Want help with your marketing? Simply Google “marketing resources” and you will be inundated with a wealth of options. Then the question becomes, what subset of marketing are you seeking: email, social media, SEO, reporting/analytics tools, AI-flavored options, scripting, copy writing, success examples, etc.? That will help narrow the field, somewhat.
The office technology industry has its own tailored solutions and vibrant personalities behind managed marketing machines. And several new software releases marry some of the more popular resources into a single solution. Plus, I’m sure you have your favorites. Rather than advocate, we’ve asked out State of the Industry panel of marketing experts to share their thoughts on some of the best (and maybe lackluster) options that are available for dealers to either hone their in-house departments or fortify through third-party options.
One such example of the network of marketing solutions can be found with Levifi. The Charleston, South Carolina, dealership followed the specialization path, tabbing Oniracom for both its corporate rebranding and the production of its new website. CEO Thomas Fimian pointed to the third-party’s firm in assisting with the name selection process, logo and graphic design, as well as the creation of its style guide.
“Having a formal style guide is a great tool to keep our branding consistent across all levels,” Fimian said. “It is the key document used with third-party marketers to make sure our marketing material is consistent with our corporate identity.”
When it comes to web-based lead generation, the dealer has engaged a brand-agnostic service provider, and it’s already paying ROI dividends. Evolved Office is the provider of choice for Levifi’s email and social media services.
“The key in getting the most out of our e-mail marketing is to customize and create original content and have it hosted on our own website instead of the e-mail platform provider’s,” he added.
Hit and Miss
Over the years, Carter Hertzberg has taken marketing resources out for a spin, like third-party firms and dialing services. The president of Nauticon Office Solutions in Gaithersburg, Maryland, noted these sources would help by booking a lot of prospect meetings, but all it did was led to a lot of no-shows. Or the prospect wasn’t a fit for the type of gear that Nauticon offered.
“I don’t think they really understood what we were looking for,” he noted. “Either that, or they were just trying to pad their stats.”
The best move he made was signing up with Quantum, which aggregates some of the more popular tools such as HubSpot, ZoomInfo and ConnectAndSell. It was the ideal path for what Hertzberg was seeking to accomplish, and he found the third-party training through ConnectAndSell to be particularly effective.
“They have a pretty comprehensive training program for the art of cold calling,” he said. “Our meetings per week off of our dedicated dialing time went up significantly after we put everybody through the training.”
Dealers such as Advanced Imaging Solutions of Las Vegas have benefitted from partnering with outside agencies and marketing-as-a-service providers. According to Keven Ellison, vice president of marketing, one particularly strong resource AIS has employed, iMPACT, has helped many clients in implementing the “They Ask, You Answer” methodology.
“This approach has helped us create transparent, customer-focused marketing that builds trust and drives results,” he added.
Hands On
In-person conferences can be a boon for companies that want to keep tabs on the best solutions and methodologies on the market. For Impact Networking of Lake Forest, Illinois, that entails attending annual events such as HubSpot Inbound or Content Marketing World. Stefanie Dunlap, the dealer’s executive director of marketing services, notes the dealer allows team members to participate in virtual training sessions throughout the year.
“Attending these conferences and trainings absolutely bolsters our marketing efforts by giving us new strategies to try, validating the work we’re doing, and making connections with other marketers and partners to talk through strategies and potential issues,” she noted.
Dunlap notes that Impact has turned to an outside agency just once during her nearly seven-year stint with the dealership, and that was aimed at kickstarting SEM initiatives focusing on paid and organic search. By the second year, Impact had hired its own paid media specialist and SEO expert.
“We outsourced this work because we wanted to prove the success before we hired in-house talent,” Dunlap noted.
