Continuing our theme of marketing heaving machinery or equipment, lets take a look at how to use social media to boost brand awareness. Heavy vehicles, equipment or machinery is a bit different to selling sunglasses or sports shoes. So for a business in Australia, selling new and used cranes, pick and carry cranes, mobile cranes, or crawler cranes, how should you use social media to market your products or services?
Social media is a bit different to other forms of marketing, in that it is not always about asking for a sale.
This leads up to our first tip.
1) Social Media is about Brand Awareness not Direct marketing
Do you remember Pareto’s principle? The Pareto Principle is named after economist Vilfredo Pareto. It states that 80% of the consequences come from 20% of the causes. Statistics back up this statement.
For examples:
- 80% of sales come from 20$ of your sales people!
- 80% of crimes are committed by 20% of criminals.
- 80% of all traffic accidents are caused by 20% of drivers.
In social media marketing it looks like this: Only sell to your followers 20% of the time in order to if you want to increase your sales results. 80% of the time you should be adding value, generating trust and nurturing relationship with your followers.
Think of it this way. The 80% is making deposits into your relationship/trust account with your followers. The 20% is like making withdrawals. You can make withdrawals on a regular basis if you have already established a healthy balance with your followers.
If you try to sell too often, you will run you relationship/trust account dry and go into deficit.
The 20% is direct marketing – asking your followers to become customers, to click on a link or to buy something. The 80% is about brand awareness – laying the foundation for the direct marketing that you will do from time to time.
So use social media to increase brand awareness, and to lay a great foundation for future sales.
How do you do this?
Use social media to tell stories about your customers that feature your products. By telling stories you capture the imagination of your followers. Once you have their attention, they won’t mind that you are mentioning your products – actually, they expect you to. They just don’t want it rammed down their throat like cold kidneys. The story is the sugar that makes the medicine go down.
For example, if you were marketing cranes for sale in Australia you could tell stories like the one in the image below.
It is a feel-good story with a great image. People enjoy reading it and it makes a deposit in the relationship/trust account of your followers.
You could also create great content including testimonials from satisfied customers, case studies of really interesting projects, and compelling videos of customers using your products in interesting ways.
2) Your Customer Must be the Hero – You be the Guide
Everyone knows the story of Obi Wan guiding the future hero, Luke Skywalker, to greatness.
We love these stories, so why not use them in your social media marketing?
In the crane story above, the company has assisted Max Cranes, but it is mentioned in a subtle way. Max Cranes are the hero of this story. TRT are the guide who led them to a successful solution to their problem.
Again, trust is built up. You are seen as genuinely trying to help.
In fact, the more you talk about the problems your customers’ experience, while subtly revealing the solution as well, the more they feel as if you know them and the more interest they will have in your brand.
So, being in the business of selling cranes in Australia, the company should feature their customers using their products in their social media feed.
So, make sure your social media bio’s describe how you help your customers. And when you’re adding content, make sure you think about why it should matter to your reader.
- How have you added value?
- What’s in it for them?
- What hero are you highlighting?
- What problem is being solved?
- How have you subtly helped guide the hero?
The Bottom Line
Make sure your social media account is highlighting success – you customer’s success. But do this in a way that adds value to your followers.
Sometimes, use a photo and a short description. At other times, add more content that answers a question your followers have.
Be a guide. Let your customer be the hero. I know its counterintuitive, but it works.