Is your brand’s customer journey worth the trip?
Drive big results by helping your dealers focus on small moments. We marketers tend to talk at length about the Customer Journey and the Customer Experience. As well we should because these are important branding concepts. They can also be overwhelming since marketing’s role is to optimize every moment of a brand’s interaction with its […]
Does your B2B strategy include E-Commerce? Make sure it includes your dealers, too.
At this evolutionary moment in time, we’re all still figuring out how to do business. The pace of change has us a bit fatigued, and new challenges have us scratching our heads. One of the faster-moving trends in sales and marketing is the integration of E-commerce in industrial B2B sales. Everyone knew it was important. […]
Quick, what does your brand stand for?
If you have to stop and think, you’re in trouble. It’s important to continuously educate your organization about what makes your brand unique. Because the worst brand message is no brand message at all. Of course, you have a brand message. You know it by heart from all those conference room presentations you’ve made. But […]
Let’s Make the Dealer the Hero of Your Brand
Your dealers should be catalysts that propel your brand forward. Marketing and brand directors will likely nod along and say, “Absolutely, they should be. But they aren’t.” I’ve witnessed frustration on both sides of the fence between dealers and the manufacturers they represent. Like any relationship it requires effort from both parties. But dealers are required to serve many masters, so for better or worse the lion’s share of the effort in this relationship belongs to the manufacturer. Of course, the manufacturers also reap most of the rewards.
Filling potholes in the customer journey.
The path from your brand to your customer must include your dealer’s brand. Manufacturer brands that sell through independent dealers often ignore those dealers. And in cases where the dealer isn’t completely ignored, they’re taken for granted—and treated as an in-house sales rep. Manufacturers and their dealers often end up fighting over customers like a divorced […]
Three ways to fill the holes in your digital strategy.
Having a digital strategy is a good thing. But there’s a problem. We count on digital metrics to make an impact in the non-digital world. And frankly, they’re not enough. Most products exist in a form other than just pixels. They’re on a shelf, in a showroom, or on your porch in an Amazon box. […]
There are so many creative agencies, so why do you keep working with one that lets you down?
Are you happy with your creative agency? Really happy? If you are, that’s great. We want you to be happy. We’re nice like that. But research tells us that there are a lot of marketers who have less-than-wonderful relationships with their agencies. And that makes us sad. Are you among that group? If you are, […]
It’s hard to be engaging over Zoom. We can fix that.
Web meetings are hard under the best of circumstances. These days if you’re preparing content to share with internal or external stakeholders, the visual representation has to work a lot harder. You may be a great presenter in a conference room or on an event stage. But when you’re the size of a postage stamp […]
The world is changing and good marketing matters more than ever
For most B2B brands out there, the role of marketing has changed drastically during the COVID-19 crisis. Marketing, as we understood it a few short weeks ago, has fundamentally changed. My guess is it will continue to change for months to come. But more than even a few weeks ago, getting marketing right matters. Here […]
Helping Your Dealers Starts with Understanding Their Business
Heavy equipment and truck dealers manage a lot of competing priorities: Staffing, sales and marketing, evolving technology, and dealing with market forces. Brands often want to help, but many run into an obstacle that prevents them from making a difference. They just don’t understand the dealer’s business from the dealer’s perspective. Understanding that perspective means […]
In the world of dealer sales, a little understanding can outperform a lot of technology.
Here’s a common story: A brand introduces a technology platform designed to support marketing and selling through their independent dealers. It fails after a long, painful implementation process. No one – brands or dealers – is happy about the experience. You wanted a happy ending? There can be one, but only if the story starts […]
5 Social Media Tactics to Build Dealer Loyalty
5 Social Media Tactics to Build Dealer Loyalty Effective social media tactics demand more than just selfies and news articles. For the B2B relationship, it can be a powerful tool. Specifically, social media can be utilized to improve dealer loyalty and help your brand better connect with its customers. So we’ve put together five social […]
