Market Your Company to Create Business

Jess Bern, Daktronics Marketing Strategist

In this post, our Marketing Strategist, Jess Bern, shares practical information about resources you can easily create and deploy to increase your sales.

Marketing generates business. To drive sales, sign companies want to reach out to two audiences: those interested in your product and those who aren’t yet interested.

 Customers interested in your product

Did you know that customers are 57% of the way through their purchase decision before ever engaging with sales staff? * What’s pushing them that far down the road in the sales process?

This is what’s happening: today’s consumers don’t rely on only word-of-mouth. They also jump online to look at a business’s website and other social media sites. They’re searching for the info they need to reach a decision.

Customers need this information

Many of your customers don’t have time during working hours to give you a call. On the other hand, many of them are online at all hours and can easily access your site. Your website can jump start the sale by answering the following questions:

• Is signage a smart investment?
• How does signage benefit me?
• How are other businesses being successful with signs?
• How do I select the right product?
• How reliable are your products?
• How do I purchase a sign?

How can customers reach out to you?

In addition, give your customers a way to reach out to you with questions. A brief, easy-to-fill-out form works great for this.

Responding to these forms is critical. Consumers will expect to hear from you quickly, or they’ll move on.

Customer stories

Customer stories show that LED signs help retailers. Visit a current project site and ask the customer why they chose your company and product. Take a camera along to get pictures or video. Remember, a video doesn’t have to be fancy to be effective—look what’s on YouTube!

Review your upcoming projects. Is there one that would work well for this, especially a highly visible project?

Here’s a great example of using a customer story. BSC Signs, Denver, Colorado, recently posted this project on their blog and social media sites.

Did you notice all the effective resources BSC Signs included?

• Information about the customer
• Video interview of the customer
• Video of the LED sign vendor explaining LED sign benefits and how to choose the right sign
• Great photos
• Strong call to action: follow them on Facebook, visit their online sign gallery, call for a quote

Get all the additional attention you can get. Create a blog post from the customer story and share it on your Facebook page and Twitter account. Upload it to the success story section of your website. Contact your LED sign provider to share the blog post on their social media accounts, too.

Reaching customers not yet interested in your products

Using BSC Signs customer story as an example, reuse the information you’ve put together. They targeted other hardware stores in the area by creating a mailing list and mailer. Invite same-niche retailers to visit your website and see how LED signs can help business.

Or, take a look at pulling a different target list. Reach out to significant locations in your community with the message, “Make your landmark location stand out with an LED sign,” and refer them to your website.

 Niches in your area interested in LED signs

Use the video of the sign vendor talking about the benefits of a digital sign to generate business from a hot niche. Don’t overlook anybody!

You probably sell to large niches, such as petroleum, financial, churches, and healthcare facilities. But we’ve noticed an interest in LED signs from the following:

• Car washes
• Flooring/carpet stores
• Storage facilities
• Liquor stores
• Insurance companies

Use your customer story to stay in front of current customers. Your social media help you stay in touch and let them know what you are up to.

You may also want to generate a mailing list of customers who bought signs 5 or so years ago. Ask them if they have thought about updating their signage recently and inform them about current technology.

Do you have any marketing tips? Please comment and let us know what’s working for you.

* 2011 CEB Customer Purchase Research Survey