How to transcribe podcast episode into blog post. Should you start a podcast?

How to Start a Scrappy Podcast that Turbo-charges Your Blog!

If you’re a fellow blogger trying to reach a consistent pitch of new blog posts, starting a podcast may be the unusual way to short-cut the hours-long writing process….

“At this moment, I don’t know if this podcast episode is actually going to make it onto the airwaves. I’m feeling very doubtful. And maybe it’s cause I had a bad day today, and when that happens, you start to question everything in your life.”Am I doing this right? Am I overextending myself?”

Recorded July 2021

For years, a bloody battle has been fought in my brain. What is the best way to build your own “personal brand” or “thought leadership” platform?

Blog vs. podcast vs. YouTube… Do you do em’ all? Or just one?

Coincidentally, I opened an email from the American Marketing Association today. And there was this one article by Mark Schaefer titled: Struggling With Your Personal Brand? This Is Why. And in the article, he was basically talking about this very same topic: Overextending yourself.

When doing your personal branding, he disagrees with the Gary Vaynerchuk model of “Be Everywhere”. Be on every single channel. Post every single day.

Anyway, the writer argues that the rest of us ain’t got time for that! We are busy consulting. Raising our kids. Leading busy lives.

So Mark Schaefer’s point was to really just focus on the one channel you know you can be strong on and you know about. Until such time that you feel you can add another channel to your workload.

That’s why I started blogging here at ebizmarketer.com — lo these two years ago. I blog because I’m a reclusive person by nature. If you, too, express yourself better on page vs. in front of people, a blog is a good channel to start on.

But why, then, did a stuttering, recluse blogger… With only 5 posts written in 2 years… Decide it’d be a good idea to pick up a SECOND channel and start podcasting? Had I lost my marbles?

Why I Started Podcasting Before My Blogging Game Got Better

I started the Confessions of an Industrial Marketer podcast because I tend to overdo my writing assignments.

Yes: I write too much.

When I blog, I tend to do a lot of research. I look at keywords, and I research my chosen topic (seeing how many similar blogs or articles already exist on the Internet). I plot how to differentiate my blog from the others.

Then I write the rough draft, churning out reams and reams of yellow pad paper. Then I red-line the first draft with a million notes, then type it into WordPress. Then I re-write and massage the text until it’s juuuust right. The whole process takes a very long time until I’m finally ready to hit publish.

Now don’t get me wrong; I think a certain amount of editing is a good thing. It respects the reader’s time, and gives em’ a good show. But what also happens in this editing process is…

I actually start to edit MYSELF, and the blog post gets less personal. I’m massaging the content so much, saying to myself:

“Well, gee. What are my co-workers going to think if they read this.”

“I have to use these keywords, even if my sub-heads read a little stilted. Google said so.”

“Don’t rant too much. Even if you really WANT to.”

Whatever. I just couldn’t crack the blogging nut. How do you write compelling, educational blog posts… That don’t take 10 hours to write?

Meanwhile, I’d had this pet dream for years about hosting a podcast or video series.

As hinted earlier, I’m not a big talker. For context, my wife finishes 90% of my sentences, and I’m okay with that. Big noisy crowds drain me. In other words, hosting a podcast seems way out of character for a hermit like me.

And how do you write a blog and host a show… When you barely have sufficient free time for one?

After years of mulling it over, I think I finally figured it out.

How Podcasting Can Speed-Up Your Writing Process

I realized blogging and podcasting DO NOT have to live separate lives. One activity can feed the other. And best of all, you can retain your unique voice and personality in the written medium!

Take this very blog post I’m writing right now. It did not start from a yellow writing pad, like the others.

It started from a document where the words were already typed for me… Literally transcribed from the audio of the podcast episode I recorded!

I’ll explain Transcribing Audio for Dummies in a second. But first:

Let me explain why podcasting is so magical for a self-editing blogger such as yourself:

Once you hit record, there is little opportunity to edit. That’s right. That little red dot on the recorder practically forces you to keep talking. Sure, you might stumble. Stutter. Back-track. You might say the same thing twice. But you keep talking until you naturally feel you reach a conclusion or stopping point.

I actually find that simpler podcasting platforms (like Anchor.fm, the free app I use) makes this even more true. I’m limited in my number of options to pause, stop, and start recordings. So I do the entire episode in one take. Often while driving or on my lunch break.

Now sure, once you record the episode you have more options to trim and cut and splice audio together. But for me… Once I get to this point… I try to edit quickly and just publish the dang thing as soon as possible.

Unlike blogging, where I obsessively craft and poke and prod my writing for hours and hours…

… With podcasting, I just wanna get it done and out there!

I’ll say “It’s good enough, let the world have at it.”

And then when I transcribe it to a blog post (like I’m doing now), it’s 50% to 60% done for me!

By the way, this flywheel concept of content production is nothing new.

The idea of, say, creating one 60-page eBook, which begets 10 blog posts, which begets 20-50 social media posts. Or in the golden-oldie days when guys like Dan Kennedy would turn a 3-day seminar into cassette tapes, video tapes, and workbooks.

The idea being that – in your total potential audience – there are segments who prefer email, blogs, podcasts, video, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., over all other channels.

The more you can meet them on their preferred channel… In the way they LIKE to consume content… The better.

I’m most active on LinkedIn these days. I wanna post more long-form status updates.

(You know, the ones where there’s a line-break after every sentence, and starts with some dramatic opener like “I fired my entire team of coders…” – My LI peeps know what I mean 😃)

And I think fleshing out an idea via podcast is a great way to spin-off 1 or more posts like that.

And if I think a particular episode has some legs (like this one I did on Photo Contests)… Or if I didn’t go into the detail I wanted it to, then I’ll turn it into a much longer blog post (which, BTW, I can clone into a LinkedIn Article)

How Long Does it Take to Publish a Podcast Episode?

Your results may vary, especially if you have guests, co-hosts, or a topic that requires deep research.

For me, I’d say it takes 3-4 hours, elapsed over the course of 1-2 weeks.

With Anchor.fm, I record my voice into directly into my phone (no microphone needed). I can then edit the audio on my phone, which is great cause I only have little moments to do this throughout the week. (Lunch breaks, long visits to the restroom, and pushing the baby stroller around the block are my key editing windows.)

How much prep is needed before you hit record?

For me, I pick a topic from a running list of ideas I keep on my phone. I try to think of what conclusion I want to reach at the end of the episode. Then I may (or may not) scribble a quickie outline on a napkin or receipt before hitting the record button.

Simple, right?

Oh, you say I’m being lazy? Think I’m stuffing more garbage down the internet rat-hole?

Well, maybe. You can invest in all the studio quality mics, mixers, and audio programs you like. You can spend time booking quality guests, and plan an ambitious content calendar with operatic story arcs. More power to ya’.

But for me… I know that, if I’m going to podcast, I need to eliminate distractions and complexity at every turn. Or I just ain’t gonna do it.

If you are currently standing right at the water’s edge of launching you podcast or video series / vlog, I highly suggest you eliminate those distractions too.

Designing your favicon, page banner, bumper music, and show website can all come later. First prove you can actually record a few episodes — and let it evolve into the show it’s meant to be — before you start to polish the chrome.

And for God’s sake, DO NOT look at your metrics at first.

Mind you, Confessions of an Industrial Marketer is just a one-person show. So I can afford to be this simple. Guests, co-hosts, and higher production value may come much later down the road – that is, once I’ve found my voice, unique point-of-view, and mission.

But for now, I’m in a wonderful exploratory zone. Just pick a topic, hit record, and let whatever spills out of my mouth happen.

O.K. I seem to be straddling two topics here.

  1. TOPIC #1: A “pep-talk” for starting your own podcast.
  2. TOPIC #2: Using your podcast to spin-off content in other mediums.

Let’s circle back to the first one:

When I recorded this podcast episode a few months ago, I had a lot of doubts.

I’m sure you are having doubts too. In retrospect, I had a bummer day when I recorded that episode – I can recall at the time feeling like “What is the point of this? Who in their right mind is gonna listen to this?”

Rest assured, getting started is always the hardest part.

And what’s my take-away on the topic of spinning podcasts into blog posts?

So far, this experience of transforming podcast to blog has been liberating. It’s one thing to hear yourself talk. It’s another to read your voice verbatim — “uhms”, “errs”, rambles, and all. And though there IS editing involved, the blog (or other written medium) gets to retain some essence of “You” from the recording. Which – if we’re talking how to differentiate your personal brand from all others – is probably the key ingredient.

Talk about “finding your voice”, right?

How to Transcribe Audio to Text Free with Word

This quick instructional* assumes you have Anchor.fm as your podcast platform, and an active Microsoft365 account.

  1. Download Your Episode. Login to the Anchor website and access your dashboard
  2. Click ‘Episodes’ at the top of the page
  3. Next to a published episode click the 3 dot menu ‘…’
  4. Click ‘Download episode’
  5. Convert speech to text transcript
  6. Make sure you’re signed in to Microsoft 365 (on-line version of Word; not the desktop one!)
  7. Go to Home > Dictate dropdown > Transcribe.
  8. In the Transcribe pane, select Upload audio.

Done! In seconds, you’ll see your voice magically appear in text form!

*These are excerpts are from both company’s instructions. Full, up-to-date instructions can be found on their websites.

How to setup a Photo Contest to collect User Generated Content for business.

How To Get User-Generated Content thru Online Photo Contests

Tell me if you’ve had this experience at your company…

Members of the sales team get together for a meeting or teleconference. The VP of Sales and Marketing asks everyone:

“Did you get any good “install photos” from the job sites you visited?” 

** Somewhere a cricket chirps. **

Let’s just say, it’s probably not your Sales Team’s highest priority to go find installation photos. Which is totally understandable – they’re busy making sure customers are happy, putting out fires, and making sure they hit their quotas. (Which, by the way, pays your salary!)

But if your VP of sales — or any manager or C-suite executive at the top — asks for “install photos” (especially more than once)… There’s probably a darn good reason behind it.

In the case of my biz, we all knew the opportunity was there:

  • We’ve been around a while.
  • We make some really awesome and unique time-saving products.
  • We knew these products were being used on some really high-profile airport, hotel and casino jobs.

And… Contractors love taking pictures of their handiwork. (Just search #ConduitPorn on Instagram.)

So, why don’t these install photos make it back to our company?

It’s simple, really…

THERE WAS ZERO INCENTIVE
FOR CONTRACTORS TO
SEND IN THEIR PHOTOS!

If you’re an industrial marketer, and you sell physical products that get installed in buildings, or as components of other machines… I’ll bet there’s a ton of stunning field photography of your products floating around out there.

This user-generated content (UGC) could be worth thousands of dollars to your org — as marketing collateral for your catalogs, flyers, website, or case studies.

Just one of these unique photos (or videos) can literally make a big sale all on it’s own — especially if it demonstrates a common problem being solved by your product.

Even a tough decision-maker will sit-up and take notice if you show your product being used successfully by a peer (or even better: a competitor!).

How We Started an Official UGC Photo Contest

At my company, we have been running a very simple photo contest for a few years now.

I hit upon the idea in 2018, when I attended my first NEMRA (National Electrical Manufacturers Association) Convention.

If you haven’t been to one, these events look like a game of speed-dating between manufacturer’s and their contracted sales reps. Rep team enters your booth. You talk business and sales figures for 20 minutes. Rep exits your booth to see the next manufacturer on their line card.

Anyway, between seeing one rep firm and then next, I was talking to one of our regional sales managers from the East coast. And he had this really interesting idea:

“We really ought to have some kind of photo contest. We could offer a ball cap and a catalog to anybody that sends in their photos.”

I thought about that for a second. It was actually a really, really good idea. 

Later on, I pitched it to our upper echelon… And they approved!

So then we started looking into ways to set up the photo contest…

First we honed the offer, which was a $100 Amazon Gift Card for the grand prize; and a hat and catalog for the door prize.

Second, we chose timing and duration for the photo contest. It made sense for us to hold the photo contests once every quarter: Fall, Spring, Summer, and Winter. 

We went quarterly for two reasons:
  1. There would be a nice long period for people to submit photos.
  2. The contest periods run parallel with fiscal quarters. This made it easy to remember when the clock on one contest was about to expire, and to prepare the next one.
So, why didn’t we just have a photo contest that runs continuously throughout the year?

Simply put: we wanted to motivate people to upload their photos quickly, and not procrastinate. A simple countdown does the trick nicely. 

Once you figure out your offer and schedule, it’s time to figure out the tech.

In-House UGC Platform: Worth the effort?

We knew we needed some way of housing all of the photos online.

It had to be a dead-simple way for contractors to dump their photos and leave their contact info — with the least amount of friction possible.

We first explored an in-house solution for the photo contest platform. It would involve coding a webform with a file uploader. This form might live in a blog post or its own web page.

The advantage of going in-house would be:
  • A URL that stays static (doesn’t change). This is important when creating QR codes or printed flyers – you want those puppies to last.
  • It’s on your company’s website (or subdomain). It looks legit!
  • Don’t have to add yet another 3rd party software provider to your tech stack. (Who needs another site you have to remember passwords for?)

But there was one big snagaroo with the in-house solution.

The IT people said that coding the webform would take a very long time. We’d have to do a lot of user testing. And fix a whole lot of bugs ourselves.

No, thank you

If you want to set up your own photo contest platform… But you don’t want to do all the coding yourself… Go get you a 3rd party software provider. Yes, passwords and credit cards and learning a new system. Blah blah blah. But you’ll be saving yourself a lot of headache… and, best of all… You pay someone else to deal with all the bugs!

So just hop onto Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, NetScape Navigator or whatever… Type “Photo Contest Platform.” That’ll get you started.

One thing I learned about these platforms:

There’s a WHOLE LOT of other features we did not need!

Integration with email marketing.

Integration with social media sharing campaigns.

User account creation for returning customers.

Oodles and oodles of shiny graphs and dials.

And some of the software products were really full-on marketing hubs, in which ‘photo contest platform’ was just a teeny-weeny bullet point in a long list of features. 

I put together a spreadsheet with all the collected bids from the different software providers. Some of them went as high as $1,000 to $2,000 a month!

So which software provider did we go with?

We ultimately chose a company called RewardsFuel.com. They were the third lowest bidder, I believe. And I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND them if all you need is a simple photo contest platform.

UGC Photo Contest Platforms

COMPANYPHONEEMAILPLANSUBS PER MOCOST PER MOCOST PER YEAR
360 PHOTOCALL---VARIABLEVARIABLE
AWARD FORCECALLE-MAILSTARTERUNLIMITED$116$1,390
EASYPROMOS-E-MAILBASIC5000$29$348
MAKE MY CONTEST-E-MAIL--$17$200
QUALIFIOCALLE-MAILCUSTOMUNLIMITED$2,618$31,416
REWARDS FUEL-E-MAILPROMOTERUNLIMITED$16.63$200
SECOND STREETCALLE-MAIL--$500$6,000
SHORT STACKCALLE-MAILBUSINESS10000$99$1,188
SUBMITTABLECALLE-MAILSTARTERUNLIMITED$834$10,000
VOTIGOCALLE-MAILSTANDARD10000$240$2,880
VYPER-E-MAILPRO10000$25$300
WISHPONDCALL--1000$49$588
WOOBOXCALLE-MAILBASIC1000$37$444

But it wasn’t just price that made us choose RewardsFuel.com. And this important ‘X’ factor should be a top consideration for any low-cost software you buy…

Tip for Choosing “Cheap” Photo Contest Platforms: Test Their Customer Service!

There are times (like mine) when you really just need the lowest bidder… Especially when consequences are negligible. So when you scrape the bottom-of-the-barrel for any type of marketing software, heed these three cautions:

  1. The company might not last very long. There’s likely one entrepreneur behind the scenes running multiple software companies to see which sticks. At any time, you could lose this platform and have to look for another solution.
  2. Company could get acquired at any moment. That’s great news for the tech bro who owns the software. But potentially bad news for you, as your monthly price might go up.
  3. Company has terrible (or no) customer service. Imagine you buy your photo contest platform for dirt cheap. You’re ready to launch it… But there’s a bug. Or a promised feature isn’t there. And the only people you can complain to is a poorly-programmed chat bot, or some Indian guy who takes 24 hours to respond to an email.

There’s not much you can do about #1 and #2.

But you can do something about #3. And that is to ask their Customer Service a question. It can be any question, really. But see how they respond, who responds, and how quickly they respond.

That was the real kicker for me with RewardsFuel.com. I had a question about pricing tiers, so I emailed their general inbox. I had low expectations. I figured I’d get some automatic, canned response like:

“We will get back to you in 24-48 hours”.

Oooh! Can they make a fancy “ticket number” just for me?

What happened instead was miraculous in this day and age…

Less than thirty minutes later, I get a response. She’s a real person. She’s based in North America. And… She’s the owner and designer of RewardsFuel.com! So she not only has the technical expertise — she can make things happen! 

(Which reminds me I gotta give her a review! Hopefully y’all can hold me accountable.) 

And once we started using the platform (which I think had only recently launched) we did run into the odd glitch here and there. And sure enough, she fixed it!

So how has our user generated content experience been going?

For 2-1/2 years, our company photo contest has been going strong. It’s not heavily hyped or marketed in comparison to other activities. But we’re consistent, which is a good thing because we’ll always have a need for good install photos from the field.

And for you ‘selfish’ attention-seeking marketers out there… Here’s the bright shiny bullet point you can add to your resume:

‘Introduced first-ever User Generated Photo Contest, leading to [results].’

So if your company doesn’t have a UGC strategy in place, it’s relatively easy for even a junior marketer to implement quickly. And then you get to be the ‘innovator’.

Staying Out of Trouble: How to Write Terms & Conditions for your UGC Photo Contest

Last thing I’ll just say about photo contests (or any kind of contest that you do) is to have really dense Terms and Conditions*

I know that sounds a little bit shady. But when it comes to contests — especially if you’re a bigger company — you can get into some real hot water if you don’t get the legal language right. 

The two big elements you want to cover in your Terms & Conditions has to do with:

  1. Taxes on prize winnings.
  2. Ownership / copyright of submitted material.

For instance, a $100 cash prize may or may not be taxed, depending on the participant’s state or even county. There might be other tax stipulations you don’t know about.

In terms of ownership / copyright, try to hammer home that your company owns all of the photos / videos that get submitted. That by sending in their photos, contestants agree to allow your company to do whatever the heck it wants with ’em.

Just imagine you get an amazing photo of your product installed in the field. You share it on social. Use it in print campaigns. Put it in the catalog. Then along comes the original photographer, and he’s like, “Hey, you’re making money off of MY photo. Take it down or pay me royalties!”

Luckily, RewardsFuel.com actually had its own generic terms and conditions template. So I just took that template, read through it, and added a little bit more language to tailor it to our company and contest goals.

I’m sure whatever UGC platform you use will offer similar templates – or you can search Google for templates.

Now go out there and get you some photos! And tell me what solutions YOU used in terms of software and strategy!

P.S. *I’m not a lawyer, so make sure you talk to YOUR general counsel on Terms & Conditions. This blog is for pure entertainment, I’m not giving legal advice. Do I really have to say all that? Huh?

A view from the virtual exhibit hall of the National Electrical Contractor's Association (NECA) Convention in 2020.

Virtual Trade Show Marketing: What We Learned from 2020

It’s Trade Show season again!

And this year, most conferences are going back to IN-PERSON EVENTS!

But did we, as manufacturers and exhibitors, learn anything we can take away from the dark days of 2020? The Year when our big exalted trade shows went completely online?

Or… do we just try to forget about it like some terrible fever-dream?

Crescent Electric Supply did a nifty thing for NECA 2020 Live. They utilized their backdrop tiles to invite attendees to enter a live chat with their booth personnel – each with their own product or application expertise. And best of all you see their faces – a nice human touch.

Virtual Trade Shows: worth the investment?

I think most of us in exhibitor-land assumed virtual trade shows were going to “suck”.

And like a self-fulfilling prophesy, they probably did “suck”.

But not every exhibitor “phoned-it-in” for 2020. An intrepid few took the hands they were dealt, and played em’ the best they could…

… And I’ll bet good money those intrepid exhibitors walked away with the lion’s share of attendee leads that year!

For NECA 2020 Live, ABB (parent company of Thomas & Betts and GE Industrial) opted for rotating backdrops. So one minute you see these products…
… And the next minute you see THESE products. A pretty good way to feature multiple products while giving them equal weight of importance.

So in this post, we’re gonna’ break down one such industry trade show that went virtual in 2020. Can it give us a glimpse into the future of “hybrid” trade shows? And how should we change our marketing mindsets going forward?

I will try to give you one B2B marketer’s glimpse into those questions. And maybe you’ll dig-up a nugget or two you can take to heart.

Seven Predictions I Made About Virtual Trade Shows in 2020

What I got right. What I got dead wrong.

As our example, let’s look at my industry’s “Super Bowl” trade show event — the National Electrical Contractor’s Association (NECA) Convention (taking place in Nashville, Tennessee this year).

In my last post written prior to NECA 2020 Live, I made seven predictions about:

  • How exhibitors should re-think their classic trade show marketing strategy
  • And what new opportunities might be available in the virtual (or “hybrid”) setting.

While I talk about the NECA Show specifically, my hope is that some of these insights ring true for your big industry trade show. Take what works for you. Discard the rest.

So, were any of my predictions right?

To help answer that, I got the chance to sit down with Beth Ellis, the Executive Director of Convention and Meetings for NECA. For almost 30 years, Beth has been running a tight ship for the organization, making sure each NECA Show goes off without a hitch.

Big thanks to Beth, who was super knowledgeable, very gracious with here time, and was really a great sport for agreeing to comment on this non-descript blog o’ mine.

Prediction #1

NECA (read: your trade show) will see more attendees than in any other year, possibly as much as 3X more people if events like 2020 Adobe Summit are any indication.

I figured if NECA saw 10,220 people in 2018, NECA 2020 Live could see as much as 30,000.

VERDICT: FALSE

BETH ELLIS: “The trade shows you’re comparing don’t quite tie together like that. If you recall, NECA 2018 was held in Philadelphia – a large city with a very strong [labor] Union presence. So attendance at these shows will vary depending on the city they’re held in.”

NECA 2020 Live ultimately saw 5,104 attendees during it’s official trade show period in October (though people continued to attend “on-demand” through December 2020 – an interesting consideration for your virtual event).

I asked Beth if this seemingly “low” number was due to a technology learning-curve for folks who prefer in-person events.

BETH ELLIS: “[In 2020] we didn’t know what to expect. We had nothing to compare it to. Only a few other [construction] trades were doing [virtual trade shows]. Most decided to postpone or cancel their [in-person] events.”

“We had only a few months [to shift the NECA Show into a completely virtual event]. It’s something we thought about doing for years. But the pandemic forced us to finally say ‘let’s go for it!'”

“Ultimately, we were pleased with the results [of NECA 2020 Live].”

DeWalt Tools produced custom videos specifically for NECA 2020 Live. They made the videos very easy to find, as you can see…
DeWalt was smart to host their videos from the booth (rather than link-out to their website or YouTube – a less expensive option). This helps keep attendees inside the experience and avoid distractions.

Prediction #2

While not wholly “my” prediction, the NECA Exhibitor Prospectus from 2020 indicated there would be a “Deeper / wider audience reach.” (ie. More positions in the firm represented than in years prior.)

VERDICT: TRUE

BETH ELLIS: “Yes, exhibitors had [a unique] opportunity to dive deeper into [electrical contracting] firms. At a live destination trade show, companies typically sent owners, presidents, and CEOs.”

“[In 2020] we saw a lot more project managers, supervisors, and foremen.”

“In past years, smaller shops might not have been able to fly everyone to the convention. Now they can – and because it’s available on-demand [through December 2020], everyone has the chance to go to NECA!”

After the convention ended, I answered a number of sample and literature requests from my company’s website. These requests were the result of “foot traffic” to our virtual booth. All requests were indeed mid-level (estimators, PMs, foremen). And they all confirmed it was their first time attending NECA – despite some who had been in the business for over a decade.

Why is Audience Reach at a trade show important?

This may not be true to your business. But in my little corner of the construction world, it’s often the mid-level people who champion our products, and ultimately win the business.

Not all owners and C-suite executives care about the features and benefits of your product. But their superintendents and foremen DO care. And those mid-level folks can be powerful change agents inside a large company.

Graybar: Best Booth of NECA 2020 Live? While Beth Ellis could not say which exhibitor got the most foot traffic, Graybar wins my Gold Medal in terms of effort. And when you click on any of the backdrops…
… You land on a custom landing page designed specifically for the show. Full of prizes, and a calendar of their out-of-booth livestream events.

Prediction #3

People will not aimlessly “walk through” the virtual exhibition hall. Instead, people will be laser-focused – they’ll either go to the Education Sessions only… or… they will make a bee-line to select exhibitor booths.

VERDICT: FALSE, KIND OF

BETH ELLIS: “We actually received numerous accolades from exhibitors [who reported “foot traffic” to their virtual booths]. And with [the NECA show available] on-demand [through December 2020], attendees took advantage of walking the show floor [long after the show concluded].”

To be sure, keynote speeches and education sessions were popular.

There was an exhibitor directory (and several other methods) for people to “jump” right into specific booths.

Yet, of the folks that requested samples and literature, a few implied they in fact did browse the exhibit hall. So I now think “browsing” the show floor is a preference for some attendees – not just a necessity.

Prediction #4

Exhibitors should seize every opportunity to livestream outside of their booth. Thus, many ways scoop up more leads besides your booth.

VERDICT: TRUE

Indeed, out-of-booth livestream events allowed exhibitors to scoop up more leads (vs. exhibitors with booth only).

BETH ELLIS: “Both our 5-minute Product Demonstrations and 30-minute Trade Show Education slots were sold out. Lots of people attended these events.”

Beth was kind enough to share some attendance figures from 2020. They were quite eye-opening:

DATE:# OF EDUCATION SESSIONSATTENDEES
201921590
2020242,402
In 2020, the NECA Show drew nearly six times the number of attendees to exhibitor-hosted Trade Show Education Sessions. There were also 27 Product Demonstrations which drew 1,225 attendees in total.

Livestream events at NECA 2020 Live drew nearly six times the number of attendees than in previous “real world” trade show years!

I asked Beth which exhibitors at NECA 2020 Live did the best job of hosting / promoting livestream events (either from their booth or outside of it). But due to exhibitor confidentiality…

BETH ELLIS: “I can’t name names. However, I will say that every [exhibitor] started on a level playing field.”

She’s right. Virtual booth space is only a fraction of the cost of a physical booth.

And in the virtual world, there is no airfare, hotel, or physical display costs.

So at NECA 2020 Live, the small or start-up company could afford Platinum-level booths… with all the bells and whistles.

For the first time ever, small agile players could go head-to-head with big companies — those “Super Exhibitors” who normally spend millions of dollars a year on trade shows.

Graybar for the win! They hosted several out-of-booth livestream events (a.k.a. Trade Show Education Sessions). Each with titillating titles like this: “Break into Prefab & Digitized Procurement without BIM or Upfront Costs”. It’s technology / leadership focused, uses a hot-button word (“prefab”), and the title even a uses a great copywriting formula (the ol’ “With / Without” headline).
Video replay of Graybar’s Trade Show Education Session.

According to Ellis, one way manufacturers can re-invest their ‘saved’ trade show dollars is in giveaways and gamification. For instance, NECA has an incentive program they’ve done for years. Attendees will visit participating booths, collect tokens, and then qualify for raffle prizes later.

She mentioned some exhibitors are skeptical of such incentive programs, but…

BETH ELLIS: “They [Giveaways and gamification] work. And attendees get to meet vendors they might not have otherwise met.”

Prediction #5

Exhibitors should send out “spies” to the Lounge Area (or anywhere there was a public chat room). That way, you can announce livestream events and let people know about your booth.

VERDICT: TRUE (WITH A ‘BUT’)

Guess I wasn’t the only “genius” marketer that caught onto this idea. Just take a look at the screenshot below, showing a snippet of the NECA Lounge:

The NECA 2020 Live Lounge Area.

Exhibitors and trade show staff sorta’ bum-rushed the virtual lounge!

(It was kinda fun to imagine twenty exhibitor salespeople standing on soap boxes, pitching their wares at each other in a crowded, poorly ventilated room. Meanwhile one attendee pokes her head in, sees the shouting salespeople, and ejects herself from the room immediately!)

As far as I could tell, there were no moderators. Exhibitors were very well behaved, though (albeit a little “Chat Bot”-like.) I wanted to break into the chat and yell in ALL CAPS to my fellow marketers:

ARE WE COMPLETELY THROWING OUT THE RULES OF NETWORKING JUST CUZ ITS VIRTUAL NOW?

When I conjured this prediction from my crystal ball, I imagined something a little more… genuine.

Savvy exhibitors and attendees of the Social Media Age, having real conversations. Spirited discussions about business and life. Talking solutions instead of products. Really connecting with each other…

… and then I remembered what industry I’m in!

Prediction #6

When buying a virtual booth package, make sure it comes with “Match-Making” enabled.

VERDICT: “MEH”

So I guess I didn’t understand Match-Making programs as well as I thought.

Match-Making pairs exhibitors with attendees who are likely to buy the exhibitor’s wares. I think it happens during registration, where people select the products and topics that interest them.

Exhibitors are then alerted somehow when there’s a “match”. (Kind of like Tinder.) As I understood, exhibitors get to “see” that person’s data and reach out for meetings.

It also sounded like matched-attendees get included in the final “leads” file – whether they visit your booth or not.

However, I didn’t recall seeing any place in the exhibitor’s dashboard where “Matched” attendees lived. Nor do I recall seeing any “Matched” contacts in the final “leads” file (though likely they blended in with leads from other sources). Either way, I wasn’t looking too hard. So from my experience, Match-Making was a “meh.”

Your results may vary, so don’t take my word for it.

Prediction #7

The top trade show education topics (read: most-attended) would be “Safety” and “Code” related.

VERDICT: FALSE

The NECA Show offers two exhibitor-sponsored, out-of-booth events. These are:

  1. 30-minute Trade Show Education Sessions
  2. and 5-minute Product Demos

Beth could not divulge which exhibitor-sponsored events were the most popular. But, she did share which of the General Sessions were most popular with attendees. These were:

  • Margin or Markup
  • Building High Performance Teams
  • New Role of Data in Construction
  • How to Lead Virtually
  • The Value of Speaking Up

This lit a huge light bulb for me.

Topics of “leadership” and “future of technology” actually out-performed “safety” and “code” related topics.

I guess I thought that contractors by-and-large wanted to learn hard skills (like code and safety). Instead, in large numbers, they went after soft skills like leadership and construction management technology / methodologies.

But as Prediction #2 highlights – at a “normal” in-person NECA Show, the majority of attendees are Vice Presidents, owners, and other C-suite. Even though the trade show had a much lower bar-to-entry in 2020, I’m guessing it was still a higher ratio of owners & C-suite.

Trade Show Education Sessions schedule at NECA 2020 Live.

CONCLUSION:

Well, I got 3-1/2 out of 7 right. I guess being a psychic isn’t in the cards for me. (But, at least I’m as accurate as a TV weatherman!)

One take-away from the Great Virtualization of 2020 is that a lot of industrial and B2B companies had to think harder about their trade show strategy.

Are the trade shows we’re committed to every year really worth the cost and effort?

Which trade show is really picking up the customers we want?

And have we been doing a good enough job as exhibitors?

They say people don’t buy anything unless they have an immediate pain in search of a cure.

For too long, we spent the big bucks on conferences, with our hands over our ears and eyes. Going on “blind faith” that we’re getting our money’s worth (“It’s what we’ve always don”). That just having a “good enough” trade show strategy is good business.

I’m not saying trade shows aren’t worth it. I think they are… for most B2B companies at least.

But we’ve got to stop flying on auto-pilot. Think harder about the attendees experience. And ask ourselves what tangible results we want to achieve at the end of each show.

As we enter 2021 Trade Show Season, let’s not forget the lessons of “The Great Virtualization of 2020”.

Think Outside the Booth: How To Exploit Virtual Trade Shows

How Exhibitors should market virtual trade shows

Let’s be real. Most of the trade shows that went digital this year are going to suck (thanks again, COVID-19).

But if you can think “outside the booth” there’s actually potential to scoop up a TON of leads at fire-sale prices.

I recently did a deep-dive into the 2020 National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) Trade Show. NECA is our company’s “Super Bowl”. An event that the entire electrical construction industry revolves around. Every industry has one like it.

This year, NECA decided to go “digital” using the vFairs events platform. And they expect a record turnout this year. 10,220 people showed up to NECA 2018. So if major conventions like the Adobe Summit are seeing triple the attendance of years prior, NECA could see over 30,000 people in 2020!

Not only will there be more attendees; this year will see a greater variety of contractors.

Here’s what the 2020 NECA Exhibitor Prospectus advertises:

Deeper audience reach (positions within the firm). Before, firms would only send a few people – usually the president and a V.P. Now, ANY employee – from apprentice to project manager – can attend the show. In fact, they can be at the show while pushing papers at a desk…or eating lunch on the job site.

Wider audience reach (no borders). Basic admission is free, and there’s no hotels to book or plane tickets to buy. The flood gates are wide open to union electricians all across the country (and I’ll bet we’ll see higher numbers of merit shop contractors too).

So, yes, exhibitors miss out on the in-person meetings. We miss out on brand-building and product launches. But there is huge potential to siphon twice or triple the amount of attendee data in the virtual world.

Once you scoop up those contacts, you can market to them how and when you want. Build those important relationships and schedule meetings on the “back-end”.

In olden days, exhibitors spent most of their time and budget on big, flashy booths and displays. The idea was to drive attendees like flies to a spider’s web.

NECA (and other trade show organizers) are going to sell to exhibitors as-if all the old rules apply.

  • Upgrade to a larger digital booth, where you’ll have more customization.
  • Turn heads with “ticker tapes” and big signs above your virtual booth.
  • Buy into gamification incentives, so attendees have to visit your booth for a “prize token”.
  • Buy commercial spots that play between the educational sessions and keynote speeches. Sponsor a virtual lunch hour. Get your logo on mailed swag boxes. Buy a rotating ad in exhibit hall.

But in this new virtual setting, are attendees really going to walk aimlessly through a 3D exhibit hall?

And even if you throw the party-of-the-century from your booth…how much marketing effort is it going to take to drive enough traffic there?

My theory is that virtual trade show attendees are going to be laser-focused.

In the case of NECA, I expect a lot of contractors will register for the educational sessions only. There’s a burning need for training in this industry, and never enough of it.

Attendees that actually intend to visit exhibitor booths will be laser-focused as well. They’ll study the exhibit floor plan first, then make a bee-line to the brands they want to visit. If there’s a more direct route than “walking” the virtual trade floor, they’ll use it for sure.

Exploit EVERY Opportunity to Livestream Outside Your Booth!

Find any opportunity to livestream outside of your booth. Why? Because exhibitors can scoop up attendee data from anyone who joins these broadcasts – even if attendees bounce 10 seconds later!

For instance, NECA offers 30-minute Trade Show Education sessions ($5,000 each) and 5-minute Product Demos ($500 each). Last I checked, there were still dozens of empty slots available. Exhibitors seem to be overlooking these lead-generating opportunities.

Best of all, the education sessions get listed in the official schedule posted on the NECA Convention web page, email blasts, and mobile app!

That’s really all the marketing you need (native advertising baby!).

If your education session has a tantalizing title…on a subject that is in high demand…you’re sure to get a good turnout. Any extra marketing you do is gravy on the potatoes.

Take that $15,000 ear-marked for hotels, airfare, displays, and drayage fees. Put it into lead-getting webinars you can host outside the booth. The more the better.

How to Attract Hundreds of New Leads with Out-of-Booth Webinars

So, how do you find an educational subject that attracts an audience? Study the schedules from previous years. See what topics and keywords keep popping up. For NECA “Safety” and “Code” training is always an evergreen topic.

And don’t forget to ask exhibitor salespeople for advice. One helpful sales gal informed me that panel-style educational sessions are the way to go. They are more engaging than a single-person presentations, and give your webinar a veneer of credibility.

Think about it. How hard would it be to put your top four company subject matter experts (SME) on a recorded Zoom call, and keep them talking for thirty minutes?

If you choose to host an educational livestream, make sure it has informative content. In other words, it can’t be a long commercial with only thin educational value. Do the selling later, on your own platform, once you have the leads.

Final Tips for Virtual Events

So am I arguing that you don’t put any money or creativity into your trade show booth? No, and in fact small brands can go whole-hog if they want to. This year’s top-tier Platinum booth package is $7,000 cheaper than a 20’ x 20’ booth from 2019 (not including hotels and airfare). You should still provide a rich experience for attendees inside your exhibit.

With that rich experience in mind, select your booth package based on the marketing collateral you want visitors to find inside. By collateral I mean videos, catalogs, case studies, pre-recorded webinars, etc.

For instance, if you only had 3 videos, then the $6,300 Platinum package is all you need.

Lots of videos: go with the $8,800 Diamond package.

Could you get away with a Basic $3,800 booth package, and just post a link to your website?

You could, but it’s unlikely visitors will want to bother navigating away from the tradeshow experience.

A few more things to consider for your event virtualization strategy:

  • Ask about “match-making” programs. At NECA, exhibitors who get Gold package ($6,360) or above are eligible for matchmaking. When attendees register, they check boxes for products / areas they’re interested in. If those boxes correlate to boxes that exhibitor’s check in their profile, IT’S A MATCH! That exhibitor can now “see” the attendees’ data and reach out for meetings. So even if the attendee never visits your in-booth / out-of-booth webinars, you still get that contact data!
  • Don’t put your booth or webinar on auto-pilot. Try to have at least two people. The first one should be a tech-savvy moderator from the IT or marketing team. In the case of webinars, the moderator can keep attendees engaged in the chatroom, using audience polls (“where is everyone from?”) and feeding prepared questions to the presenter. The second person should be an SME or salesperson who can talk in-depth about the products, as well as present webinars.
  • Send out “spies”. In the case of NECA, there’s a virtual Lounge Area and other places where attendees can mingle away from exhibitor soap boxes. But what if you sent a few sales people…disguised regular attendees? Join conversations. Mention that “insightful webinar happening in booth X”. Controversial tactic, I know 😉
  • Consider hosting small “breakout rooms”. Each breakout session (limited to 5-6 people max) should focus on a very specific topic. Neil Patel and Eric Siu reported breakout meetings were incredibly popular at their recent Marketing School Live events. It allowed attendees to share ideas, meet new people and encouraged bonding and participation in a way that larger webinars could not.
  • Take advantage of the “chaos”. Most trade show organizers this year are scrambling to go digital. For instance, NECA, still hasn’t finalized what the different booth packages will look like, and the show is less than 2 months away. You can bet the organizers and platform vendors are in a panic. Beta-testing new features as well as offering new ways to advertise. Keep in touch with your event sales staff — you might be one of the first to discover a marketing breakthrough.
  • Don’t think of it as a trade show. Instead, try to re-frame virtual events as a digital marketing channel – like Facebook, banner ads, or Google ad network. A market place where (if you put a strong enough offer) you can convert traffic into leads. Let go of the old event marketing paradigm – its a completely different entity!
  • But…remember what makes trade shows special. Attendees come to these shows to learn about next year’s innovation; interact with peers; forge new relationships; re-connect with their industry; build their business; get inspired; and a whole host of other reasons. In every aspect of your virtual trade show strategy, ask “How can I infuse some of that secret sauce here?”

I’d love to hear the perspective of other event marketers. What other lead-producing opportunities did I miss? Am I completely missing the mark here? Do I have my head up my @$$ and why?

P.S. Once the NECA Trade Show has ended, I’ll try to report back my findings. How much I got wrong. How much I got right. And if our influx of contacts was noticeably greater than in previous years.

Marketing in the Time of Coronavirus

B2B Marketing in the Age of the COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic.

Like many B2B marketers, I’ve spent the last three weeks adapting to the COVID-19 quarantine. Working from home, and coming to terms with the fact that my carefully constructed 2020 marketing plans (and personal goals this year) are out the window.

But now that we marketers have written our perfunctory “COVID-19 Response” email newsletter, and sent it out to our industry subscribers…what do we do next?

If you happen to be in the building materials industry like me, or any of the other “essential” industries – like food production, healthcare, utilities, transportation, or news media – you are lucky enough to continue working through this quarantine (albeit remotely).

But that blessing might also seem like a curse in these uncertain marketing conditions.

For instance, industry Trade Shows were probably 40% of your marketing budget, and a top source for new leads. Now that all major exhibitions are canceled, what do you do with nearly half your unspent marketing budget?

Your beloved Outside Salesperson – whose sparkling personality, shiny shoes and firm handshake were major drivers of our business – will now have to sit things out at home.

Maybe your C-suite is kicking themselves (and rightly so) for not investing in that CRM, ERP, website re-design, eCommerce store, or EDI/VMI system when times were good (“we were just so busy at the time…”). Now you’ll have to wait until the next bull market comes around.

Meanwhile, as we struggle to adapt to this sudden recession, Amazon, Walmart and large distributors like Grainger are poised to fill the gap. Amazon recently put out the call to hire 100,000 warehouse and delivery workers amid the Coronavirus shutdowns.

Your colleagues are probably throwing around a lot of ideas right now. As the B2B marketer, your job is to be the “clearing house” for these ideas: sales promotions, hot deals, clever sales activation, more email marketing, and live video feeds on Instagram and YouTube.

My advice: thank each and every colleague who contributed. Put their ideas in a spreadsheet, and really consider those ideas (this ain’t the time to be territorial or argumentative). At this early stage, however, most of the random ideas you hear will be “tactics”.

Any of those tactics could work. They just need a “Crisis Strategy” to bind them together.

I challenge you, dear marketer, to discover your company’s Crisis Strategy. It will take every ounce of your marketing brain power; you’ll have to sell it to colleagues and make compromises…but it must be done. You can’t afford to market as if it’s business as usual. Nor can you afford to go radio silent.

Last weekend, I read a lot of articles on marketing during the Coronavirus, as well as marketing during a recession. Many of the authors contradicted each other on “tactics”. For instance, some argued to “offer deals where possible”, while others argue “no amount of hot deals can stimulate a market that is currently terrified.” However, almost every article agreed on a few big picture “strategies”, including:

“Now is the time to get really close to your customers.”

It seems bloody obvious, right? I know. As marketers, we’ve seen this mantra come up in articles, how-to books, and seminars. “It’s all about the customer. Customer-centric. Customer-first.”

But in actual practice, we tend to be much more excited by BIG campaigns that generate thousands of responses from a single post, email, or ad placement. We’re less interested in talking to one customer about their kids, their hobbies, their hopes, their fears…without some kind of hidden agenda behind our call.

And sadly, that’s the attitude of most businesses people!

So, to really stand out during the COVID-19 epidemic, I believe companies that truly get close to customers (and don’t merely “say it” in an empty ad campaign) will be taking a bold step that most businesses in their category are not taking.

Yes, it may seem highly inefficient to call each customer one-by-one. To strike up a conversation…and not expect any business transaction.

To be their shoulder to cry on…or a punching bag for someone who’s had no outlet for their frustration.

But I think 1-to-1 contact could be the most powerful tool for keeping good customers tied to your hip…and invite stray customers back into the good graces of your brand.

Best of all, you only need a phone, an email server, and a contact list to do it!

Whether you adopt my “customer care” strategy…or find your own course of action…you must “commit” to it and see it through. In a recent episode of NAED’s DistributED podcast, guest Dirk Beveridge highlighted that most businesses are seeking the “confidence” of a clear ROI. However, we can only hope to achieve that confidence after we’ve shown the “courage” and “commitment” to take the first step.

In short, you have to be courageous first before you can gain confidence.

In his opinion piece “What 9/11 Can Teach Us About Marketing in the Time of Coronavirus”, Bradley Johnson makes the comparison between the post 9/11 attacks and our current epidemic.

Just 10 days after 9/11, at a time when all other advertisers went radio silent, General Motors released its controversial “Keep America Rolling” commercials. Critics roasted GM for its blatant sales promotion (no interest for two years), calling it “insensitive” and “immoral”. But in GMs defense, they were heeding President Bush’s call for patriotic Americans to “keep shopping” in order to keep the US economy strong (“don’t let the terrorists win”). Most importantly, GM acted boldly and swiftly before they had the “confidence” to know if their commercials would be a success.

“I hope we will see marketers…willing to take bold risks to keep this economy rolling.”

Bradley Johnson, “What 9/11 Can Teach Us About Marketing in the Time of Coronavirus”, courtesy of AdAge.com

So, get up close and personal with your customers. Act boldly, even if you don’t have the confidence yet. If you read this blog post looking for COVID-19 marketing “tactics” or “hacks”, then I’m sorry-not-sorry. However, if you’re looking for other great resources for Marketing in the Time of Coronavirus, take a look at:

How to Request Free Product Literature from Manufacturers

How I built a library of supplier catalogs, brochures, and fliers
Wanna build your own library of Manufacturer Product Literature? Read on!

Sometimes it’s better to have real product literature in your hand.

Not a PDF.

Not a product web page.

I mean a real, honest-to-God, full-color flyer, brochure, or catalog.

There’s even science that backs this up.

In the case study “Using Neuroscience to Understand the Role of Direct Mail”, Milward Brown hooked up 20 people to fMRI brain scanners. Each participant looked at a dozen advertisements. Some ads were on screen, others were on printed cards. Ads on printed cards generated more activity within areas of the brain that integrate visual and spatial information. “Physical materials,” reads the study, “produced more brain responses connected with internal feelings, suggesting greater “internalization” of the ads.”

Who says “Print is Dead”?

Here’s a personal case study. I used to work for a commercial lighting dealer. In our office was a bookcase swelling with lighting catalogs. One day I picked up a call for 12-volt landscape lighting – a category I knew nothing about. “Can you hold one moment?” I asked the caller. I jumped to that bookcase, and pulled any catalog that had landscape lighting pictures on the spine. With a few of these catalogs open, I was able to walk the caller through step light options (and sound like I knew what I was talking about).

The result? I actually sold 8 step lights along with a $100 transformer.

Call me dumb. But when I need to speed-learn a product category, catalogs beat Google any day of the week. Twice on Sunday.

Finally, look no further than a contractor’s truck to see the endurance of printed media. Here, you’ll often find crumpled, dog-eared pocket catalogs on the dashboard and floor mats.

Given the power of printed material, manufacturers should love mailing out their literature, right?

You’d think that, wouldn’t you?

Well, if you’re an engineer, contractor, or maintenance professional (what suppliers call an “end-user”), I have a secret to tell you:

Most Manufacturing Marketers DON’T like sending physical literature!

In fact, the dirty little secret of our industry is… we actually hate mailing literature.

That’s why we’ll bury our literature request forms seven pages deep in our website.

We’ll hide our email addresses for general inquiries (or not list them at all).

Call up the company operator, and you’ll probably get bounced from one department to another. After listening to “hold” music for a while, you finally reach someone of authority. And they tell you to “just go to the website”, “download the PDF” or “call your Rep”. Then CLICK.

If it sounds like I’m disparaging manufacturers, I am not. It’s simply an ingrained defense mechanism we have. We’re over-worked. We wear too many hats. And literature is expensive to print (not to mention the postage).

We don’t have mailrooms staffed with kids working Summer jobs. Instead, requests get handled by a mid-level marketing, sales, or customer service person. Folks who have bigger things to worry about, like making sure orders get shipped on-time.

Suppliers also have to make sure their sales team is flush with literature at all times. It’s their “ammunition” for making sales calls. These sales people will always get top priority over you.

Make friends with the manufacturer’s representative, and they’ll be your best source for literature.

Read ahead only if you don’t plan to go through the manufacturer’s rep for literature.

How to Get Free Product Literature without going through the Manufacturer’s Rep

Use my Seven Commandments of Requesting Product Literature to amass your own library of catalogs and brochures. I based these Commandments on my “insider knowledge” as a manufacturing marketer. I’ve also requested literature from dozens of other suppliers, so I know these tactics work (at least 7 out of 10 times).

Expect some suppliers to be stubborn or unresponsive. Some will push-back and say you have to “call your rep” or “visit a distributor showroom.”

The Seven Commandments of Requesting Product Literature

  1. Avoid Web Forms like the Plague: trust me, you’ll almost never get a reply from most suppliers by filling out a form. Completed form requests often get logged in the website back-end, and rarely see the light of day.
  2. Look for General Inquiry Emails: most businesses have email addresses like ‘sales@xyz.com’ or ‘info@xyz.com’. These are often distribution list emails, meaning several employees see your request at once. The manufacturer’s own sales reps and customers often hit up these email addresses. So your request will have a high probability of getting seen by the right people.

    Can’t find any general inquiry emails. See the side note at the end of this list.
  3. Specify the Titles of the Literature you’re requesting in the body of your email. Don’t just say “Can I get some literature?”. Be exact. Look at the supplier’s Literature web page (sometimes called “Resources”). Call out the titles of the brochure, catalog, or flyer. See my example below.
  4. Give Quantities: most sales reps know to call out the number of “pieces” when ordering samples. The same goes for literature requests (ex. “1PC—Full Line Catalog”). Put the quantity next to each title. “Act” like someone the supplier does business with.
  5. Ship-To Address in first email: I’ve gotten so many vague lit requests where the person does not leave a ship-to address. Doing this may irritate the marketer on the other end, who now has to follow up. Please, don’t make us work so hard to send you FREE shit. Make your email so complete that I could copy-and paste it, and send on down the line.
  6. Act “as if”… without being pushy: when you type that email, imagine you are the supplier’s ideal customer. Also, assume the person you’re addressing is the right person. One easy way to convey this is to never ask a question (like “Who do I go to for literature?”). If you do get push back (such as you need to be a distributor customer) don’t snap back or ask “Why Not?” It’s a waste of effort and puts you on their company poop-list.
  7. What’s In It For Me?: remember how I said in commandment #6, to act as if you’re the ideal customer? The best way to do that is be the ideal customer you already are. Got a construction project where you’re trying out the suppliers products? Say it ( even better, mention the project name). If you’re a contractor, engineer, or facility manager, SAY IT, as well as which company you work for.

    But what if you suspect you’re not the manufacturers ideal customer? What if you’re a student, a handyman, a DIY’er, a property owner? Well, do you a have friend or family member that’s a contractor, or an engineer? Then say “I’m requesting these on behalf of my uncle who is an electrical contractor.” It’s surprising how often that works.

Note on Commandment #2: sometimes you won’t be able to find general inquiry emails anywhere on the corporate site. This is generally true for really big companies. When you can’t track down that all-important email address, here are three ways to reverse lookup:

1) Open a new browser tab, go to Google.com and type info@[company URL], (do the same with a sales@ alias). There’s a 50/50 chance you’ll uncover a buried webpage or old flyer in the search results confirming a valid email address.

2) Google search didn’t yield any usable email addresses? Try running that info@ or sales@ combination through an email verification site. My favorite free tools are MailTester.com and Email-Checker.net. If these sites return a VALID or UNKNOWN result, type up your email lit request, send, and see if it bounces back.

Find hidden corporate email addresses with Email Checker
You can use a free email verification site to discover “hidden” general inquiry emails that company’s DON’T want listed on their corporate site! Courtesy of EmailChecker.net.

3) So what do you do when those emails don’t work? Log into your LinkedIn account, look up the company page, and click over to the hyperlink that says “See all _ employees on LinkedIn.”

Find company employees using LinkedIn Company Pages

Scroll through the list of employees. Pluck out names of anyone with a “Sales” or “Marketing” role. Typically, you want someone mid-level, with an “Assistant” or “Coordinator” title. However, if you can’t find anyone mid-level, take a crack at a “Manager”, “VP”, or “Director” title.

Find Employees who can help with lit requests using LinkedIn
Emerson is an example of a GIANT international manufacturer with a whopping 48,177 employees listed on LinkedIn! Businesses like this will have marketing and sales departments fragmented into different product categories and continents. I had to email a dozen “candidates” before I found the right contact.

So now you have a few names. You can bet the contact’s email alias is probably the company’s URL (if it’s www.xyz.com, they will have an @xyz.com address). In my experience, 95% of corporate email addresses follow one of three patterns:

  1. FIRST NAME.LAST NAME@ALIAS
  2. FIRST INITIAL+LAST NAME@ALIAS
  3. FIRST NAME+LAST INITIAL@ALIAS

Draft your lit request email to each marketing employee, hit send, and see what happens. If your email bounces, try one of the other two variations just listed. One is bound to work.

Reaching the right manufacturer contact for literature requests
Success! After several tries, I found a “candidate” at Emerson who connected me with the right person that could furnish me with literature.

In my experience, this approach works wonders with large manufacturers. It’s hard to ignore a request when its addressed directly to you!

Email Template for Product Literature Requests

Here is a generic template of the email I used to great success. Go ahead, copy & paste it, and modify to your liking.

Pretty simple template, am I right? You can fire off a dozen of these requests during your lunch hour. Again, if you can’t say you are a contractor or distributor, replace that second sentence (“I work for…”) with mention of a friend or relative who is. For example, “This is on behalf of my uncle, who is an electrician.”

That’s it for now, buckaroo.

Can’t wait to start building your library of free manufacturer’s product literature?

Stay tuned for the next blog post. I will give you the full list of 50+ electrical and lighting manufacturers that I reached out to. This list will include links, phone numbers, and email addresses.

Are you a contractor, engineer, facility manager, or distributor? Do you request product literature directly from you manufacturer? Or do you go through a sales rep?

And if you’re a manufacturer marketer, what does a “good lit request” look like to you?

Killer Sales Secrets of a Luxury Watch Salesman

Using pre frame psychological technique to prime shoppers for greatest sales potential.
Photos by Khaled Reese and Fernando Arcos from Pexels.

How important is the pre-frame in your sales pitch or marketing piece?

I recently learned about this little-known psychological technique in Russell Brunson’s book Dot.Com Secrets. As I read about how the pre-frame applies to online sales funnels, it got me thinking about a time it was used on me in a retail setting by a very good watch salesman.

His setup and pitch was so good, in fact, that years later I still have these “ah-ha” moments about why it was so well executed.

If you’re in a sales or marketing role, pre-framing needs to be a big part of your strategy. It may just be the most important part. And it applies to every type of business; not just online marketing and retail.

If you’re new to the concept, Brunson sums up pre-framing as:

“…the state of mind you place someone in as they enter the next step of your funnel. Changing the frame of mind, the mindset, can profoundly change the answer to a question or the experience you have…”

Russell Brunson, DotCom Secrets

In the book, Brunson talks about how he tripled his sales at conferences by playing an “introductory video” before he got on stage. This three minute video was full of testimonials from real business owners, and even celebrity gurus like Tony Robbins. When Russell finally jumped on stage, the audience was “primed” to listen, and his sales started improving consistently after that.

Why did this simple three minute video work so well? Because Brunson could control the frame through which the audience saw his presentation. Before he made the video, his presentations lived or died by how well conference promoters introduced him (and they usually did a shitty job).

Effective Use of Pre-Frame in Trade Show Marketing

I’ve seen pre-framing work to great effect at trade shows. In this setting, manufacturers spend thousands – even millions – of dollars just to stand out from the other riff-raff.

Contractor A stops by our booth, and he picks up one of our brackets. A sales person approaches, attempts to talk-up the product. Contractor A is just not hearing it. He starts turning his body to make a clean getaway. Before he does, Contractor B walks up.

“Hey! Do you know what this bracket does?” Contractor B asks Contractor A. “This has been a game-changer in our shop. It does so-and-so-and-so…”

Contractor A raises an eyebrow, and faces our booth again. He asks for a catalog. He asks about specific applications. He wants to know which distributor to buy from.

Contractor A’s change of mindset had nothing to do with our beautiful flyer. Nothing to do with our salesperson’s expertise. And it had nothing to do with the potential value of the product. Contractor B’s pre-frame did all the work!

In DotCom Secrets, Russell boils down an effective pre-frame into seven critical steps. While these steps refer to online landing pages, you can already see how they apply to literally any selling or marketing environment.

How an expert watch salesman Pre-Frames his pitch, turning “just browsers” into real Shoppers

A few years ago, I walked up to a store called Westime on Sunset Boulevard, which sells high-end luxury watches. I had no intention of buying a watch that day. My plan was to browse for 5 minutes, fantasize about the watch I’d buy if I had the money, then leave.

As I enter the spotless showroom, I see two sharply-dressed sales people at one end of the store; a man and a woman. I move to the opposite end of the store, putting display cases between us, hoping to escape a sales pitch (even a low-pressure one). I’m sure most shoppers can relate.

Pre-frame Phase #1: Determine Traffic Temperature

In Brunson’s method, this is where you gauge the mindset of the prospect. Are they hot, warm, or cold? This should tell you how to personalize the next 6 phases.

The salesman sees me and walks over; a genuine smile on his face. He’s wearing a dashing blue suit with perfect tailoring, a crisp white shirt with a relaxed collar, and no tie. He reaches out to shake my hand, and I catch a glimpse of his a silver watch, twinkling like a disco ball under the track lights.

“Hi I’m Alex,” he said. “How did you find us today?” His delivery was genuine, catching me off-guard. It was a far cry from the usual “is there something I can help you with?” I expect from most retail settings.

“I was just shopping for clothes for my sister-in-law’s wedding. I saw this store and figured I’d stop in for a look.”

“Can I get you a coffee, espresso, cappuccino?” he asks. “It’s on the house.”

“Sure,” I said.

And here’s a subtle move: he asked the female salesperson to fetch the coffee (as if to demonstrate his prestige).

Now I couldn’t go anywhere, cause I was waiting for coffee. Alex asks me more about the wedding and about myself. Where I was from, where I live now, and what I do for a living.

His small talk was sincere. I didn’t hear a trace of a pending sales pitch. Alex was either the worst watch salesman ever, or he was a genius. I couldn’t tell.

Phase #1 Analysis: I was definitely Cold Traffic. From the first few questions, Alex could tell I was not there to buy a watch that day. He could also tell I knew very little about watches. But I did have a life event coming up where I just might be susceptible to “keeping up with the Jones’s”.

Pre-frame Phase #2: Set up the Pre-frame Bridge

In funnel-building, this would be the eye-catching banner ad or PPC link that leads you to a landing page. For Alex, it was gourmet coffee and an offer to try on expensive watches.

The pre-frame bridge can’t be generic. It must be set to the temperature of your traffic.

The saleswoman brings the coffee in a ceramic cup and saucer. She includes a cube of brown and white sugar, and offers a creamer in the other hand. Definitely NOT the Styrofoam cup of mud you get at at the bank, or waiting for an oil change.

“So what type of watch do you see yourself wearing?” Alex asked.

“Well, I like the look of Rolexes. But I think they’re a little played out” I said. “I guess I’d have to say Omegas.”

“Omega is a really solid Swiss brand. Did you know that every part of an Omega watch is still made in the same factory in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland?”

I did not.

“That’s a big difference between Omega and Rolex. To keep up with demand, Rolex makes up to 2,000 watches a day. To do that, they have to source parts from different factories around the world. So the quality of craftsmanship is actually different from one batch to another. Rolex kind of diluted their brand name by doing that. But then again, a Rolex is still a Rolex in the minds of most buyers.”

Alex went on to talk about Omega’s history of precision timekeeping. It was the official time keeper of the British Flying Corps in 1917. It was also worn by Buzz Aldrin on the Apollo 11 moon mission.

I was very impressed with Alex’s knowledge. He was not only teaching me about watches. He was demonstrating his value as an advocate for discerning watch buyers.

Phase #2 Analysis: based on my temperature, Alex had to extend a Cold Traffic Bridge for me to cross into Phase #3. “This bridge is the longest”, writes Brunson. “You have to do a good bit of preliminary work to get the prospect into a desirable frame of mind before he hits your landing page.” Russel calls Cold Traffic Bridges the “holy grail of online marketing.” It’s easy to convert a Hot or Warm prospect. Most people are terrible at converting Cold prospects.

Pre-frame Phase #3: Qualify Subscribers

This phase applies more to online marketing than it does retail stores. But there are some similarities.

In a sales funnel, this is where certain visitors will exchange their email address for free information. Visitors are “converted” from prospects into warm leads. After they a receive a few marketing messages, some of those leads become buyers.

So how does Alex, the luxury watch salesman, qualify a me as a “subscriber” in a store environment? One way he might do it is to see if I continue to pay attention and stay engaged.

As he let my try on a few Omegas, I started feeling guilty that Alex was “wasting” so much time on me. Did he not sense I was a terrible prospect?

“I really appreciate this. Full disclosure, I don’t actually plan to buy a watch,” I told him. “Not now. Probably not in the foreseeable future.”

If Alex had replied “Oh, okay. Thanks for your honesty,” and then walked away, it wouldn’t have offended me. I might have even been relieved.

“Hey, I understand,” he said. “But since you’re here now, why don’t I show you some of our other Swiss watches? I think you’ll really appreciate their craftsmanship.”

So I take my coffee, and Alex leads me down a hall. We enter a room that looks like a museum, complete with glass cases, sparkling jewelry, oil paintings, and a leather couch.

Alex takes out a gold watch – a Chopard – and lets me try it on.

“This is one of our most expensive time pieces. It goes for around $40,000.” He tells me the history of the brand, their manufacturing process, and how its accuracy compares with Omega.

From there, Alex shows me a variety of Swiss models in quartz and mechanical movements. He explains how some watches are like pieces of art, but don’t keep accurate time. Others are precise time keepers, right down to the milliseconds and leap years.

As I try on each watch, Alex carefully gauges my reaction. He asks “how does this one feel for you?”

With each successive watch, we descended the price ladder until we reached the $2,000 range. He rounded out the tour by showing me some pre-owned watches, as well as a Japanese Seiko that resembled some of the more expensive Omega watches.

Phase #3 Analysis: Alex did not let me off the hook when I said I wasn’t buying a watch. Consumers lie. Their behavior doesn’t. I stayed engaged through the whole 15 minute tour, and I learned a lot about watches. Alex had indeed “subscribed” me.

But could he call my bluff and sell me a watch?

Pre-frame Phase #4: Qualify Buyers

In DotCom Secrets, Brunson writes “…find your potential buyers immediately after you qualify subscribers. Don’t wait a day or a week.” In his own online sales funnels, Russell often entices subscribers with a “free” book. Subscribers are only required to pay $7 shipping & handling. Talk about a low-friction sale!

For our watch salesman, whose products start at $1,000, it made sense to show me the highest price items first, then work our way down. After seeing a $40,00 Chopard, a $2,500 Omega seems like a pretty reasonable price, right?

The watch tour ended and my coffee was done. I shook Alex’s hand and thanked him for my unexpected lesson in chronographs.

“It was my pleasure. As you can tell, I am a big watch nerd. I don’t just do this for a paycheck; its my passion.”

Alex continued, “I want everyone who walks in my store to have a great experience. Even if they don’t buy anything right away.”

With that, he handed me his business card, and off I went.

Phase #4 Analysis: Alex did not sell me a watch that day. Does that mean he’s really a mediocre salesman? Far from it. I was never going to buy a watch that day. He took my temperature, extended the bridge, and subscribed me. I left with his card and – more importantly – a positive and unique shopping experience I’ll never forget.

But let’s say Alex DID manage to sell me a watch that day. What might be his next steps be?

Pre-frame Phase #5: Identify Hyperactive Buyers

Brunson writes that out of the pool of buyers, you want to seek out those few hyperactive buyers. Folks that “are in some kind of pain right now and will buy more than one thing at a time”. He does this by offering another product before the buyer even completes the first sale. Often with at a one-time only discount of some kind.

Had I bought the watch, I’d probably worry about it getting damaged or stolen. Alex could offer some add-ons to relieve my worry, such as an extended warranty or insurance plan.

Pre-frame Phase #6: Age and Ascend the Relationship

Phase #1 through #5 all took place at the initial point-of-sale. At this point, I’ve left the store with my $2,500 Omega watch. How can Alex help guide me to bigger and bigger purchases?

One way is he can use my purchasing information to stay in touch with me. He could send Christmas cards, postcards, or even flyers for new items.

Over the years, I get promoted and now I have more funny money to spend on luxury items.

Life events such as anniversaries and birthdays will come up where I’m open to buying another watch. If Westime plays the long-game with me, they stand a good chance of staying my retailer of choice.

Phase #7: Change the Selling Environment

What happens if I get “stuck” somewhere in the middle of the Value Ladder? Let’s say Alex knows I’ve been eyeing that $40,000 Chopard. I keep making random “visits”, trying on that same watch model. But I never seem to actually buy it.

It could be that no amount of brochures, postcards or Christmas cards will be enough to move me. Here, Alex might resort to calling me instead, where I’ll be more likely to listen to his offer. It might be the right push I need to justify buying that watch.

Conclusion:

So how important is the pre-frame of your sales pitch, seminar, or marketing funnel? It is THE most important thing.

Westime looks at everything that happens during a customer’s experience in the store. They realize it pays to hire a well-trained and motivated sales staff. It pays to keep the store clean at all times, change out light bulbs, and serve gourmet coffee in ceramic cups. They don’t need to spin their wheels on “largest selection” or “lowest prices” like so many other stores do.

When was a time that you experienced the perfect pre-frame? Was it online, off-line, or blended? And how many phases did you cross in the process? Leave your comment below and I’ll reply back.

My first “Hello world!” Post

B2B MARKETER: “What are our big goals for next year?”

BOSS: “Increase Market Share and Expand Growth in East Coast markets.”

B2B MARKETER: “How do we currently measure those things?”

BOSS: ???

If you’re a marketer in the business-to-business (B2B) world, this should sound very familiar.

My theory is there are many business owners out there that kneel at the alter of “Market Share” and “Growth”. Maybe they read these words in Forbes, Fortune, or the Wall Street Journal and go: “gee, those words do sound important.”

But at the end of the day, business decisions still get made with good old “gut feeling”. It’s how we’ve always done things around here...

Have you ever actually tried to track the Return On Investment of your print advertising? Do you go based on what the trade publication gives you in the form of media kits?

In my experience, all those “brand preference” graphs and “recall” surveys for your ads don’t count for much. How can you take an “ad recall” score from one ad in July 2018, compare it to a different ad you ran in July 2019…and gain any kind of meaningful insight?

Maybe you’re saying “Oh come on, Aaron. That’s the print side. Nobody can track that that old stuff. At least on the digital side, we’ve got things like Clicks, Likes, Opens and Shares. Plus there’s lots of cool line graphs. Can’t we use those stats to guide our marketing?”

Well, as Dan Kennedy used to say: “Sure we can use those metrics. So long as its okay for me to pay you in likes and shares.”

So anything you can glean from digital marketing tools out-of-the box is, at best, a signal. And its really easy to confuse a signal with its noise when you have no context.

I’ve struggled with this lack of actionable marketing insight for years. If you are in B2B marketing (especially on the manufacturer-side like I am), it can seem like there’s this giant “Ice Wall” between you and the end-user buying your product through distribution.

“How can I tell which marketing campaign is actually working and worth my company’s investment?”

I don’t know the answers…yet.

But to quote Pike Bishop from The Wild Bunch “What I don’t know about I sure as hell am gonna to learn!”

So if you work in the Marketing department of a B2B firm…if you’re the type that’s not okay with doing things as they’ve “always been done”…if you’ve ever wanted to present a real business case to your boss in REAL $$$ figures he or she will understand…and if you’re determined to crack the “B2B ROI code” like I am, then stay tuned to ebizmarketer.com.

Let’s learn this thing together.

P.S. What B2B market or industry do you work in? What are some of your biggest challenges? Leave a comment and maybe we can write about it in a future post.