EXECUTIVE REPORT continued


proven to be significantly less appealing than, say, a photo with a caption such as, “lovely to be out on site on such a beautiful morning, delivering these 19ft scissor lifts to a valued client.” The core message remains the same - you provide the machines and a great service, but the way it is packaged makes all the difference.


Social selling is also the art of the long sell, by building a relationship with the prospect. This can be done through blog posts, which can be a great way to convey useful information alongside your usual posts (we’ll cover blogging in part two of this article in a future issue).


While most of the major hire companies tend to either outsource social media or have a dedicated in-house team, this luxury is not always within the reasonable budget of smaller independents. That means a bit of time, effort and creativity squeezed into an already-busy schedule. However, for keen and pro-active companies, it can be a fast way to build your brand, and there are resources available on each major platform to help.


Some of the best tips from social media experts include: post regularly, but ensure it is quality content with no spelling mistakes, or blurry images; photos attract attention but video gets the highest engagement rates; keep your posts focused and concise; engage with other companies or groups by liking their pages and/or commenting on relevant posts; keep the content varied; and try to create a personal tone which is in line with your market and the values of your business.


Pitfalls to avoid include posting about highly polarising or controversial issues such as politics (Brexit anyone?), which have the potential to turn off large numbers of potential customers. Also, swearing in your posts can come across as unprofessional.


Help from scheduling tools


If you are worried about forgetting to post or making the time to do it, then a scheduling tool can be a worthwhile investment. For the price of a couple of cups of coffee per week, you can buy software such as Buffer or Hootsuite. These tools enable you to write a number of posts, save them and schedule them to automatically go live during the week. This creates a steady drumbeat of content, which you can enhance with some ad hoc posts as the opportunities present themselves.


So let’s look at a real-life example: Blackpool-based Smiths Equipment Hire, the 2016 winner of our Passionate Hirer 10/10 Award


12


Adults spend on average 12 hours a week on social media.


in the Multi-Depot Hire Company category. The company was also recognised as having the Best Website in the 2017 HAE Hire Awards of Excellence, and subsequently set out to build on this success by further improving its social media presence. Smiths Hire also sought to measure return on investment through the number of additional sales leads that social media generated.


The company decided to bring in the specialist digital marketing agency, Vooba, to deliver on these goals. Vooba (formerly known as PPC Stars) creates monthly calendars for Smiths Hire, including seasonal products, special offers, marketing events and job postings. Regularly posting this free - or organic - content helped the company to almost double its reach on Facebook.


In addition, Vooba created three paid-for social media campaigns to target different demographics within the Smiths customer base. To date, these have delivered almost 6,000 clicks through to the hirer’s website, with Facebook accounting for 79% of that referral traffic.


“More eyeballs on our brand”


Updating a social media presence can be quick and easy.


David Turner, Marketing Director of Smiths Equipment Hire, told EHN, “For us it was about brand-building and appealing to a larger cross-section of


customers. Our objective was to see more web traffic convert into actual hires and more eyeballs on our brand and products.”


Smiths favours Facebook due to its higher engagement rate and larger pool of potential customers. “It’s the largest platform - with over 2.38 billion active users, it’s a no brainer,” added David. “Plus it’s highly visual, which lends itself to hire-product driven storytelling. However, the most important factor is the targeting features that Facebook ads provide. The number of inbound phone calls and associated hire requests through our website from new customers are up by 64% from the same period last year, so it’s going really well.”


Digital marketing is very much a case of getting out what you put in. In the final article we’ll consider how you can dovetail social media with your website, via blogging, e-commerce and other brand-building opportunities.


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