2019 Planning: Stand Up and Stand Out

When working for Andersen Windows, I would tell people I work in the department of neat stuff. I know it is a little juvenile but it is the truth. Marketing is intended to be the place where figuring out how to stand out from the clutter to reach your audience is created. As we look to 2019, here are our recommendations to stand up and stand out from the competition in the home and building products industries in 2019.

One

Write down your content marketing strategy and plan.

What? You don’t have a strategy or a plan. Why? Content marketing is proven to be to the most effective marketing tool you have. Frankly, so few companies have recognized this fact that you will be miles ahead of them if you embrace this recommendation.

Two

Publish a blog series as part of your content plan.

Long-form blog posts generate 9x more leads than short-form blog posts. Publish a blog post once a week. Consistently. This is critical. Promote them across your social media channels and share them with your distributors, dealers and sales team. We guarantee you they will appreciate having the content to share with their customers. Once you have published a few blogs, showcase the top three in an eBook that is offered as part of your lead generation efforts.

Let me guess. You are thinking it can be a nightmare to chase down posts by your team members. Been there, done that. May I suggest you consider subscribing to the Content Network™ where content is made easy?

Three

Start targeting your customers with personal advertising versus relying on mass media.

Don’t let your media reps tell you the same old print and digital schedules are targeting your customers simply because they are trade focused. Poppycock! (Our word of the day) Use geo-targeting of your dealer locations to run full screen takeover ads on the cellphones and tablets of your trade customers in the mornings when they are picking up orders. Use Google and social media ads to target prospects with your messages when they are doing their research. Embrace Account Based Marketing (ABM) to leverage your budget to deliver personalized campaigns to your customers and prospects everyday.

Four

Take your social media to the next level, please!

You have a done a terrific job of standing up your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Houzz and LinkedIn channels and gaining followers. Congrats! Now please stop talking only about yourself.

You know the guy at the party that only wants to talk about himself. At first, he may be interesting but soon you cannot get away fast enough. Don’t be that guy. Learn what your audiences are talking about, what their passion points are and join the conversation with them. You will be more interesting and more likely to be included in any decisions being made.

If this recommendation has your interest, we should talk about mixing up your content formats, leveraging emotion and collaborative competition (more on this in our next post).

Five

Join the renaissance

When was the last time you sent a handwritten note or picked up the phone to call your customers? Find opportunities to connect with your customers on a personal level. Relate your experience through a comment on social media versus simply liking a post. Showcase the wonderful customers and employees that make your products and company special. Sharing experiences are powerful sales and marketing tools that inspire action.

There are many more ways for your company to stand up and stand out in 2019 – video marketing, social media format and content diversity, lead generation and dynamic website management.

Don’t simply settle for repeating what was done this year. Plan to try just one new thing from this list and if you need help putting it together, give us a call.