[WRE ADVISOR | BUSINESS]
Modern Marketing: I
How to Avoid Getting Lost in the Crowd
n a blog post last year on the Clark/ Nikdel/Powell website (one of the nation’s leading advertising, marketing, and web development agencies),
Alex Nikdel started off with: “No need to reinvent the wheel. It’s still awesome.” He was referring to the renowned Hub
& Spoke (H&S) model of marketing and advertising that still serves as the foundation for countless companies around the world. Tat said, within the construction and rigging industry, companies are realizing more and more that, regardless of past successes and/or current reputation, promotion across a range of mediums is becoming vital for long-term sustainability. As the name suggests, with H&S
marketing, the bulk of your advertising— your brand identity (who you are, what you do, and how you do it)—lives in one central hub (the center of the aforementioned wheel). Te idea is to get your local audience, and then the larger industry audience, looking in the direction of that hub—the direction of your company. But what if they already have, and they weren’t impressed? Tere’s a saying in the advertising
business: It’s pointless to position your company for the deep end if you’re marketing is stuck in the shallow end. How do you get your marketing out of
the shallow end of the pool? Tat’s where the H&S model comes in. As Nikdel suggested in his piece, these days, for most businesses, the hub is typically their website. “Tink of it as the single, comprehensive home for all things related to your business,” he explained. “It should be designed so that it conveys your brand both visually and through the content, and can convert visitors into customers.” He emphasized that your website is just as
important as your physical office—probably even more so as the face of your business—
since more people will visit your company online than in person. “For that reason, you need to keep your hub well maintained. Continually updating the site with high quality content is very important, and not just for obvious SEO purposes. Informative content (that places value on substance over length) generates trust, builds connections, and cultivates a loyal audience.” He touches on some important points in that paragraph. First, if you’re wondering what SEO is, here’s the quick version: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the name given to activity that attempts to improve search engine rankings for websites. Basically, your website has the potential to “rank” with Google and other search engines as long as other web pages link to them and said search engines deem the content “relevant” and “authoritative.” If your site content is up-to-date,
relevant, and strategic, then Google, Bing, Yahoo, and the like will potentially consider it an authoritative voice on certain topics if other sites are linking to yours. And you’ll hopefully reach the top of a lot of key- word search lists. As professional speaker, entrepreneur, and author, Wendy Piersall, famously said: “Google only loves you when everyone else loves you first.”
Establishing Connections That Last Tere’s more to SEO, obviously, but that’s
the idea. Te second thing Nikdel is talking about in that paragraph is building a bridge to your audience by connecting with them on either an emotional level or as a thought leader (or both). Prospects become customers and customers become clients when they decide to trust what you’re doing and how you do it. Te only way to build that trust is through the integrity of the actual work or product, and then the message you put out about yourself. Indeed—maybe you’re the best at
what you do, but in the modern world, and especially within an industry such as construction and rigging, where one generation is exiting and an entirely different generation is entering (with new expectations on how image and reputation are delivered and received), you might quickly find yourself becoming just another face in the crowd. Which is a great lead-in to the spokes.
Nikdel also calls them satellites—revolving around your hub. “Tese are the tentacles that your business puts out into the community (both online and offline) to drive traffic back to the hub and expand your audience and exposure.” And just like a wheel, the more spokes
you have reaching out from the hub, the stronger that wheel will be, and the farther it will travel.
WIRE ROPE EXCHANGE
JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2016
75
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84