advice Archives - 366 Marketing

October 27, 2016 By Travis Baker

Content Marketing for your General Contractor Website

Being found by potential customers is one of the most important elements in having a great general contractor website. After all, no new leads means no new jobs. The best strategy to be found is through content marketing. Content marketing is a great way to get the search engines to notice you and rank your results (web pages, blogs, whatever) higher.

Ever wonder why when you search construction firms, some companies appear before others? Is it the vagaries of chance? Or is it something else?

Well, good news!! It is not chance that causes you to appear lower than your competitors; it is something that you can actively control. It only takes hard work and some strategy.

But hey, nothing worth having is easy, right?The reason that some results come before others is because of how the search engines work. They want to give people the most appropriate results, so the SE’s employ algorithms to make sure they give people what they want. The search engines want recent, relevant and popular content. (I tend to use Google for most examples, sorry Bing).

Here is a guide to three ways you can use content to make sure that you show up first.

Recent: To have a better rank the more you publish, the better. Google loves new pages to index. Your construction site needs to add new content for a variety of reasons.

It allows you to be found by potential prospects for more search terms. So if someone searches for construction companies in Charlotte NC, you are there. But also having more content means that you get to frame the message and talk about your unique sales position.

Relevant: Make sure the content that you are putting out about your construction company is relevant. Make sure that it adds value to your prospects.

So what makes valuable content?

Something your customers can use
Something that helps them in their day to day
Something that helps them solve a problem

Popular: Now that you have created all of this great content, make sure that you share it on social media so that people can show you that they care about it. Google wants to make sure that the content that it values is content that actual humans value. One of the best ways they can rate it is if people show they like it through social media.

So be sure to share it and ask your employees and friends to, as well.

We hope this helps get you started on improving your construction or general contractor website. If you need help, get our guide to build a great foundation for your website.

June 14, 2016 By Travis Baker

Winning Customers by Being Likeable

It’s an old adage of business, people buy from people they like. It’s not the only variable, of course, but it sure does help.

And that’s great for sales or other roles where you are out interacting and building a relationship, but how do you get people to like you who have never met you?

How do we do that in our marketing? Where you don’t have a lot of face-to-face interactions?

That is a little bit harder.

But we have a few ways to interact with people, right? For instance your website, social media, your blog.

There are lots of ways to build rapport and show people what an awesome, likable pleasure you are to work with.

So what do people look for in people they like? Well, I like people who are authentic, trustworthy and helpful.

Let’s explore how that happens in marketing, when people can’t interact with my sparkling personality in person.

Authentic: If you have read even one of my blog articles or visited my website, you kind of know what you are getting. I try to act like a person in my communication (weird, I know) and to interject humor into the situation. When you meet me in person you know what you get?

Yep, the same thing.

Now, not everybody likes that? But what is the point of wasting time presenting myself as one thing when the second they meet me they are going to realize that I am not “how they thought I would be.” That is a lost sale every time. A fancy way to say this is it is brand dissonance.

Trustworthy: A lot falls under trustworthy, but I think it can be summed us as saying what you are going to do and then doing it. People like people that they can rely on.

If you say your content download is valuable, make it valuable. If you say you only email people when it is important don’t spam them every other day.

With one caveat.

I am huge fan of under-promising and over-delivering. It is a simple and easy way to delight people. If someone tells me they will have a project complete on Monday and I receive it 24 hours sooner, I am one happy camper.

If you tell me you can do something and then you complete it early, or cheaper, I am never going to argue with that.

Helpful: I genuinely want to help people build their business. It is important to me. I think that people can sense whether you are into something for a check or you really want to help them.

And I want to work with people who help me. That’s why if I see something on social media that “Hey I am looking for a good printer”, I tell them about my friend Ken. How great he is even with my off-the-wall request. Like I need 50 14-foot magnetized banners.

I don’t care if I ever become the posters partner (well, maybe I care a little), but still I helped. I like being helpful and people like helpful people.

If you are interested in working with someone who has the above traits give us a call. We know someone like that.

June 7, 2016 By Travis Baker

The Power of Your Website

Sometimes I talk to people about web development, who clearly could benefit from a website, and I get the oddest excuses for why they don’t need one.

Want to hear my favorite?

“We don’t need a new website because we have too many leads already.”

Yep, people say that. Often with a straight face.

“Really? You have too many leads already? Then why are you here with me eating overheated appetizers and drinking sub-par beer instead of on a boat in the Bahamas?”

But, OK let’s say that you do have “too many leads”.

That is not the only reason you need your site redesigned or even, gulp, need a site to begin with.

Want to know why you need a new website?

It is your face. You partners go to it, your suppliers go to it, your customers go to it. Do you want to look like you and your company is stuck in the early 90’s? Probably not.

Do you want your first interaction with a customer to happen via some random third party website, that doesn’t know your message or your audience?

No, you don’t. Perception is reality. Make your reality a little better.

Show expertise

Your website gives you a great place to share your thoughts and tell your story. You can illustrate what makes you different from your competitors. It enables you to let the all of your customers know how you can help them with their problems in their distribution center or warehouse.

Shorten your sales cycle

OK, you have too many leads now, but what about in the future. Some sales cycles take 3, 6, heck even 18 months! Wouldn’t it be nice to have some customers in your sales funnel already for when those possible lean times come around?

Target

Your website allows you to target the best leads for your business. Yes you maybe getting a “ton of leads” but what are those leads doing for you? Are they your ideal customers? Or are they people that you have to bend your solution to fit?

Are they in your geographic region that you can service easily, or are they 4 states away where you don’t have a presence?

Interested in talking about your website? Contact us.

May 10, 2016 By Travis Baker

Acting Like a Person in Marketing Improves Engagement

Newsflash, right?

Have you ever thought about how ridiculous the phrase B2B is? Businesses don’t make purchase decisions. People in those businesses do. And guess what? It is people selling to those people.

But for some reason we want to stand behind that corporate identity. So how can you break free of that and actually engage with your customers?

Remember people buy from people they like. And the first part of that equation is being a person.

Personality: The worst content is produced as a cold, faceless business. Why would anyone want to do business with them? Even huge financial institutions have come around to it to a certain extent.

I want to know that there is a human on the other end of the computer, or pen, so let some personality out. I know this may be heresy to some people, but gulp, act like you are a person!

It is way more engaging. Your personality should be consistent for each content creator and it should line up with your brand identity, but there are wide parameters within that to act like you have a pulse.

Admit Mistakes: Everyone has wanted to pull back an email after hitting the send button. But you know what humans make mistakes and it’s ok. You get way more credit from your audience by admitting mistakes then by hiding, hoping it goes away. Trust me someone is going to spot it.

It feels genuine to your customers while building trust. I know it can be hard to apologize, but you have a much better chance of building equity with your customers and prospects by just admitting mistakes.

People Focused: As you communicate, in whatever your chosen medium, make sure that you have an idea of what type of person you are talking to.

I find it very useful to construct a full audience personae for whom I want to talk to. Everything down to giving them a name, a family and how they consume media, where they went to school what street they live on. It is important that the more completely you can imagine who you are speaking to, the more effective your delivery becomes.
If you want some help with finding voice and developing content etc. Give us a shout.

February 26, 2014 By Travis Baker

Win More Business by Discovering Your USP

Do you buy brand name sand? How about sugar? Most people, me included, decide to buy these commodities based on one thing.

Price.

That’s really the only thing that matters, because aren’t all sugars pretty much the same?

However, competing on price is often not the best strategy. There is always someone willing to do it cheaper and then you are left scrambling to find some actual benefit..

Wouldn’t it be best to find the benefit first and sell on that? I think so too, that’s why I advise clients to find their USP or Unique Selling Position.

The USP is what makes you different than your competitors and the reason why someone buys from you vs. them.

Do you have the fastest shipping, the quickest customer service, the best selection? Do you cater to a niche market or do you have the fastest turn time?

These are all examples of USP’s. If you want to find yours you need to follow the steps below.

Ask

Do you know why people pick you vs. your competitors?

No?

Great, then you have a golden opportunity to talk to your customers. Ask your current customers why they buy from you. You can do this through an online survey (I like survey monkey), ask them directly or ask them to fill out a paper survey in your store.

You probably want to give them some incentive for doing this like taking them out to lunch, discounts cards or a giveaway.

Hint: I find it is usually more effective to give everyone something small then to have one big prize that enters them into a drawing.

While it may be daunting to ask people why they choose you vs. a competitor, their answers will strengthen your strategy.

Also look closely at your business and ask yourself, what would you like as a customer? What do you like being able to offer your customers? What makes you proud to say we do “x” better than anybody else?

Analysis

Ok, so you have all of your feedback from your customers and your own ideas. Most likely everyone did not give you the same answer. That would be way to easy.

However, you should be able to put answers into buckets. Say customer service is a bucket, service times is a bucket, selection is a bucket. These are just broad categories that meet your target markets needs.

Group like answers in the buckets and then try to find the two or three strongest reasons people chose your business. For instance, if a lot of people like you for your selection and your hours, move forward with those as a preliminary USP.

The next step in Analysis is to look at your competitors in your space. What is their message? Visit their stores, talk to their customers, examine their websites and literature.

Try to find out how they are trying to compete against your business.

Tailor

The next step is to take all that you have learned about why people like your business, what you like about your business and what your competitors are not doing. Now, take all of that information and distill it down to a USP.

Somewhere in that idea you have what makes your company win business.

What is it? Do you own the flower store with the best selection? Are you the CPA that specializes in city audits? Are you the esthetician with the most convenient hours?

Something makes your company the best.

It may take some time and some trial and error, but working on your USP will prove to be very beneficial in the long run.

Keep in mind that your USP is different from an advertisement or a tagline. It is something internally that is going to guide you to create all the external messages that you have.

It will help form your mission statement, your external messages, your taglines, your brand.

Discover your Unique Selling Position and use it to dominate your market and win more business.

If you are interested in talking more about marketing strategy, web design or really anything to do with marketing, please contact the author at travis@366Marketing.com or visit us at 366Marketing.com.

Note: This post was originally posted on the York County Chamber Blog

August 8, 2012 By Travis Baker

How Stakeholder Service Influences Brand Management

There is a lot of talk in business about customer service. And don’t get me wrong, customer service is very important. In fact I think customer service is so important it should be under the purvey of marketing. After all, who knows how to take care of people better than marketing? Just kidding sales people.

However I do feel that there is a huge disconnect. While I know most companies really want to take care of customers I think customer service should be expanded to stakeholder service.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with stakeholders: a stakeholder is anybody who has anything to do with your company. Stockholders, owners, employees, suppliers and of course customers are all stakeholders.

Stakeholders surround and control the brand. That’s why they are all influential when it comes to brand management.

The goal of stakeholder service is simple. Happy motivated employees, happy suppliers, happy owners, happy customers; basically making people happy is the end result of stakeholder service.

So why should you waste money stakeholder service?

It is the right thing to do
Having enemies in his always more expensive than having friends
And most importantly because happy people make a better brand

So why don’t companies already focus on stakeholders and instead of customers? A lot has to do with being penny wise and pound foolish. This is a false saving… you are only the saving in the short run.

For example….

Don’t try to screw suppliers out of every nickel. Often there is such an adversarial relationship between a vendor and the company using their services.

Why is that?

If you try to suck everything you can out of a vendor you win in the short term, but what does that do to the partnership? Also what does it do to your reputation in the marketplace? It makes brand management a lot more difficult.
Don’t try to screw employees to the wall. Companies often try to do this when they think an employee has nowhere else to go. For instance, during an economic downturn.

Employees have very long memories and will recall how you treated them, being more prone to leave you when an opportunity arises. And they won’t be quiet about you when they leave. Check out glass door and see what people have to say about your company.

Don’t try to screw your coworkers or colleagues in another department. Although your peers may not have actual power over you, it’s never a good idea to antagonize them. Especially if they work in IT or human resources

You need to build reservoirs of goodwill: you never know where you might need a favor. And remember everyone that has a relationship with the company controls the brand in some way.

I think customer service is obviously very important but there have been tons of articles written about that so I will leave that one.

I hope this convinces you to focus on stakeholder service vs only customer service. Want to learn more about stakeholder service and how it influences brand management? Contact 366 marketing for a free one hour consultation.

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