One of the most important questions that marketing communication clients should ask themselves is, “Are we making the most out of our relationship and interactions with our agency?” Merely talking about how to maximize synergies and rapport between client and agency versus actually implementing such strategies is an entirely different story.

Here are a few way to get the most out of you client-agency relationships:

Be on the same page.

Fostering shared meaning and mutual understanding is a vital aspect of successful client-agency relationships. It is important to be on the same page. Setting clear expectations with one another enables clients and agencies to better communicate and forecast unexpected issues or changes. Establishing processes and responsibilities early on with an agency will decrease stress from time-crunching deadlines. Also, be sure to clearly define success with one another and develop a measurable method for evaluation. Understanding how agencies function and subsequently knowing how to utilize them can reduce the likelihood of miscommunication.

Be clear.

Efficiency is all about clear communication. To reduce confusion, frustrations and delay, have one main contact for the agency. Likewise, an agency should make sure its client knows with whom to communicate. There is nothing more frustrating than having too many cooks in the kitchen. Facilitating consistent, effective communication will aid in strengthening the bond between the client and agency. Companies are more likely to meet project goals by providing their agency with a concise point-of-view.

Be accessible.

Make sure to invest time in the agency. Frequently engage in face-to-face communication by arranging regular meetings to review and discuss active projects – take a necessary break from the computer and telephone. Being available will create a well-oiled working relationship with an agency and produce quicker results.

Be direct.

Another strategy to ensure a healthy and open client-agency relationship is to address issues promptly and judiciously. Otherwise, molehills can develop into unnecessary mountains. Do not let problems fester, but swiftly find the root of the issue and respond with calm, measured and consistent action. Both client and agency should offer and receive feedback. For example, an agency may ask clients to participate in a customer satisfaction survey.

Be a partner.

Agencies want clients to treat them like a partner rather than a vendor. Involve the agency early on in the process. Offer access and resources to the agency, including resources outside of marketing such as sales or engineering – the more an agency knows about its client’s business the more it can help. Take the time to introduce the agency to fellow employees, so that they feel like a part of the team.   

Be open-minded.

Strive to remain flexible and receptive to new ideas. Be willing to take risks, occasionally calculated ones. Even areas outside of marketing, such as product development, can sometimes benefit from fielding agency advice.

Above all, trust an agency’s judgment, expertise and point-of-view – people would not let their lawyers perform surgery on them, so likewise allow the agency to do what they have been hired to do. And remember, agencies are in the business of communication, so there is no such thing as over communicating with them.

When talking with manufacturers or contractors, a common complaint is not that they don’t have enough work, but they can’t find qualified people to fill the jobs.

According to a Skills Gap study by the Manufacturing Institute, more than 80% of U.S. manufacturers can’t find qualified people for nearly 600,000 skilled production jobs that are currently unfilled.

Today we’ll be talking with Darlene Miller about an issue that is near and dear to all manufacturers – hiring a skilled workforce. Darlene has first-hand experience and has helped initiate some solutions by helping to found Right Skills Now. Darlene Miller is the owner and CEO of Permac Industries, Inc., a global leader in the precision machining industry.

She shares her insights and she’s been a part of developing programs to help fast track training for skilled workers.

Enjoy!

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In most cases, especially for manufacturers who are selling more complicated products, there is a sales funnel you need to take folks through before they are ready to buy. That’s great, but that only works if you’ve identified the potential sale.

Think of social media as your silent salesman. It’s out there bird dogging for you and taking a potential through some of the initial stages of the selling cycle.

Social media is a great way to connect with prospective buyers because they will find you based on what they are searching for (what kind of problem they are looking for a solution for) on the web. It allows you, not only to connect, but to start a conversation. It allows them to get a better feeling for the company and how you go about helping people. In other words, you start building the know, like and trust model that comes with any sale, especially to new potentials.

Social media is a great way to educate prospective buyers because of all the tools you have available: YouTube, SlideShare, Blogs, Forums. All are platforms for you to add value to the conversations by giving them great content, and it starts establishing you as an expert they can count on.

Social media is a great way to collaborate with potential buyers because of the tools like GoToMeeting, Google Hangout or other technologies that allow you to connect almost immediately to help answer a question or show them how to fix a problem. There are even listening platforms, like HooteSuite, radian6 and others that will help you monitor conversations around the areas you want to be in, and you can contribute at the appropriate time.

So don’t  just do business as usual. Think outside the box and give social a try. You might be surprised as you might eventually identify themselves as a potential new customer that was never on your radar screen.

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

Blogging: Helps Increase New Business Leads by 69%

Are you Using LinkedIn for New Business Development?

How Manufacturers are Managing Content Marketing: 7 B2B Insights

The Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs recently published research on B2B and B2C Content Marketing in our 2013 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends reports. While the findings give us insight into how B2B and B2C marketers are managing content marketing, we were still curious about the state of content marketing in specific key industries, and how content efforts in vertical markets were differing from those of their peers in other industries.

We decided to first look at marketers who work for B2B manufacturing organizations in North America. This group has adopted content marketing at a slightly higher rate (94 percent) than their North American B2B peers across all industries (91 percent).

Let’s take a look at some of the similarities and differences:

Manufacturing marketers have similar goals for content marketing

Marketers in the manufacturing industry have the same top three objectives for content marketing as their peers across all B2B industries: brand awareness, lead generation, and customer acquisition. However, manufacturing marketers place less emphasis on thought leadership (47 percent versus 64 percent) and website traffic (47 percent versus 60 percent) as organizational goals, which indicates a disconnect, as they also cite website traffic as the primary way they measure content effectiveness. This fundamental disconnect between goals and measurement was present with B2B manufacturers when CMI surveyed them two years ago, but it has shown some improvement.

Manufacturing marketers use video and print magazines more often

Manufacturing marketers cite video as their top content marketing tactic (it was ranked seventh by this group two years ago). Their overall use of tactics is fairly similar to that of the overall population of marketers; however, they place far less emphasis on blogs (54 percent versus 77 percent), which makes sense considering that this industry does not put strong emphasis on web traffic and thought leadership as objectives for content marketing, two areas where blogs can have significant impact.

Manufacturing marketers use print magazines at nearly twice the rate of their peers (60 percent versus 31 percent). However, only 11 percent of self-reported “best-in-class” B2B manufacturing marketers rank print magazines as “effective” or “very effective,” indicating that traditional media companies still have a stronghold on B2B manufacturers, who have traditionally used paid advertising in trade magazines to reach their audiences.

Manufacturing marketers prefer Facebook and YouTube

While their B2B content marketing peers use an average of five social media platforms, manufacturing industry B2B marketers report an average use of three.

Yet, manufacturing industry marketers use YouTube more frequently than the general population of marketers do. This makes sense, considering they rank video as their top content marketing tactic. Their use of Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter has risen over the last two years, yet they are somewhat behind in their adoption of Google+, Pinterest, SlideShare, and other “newer” social media options, so it will be interesting to see if they grow in these areas over the next year.

Manufacturing marketers outsource content more often

Compared with the overall content marketing population, manufacturing marketers outsource content more often:  57 percent versus 43 percent. This could be because they rely more heavily on printed material, which often requires outside assistance. Given their increased usage of video, compared to other marketers, it is likely that they are outsourcing video creation as well.

Manufacturing marketers spend less

When compared with their peers across all B2B industries, marketers in manufacturing dedicate significantly less of their total marketing budgets to content marketing (22 percent versus 33 percent). However, 53 percent of manufacturing marketers say they are going to increase their content marketing spend over the next 12 months (31 percent say they will keep spending at the same level).

Manufacturing marketers struggle with effectiveness

Like their peers, marketers for the manufacturing industry report that producing enough content is their biggest challenge. One challenge they cite more often than their B2B peers is the inability to measure content effectiveness (55 percent versus 33 percent). And they’re not only challenged with measuring content effectiveness, many are not even sure if their overall efforts are effective. We know this because only 21 percent of B2B manufacturers rank their organization as “effective” or “very effective.” On the other hand, 36 percent of B2B marketers across all industries rank themselves as “effective” or “very effective.”

On the flip side, 32 percent of manufacturing marketers rank their organizations as “not very” or “not at all” effective, compared with 17 percent of their B2B peers. This shows a need for content marketing education and improvement in the manufacturing vertical.

A brief look at the manufacturing demographic

While it is noteworthy to understand how marketers in the manufacturing industry are managing content marketing tools and tactics, it’s also important to understand how demographics may play a role in these research findings. Here are a few notes about the demographics of this research:

• Out of a total 1,416 B2B North America respondents, 88 respondents identified themselves as working in the B2B manufacturing industry.
• About 40 percent of the B2B manufacturing respondents work for companies with 1,000 or more employees (16 percent of that figure is for companies employing more than 10,000, so these results could also reflect what larger companies are doing).

Do you work in manufacturing? Are these trends consistent with what you are seeing?

For more insight on the state of content marketing in the manufacturing industry, register to attend the Manufacturing Summit at Content Marketing World in September 2013. And if you are looking for more content marketing research? Check out our third annual B2B Content Marketing: 2013 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends and first annual B2C Content Marketing: 2013 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends studies.

Cover image via Bigstock

The post originally appeared on ContentMarketingInstitute.com and is reposted with permission. You can view the original post here.

I recently read a post by Jeffrey Cohen in Social Media BtoB called 10 Ideas to Make a Boring B2B Social Media Post Captivating. He hit the nail on the head when he said customers and prospects want solutions to their problems. They don’t want to hear about your products in a sales pitch. Here are some highlights from the post that I found to be interesting, and if you try them, your readership will surely increase.

• Use key words in your headline - Use words that a customer would be looking for to solve his problem.
• Use adjectives in the headline - descriptive words will pique the reader’s attention and want them to read on.
• Don’t talk about your products - that’s what websites are for. Use this space to solve problems and establish yourself as an expert in the field.
• Solve problem - use how-to posts or share a customer story of how you helped them solve a problem.
• Use video - this is a powerful way of telling your story. Video tends to capture someone’s attention in a different way than the written word.

The key here is to work smart not hard. If you’re going to invest the time into blogging, then let’s try to get the most out of it.

I’d be curious to hear what you’re doing to get better results with your posts.

It seems like new industry awards competitions are popping up all the time. Awards competitions frequently fall under the umbrella of the public relations team and it’s important to approach awards competitions strategically.

When they’re worth it.

Before shelling out the entry fee of anywhere from $50 to $5,000, filling out long forms and pulling together a bunch of supporting material, look at the award details closely and ask these questions:

• Is the organization presenting the award competition reputable and recognized within our industry?
• Is there an appropriate category for my company/product/service?
• Will winning this award reflect well on my company or will it only collect dust on a shelf?
• Do we have quality material to enter?
• Does the entry fee fit in our budget or will something have to be sacrificed in order to enter?
• Can I meet the deadline?

If the answers to these questions are a resounding yes, definitely enter. Follow the entry instructions to the letter and make sure you meet the deadline.

When they’re not worth it.

If you answer “no” to any of those questions, take a step back from the exciting award entry invitation and think about your strategy.

Just because you have something that you can enter, doesn’t mean you should enter. Make sure that whatever you enter reinforces the value of your product/service/company in the industry.

The main goal for entering award competitions should be to gain quality honors, not to fill a trophy case. There are some organizations that create materials in order to win an award, instead of creating quality materials that happen to be award-winning.

I won! Now what?

When you enter to win an award, of course you want to win! When you receive an award, you shouldn’t just put it in that trophy case and call it a day.

Awards are an excellent opportunity for public relations. First, make sure that you announce the success internally and let your staff know that they contributed. Then promote your award externally with press releases, social media and in other appropriate channels. Your award promotions should cover:

What the award is.

How you earned it (i.e. with an innovative process that reduces your company’s environmental impact, by creating a new product that makes XYZ industry better).

Why it matters. Is the award a symbol of your company’s dedication to improvement? Does it show that you’re successful in meeting certain goals?

This post originally appeared on MAGNET’s  Manufacturing Success blog and is reposted with permission.

Addressing the Skills Gap and Improving the Bottom Line

Judith Crocker, Director Workforce & Talent Development, MAGNET

The skills gap in the manufacturing workforce continues to be a challenge. Employers constantly bemoan their inability to get qualified workers, educators convene employers to better understand what they are looking for and develop new programs, and job seekers experience frustration when they are not selected due to lack of skills. It is time to start looking more closely at potential solutions, the role that employers can play, and the value to employers.

Recently reports of successful strategies are starting to emerge. The lessons learned from these successes should be explored for replication and duplication. How do you define and measure success in a way that resonates with all the stakeholders?  Typically, successful placement in vacant positions is one clear measure. Another is assessing the Economic Impact of the placement on the company and measures that affect its bottom line.

One example of a project that did both, is a training program managed by MAGNET in 2011.  The project was designed to determine if the attainment of skill certifications matched to employer requirements would result in a pool of candidates to fill current or projected vacancies in entry-level positions. Four Ohio sites were selected. The local team was headed by an educational provider and partnered with the local One-Stop that assisted with recruitment of participants.  Selected employers were involved from the beginning. They committed to providing input in the content and delivery of the program, as well as hiring completers to fill vacancies.   Employer involvement included: plant tours, classroom presentations, delivering some of the training, and conducting mock interviews. Program outcomes included attainment of a National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC) and the Manufacturing Skill Standards Council (MSSC) Certified Production Technician credential.

Participating employers expressed their satisfaction with the project and the majority of completers were placed followed training. Follow up was conducted with the employers to gather not only their perception of the project, but also the Economic Impact on key factors affecting their bottom line. Preliminary data provided by six of the companies, indicated over $2M in retained sales, $ 250,000 in increased sales, and over $ 6M in investment in plant or equipment as a result of hiring skilled workers. Additionally, ten jobs were created. Factors included: reduced OJT (On-the-Job-Training) time, improved retention, and increased production due to more quickly promoting incumbent workers as their positions were filled with the new hires.

Although a small project and a small employer feedback sample, this model holds promise as a way to help companies quantify the value of this approach. If employers are able to clearly identify the required skills, and if the training providers can match those with certifications that validate the skills, job seekers can more successfully be prepared, placed and retained. Employers have to be part of the solution and training providers have to be willing to adapt their delivery content and strategies to meet both employer and job seeker needs.

Measuring the economic impact on the company provides a quantifiable way for employers to determine the ROI of their time and effort at the beginning of the job preparation process.

Click here to read the original post.

Thanks!

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.

Sometimes as marketers we tend to gravitate to the newest or hottest thing out there to give it a try. What I might suggest we all do is go back to some basics like email marketing. This is a proven method of communicating with both existing and potential customers.

Lauren Fisher from eMarketer recently did some benchmarking on email marketing which included key data, trends and metrics. Here are some highlights:

• Emails are increasingly accessed by mobile devices.
• Personalization using triggered emails are increasing.
• Daily email use is higher among mobile phone users.
• There are over 546 million mobile email users in 2012. That number will triple by 2016.
• USA mobile users are estimated at nearly 116 million users.
• Nearly 33% of all emails are opened on a mobile device.
• Internet users still trust email messaging.
• Less that 22% of marketers are optimizing their emails for mobile devices.

Often plumbers don’t receive the credit and fame that they deserve unless they’re Mario and Luigi and trying to save a princess. The Super Mario Brothers are the most famous plumbers, and they live in a Nintendo game.

The reality is that without plumbers, our world would be far from sanitary or pleasant. As part of our team’s commitment to getting our hands dirty in our clients’ work, we’ve had the opportunity to see plumbers at work, we’ve used their tools and we’ve heard their stories; we know that they deserve to be honored today.

Plumbers do much more than unclog drains and fix leaky faucets –  it’s plumbers who install the miles of piping that make hot, cold and process water and gas utilities possible. Using a little research combined with our knowledge of the profession, we’ve put together a list of things you may not know about plumbing:

1. The word “plumber” goes back to the Roman Empire and the Latin word “plumbum” for lead.
2. It’s because of a plumber that the Chicago River is dyed green every St. Patrick’s Day. The river was first turned green in 1962 using plumbing dye for detecting leaks. (more of that story here)
3. The ancient Egyptians had plumbing systems. Archeologists have found lavatories inside tombs as well. (more on that here)
4. Since 1963, more than 28 billion feet, or about 5.3 million miles, of copper tubing has been installed in U.S. buildings.
5. In 2004, there were more than 91,000 miles of water distribution piping in the U.S. 78% of that pipe is made of PVC.
6. In 2011, there were approximately 555,900 plumbers and pipefitters working in the U.S. (via the 2011 Encyclopedia of Careers and Vocational Guidance)
7. Plumbers install and repair pipes for water, but also for: steam, air and a variety of liquids and gases.
8. Toilets have saved more lives than any other invention.
9. Thomas Crapper did not actually invent the toilet. Sir John Harrington actually invented the first flush toilet. (more on that here)
10. Thomas Crapper owned his own plumbing shop in London by the time he was 25 and was awarded nine patents for plumbing innovations during his lifetime, three of them consisting of improvements to the flushing toilet.
11. Plumbers installed 2,500 toilets and 2,500 sinks in the Empire State Building. The building also has 70 miles of pipe (more on that here).

Today we salute the ones who keep everything flowing, and not overflowing. We’re thankful for the dedicated plumbers who answer the call and don’t recount the tales of what they’ve pulled out of pipes.

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!

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This post originally appeared on MAGNET’s  Manufacturing Success blog and is reposted with permission.

Fail Fast, Fail Cheap

By Robert Schmidt, Growth & Innovation Advisor, MAGNET

Robert Schmidt, Growth and Innovation Advisor, MAGNET

We need to be innovative—you know, try new things! Building on those that seem to work and quickly eliminating those that don’t work out as we had envisioned.

The proven method I use in this case would be the “Fail Fast, Fail Cheap” (FFFC) method.

How do we go about this? Simply stop spending time and money on developing new processes, products, or  marketing messages without trying it out. You want to find out if your concept is a good one? Find out in a fast, easy, and inexpensive way. Bottom line is: The key to fail fast fail cheap is to spend minimum resources to get the concept off the paper (or your mind) and into the application so you can tell if it needs to be changed, destroyed, or finalized.

FFFC follows Demings “Plan, Do, Study, Act” model. In a rapid succession of learning cycles you try out your idea, learn from that experience, modify and try again- all on a shoestring budget.  Fast trumps elegant early on.

An example would be to develop a look-alike or “Frankenstein” prototype made from on-hand or commercially available materials. The Frankenstein prototype gathers critical feedback from potential customers/users. Their reactions (likes, dislikes, concerns) help you determine if investing further resources makes sense and guides your step of development. Its much like taking on an entrepreneur mindset, forcing creativity and short time goals due to a limited budget.

Do you have a proven system for testing your new ideas? Let us know!

Want to learn more about the FFFC method? Contact Linda Barita at 216-391-7766 or visit MAGNET’s Product Design & Development landing page to learn more about how our engineers can help you learn how to “Fail Fast, Fail Cheap.”

Click here to read the original post.

If you’re an old-time marketer like me, there’s been lots of changes over the past several years as to the alternative ways to reach your targeted audiences. So what do you do so you don’t go the way of the dinosaurs?

I recently read an article in CCO Magazine where they interviewed Brian Kardon, the CMO of Lattice Engines. The interview focused on the making of a modern CMO and what he had to do in order to adjust and thrive in his new environment. Here are some good points he brought up that might help us all:

• Get out of your comfort zone - Look at alternative ways to communicate with your potentials. Keep an open mind.
• There is no substitute for doing - Jump in and get your hands dirty. The best way of understanding something is by trying it.
• Learn from the best - Identify people who are out in front. Those that are risk takers and their passion is contagious.
• Don’t fear mistakes - Consider them chances to learn.
• Partner with specialists - With all the alternatives out there, hire folks that are good at what they do and then let them do it.
• Don’t look back - The things that were successful in the past may not be the best option moving forward.

So I think we can all learn from these pointers if we keep an open mind. I’m finally getting comfortable with most of the new digital and social options available. What I’m not afraid of is asking questions and trying things out. What I found out is I can’t break things like Twitter or SlideShare.

What kinds of challenges are you facing with all these new options?

Most associations are stuck doing things the way they have for years. I wonder if it’s because they’re afraid of change or don’t know how or why to try something different.

Two models that I think work well are the National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED) and the Industrial Supply Association (ISA). They both have tried different things that seem to be working.

The NAED for years now at their regional meetings have a dance card format that Manufacturers need to get on to get, I believe, 20 minutes with key folks from the distributors they want to talk to. Most manufacturers like this as they know who they’re going to see and can prepare accordingly.

The ISA, a few years back, initiated the FastMatch program in which the manufacturers are in the booth, but set up their dance card with the distributors they want to see. They like to have 20 minute intervals in which to have one-on-one meetings. This year, they are trying, “Take an exhibitor to lunch,” in which the distributors set up a lunch in the hall and invite select manufacturers to lunch. I’ll be curious to see how that works out.

I guess the point I’m trying to make is these associations are trying different things to bring more value to the table.

I’ve put together a quick poll to see what your thoughts are on this. Please take a minute to take and see the results.

For those going to San Diego, I’ll see you there.

Today Rachel Kerstetter, our PR Engineer, is sharing some pointers on how you can spring clean your social media.

When I entered into the realm of public relations with a broad social landscape, I was a little surprised that much of my social media consulting and instruction wasn’t about getting social programs started or operating them, it was a lot of clean up.

It doesn’t take much time to get your social media back on track if you know what to do.

1. Take a look at what you have. How long ago was your last status, tweet, post or picture? Do you have messages or invitations that are waiting to be read? When you look at an old account, try to see where/when things went stale and identify what may have been the cause. Did you have an intern running your social that has since left? Did you “run out” of content or ideas? Do you need help?
2. Check your branding. If anything in your company’s branding has changed, all of your social accounts should reflect that. Get your logos, profile pictures, covers and banners up to date. Make sure that you have a Twitter cover, a LinkedIn banner and a Facebook cover for your company. Use your own company and product names correctly.
3. Is your profile complete? Fill out the boxes with information about your company. Make sure there isn’t a blank spot where an About section should be and make sure that you have links to your website and contact information on there. Here’s what the About Section on Sonnhalter’s Facebook Page looks like:

4. Don’t stand alone. If you only have one person in your company with the Facebook or LinkedIn admin rights or the passwords to your accounts, you’re in for some trouble. What happens if that person leaves your company, takes vacation or falls ill for an extended period of time? You may have one main point person on social media, but always have at least one other person in your organization with social access.
5. Approach the rest of the year with a plan. If you’re having trouble with content, consider setting up a schedule monthly, quarterly or annually with the general topics you want to address on your social media and recruit help if you need it.

You may also be getting overwhelmed on your personal social accounts because your connections are active. Here are just a few tips to save some personal sanity this spring:

1. Take advantage of lists, circles, etc. to organize your connections into logical groups. That way you can easily check information from one group at a time (or find information you’re looking for).
2. Change your email preferences so you don’t end the day with 50 Facebook email notifications or opt to receive daily or weekly digests from your LinkedIn groups.
3. Use your readers. Put all of the blogs you read in one place to minimize jumping around from site to site. We’ve recommended a couple of options in a previous post.

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?

I was reminded recently by an article from ASM, The Association of Strategic Marketing, that there are easy ways to share content. Among them:

• Syndication - RSS feeds are the most common way to re-share content. That little button that you put on your site or blog makes it so easy for people to share your content with their group of contacts.
• Summarized reports - Group previously published articles to create a report that can be shared by PDF or other downloadable formats.
• Social Media - Share on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+
• E-mail – Don’t forget about the old standby. Your contacts, both customers and prospects, will welcome good content.
• Multi-media - Repurpose into a podcast or video. This media has its own benefits in that we all like to listen and look as opposed to read all the time. Not to mention that YouTube is the second most search engine behind Google.

What are you doing to make sure your content is shared?

I’ve asked Rachel Kerstetter, our PR Engineer, to share some recommendations for moving on without Reader.

If you’re currently using Google Reader to keep your blog and news organized, you’ll need to find another way by July 1st.  There are many RSS reader options out there, but here are some options that we recommend.

The built-in WordPress Reader is a pretty good option if you follow only WordPress blogs, which is a popular choice for company blogs. But if you follow nonWordpress blogs or don’t blog using WordPress, this is not a good option.

Feedly is our top pick that offers a quick and easy transition of your feeds from Google Reader right to its service. Feedly has an app for both Apple and Android. Their blog has instructions on seamless transitioning here.

BlogLovin’ is pretty popular among lifestyle and fashion blogs, but might start growing due to Google shutting down Reader. There is a bloglovin’ app in the Apple App store and they offer a way to import directly from Google Reader before it’s shut down.

Since importing your Reader contacts is really easy on both of these services, you can always test them both out and see what works best for you.

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.

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.

Today we’ll be interviewing  Rob Kiener, Director of Government Affairs and Miles Free, Director of Research and Technology from the PMPA (Precision Machined Products Association). Their members are mostly small- to medium-sized privately held machine shops and I believe represent the challenges faced by other manufacturers as well.

They’ll share ideas on how you can be effectively heard by your representatives in Washington and how to deal with the ever-mounting sea of regulations.

Podcast

With an 800 lb. gorilla like Amazon, once they come into your playground, things will certainly have to change. Big online giants are not new to this market. We’re used to the Grainger, McMaster Carr and MSC’s of the world. The difference in my mind is that while price is important to them, they are selling more of a convenience. The Amazon model is a bit different and price points are more critical.

AmazonSupply has been up and running for about a year now. I wrote a post last summer and asked how they might be influencing your business. Back then it might have been too early to tell. (I sure would like your input now.) I assume many manufacturers are using them as another outlet for their products. The trends are indicating that the traditional distribution models are declining.

I recently read an article by Scott Benfield in Industrial Supply, Trials and Tribulations of Sales Growth in an AmazonSupply World that outlined the difference and suggested ways traditional distribution can effectively deal with them. According to Scott, it comes down to the way traditional distribution goes to market. He calls it the bundle approach (full service) as opposed to a transactional model with a much lower cost base.

He also recommends strategies moving forward for the “new normal.” In my mind, I’d hate to see the traditional distribution model go away. There’s lots of value in their expertise, but if they are not willing to change, then the future might be dim for some of them.

Manufacturers, what are your thoughts on the different distribution models and where is your sales staff spending their time and efforts? Better yet, what can Associations like ISA do to help their members?

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?

Having an insight into how your competitors work is the key to gaining an advantage in the trade industry, after all with the economy struggling, every advantage counts. Using your competitor may seem like a devious way to boost business but trust me you have to beat your competition in order to reap the rewards. Beating your competition however doesn’t necessarily mean being ruthless, instead making friends and gaining common ground could be your key to success…

Embrace the Competition

Firstly identify your competitors and get to know more about them. Focus on understanding your competitor’s strategy and their target customer; during the analysis, look for similarities and differences between your strategy and theirs. Not only will understanding, embracing and almost making friends (or at least becoming acquainted) with your main competitors mean you can take advantage of parts of their strategy that you may have overlooked but it will also give you an insight and a base to build upwards, developing their principles to take the lead.

The Joint Venture

For many it takes a strong stomach to team up with competitors and purposely share your customer base but partnering up with competitors can mean a mutually beneficial end. A joint venture may mean worrying less about sales but it will serve your customer base with ultimate value and give them the firm impression that they are getting the best possible service meaning a higher chance of future business as well as a very happy customer. An example of a joint venture that is particularly prevalent in the trade industry is the sharing of related services. Your competitor may just offer a slightly different service or the missing link for finishing a job for a client so use each other to profit in the long run and gain customer support.

Learn from Their Mistakes

This is another way to make the right decisions for your company based on your competitor’s experiences so follow them closely and learn from them. One of the main ways you can learn from your competitor is by watching out for price changes and looking out for your ‘window of opportunity’. Many customers will want a more cost-effective deal, especially in these difficult economic times, so be on hand to profit from competitor price increases with the right communication and marketing materials, you may just gain a few more customers!

This article was written by LocalTraders, the market leaders in home improvement solutions. Their easy-to-use enquiry system connects customers looking for high quality services with the local trade professionals who can provide them.

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.

Inbound marketing is and can be an effective tool. The Construction Marketing Association recently conducted a national survey of construction professionals to see if and how they are using this tool.

Highlights include:

• 82% employ inbound marketing
• Most popular inbound marketing content is PR
• Blogging is considered the most effective tactic
• 77% use web analytics to measure their inbound activities

Very carefully!

When we get a lead in, we all assume that they’re ready to buy, and in most cases, that’s not true especially when it’s an expensive or major initiative. If a contractor is contemplating a major new piece of equipment for his crews or a new piece of software to help him run the company, it’s going to take some time and investigation first. There are several stages the normal prospect goes through, and if we can’t get them past the initial stages, we’ve lost the battle.

I recently read an article by the Albertson Performance Group, How to Write Content for Early Stage Buying Process that I thought was very helpful. Here are some highlights:

• So if a contractor responds to some marketing efforts in this-type scenario, what we need to do is to give him some general advice or tips on how to decrease downtime or set-up costs. You may have to do this a few times using different tools such as videos or a free diagnostic tool to use.
• Then slowly get into the ways how using your products makes people’s lives easier (use a testimonial on how your product helped one of his peers).
• Put your prospect in a position where he see’s that if he has your product he’s the hero.

They sum it up with one thought – The buyer doesn’t want your product, he wants what it will do for him. Give him reasons to buy from you.

Why do people do business with you? It probably has something to do with your having something they find useful and need. It also probably has something to do with them finding you helpful, informative and an all-around good guy. They can count on you for troubleshooting or advice on best practices. Now I haven’t mentioned the term content marketing, but don’t you think that’s what you’ve been doing all along? Now they call it something different.

Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute and known as the Godfather of Content Marketing, describes it “as a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience with the objective of driving profitable actions.”

Content Marketing should be helping you in some way to move a prospect down a sales funnel. I’m not saying they need to be hard selling but you need to able to satisfy a need of a prospect in order for them to take the next step. Always answer the question – WIIFM – What’s In It For Me? If a prospect can’t easily answer that question, there will be no next steps.

Chris Brogan in a recent guest post on Copyblogger, Why content marketing is not branding, highlights why the end game in any content marketing efforts have to be helping someone make a decision of some kind. He goes on to say that marketing and sales are not evil and that content marketing, if done correctly, will give the advantage in the long run.

What do you think content marketing is and how are you using it?

Manufacturers are trying different ways to get and stay in front of the professional tradesman, and your website is probably one of the first places they will look for info. Is it mobile friendly?

I recently read a post by one of my mentors, Michael Gass, on ways to test your site that I thought I’d share with you. Good info.

In preparation for new business opportunities, it is important that your company’s website be mobile ready.

The number of smartphones in use worldwide has now broken the 1 billion mark, according to Strategy Analytics. Only 15% of companies have a mobile optimized site even though Google estimates that there will be more Web traffic via mobile, than through PCs this year. According to a survey conducted for Compuware, 40% of users have turned to a competitor’s site after a bad mobile experience.

You’ll want prospects to have an easy experience learning about your agency or accessing your agency’s blog content via their mobile device.

Here’s a collection of best practices, white papers and case studies for your review and to help get you started:

• The Mobile Playbook created by Google
• mobiThinking: Best practice papers and guides
• ADM: Advertisement unit standards and downloadable measurement guidelines
• DMA: Mobile marketing best practice guidelines
• MMA: Annual mobile marketing guide
• MMA: member case studies
• W3C: Mobile Web best practices

There’s nothing like first hand experience so check out your company’s website on your mobile device. Sig Ueland, contributing editor for Practical Ecommerce, pulled together a list of 19 tools for testing your site’s mobile readiness. You can use any of these following 12 for free:

1. Gomez
2. MobiReady
3. W3C mobileOK Checker
4. GoMoMeter
5. iPhone Tester
6. iPad Peek
7. Screenfly
8. Mobile Phone Emulator
9. The Responsinator
10. Matt Kersley’s Responsive Design Testing
11. Opera Mini Simulator
12. iPhoney

You can make your agency’s website mobile ready until you can create the mobilized version of the site.

If you have a WordPress site, you can use plugins like MobilePress and Mippin which will automatically enable mobile users on your website to access a mobile version of it. Until the mobile version of Fuel Lines has been developed, I’m using another WordPress plugin called WPtouch to mobilize this site. There are also a number of online services such as Mobilize Today that will have your website ready for mobile in a matter of minutes.

Click on the following link for Sig’s complete list and description of each: 19 Tools to Test your Site for Mobile Devices

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.

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.

So B-to-B marketers need to be patient. I believe Marketing should be the ones who nurture the leads through, and when ready, transition to sales to close the deal.

I think marketing, if the right processes are in place, is in a better position to move them through the process. Effective nurturing is a series of content-relevant info for each stage of the buying process.

Russ Hill from Ultimate Leads calls it the “Transition Zone.” It is the place in time where marketing hands off the lead they so carefully nurtured to sales to close the loop. But in order to do it successfully, you must have a process that everyone is in tune with, and sales needs to make sure to keep info on that lead current in your lead database so we know when a new customer has arrived, from where and what they bought.

B-to-B companies shouldn’t be worried about quantity but quality of leads. According to Albertson Performance Group, quality lead nurturing can lead to 70% more sales. According to them, nurturing will:

• decrease selling cycles
• increase profit margins
• lessen the competition
• decrease price pressure
• get more referrals

Nurturing is the right way to show ROI on marketing efforts.

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

Blah, Blah, Blah. Is this what people hear when you give your 30-second elevator pitch that explains why your firm is different?

Recently I had to identify and vet potential web developers for several major projects for a client. After doing so and narrowing the field to four, we lined up a day for them to present themselves so we could evaluate them at the end of the day while everything was fresh in our minds.

What surprised me is that three out of the four firms used words like synergy, cutting edge, optimize and best practices to describe their business side. What are best practices anyway? When it came to back-end software terms, most of us other than the IT people didn’t have a clue.

The point I’m trying to make is instead of trying to impress people with big words, talk to them like human beings. I wonder if people actually listen to what they’re saying. You just don’t have normal conversations with other folks talking like that.

You want to engage people and to do that you need to act human.

Getting back to my web project. It came down to two firms who differentiated themselves by not talking about themselves, but instead talking about the client’s issues and how they might be able to help. They interacted by acting human. The firm that eventually won the business was because the client felt at ease with them and liked the way they thought about how to solve the problem.

Ironically all four of these firm had the technical competency to do the job, but for some it got lost in the translation.

Think about that next time you’re on a new business pitch. Be yourself, be human.

Unfortunately all leads aren’t created equal. Depending on the market you’re in, 60-75% of all leads aren’t ready to buy! Note I didn’t say wouldn’t, but not ready. That’s why email is an effective and cost efficient way of moving contractors through the funnel.

There are several thing you as a manufacturer need to consider:

• Some of your audience don’t know who you are.
• Some may know who you are but have never done business with you.
• If you’re introducing a new product that the industry has never had, there needs to be a learning curve in most cases before someone will try it.
• If your product is similar to something others already make and has industry acceptance, you have a chance of someone trying yours.
• For bigger, more complex sales, it takes longer to move the prospect through the sales funnel.

Let’s take an example of a contractor. I don’t care if he’s a general, plumbing, HVAC or landscaping contractor as their work lives pretty much run in parallel paths. If they are using day-to-day materials to do a job, they are more prone to try something from another manufacturer.

But if it’s a major piece of equipment like a diagnostic camera, snow plow or other major piece of equipment that they use on a regular basis, they need to consider options before buying. Now let’s consider a few things on a major piece of new equipment.

Chances are, if it’s a replacement for an existing piece that’s 5-7 years old or older, the technology probably has changed dramatically and they will need to go through several steps to get them far enough down the sales funnel to turn the lead over to sales.

Here are some steps he might take:

• Collect info on your product as well as competitive ones
• Review features and benefits
• Read customer testimonials on how well your product works
• Consider asking for a demo

So where in these steps do you think we should get the sales force involved? If you get them involved before the demo stage, you’re wasting their time. The first 3 steps can be handled via emails.

Remember, salesmen want the sale now and don’t have the patience to nurture the lead along. That’s why marketing should take the lead in identifying and taking them through the sales funnel before handing them off to sales, and email marketing is an ideal way to communicate with the contractor and professional tradesmen. Think about this. If we can hand off a lead that’s ready to buy, don’t you think the sales staff will start taking the marketing department seriously? One of my biggest challenges is to get sales and marketing to work together.

Does lead nurturing make sense to you? Would it surprise you to learn that up to 70% of companies don’t have lead nurturing processes in place. It amazes me that companies spend tons of money getting a lead and virtually nothing on nurturing it.

Here are some other posts you might find useful:

Benchmark Report on Email Marketing Sheds Light on Top Priorities for B-to-B Marketers

5 Tips on Improving Your Email Marketing to Professional Tradesmen

Email Marketing: How Are You Using it to Reach the Professional Tradesmen

Your knowledge about your business, your niche and your industry is a great asset to your company and that knowledge is often sought after by industry media.

Interaction with the media benefits both parties. A reporter gains depth and substance to the piece they are working on, and you and your company gain priceless publicity.

For this partnering to work though, each party needs to understand how the other works. When you are interacting with a journalist, it is important to remember certain guidelines.

1. Prepare – It is important to be prepared when you speak to the media. Before a scheduled interview, take some time to anticipate questions that a reporter might ask. Take some time to learn about the medium, reporter and the audience. By doing this, you can modify your responses to better fit the piece.
2. Think before you speak – When talking to a journalist, you want to make sure you are in control and that you have a clear idea of what your agenda is. What do you want to accomplish? What do you want to say? And what don’t you want to say? First, don’t go off the record. If you’re not prepared to hear it, see it or read it in the article, just don’t say it. Second, make sure you take the time to think through your answer before it is spoken, because once something is out there, there is no going back. You want to control your answers. If a reporter tries to pin you with a tough question or brings up something you don’t want to speak on, either say you have no comment or try rephrasing the question in terms that are more favorable to you. Whatever you do, don’t lie. Tell the truth. Third, make sure you don’t ramble. Make your point and move on. Reporters think concisely so try to answer the same way.
3. Use layman’s terms – You don’t want to use company or industry jargon that might confuse the reader or sound too complicated. Keep it clear and concise for the best results.
4. Journalists work on deadline – Editorial opportunities, especially interviews, are requested by a deadline. Often times, the editor calls at the last minute without very much lead time, and you have to be able to meet that deadline. Reporters will go to the next opportunity if they don’t get a response, and a lot of the time that means they will turn to your competitors. No one wants to miss out on a valuable and highly credible opportunity, so it is important to respect an editor’s deadline.
5. What’s your message – When speaking with a reporter, try to make sure you get in your key points. Don’t simply answer the question, but try to bridge the questions to a key point you want the reporter to know about. This can open new opportunities to you as well. A reporter might expand your addition to the piece he/she is working on or may wish to contact you further on the new points you have spoken on.
6. Time is of the Essence – Always make sure you provide information asked of you. If you tell a reporter that you are going to send him/her more information, make sure you do.

Adhering to a few simple guidelines can result in valuable publicity and gain trust between you and the journalist that can generate future editorial opportunities.

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?

I recently finished eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale by Ardath Albee that I would recommend you read. Her insights and strategies have been used by many major companies.

It’s an easy read and what I liked about it was it not only showed you what/how you need to do to engage the potential customer, but it also shows you a different way of looking at your company from the inside.

Even though prospects are more informed now than ever, so are their problems. They are looking for solutions not sales pitches. She shows you how to attract more prospects into your pipeline and then nurture them through the sales process (once you’ve figured it out). Instead of pushing what you have to sell, you need to be pushing the value you bring to the table. What you bring to the party must be relevant.

I’d like to give you an example of a client that’s doing it right and helping the potential buyers through the sales funnel.

Buyers Products is a manufacturer of parts for the mobile equipment market. One of the markets they were in was making replacement parts for the snow plow market. They decided several years ago to start making their own. They were the last one in a crowded market where 4 other manufacturers were the dominant players. These types of products are typically sold through a dealer network, so there was little interface with the customer until a unit was sold and they came online to register the warranty.

They didn’t want to be totally dependent on the dealer to make their case and they couldn’t afford to advertise in every end-user book that hit the pick up truck, landscapers and snow plow contractors, so they decided to use social media to generate interest in their products.

They had for their sales force a matrix of all their competitors with features and benefits and how they stacked up against them. What we did was to put the chart on the internet and promoted a site for them to compare snow plows and salt spreaders. It gave the potential customer a convenient place to compare comparable plows.

When indexing the pages, we made sure to add all the competitors names as well to the key words (pretty bold move for a company that’s pretty conservative). That way if someone was searching for somewhere to compare snow plows, they would go to the Buyers site. If the user would type in a competitor’s name, they too would come to their site.

We didn’t require them to give up any info in order to view the chart, but we did offer them a chance for a weekly drawing for a sweatshirt and hat. All they had to do was give us their name, company and zip code (phone number was optional). The result is they are generating end-user leads that they pass on to their dealers (that’s why we asked for their zip code).

By utilizing something that already existed for their sales force and sharing it on the internet, they were able to identify highly qualified leads to support their dealer network while building brand awareness at the user level.

Here are 3 tips to help you break through the clutter:

1. Be proactive - don’t just write posts. Locate where your potential customers hang out. Listen to what they’re saying about your company and products. What pain points are they talking about and how can you help them address those issues?
2. Train your employees - Social is a new marketing tool and we can’t assume that they know what your focus is for social or what their responsibilities are. They all need to be on the same page and there should be guidelines set up so everyone knows what their roles should be, the processes that are in place, and if a crisis occurs, the steps necessary to address them.
3. Develop a social media engagement schedule - if you have identified an audience like the professional tradesmen you need to know when they are active on social so you have a better opportunity to engage them. When you do, make sure someone who is knowledgable on your product or service is available to answer their inquiries. Don’t let a low-level person who isn’t up to speed on your products be your spokesperson .

The bottom line for all of this is to drive more sales, and social media is just one more way of identifying and engaging new prospects.

Yeah, I know I’m a little late out of the gate with these, but I think some of these are worth rereading and some of you might have missed them the first time around.

1. 5 Ways to Improve Construction Productivity
2. What is Augmented Reality?
3. Market Overviews
4. Trends in Distribution and What it Means to the Distributor/Supplier Relationship
5. Why Aren’t Young People Considering Blue Collar Jobs?
6. 2012 Trends in Smartphones and Tablets
7. How to Make Social Media Marketing More Effective: 10 Do’s and Don’t Tips
8. Reaching Contractors by Mobile. Still not a Believer? See What Grainger is Doing.
9. Here’s an Example of a Small Manufacturer who’s Leveraging Social Media
10. LinkedIn: What Are Your Business Objectives?

The guide includes recommendations from our friends who live and work in Dallas on the best restaurants, night life and sightseeing. We’ve even included phone numbers of taxi companies just in case you don’t want to drive.

We hope you have a great show and hope to see you either at the convention center or one of the establishments listed in the guide.

Click on the image above to get to the guide.

Here are some thoughts:

• Come up with a strong headline - we have less than 3 seconds to capture attention. Make your headline make the reader stop.
• Use images - a picture or graphic is worth its weight in gold. We are a visual society and the right image will help keep the reader on the page.
• Get to the point - now that you’ve captured their attention, dive into the meat of what you want to say at the beginning.
• You don’t have to have all the answers - link to relevant content. It reinforces the point that others share your point of view.
• Get them to react - we need to add a call-to-action or ask for comments to get the readers involved. If they share the same opinion on the subject, I’m sure they would have something to contribute to the conversation.

Those are my thoughts. I’d like to hear what you’re doing to get more readership.

If you like this post, you might like:

What Are You Doing to Ensure Your Content Marketing is Selling You?

Is Content Marketing the New Branding?

How Are You Managing Your Content Marketing?

Top 10 things I’m going to try to do this year to have better content:

1. Less content will mean more impact - make content more meaningful.
2. Find at least 3 other thought leaders in your company - build them into your plan.
3. Develop a list of the top 100 questions coming from your customers – then write to them.
4. Sit down with every salesperson and ask them what their customers biggest pain points are - then address them.
5. Define your most targeted audience and consider doing a targeted print publication.
6. Assign someone to slide share to figure out how we can get the most out of it.
7. Make sure every content marketing landing page has only one call to action.
8. Develop a series of stories for your industry on an aspect no one has covered before - what better way of becoming a thought leader.
9. Double the number of email subscribers to your blog.
10. Commission a piece of research that is important to your audience.

Those are going to be my goals for 2013; what are yours?

One of my biggest challenges is to keep up with our social media activities. Even though I’ve been doing it now for almost 3 years, it’s labor intensive and I always seem to run out of time even after I’ve delegated some of the activities off to other associates.

Sometimes it’s better to slow down and remember some of the basics like talking face-to-face to your customers. You get so much more from a one-on-one conversation, but we normally don’t have time to do that.

So what’s keeping you up at night?

It’s now owned by LinkedIn and they are doing a great job making it easy to connect with your LinkedIn contacts and groups.

So if SlideShare is becoming so important, we should start paying attention to the details on what and how things should be put up there. I recently read an article by Roger C. Parker in the Content Marketing Institute’s daily updates on a to-do check list (you can download it here) to make sure you’re getting the most out of SlideShare.

He outlines 22 tips on proofing, uploading files and even tips on working with PowerPoint. Here are a few of his points that hit home with me:

• Are slide titles and text consistently placed and aligned?
• Other than the title slide, are they numbered?
• Does your presentation title appear at the top of each page?
• Did you add your firm’s name, URL and contact info at the bottom of each page of your handouts?
• Did you convert presentation files to Adobe Acrobat to preserve text formatting?
• Did you check each link after uploading to make sure they work?
• Did you create links between SlideShare and social media sites like LinkedIn and Twitter?

I guess the point is the devil is in the details and if we all take some time, we’ll get more out of our efforts on SlideShare. Roger suggested if you want to learn more you could read The Marketer’s Guide to SlideShare by Todd Wheatlan.

I recently came back from STAFDA, which for those who don’t know, is an association of construction distributors and the manufacturers that sell into that market. What struck me at the trade show part of the event was it was obvious which manufacturers didn’t belong to a group. You saw plenty of Evergreen, Sphere 1 and NetPlus badges there, but they were concentrating mostly on seeing the manufacturing members of their respective groups. (I’m using STAFDA as an example and I’m not trying to pick on them.)

So my question is for those who don’t belong to a group (and don’t have a unique product), how do you justify going to one of these meetings? Should the association try to incentivize distributors to stop by new member booths? I feel sorry for those folks who ponied up the cash but not very many distributors stopped by.
Another interesting issue is that most of these buying groups have their own annual meetings and some are incorporating trade shows along with these get-togethers. From a manufacturing point of view, which shows do you go to? Obviously it’s the ones where you get the most bang for your buck.

Associations/buying groups may want to look at their model as things have changed over the past several years. They need to ask about the value proposition of getting these distributors and manufacturers together. Instead of trade shows (whoever introduces a new product at one of these), maybe there should be a series of round table discussions on how to improve the supply chain for everyone involved.

There are some really smart people out there (on both sides), and I believe a lot more could come out of these kinds of meetings and they could include all members.

Any of you belong to other type groups that have changed the model? I’d like to hear from you.

The new rules focus on content, commerce and community building, integrating online platforms with traditional marketing methods.

Manufacturers, manufacturer representatives and distributors have to integrate traditional systems of record (transaction-based) with systems of engagement (differentiated value-based) to stay competitive in their markets.

We caught up with Tom Gale who is President of Gale Media, a publisher of business information, research, software and market analytic tools that make wholesale distribution companies and their business partners run better for his thoughts on this important topic.

Tom’s company has two divisions: Industrial Market Information, a 25-year-old industrial products market research firm, helps customers map markets and identify potential within existing accounts and new territories, customer segments and product categories. And Modern Distribution Management, which publishes industry news and research since 1967.

Listen to what Tom has to say. Great insights. Enjoy.

To Listen Click Here.