Expand Your Markets and Stimulate Sales in 2010

Well it's 2010 and we're all expecting great things to happen. But taking the passive approach of relying on either word-of-mouth or the hopeful reemergence of former customers is simply too risky. It may even lead to a further decline in sales. This is the year to take hold of your marketing and actively stimulate growth by developing innovative approaches that reach out not only to your target customers directly but also to the select audience groups your customers target. Just as franchises and technology companies do, you can benefit from branding and marketing to develop interest and demand among your customers' customers.

Finding Your Markets
and Developing a Theme

The first order of business is to uncover the niche markets targeted by your customers. For example, let's say you manufacture metal fasteners. You know that you sell a particular type of metal fastener to a furniture manufacturer. Upon looking at the website of your customer you learn that he has a display booth at the upcoming medical device trade show where he is introducing a specialized housing for a particular medical device used for open heart surgery. You verify with your customer that he is in fact using your fastener for this device. Ok. Now you have your first interesting topic for your multi-channel branding and marketing campaign: Saving Lives.

You can uncover as many of these themes in as many niche markets as you like then use them in some or all of the ways outlined below to generate interest. The principle behind this type of branding and marketing is to increase the significance of your product by demonstrating its greater good across many markets. The beauty of this approach is what it potentially yields: 1) demand from manufacturers in other markets 2) increased demand from your existing customers and 3) enhanced brand recognition and reputation building.

Simple Initiatives Offering Long Term Value

Here are a few easy ways to make good use of your newly uncovered markets and themes. Develop a phased approach to rolling out each one and you should be able to manage costs effectively.

Create a YouTube.com Channel: Develop a series of 60-90 second videos that clearly demonstrate your theme for each of the markets you want to target. Demonstrate how your products offer value by being integrated into or used to develop new products such as a life-saving device.

Develop Marketing Materials for Your Customer to Use at Trade Show: If he's willing, offer to create materials that market your customer's product and the fact that your parts were used. The possibilities here encompass all types of marketing materials from DVD presentations that are displayed at a kiosk or on a large screen monitor to a variety of print materials such as posters, sell sheets, brochures, etc.

Initiate Targeted Email Campaigns: Similar to the video development described above, offer free white papers that demonstrate the value of your products to the industry you are targeting. And if you have set-up the YouTube.com channel described above, by all means include the link. Always give your respondents an option to contact you or to be contacted. I recommend personalized landing pages, which generally provide better overall response conversion.

Expand Your Website with Innovation Section: Use this section of your website to add new content to your site, which is something the search engines look for and love when determining page ranking order. To whatever degree your customer allows, feature the product or type of product developed using your part. After a while you will have an "Innovation" library to demonstrate the greater good your product provides. You can organize this archive by industry or niche market category. This is not the same as a case study, which is the description of a particular project you were involved in to develop a solution. This section demonstrates how others elected to use your fabulous product to develop their solution.

Manage a Twitter Account for Each Niche Market That Offers Value: Use Twitter for two things: 1) post news and point to web pages announcing new products you developed that are relevant to that industry and 2) post news and point to web pages announcing new products developed by your customers using your products (get their permission first!).

These are just a few simple marketing ideas that enable you to:

• Expand your reach across new niche markets
• Enhance your perceived value across all markets
• Generate interest in and potentially demand for the types of products your customers make which in turn increases their need for the products you provide them.

Engage new audiences effectively and you may find your business growing in 2010 in ways you hadn't yet imagined! Here's to a great start!

Industrial Web Solutions works with clients to uncover new markets and to develop ideas and materials that generate sales through the effective management of targeted branding and marketing initiatives. To speak with a marketing specialist call (800) 399-9859 now.

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