No business executive wants to cut jobs or shrink operations, but during trying times, it can seem like few options exist.
While cutting nonessential staff and equipment and making processes leaner are certainly important steps, contractors must find ways to generate new business—creating future profits and growing their operations—to truly survive this economic downturn.
Companies that are abandoning any form of marketing are shrinking, while those that distribute their marketing dollars shrewdly continue to get in front of qualified prospects.
Savvy construction executives understand that word of mouth and cold calls only go so far. The new mantra for contractors today is: Public exposure equals survival.
The Right Medium
It can be difficult to find the right medium among television, radio, magazines, newspapers, trade shows and the Internet. Each provides distinct advantages; however, contractors and suppliers have a specialized audience that is best reached through print and online publications. Although the types of media may seem limited, the volume of opportunity is not.
Augmenting a company’s print advertising program with PR expands its reach. Articles placed within trade publications provide an increased level of credibility and yield great results when targeted properly. In fact, tens of thousands of prospects can be reached at one time.
“We were looking for a different way to market our company to enhance our standard print advertisements, and one that was more effective than just sending out 100-word press releases,” says Doan Pendleton, vice president of sales and marketing at Vac-U-Max, Bellville, N.J. “We were always impressed with companies that got PR out on the table—articles with case histories involving the company. They do pull in business.”
Vac-U-Max hired a firm to create and place articles about the company shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, when the stock market crashed and the economy was uncertain. “This type of PR has carried us through tough economic times,” Pendleton says. “It generates leads and gives us credibility.”
The value of this promotion, when added to Vac-U-Max’s marketing mix, yielded three times or more the exposure—a cost-effective way to stretch the marketing budget. “In one year, the number of stories that were published equated to what would have been an additional $400,000 to $500,000 if we’d bought print advertising,” Pendleton says.
In addition, businesses can use article reprints as sales tools and as direct mail pieces to reduce the costs of producing additional marketing materials. These reprints are often more effective than traditional marketing brochures because what others say about a company carries more weight with prospects than what a company says about itself.
“We also can send this information out to our independent manufacturers’ representatives; it helps them better understand what we do as a company and makes it far easier for them to sell our products,” Pendleton says.
Often companies are familiar with the top three to five industry publications, but they are unaware of the 30 to 50 niche publications that reach their target markets. This can increase to hundreds of publications depending on the number of vertical markets served.
Ideal Internet Placement
Many contractors have turned to the Internet as a cost-effective—and in today’s market, a necessary—approach to increasing market exposure. However, the wide range of Internet marketing strategies, such as online publications, ad words, search engine optimization (SEO) articles, corporate blogs and social networking sites, can be overwhelming.
Though ad words are touted as a top promotional method, research shows that less than 20 percent of business-to-business Internet users click on the ads when performing a search. In fact, research shows that 85 percent of business-to-business buyers click on the “organic” search results, which are considered more credible.
Contractors will benefit most by investing their time in promotional venues with proven track records, such as online trade publications and SEO articles.
Editorial content associated with respected online trade publications carries much of the same impact as a print publication, and is often displayed in search results when prospects are looking on the Internet. These online articles often appear near the top of the page in the organic search results because the publications have a high page ranking.
SEO articles can be distributed via a newswire service to move a website up in search engine rankings. When properly optimized with live links and keywords that follow ethical industry standards, the articles achieve placement on respected search engines and increase the company’s page value for organic searches.
Contractors should post objective, informational articles versus promotional ones to improve the credibility of the message.
Companies that garner the media spotlight and retain third-party credibility will survive today’s economic climate. Cost-cutting and leaning measures are necessary, but PR goes a long way to providing a healthy balance between maintaining the bottom line and generating new business.
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Wednesday, February 8, 2012