I’m just starting my job here at an electrical supply biz that has 4 websites that operate as individual businesses. I’m going to be working quite a bit with Adwords and natural SEO results, but would like to see if anyone has some other ideas for online marketing for this industry, and maybe even mobile device marketing that ties into the websites. The main audience is going to be electrical contractors.
The main selling point for this market and this company in particular is customer service and speed. That’s going to be the main marketing message - we can get it for you and fast. We’re not necessarily going to be marketing the lowest prices, even though we will try and match prices. I’ll be designing my materials and plans around that.
My first thought was to find some electrical contractor discussion forums to see about running some banners and sponsorships, but there aren’t that many out there, and the busier ones out there don’t run banners or anything outside of Adsense on their sites. It seems like I’ll be limited in that regard, so I’ll need to be creative with this. Any suggestions you guys might have would be greatly appreciated. If nothing else than to just get the creative juices flowing. I know it’ll take me some time to learn and understand the market/audience.
If they sell products online I would start by creating a Google and Bing feed for their product engine. If they are going to be delivering to the local area then I would definitely get them in Google Places and optimize that according to their main keywords. You could also put them on MerchantCircle.com, Yelp.com and HotFrog.com to get immediate results and start networking B2B.
Wanted to ask a follow up question to this, specifically about social media and some ideas on the best way to utilize it for this business/industry. Here were some of my thoughts:
Post on Facebook about specials (the obvious choice)
Post on Facebook about unique products we’ve acquired (we regularly buy obsolete and vintage models that might be interesting to some industry professionals - we could invite other pros to share unique products they’re working with)
Participate in industry blogs when possible
LinkedIn (not sure how to utilize this one)
The problem I’m having is this - I’m going to be the main person heading up these social media efforts and I am far from an industry expert in the electrical supply industry. So I can’t really post much relevant content on other blogs, etc on a regular basis. I’ll be able to pull from my co-workers for some things, but I don’t know that useful industry-specific content is going to me something I can rely on from them consistently. I think we’ll have to rely more on specials and some creativity.
Any other ideas or suggestions on ways to harness social media would be appreciated.
Honestly, not sure Facebook or Linkedin would be a good choice for marketing. Those would be better used for reputation management, etc.
A couple of things you could do:
Create a blog and become the subject matter expert on electrical contractor subjects. In that offer links to some of your products that solve or help particular issues you are discussing.
Create your own Electrical Contractor forum
Sign up for Merchant Circle and offer discounts to surrounding building contractors (who hire electrical contractors).
Create a QR code and print it on Van and/or marketing materials that points to your products page, etc…
I am sure there is a lot more you could do but can’t really say too much without seeing anything concrete on the business itself.
In an ideal world marketers don’t create content outside of offers, contests & event coverage, the experts do. In the real world you’ll create what you can but you are not scalable, getting involvement from others is essential to both being authentic and growing.
As a social media manager, one of your early goals should be to develop and get senior management buy-in for a plan that utilizes your in-house resources to show the innovation and expertise your company has.
This doesn’t have to be creation on their own, that’s hard, scary and rarely happens. Instead make it collaborate: they can write you short hand comments which you turn into posts, they can do video explanations on topics you get from other channels, they can respond to Q&A. Lots of options.
At the same time you want to be driving your current customers to create. Every niche is different but there’s no reason why you can’t get reviews, experiences shared that support the superior service your company has. That’s what people look for and that’s what they believe.
Feed it all back to your relevant channels – along with a moderate dose of product information and a higher dose of collaborative content like promotions and open ended discussions. Also think about what people are looking for and where. If you’re strictly b2b you have to ask yourself if people want to follow you in Facebook or if a blog / twitter / linkedin would be better and adjust to match the right time & place, not just the most visible tool.
