Certain industries seem to be "stuck" in the dark ages when it comes to sales techniques - automotive, industrial/manufacturing, and oil/gas to name a few. As one of these old school industries, are your sales techniques the same ones as you were using a decade (or even longer) ago? If the answer to this questions is "yes," it's definitely time to make a few changes and bring your sales strategies into the modern era! With the advent of the Internet and rapid changes in technology and how we communicate, developing effective "new school" sales techniques is as easy (almost) as the click of a mouse. Ready to bring your sales techniques up to speed?
First, let's talk about inbound marketing, what it is, and how it differs from the strategies and tactics used to build leads and customers in the past.
Here's What Inbound Marketing is
A form of "attraction" marketing using exceptional content to engage, educate, and inform potential leads and customers. Ultimately, your marketing strategy is like a magnet, gently "pulling" those interested to your product/service.
Here's What Inbound Marketing Isn't
Inbound marketing is not an "interruption" approach such as in the old days of cold calling. Instead of going to potential customers and "getting in their face," they come to you!
Has your company moved into the digital marketing era? Certain industries seem to have a more difficult time getting "unstuck" from those outbound or interruption marketing strategies they've relied on for decades.
For car dealerships or those in the mining, drilling, or manufacturing industries, old online marketing tactics include video ads, sending out emails to people who have not opted in to your list, contextual ads, display and behavioral advertising, etc. By making the switch to inbound marketing, your dealership can enjoy more leads and customers. Here are a few suggestions:
- Create a company blog
- Engage in white hat SEO
- Participate in social media
- Content marketing
- Video content
- Guest authoring
- Build an email list of subscribers
Sounds clear as mud, right? The good news is it isn't all that complicated. Whether you're a marketing manager, VP of sales, sales director, business owner, or even the CEO, you can do this!
Let's break things down even further. New school sales techniques don't seem like sales techniques, really.
1) Creating a Company Blog - A blog makes it easy to generate interest in your products/services. Share news, talk about your company's history, and just engage with your readers! Get down on a more personal level and let readers see the "human" side of your company. Content should be informative, compelling, even humorous or controversial at times. Get their attention!
2) Implementing White Hat SEO Tactics - White hat SEO is simply search engine optimization that's performed without using underhanded or deceptive tactics. Sprinkle your most important keywords throughout your content, and make that content so compelling that relevant websites and blogs want to link to it and share it with their own readers.
3) Participation in Social Media - What - you're not using social media? Well, you should be. Engaging on social networks such as Facebook, Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn makes it easier to generate and grow interest in your company. When you develop a community of followers or fans, those followers can share your great content with their followers - the word can spread like wildfire!
4) Content Marketing - Content marketing can be many things, from blogging and creating videos to webinars, articles, free eBooks or reports, white papers, and more. Create lots of outstanding content to share via your blog, social media, your website, etc. Content is what inbound marketing is all about.
5) Video Content - Yes, videos are content. Put an informative video on your website, upload one to YouTube or on your social media networks. Tell a story so compelling or packed with answers to your audience's needs or pain they can't peel their eyes (or ears) away!
6) Guest Authoring - Authoring a guest post for a popular blog that's relevant to your industry is a great way to stir more interest and put your company, products, or services in front of lots of eyeballs. Always craft your content in a way that is all about the reader, not about your company. People are all about me, me, me!
7) Build an Email List of Subscribers - Spamming (sending out emails to those who didn't subscribe to receive information from you) really irritates people. This isn't what you want when your trying to build new leads and customers. However, email marketing can be very effective when you build a list in which people actually subscribe to receive information from you.
Ultimately, inbound marketing is all about attracting the right people to your company/product/service at just the right time, using various forms of content on the Internet. No more "push" marketing or conking people over the head to get them to pay attention!
