Submitted by: Patricia Grant, Outreach & Relationship Representative, Carpenter Contractor Trust
In the marketing and sales realm, having contact with customers and clients and turning those connections into action are activities that we often think of as holding a pot of gold. It’s getting that first connection and then keeping it active that brings you closer to the goal you have, whether it’s gaining information or closing a sale.
Yet in our marketing world, we often see a disconnect between how we believe customers and clients want to communicate with us and what they actually prefer. It’s trite to say, “don’t presume,” so here’s a quick illustration.
I recently read an article, Know Thy Customer’s Preferences and Give Them the Gift of Choice, where the executive director of an organization in the heating and cooling industry sent out a relevant survey to his audience, expecting most if not all of his responses to arrive digitally. The choice of response mechanism left him stunned: About 70 percent of them arrived via fax. While it’s true that the average HVACR contractor is in his early 50s — implying a less digital-savvy audience — nonetheless this sophisticated, educated executive had not imagined the fax machine as the most popular option. What he did correctly, however, was to provide the fax as an option.
I’m not suggesting a return to faxes, and this example might cause a chuckle among those of you who are marketers, but the message it sends is that you should be circumspect about reducing or ignoring your channels of contact. In your marketing efforts, contact information should be broad, easy to implement and meant to convey confidence.
By broad, I’m suggesting that your options for contact should be available on a wide spectrum, beginning with a telephone number and email address (and yes, even a fax number if that’s still common in your industry). One should also include social media platforms, both on your website and email signature, that are customary in your industry.
What do I mean by confidence? It means when possible, you want to convey a sense of stature and professionalism. For example, I could make a case for always having a physical address for your business on your website (unless you operate from home). Why? I know people who will not deal with a business if there isn’t a physical address on its website. (Google Earth ensures that you really are on earth.) Email addresses matter, too. If you claim to be the president of a company and you use a Gmail address, well, it shrieks small. And if touting your smallness is a good thing, then keep it. If not, get a real email address.
At the Carpenter Contractor Trust (CCT), the marketing arm for union carpenters and union contractors, we try to address all the components mentioned. Our communication base is broad because we use virtually every commonly accepted digital platform. Yet we also continue to retain our connection to traditional marketing, by maintaining a significant print collateral library (remember our fax example) and advertising in select publications. Our shortcut to all our marketing and communication efforts, especially when dealing with our internal audience, is the CCT mobile app. It has proven to be highly successful because it is our one-stop digital platform that is ubiquitous (who doesn’t own a smartphone?), is easy to use and serves as the central clearinghouse for everything we wish to communicate. For example, on the CCT app, members can preview videos (an active part of our marketing efforts), press releases, blogs and industry updates.
Your client and customer base might be small enough that you don’t need an app. But regardless of your size, from mom-and-pop to businesses with hundreds of employees, the bottom line remains: Remove or reduce every possible obstacle a person might encounter when trying to communicate with you.
