A tale of two young building material marketing professionals
It was the middle of another cold winter in a small Midwestern town. A huge snowstorm had grounded flights, and roads were impassable. Nobody was going anywhere!
Now imagine yourself, stuck in your office, looking out the frosty window at the snow-covered ground. It’s an undisturbed, glistening field of white. A blank canvas. So you think, “Sure would be a good day to pack it up and go home to make snow angels with the kids.”
Maybe in a bit…
But that field of white also reminds you of the year ahead of you. Undisturbed and full of possibilities.
You say aloud (to no one in particular), “Maybe this would be a good time to put this year’s marketing plan together. The phone’s not ringing, and nobody’s around to take my calls anyway…”
So you sit down with a pad of paper and pen and start scratching out ideas.
Making the right plans…
Now, depending on what type of marketer you are, this exercise could serve you well and lay out a path that moves you and your company further ahead… Or your marketing wheels could just slip into the same rut your marketing has been running in and get you nowhere.
It’s here I’d like to introduce two fictional marketers I’ve come up with to help illustrate two sides of the road that us marketers can find ourselves on.
One side moves you closer to (or beyond) your business goals, and the other leads you nowhere.
Which side are you on?
You’ll need to keep reading to find out…
Meet Tom
“How’s it going? I’m Tom, and I’ve been marketing for a mid-size building product manufacturer for about 7 years now.
I worked construction while I was in business school and it just sorta’ made sense. You know – take what I learned in college and put it to work for a great company in the building industry.
We’ve got AWESOME products, and I learned a lot from the guy who was doing the marketing before me. He retired about a year after I started, but he taught me everything he could about how they like to do their marketing.
I had a few ideas and suggestions I thought we should try… But he reminded me that I was new to the game and they knew what the prospects expected to see. Plus the boss was happy with the way we were doing things…
So, for the past 5 or 6 years, I’ve been working his marketing system and mixing in some of the stuff they taught us in school.
I’m doing my best to keep up and make sure we’re crossing all the i’s and dotting all the t’s (ha-ha), but we just don’t seem to be getting specified or used on projects like we used to. I can’t figure out why they don’t get that our product is still the best out there.
The boss isn’t quite sure what to make of it either, and, frankly, I’m worried he’ll start thinking it’s my fault.
I’ll just need to start getting us out to more of those tradeshows and maybe get some bigger signs made for our booth…”
Meet Sally
“Hi, I’m Sally. After I graduated from design school about 9 years ago, I worked with a great architecture firm for about 2 years.
I loved the people I worked with, and I really loved the clients I had the chance to meet.
Our firm made sure their building projects met all of their needs. And as an added bonus, we were able to give them a design that delighted the owners, their staff, and their customers.
I never really thought of myself as a salesperson, but a product rep saw how the clients responded to me, and the joy I got from working with each of them.
He called me the next week and offered me this job. I’ve been on Cloud Nine ever since…
Of course, I had to learn a lot about marketing, but it didn’t take too long. You see, my mentor showed me that I was already doing a lot of the “right stuff” in my design career.
It’s really all about getting to know your clients, and what they really want and need. Then you find the best ways to show them how your products can help them reach those goals.
We’re always keeping our eyes open for new ways to “meet our clients where they’re going to be.” By that, I mean the business & marketing worlds are changing fast, and our prospects & clients are changing, too.
If we’re truly going to find them and help them succeed, we need to know where they are now, and where they’re headed. (Don’t worry, I’m not a big hockey fan, so I won’t use that worn-out Gretzky quote…)
I’m really looking forward to the year ahead and helping solve our new and existing clients’ biggest headaches.”
Planning your work…
So, now we’re back to your office, looking out at the snow and writing our marketing plan for the year.
Where do you start?
If you’re like Tom, this task is pretty easy. You just pull out last year’s plan, scratch out “2015” at the top and write in “2016.” Piece of cake — What’s next?
But if you’re more like Sally, you’ll surely want to take more time to think things through before you come up with your plan. Let’s hear what Sally has to say:
“Looking back over last year, I can see a lot of the things we did right, but we can certainly do better in other areas.
For instance, I got a call from a prospect that was having a hard time finding some information on our website. I knew right where to find it, but I could definitely see how it would be hard for somebody new to the site to figure it out.
That’s definitely something we can, and should, fix. I’ll get somebody on board to help look at our site’s user experience and clean it up.
I’ve also been reading some interesting articles on how we can be more green in our marketing efforts. Show our prospects and our clients that we’re serious about our commitment to help make our environment better for the future generations.
And don’t get me started on social media… It’s a moving target, but we definitely need to keep working that into our plan and make sure we’re educating and engaging with our prospects.
I can definitely see we’ve got some adjustments to make for this year’s plan…”
Takeaway: The key to creating a smart marketing plan is to keep a close eye on what’s happening in your industry, constantly reflecting on what works well for your clients, and being flexible enough to adjust.
Mapping it out…
Once you’ve got the groundwork laid out in front of you and you can see what areas you need to develop, you can move on to the next step — Mapping out your marketing plan.
Again, this is where Tom has it easy. The cookie-cutter plan is already there, and he just needs to make a few tweaks in order to apply it to the current year. As Tom likes to say:
“We’ve always done things this way, and it’s the way the boss wants it done.”
For Sally, this step takes a little longer, but she knows it’s worth it in the long run…
“When I’m mapping out my marketing plan, I like to focus on creating value.
To be clear, that includes value for my prospects; value for my existing clients; and value for our company.
The best way I’ve heard to do this effectively comes from Dean Jackson. Dean’s the co-founder of the incredible ‘I Love Marketing’ podcast and he describes it as ‘Before, During and After Unit Thinking.’
Using this marketing thought process has helped ensure we focus our marketing efforts. Focused on how we can provide the greatest amount of value to our clients throughout the entire relationship.
Instead of just selling one-off transactions to our customers, we want to create transformational relationships with each of our clients.”
Takeaway: If you want a marketing plan that goes beyond simply making a good showing, you need to look at the bigger picture. Look at how you can create the greatest value for everyone involved. And make it a lasting value, so you will become a trusted resource to your clients.
Conclusion
Today’s building materials marketplace is changing, and it’s critical that marketers in our industry adjust their efforts and strategies to match. Are you prepared?
If you aren’t already, you need to clearly define who your target prospects are and make sure your marketing is speaking their language. As tedious as it may sound, it’s critical to your marketing success to know your audience and provide them with the proper support and education they need to succeed.
This topic is near and dear to my heart and I plan to continue this conversation in future posts. I hope you’ll join me.
In the meantime, I’m always up for a conversation about marketing building products. You can reach me here.
Until next time,
-Jason Yana
About the Author :
Jason Yana has 2 decades of experience in architectural technology, 3d graphics and construction marketing. This unique combination provides highly-effective visual representations of building products that fuel marketing and support efforts.
His award-winning body of work informs, inspires and educates building product customers.