Tag Archives: tactics

Materials handling marketing tactics from a top agency

If ever there was an opportunity for a business to get ahead in digital marketing, it’s in the materials handling and heavy equipment businesses today. The industries have chronically been behind when it comes to investing in marketing. Most materials handing and heavy equipment companies use old school tactics, boots-on-the-ground sales forces and relationships to win business. However, all that is changing. A new generation of forklift and bulldozer buyers are are coming up the ranks and they are children of the Google age. And they buy using digital tools and changing the nature of materials handling marketing and heavy equipment marketing.

Opportunities for heavy equipment sellers

Their bosses say “go get me some rack” and they walk past the shelf where the catalog is and either fire up their computer or more likely reach for their smartphone or tablet to search for a vendor.That said here are five areas in which you can get out ahead of your competition in the materials handling or heavy equipment sectors very quickly. Teh tips fare from  experts at our  materials handling digital marketing agency.

1. Build a Content Library:

Build a materials handling content library like Raymond Handling Concepts did and see who shows up on your door step. Hire a content marketing agency or recruit an out of work journalist and write articles that make your company appear as the expert that it is.  Few companies do this yet and those that do get noticed quickly.

materials handling marketing

There are big advantages for materials handling companies that engage in digital marketing

2. SEO or search engine optimization

Very few companies are building great web content and optimizing it for Google and Bing so they rank in the top search results.  Find an SEO agency and get results in 90 days or learn SEO yourself.

3. Generate Leads from Email Marketing

Gone are the email blast days. A curated and targeted customer list that gives great content to people that subscribe lets you build your brand and awareness among those that buy your products and services. Use the new rules of email marketing and generate valuable sales leads for your sale force.

Heavy Equipment Marketing

4. Sell Equipment Online

Sell a forklift or backhoe or bulldozer in an online store?  Yep. Most sales pitches start online and require completion offline by phone, however a store full of your forklifts and heavy equipment will surface in search engines. No one puts their credit card down to buy a $20,000 lift truck, they would much easily purchase one of the best audio interface 2017. And you can sell supporting equipment, parts and more. See this materials handling store example.

5. Social Media Marketing:

Your business is on Twitter right? What about Facebook or Google Plus or LinkedIn? Many B2B sales happen because of awareness built in social media. Build a strategy and share the great content you are creating from #1 (above). You will get known quickly. And sales will follow. Find out more with a free 30-minute call with Cyberwalker Digital. We are a Tampa-based digital marketing agency that specializes in digital marketing strategy and builds digital assets and strategy for materials handling sector and for heavy equipment clients.

How to use email marketing to grow sales

Effective email marketers use email as the medium to: 1) Generate new leads and turn potential buyers into buyers, and to 2) Keep existing buyers engaged so they are more likely to buy in future.

If you are having trouble doing either of these things you could be using tactics to market your products or services using email that are ineffective and in some cases damaging to your brand.

How to use email marketing to increase sales

To find out if what you are doing is an effective use of email marketing to grow sales, it’s important to decipher if you fall into one of two categories. Are you an email blaster? Or an email marketer? Another thing to consider is, how good is your payment method? If its not good then customers do not buy, you can also use Advanced Alternative Payment Models aswell.

It’s crucial you know the difference.  Bottom line is: Email marketers use email to develop connections and brand affinity and email blasters turn people off in the hopes of landing a few sales. They use brute force to blast their message.  Read these definitions to identify where you stand:

Definition of an email blaster: An email blaster uses email to try to get people to buy their stuff. They don’t consider that there are different groups of people with different needs on their list of contacts. The goal of an email blaster is to sell their stuff to whoever will buy it.  They send emails with no strategy and no direction.  Their email content is all about them. And they send email to anyone that they have an address for.

Definition of an email marketer: An email marketer creates a long-term sales strategy that has a specific end goal. They send emails to various groups of people.  The emails deliver valuable content that speaks to what the people want.  They build desire, trust, and loyalty. They ask people to buy when appropriate.  Their email content is all about their people and shares expertise that is of interest to them.

If you find yourself in the email blaster camp, don’t feel bad, that is where most people find themselves. Why? Email marketing is still a relatively new form of marketing. At least it is evolving. There are only a handful of highly effective email marketers. But the club is growing, thankfully. Here are five things they do to use email marketing to increase sales.

How to use email marketing to grow sales

1: Segment your list of contacts. Categorize your contacts based on what you want to send them.  You want to think about speaking to the group versus sending them stuff they don’t care about. Then need to create different email funnels for each group because the content you are sending them will (and should) be different.

 2: Establish a long-term email marketing strategy.  To do this you need to decide what the the end goal, is. This is the action you are driving your contacts towards. It could be different for each email funnel you create.  However, usually the end goal is to have the contact make a purchase. Or take a specific action that forwards your business.

3: Develop various email funnels and map them out.  Once you decide what the end goal for each funnel is you can work backwards to design a system that drives people to that end goal.  For example, if the end goal is getting a potential buyer to buy, your entire email strategy should be focused on sending them emails that primes them for that action. You want to build trust and delivery value during this process.

4: Create valuable emails. Emails should be used  to deliver valuable content to your contacts on a regular basis. Get them used to receiving emails from you. Make the emails good so they want to open them.  A good way to do this is to give stuff away.

5: Track your performance. Effective email marketers are constantly tracking their open rates and the actions of their subscribers and tweaking their strategy. If emails aren’t getting opened you need to make changes.