibility and hopefully shorten the selling cycle.

Sales are on the streets everyday talking to contractors and distributors. They know what’s keeping them up at night and can bring those issues back to you to develop content around. Sounds logical, doesn’t it?

I recently read an article by Mark Sherbin, Find Content Marketing Gold by Mining Your Sales Department that brought home some useful tips. Here are some highlights for marketing and sales to work together:

  • Set up one-on-one and group meetings with sales
  • Do your homework by reading CRM reports to see if there are valuable nuggets
  • Send out an agenda prior to meeting so sales has time to think about responses
  • Use “Go to meetings,” Google+ Hangouts or another service to get folks together
  • Have regular meetings at least once a quarter
  • Share content developed from the meetings with whole team
  • Create files of new content that is accessible by sales
  • Keep an open channel for communications

These are some good tips. What are you doing to ensure your sales and marketing teams are working together?

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Free SEO and Social Media Tools Manufacturers Should Know About

April 3, 2013

SEO and social media tools are important tools in evaluating your performance. Today we have a guest post by Emma-Julia Fox from Pitstop Media that outlines some of the free ones available. Enjoy.

Manufacturers and business owners are always on the look out for smart SEO and social media tools that can help them increase their visibility as well as ROI. If these tools come for FREE even better!

Here’s a list of SEO and social media tools that can help you gather some very valuable insights in terms of your web pages’ performance.

SEO Tools

One of the most important aspects of SEO is keyword research. You will therefore need effective tools to make keyword research a lot easier. Among the most helpful tools in this case would be the myriad Keyword Density Checkers; the following are among the most reliable.

Webconfs

This tool scans the URL that you provide and then shows you the most commonly used words on the page, presented in a keyword cloud. (A keyword cloud is a visual presentation of the keywords on the page, with the font of high-density keywords slightly larger than others.) You’ll know your main keywords are doing well if they are presented in large font at the head of the cloud.

Screaming Frog

This is a downloadable java program that can scan as many as 500 URLs; you’ll have to pay for a license if you want to scan more. This can be a very useful tool if you’re launching a new website, as it can help you identify 302 redirects, 404 pages, duplicate content, pages with missing Meta data, and title that exceed 70 characters, among other internal issues that may compromise the quality of your website.

You can even use the tool to analyze your competitors’ websites from an SEO perspective.

Screaming Frog is a downloadable program you can use to identify issues on your website.

 ScreamingFrog

Open Site Explorer

OpenSiteExplorer is a link analysis tool that you can use to get some valuable information on any website, be that your own or the competition’s. The tool can help you determine the strengths and weaknesses of your website and your links.

You can also use it to check how your site is doing as compared to your competitors. More importantly, it can help you identify some good websites to link to your own.

SpyFu Recon Files

This is another tool you should consider. It is currently still in beta and is allowing users to access their reports for free. The SpyFu reports are presented in three categories: Opportunity, Competition and SEO Value.

With this tool, you can identify valuable SEO opportunities and determine your own strengths and weaknesses as well. You can also check what keywords your competitors use on their ad copy and what they’re likely to spend on. The data you collect can be a valuable guide when you’re crafting your own SEO strategy.

WooRank

WooRank is an online tool that assists you with the technicalities of SEO. When you check your website on WooRank, you’ll get a score of anywhere from 0 to 100 along with an explanation as to what your site’s problems are and how you can improve it.

Additionally, you may want to give Marketing Grader a try. Just like WooRank, it shows you how you can improve your website. What sets it apart, though, is the fact that it also has metrics for measuring the performance of your blog.

It is important for you to keep track of how well your site is doing in terms of SEO.

Social Media Tools

Social mentions are very important in social media marketing, which is why you will need tools that can help you count the number of social mentions you have. The following are among the most recommended tools:

Shared Count

This is a very simple tool that shows you some valuable social networking statistics. When you provide your URL, the tool will show you the number of share counts you have on social networking sites.

You can use these statistics to either prove your popularity to your site visitors or take the necessary steps to improve your social media performance.

HowManyShares.com

If you prefer viewing your social media statistics in visually attractive presentations, then you’d do well to take advantage of this tool. When you provide your URL and e-mail address, the tool scans and analyzes all of your social media accounts and blogs.

In less than a minute, you’ll get a report where you receive a score of anywhere from 1 to 100. Naturally, a score of 100 is what you’re aiming for. If you get anything less than that, then you can take steps to improve your social media performance.

When you talk about social media marketing, the focus has always been on the manner in which your target audience perceives your brand. This is why ‘engagement’ is a very popular buzzword in the world of social media marketing.

Social Mention

To ensure success, therefore, you will need to monitor how your brand is being received by your target audience. A good tool to use for this purpose is Social Mention. This tool allows you to take a quick look at what people recently said about your brand or subject of interest. Perhaps the best thing about it is that it is compact and very easy to use.

You need to monitor how your brand is perceived by your social media audience.

Marketing is a constantly evolving aspect of any business and if you want to succeed, you’ll have to learn how to go with the flow. When the Internet first entered the picture, marketers had to learn all about SEO.

However, the Internet and the SEO industry are also constantly evolving and what you learned in the past may no longer be applicable today. In fact, social media marketing is a fairly new concept that online marketers are still getting used to.

As a business owner, therefore, it is definitely important for you to ensure success in both your SEO and social media campaigns. The tools discussed above should do much to point you in the right direction.

Emma-Julie Fox writes for a Vancouver based company that provides white hat SEO services, Pitstop Media.

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B-to-B: Quality Lead Nurturing Leads to 70% More Sales

March 26, 2013

In the B-to-B market where sales cycles can be much longer and complex to several factors, many leads are given up on if they aren’t ready to buy when your salesmen call. We need to focus on quality not quantity of leads.

According to the Albertson Performance Group quality nurturing will lead to 70% more sales than no nurturing.

Nurturing keeps you top of mind, builds credibility, solves prospect’s problems and positions you as an expert. That’s a pretty good way to start building a relationship, isn’t it?

The chart below highlights a typical buying process and that sales shouldn’t get involved until stage 6. It’s marketing’s job to move them through the first 5 phases and then hand them off.

Illustration from the Albertson Performance Group

By taking them through these steps, you show them your value and price becomes less of an issue, you narrow your competition and shorten the sales cycle.

You might want to re-think your process before you hand over those sales leads as soon as you put them in your system.

If you like this post, you might want to read:

What’s Your Lead Nurturing Strategy?

Why Email Marketing is so Important in Lead Nurturing to the Professional Tradesman

How are you Moving Social Media Leads Into Your Sales Funnel?

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Webinar: Social Media in Manufacturing – Why it Should Matter to You

March 19, 2013

If you’re a manufacturer that either doesn’t use or think social media should be a part of your overall marketing plan, this webinar is for you.

We will discuss why social media is not only relevant but crucial to your overall marketing initiatives. I will be joined by Greg Habermann, COO of SageRock, a digital marketing agency and a strategic partner of ours. We will show you real examples of what manufacturers are doing right and give you tips on how you can too. We’ll focus on YouTube, Slideshare, LinkedIn and Blogs.

When: Tuesday, April 9th at 2PM EST

Sign up for this free webinar here.

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Manufacturers: Keyword Selection Tips to Help SEO

February 27, 2013

When developing new content whether it’s for your blog or website, one of your goals should be to capitalize as much as possible on maximizing your SEO. We all want to grab our fair share and by making a conscious effort to incorporate our key words in everything we do, we’ll have a better chance.

A recent article by Mike Murray in Content Marketing Institute caught my attention. Mike gives us some good pointers and lots of support sites (mostly free) that we can use to help increase SEO. He’s even created a short checklist for us to reference.

keyword checklist

Here are some highlights:

  • Have I overlooked any key words
  • Do keywords match your business or targets?
  • New page development – make sure to incorporate your most strategic key words.
  • Review your site’s analytics to see how people are currently getting there. Are you using some of those key words in your content?
  • Are you including a call to action? Does the reader easily know what you want them to do?
  • Look at an internal link strategy that cross links between pages.
  • Plan your content with a calendar to ensure your key words/phrases are being written about on a regular basis.

Let’s all try to work smarter as we enter a new year.

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Are you Using Database Strategies to Reach the Professional Tradesmen?

February 20, 2013

One of the biggest challenges for Manufacturers is trying to identify both their customers as well as potentials. It may seem strange to you that most Manufacturers who sell through various distribution channels don’t know who their ultimate customers are.

Distributors as a rule are very protective of “their” customers. Unless you need them to register for a warranty, you need other ways to entice them to give up their contact info. Some of the ways Manufacturers generate names are through trade shows, end-user calls, traditional advertising/PR and social media. You can have customer loyalty and other value-added  programs.

The challenge is once you have all of these contacts, what/how do you manage them? That’s where database marketing comes in. This tool can help you segment your audiences into customers, potentials, different markets or applications. Then you can target the message which will increase the potential of folks reading and reacting to it.

Your message to a current user of your product should talk more about applications/performance data while the message to a potential new customer might be more features/benefits of a product or an end-user testimonial from one of their peers.

Your end goal from a customer viewpoint is to build a relationship with them and communicate with them on a regular basis. This will help you in identifying other areas you might help them with, and the more you know about what they do, the better you can offer them ideal solutions to help them.

The bottom line is you’re communicating with them, helping them solve their problems – you are building a customer retention model. If Contractors know, like and trust you, not only will they continue to buy from you, but will become your advocates on the street. They also will be a great source of market intelligence.

Database marketing in my opinion is one of the most important tools in our marketing tool box.

If you like this article, you might want to read:

How Does your Marketing Department Hand Off Leads to Sales?

5 Ways For Manufacturers To Improve E-mail Marketing to Tradesmen

E-mail Marketing for Industrial Marketers: Common Mistakes to Avoid

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Customer Loyalty: What Are You Doing?

February 6, 2013

All too often we focus so much on getting new customers that we forget about who’s supporting us now! I believe the rule of thumb is it takes 5 times as much effort to get a new customer than it does to keep an existing one.

There are several things you can do. A loyalty program, special incentives on certain products and giving them the first chance on buying a new product line before it hits the street are just a few examples. How about a simple thanks via an email or postcard. When was the last time one of your vendors thanked you for your business? Probably not many, and if they did, you’re sure to remember them.

Have you ever calculated what a customer’s worth is over time? Say you have a 30-year old contractor that usually buys $5,000 worth of your stuff a year. Doesn’t sound like much, but if you keep him happy, you probably will have him for 30 years before he retires. So assuming he doesn’t grow his business or you don’t come out with anything new for him to buy over the next 30 years, he would have spent $150,000 with you. Is he worth keeping? I’d say so. So what are you doing to keep him happy? Unless you’re selling a proprietary product, your competition is knocking on his door every chance they get. Give your customer a reason to stay.

I know many of you who follow me don’t buy shoes online, but I’d bet that if you asked your wife if she’s heard of Zappos, she’d say yes. I picked them as an example and even wrote a post on their book, Does Customer Service Deliver Happiness, where they show that by even selling name branded shoes online, they could, in many cases, outsell the brand itself  in the online arena. The way they did it was with customer service.

So here are some points for you to consider when evaluating your Customer Service department:

  • Try to keep the personal touch (human being) as the initial touch point if you can.
  • Empower your CS people to solve a problem immediately without having to go through 3 levels of supervisors.
  • Reward customers with a loyalty program as a way of saying thanks.
  • Customer surveys are a great way to get feedback, not only on how you’re doing, but for getting ideas for future products.

I’d also suggest if you haven’t done so in a while to call your customer service department and see what your experience is. If you aren’t impressed, what do you think your customers will feel like?

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