Can Content Bring More Parts & Service Business?
In preparation for this week’s AEM Marketing Council Meeting focused on CONEXPO-CON/
AGG, I’ve spent a lot of time looking at the types of content equipment owners can access online. Compared to other businesses, dealer and manufacturer websites are uninspiring.
Most websites offer a wealth of product information, but comparatively little content on how to reduce equipment maintenance costs or repair machines. Perhaps dealers don’t want to give away their secrets and manufacturers don’t want to admit their machines break. In either case, both manufacturers and dealers are missing an opportunity. Maintenance content could be used to build relationships and loyalty so that when a machine needs parts or service there is only one OEM or dealer to do the job.
New research conducted by the CEB Marketing Leadership Council shows that buyers progress nearly 60 percent of the way through the buying process before they ever contact a salesperson. By the time that happens, you may be out of a deal. Content can play a key role in nurturing relationships over time. Let your website be an extension of great customer service. Educate and train your customers on equipment maintenance and your brand stays top of mind.
Here’s a nice example of maintenance content from Caterpillar.
Are you ready to be a leader in content?
Should Co-op Advertising Promote Dealers Online?
You bet. Construction equipment manufacturers and dealers are sitting on a tremendous opportunity to boost sales with online advertising and email marketing. And the money to do it is sitting in un-used co-op advertising coffers. Instead of embracing technology to find creative ways to promote manufacturers brands at the local level online, many manufacturers are dragging their heels when it comes to reimbursement for pay-per-click ads, banners or e-newsletters.
But the blame can’t be all on the manufacturers. Many dealers have been slow to move online as well. However, manufacturers would appear to be in a better position to leverage expertise across an entire dealer network. Aggressive dealer marketers are currently bearing the full cost of online programs, because it works.
As you will discover from reading “Putting the Cooperation Back into Co-op Brand Marketing,” there’s a lot that manufacturers and dealers could do to improve the results they get from their co-op advertising. They should start by expanding their programs to include online advertising.
Share your ideas and frustrations here. Let’s get a conversation started.
Google Nightmare of the Worst Kind
This past month I have spent several hours trying to fix a Google nightmare caused when a client lost access to their Google AdWords account. In the eyes of most small business owners there is Google confusion. Between Google Places, Google AdWords, Google Analytics, Google+ and Gmail, businesses may be using multiple business as well as personal accounts. People sometimes get confused about what account is set up with what Gmail address. In their haste to delegate tasks to someone else, they end up losing access to their account.
My client came to me because they were getting increased charges for Google AdWords, yet they had no idea how to access the account to control their campaign costs. Their account was automatically billed to a credit card. Armed with the credit card number, I was able to get Google to confirm the Gmail address used to set up the account, but then we didn’t have the password. To reset the password Google was going to send a pin number to a backup phone number, only the phone number used to create the account didn’t belong to the business, or either of the two owners. Turns out the phone number belonged to the business owner’s daughter who worked at the firm for a few months. To reset the password we needed to get the pin number that was texted to her personal phone. Now we are trying to determine if the information from Google Adwords can be moved to another account.
If you have ever tried, you know that reaching a live person from Google is not easy. They try to answer all questions on their website and hide their phone numbers pretty well. I found one, and to Google’s credit, I was connected with someone from their AdWords department who has been very helpful.
Business owners need to recognize that their website, google analytics and social media accounts, contain valuable information for the business and need to be maintained and protected. You need to keep control over them, and that means properly managing the accounts. To keep you from something like this happening, here’s my advice to business owners on setting up your Google account.
1)Start by creating a Gmail account for the business. Keep this separate from any personal accounts. This is key, because the business should stay in control of the account. You can provide permission to others to access the account, but you main control over the password for the account, and can deny access, if you desire. Write down the password, the back-up email and backup phone number for the business , and answers to security questions. Don’t let employees or outside agencies use their personal Gmail account or cell phone as the backup.
2)Tie all Google products to the same Gmail account. You want Google Adwords to tie into Google Analytics so you can see how your advertising is impacting website traffic. You can authorize others to be administrators or users on the account using their own Gmail accounts.
3)Google Places is now Google+ Local. Keep you Google Places Business Account separate from your personal Google+ account.
4)Keep all account user names and passwords on one simple spreadsheet.
Include the following:
Website hosting website, login and password
Google analytics UA Number
Company gmail address and password
Blog login address, user name and password
Blog RSS Feed
Twitter login and password
LinkedIn login and password
Facebook login and password
Pinterest login and password
Email Marketing login and password
Do you have a Google nightmare to share?
The Value of Social Media Connections Hits Home
When my 27-year-old stepson went missing in the desert after his car broke down on Aug. 6, our hearts sank with the news. Law enforcement began their search on the night of the 7th and did not find him. Our friends at Randall-Reilly, publishers of Overdrive magazine, quickly sprang into action, spreading the news through their blogs and social connections. Truckers everywhere, asked the question: Had anyone seen Bryan or his dog?
I posted a release on Patch.com and emailed it to friends, and family. I shared it using LinkedIn Updates, LinkedIn Groups, Twitter and a PR distribution service. Through Twitter others reached out to us, including @missingincalif who lives near the Mojave Desert. Her husband was on the team that searched for Bryan that first night. She saw our story and offered help. Ideas were shared, along with helpful connections.
My husband left Chicago for Barstow, Calif., to meet with law enforcement and to help find Bryan. Meanwhile relatives phoned hotels and faxed a description. My niece and others helped locate Bryan’s California friends on Facebook in hopes that someone could provide a clue.
My husband asked truckstop managers to post flyers. No one refused. Many truckers offered to help spread the word themselves.
Prayers came our way through every possible medium– from friends, family and complete strangers; from a woman whose daughter had gone missing years before near Ludlow, Calif.
On Friday night, the search resumed in temperatures well over 100 degrees. Hours later, in the last attempt to find him early Saturday morning, the body of Bryan and his beloved dog Ruff were recovered.
Our hearts are broken and lives changed forever with the loss of our kind and loving son. But while we did not get the safe return we all prayed for, there was an ending to Bryan’s story, something many others with missing loved ones do not have. Others must go on living not knowing what happened to their son or daughter, their father or mother, sister or brother. Thousands go missing each year. To those who shared the news about Bryan in every way they knew how, we are so grateful for your efforts, and for your social connections. Without this influence, we truly believe the search may have ended days earlier, before Bryan and Ruff were ever found.
The next time someone dismisses social media as stupid, or inconsequential, tell them this story. Social media is powerful and the connections very real. Websites and social media activities help keep missing person stories alive, long after the police give up. Build your connections and use them wisely. You never know when you may need them for something so important.
One way to help find missing persons is to sign a petition in favor of Kelly’s Law. If passed this law would require law enforcement to enter the information of missing adults into a national database of missing persons within 12 hours.
Thanks for sharing and connecting.