A successful marketing plan is essential to building brand awareness for our company and our suppliers. The key first step in developing a marketing strategy is to determine what your customers want. How do they communicate? How do they want you to communicate with them?
Customer research is a key aspect of developing a strong strategy. If you're promoting components that are not related to a customer's product, why spend resources on those components? Today, surveys are easy to manage; in fact, many free surveys can be produced and managed online. The ability to sort and analyze the collected data graphically can be added at a minimum additional cost. Surveys are a great tool to get direct anonymous feedback from existing or potential customers about their buying patterns.
The four goals of business to business (B2B) marketing are brand awareness, potential customers, customer acquisition and customer retention.
Specialty chemicals suppliers face unique challenges when focusing on these objectives to develop their marketing strategies. Some traditional channels can be used, including trade publications, advertising, brochures, press releases, direct mail, trade shows, websites, online advertising, social media events, direct sales and telemarketing. However, the marketing budget of most dealers is limited and it is difficult to achieve these four goals.
In addition, distributors cannot spend all of their marketing budget on promoting a supplier's brand. They need to promote not only their own company, but also the brands of their major suppliers. It's a dichotomy. It's crucial to determine where you're going to get the best return on your investment.
When marketing consumer goods, brand is often the biggest expense. Companies can spend millions of dollars on brand awareness. Fortunately, when it comes to selling industrial products, brands are not so important. Our customers have proven that they are willing to switch from one chemical equivalent product to another without much concern for the brand.
With this in mind, how do specialty chemicals suppliers promote their companies and brands? Aren't we selling the brands of the suppliers we represent? Some dealers can stand by and pick up the phone to accept orders because their suppliers have strong brands. Others need to work harder to sell brands that are not known locally or globally.
Many small and medium-sized specialty chemicals suppliers do not have enough resources to equip specialized internal marketing personnel. One possible option is to outsource all or part of the marketing plan. There are several agencies that offer fee based programs and have the ability to manage your entire marketing plan. Even if your company has enough resources to coordinate your marketing efforts, you should establish good relationships with several agents to keep up with the new trends in the industry.
B2B marketing can no longer ignore social media. As a large number of customers and prospects are using social media, you should consider this as part of a comprehensive marketing plan. If customers find it easier to communicate via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, these tools can be a valuable outlet for your organization.
Today, Facebook has nearly 840 million users and is growing, and LinkedIn has become a great professional tool for connecting with past or present colleagues and industry experts. By joining relevant groups, you can keep up with current events and discover business opportunities.
It is estimated that 40% of the content on YouTube is commercial. It's a great resource to share real videos and promote your employees, product lines and facilities. But remember, audiences want to see “real” people, not actors. They're more likely to hear from a client or a paid organization than a real spokesperson. Most of us have the ability to record video on our phones, which makes YouTube very easy to use.
