Your Game Plan for Generating Leads and Building Brand Awareness!

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1 Your Game Plan for Generating Leads and Building Brand Awareness!

2 OVERVIEW: A game plan for generating leads and building brand awareness is key to a successful marketing strategy. Leveraging the ButleriConnect comarketing program with your overall marketing plan will demonstrate to potential new customers the benefits of working with you and Butler. This document allows you to create a comprehensive marketing plan while taking advantage of the generous co-marketing funds program Butler provides. The ButleriConnect web portal has all the creative material you need to launch a successful campaign. Advertising promotes your companies capabilities and lets customers know what you do and how to reach you when they are motivated to buy a building. getting started: When developing a marketing plan it is important to understand how your company is positioned in the marketplace. What are its strengths and weaknesses? Knowing where you are and where you want to go are necessary to creating an effective marketing plan. Ask yourself and your management team the following questions to get you started: Current Geographic Market Conditions: Is your area growing dramatically? Is it in a recovery mode? 1 ButleriConnect BUTLERiCONNECT

3 What opportunities are there? Where does your company fit in to the market?: Do you service a niche market? What types of buildings do you build? Do you have a great reputation for doing outstanding construction work? What is your image in the community? Can it be improved? What percentage of your business is bid work vs. design build? Do you want to change your focus? If so, to what? What is your unique point of difference in your market? What makes you stand out from your competition? Competition Name your competition, their strengths and weaknesses. How do they market their company? COMPETITOR STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES MARKETING APPROACHES 2 Marketing Plan

4 MARKETING PLAN GUIDELINES The following is a guideline to plan your marketing efforts. It is important to follow all the steps to create a plan that produces results. Objectives: State here what you want to accomplish during the plan year. Your marketing plan objectives should mirror your business plan objective. Try to keep your objective to one statement and fairly specific. You can have more than one marketing objective but no more than three. Example 1: ABC Construction Company s objective is to generate leads and build brand awareness to help increase company revenue by 5%. Example 2: Develop and reinforce ABC Construction Company s brand message and position in the Kansas City area as the premier contractor for religious facilities. Objectives (write your objectives below): Target Market: Define who you want to reach with your marketing. Get a clear picture in your mind of who that would be and think about reaching that one person you are picturing. Do you want to focus on architects? Do you want to target business owners? Large corporations? The rural market? What does your potential customer look like? How old are they? How do they buy construction? When are the best times to reach them with your message? (Traditionally, the average construction buyer is a 45+ year old male.) It is a good idea to limit your target markets to three or less. Defining your target market will set the course for your specific marketing efforts. 3 ButleriConnect BUTLERiCONNECT

5 Strategy: The How of your plan. How are you going to reach your target market and meet your objective? Example: ABC Construction will create and implement a marketing campaign to generate leads and build brand awareness by marketing to the target audiences with a message that will emphasize a 35-year history of quality, reliability and integrity. Strategy (write your strategy below): tactics / action steps: Your choices within ButleriConnect for media advertising, to reach your target market, include a comprehensive assortment of creative assets to achieve your goals. Here is a summary of media assets available on ButleriConnect: Local TV: Provides a visual demonstration of your capabilities. The viewer can see the types of buildings you build. Typically, local TV is purchased on a DMA or Dominant Market Area basis which usually extends beyond a metro area. Cable TV: Visual medium that allows more specific targeting due to a channel s niche, i.e., the Golf Channel. Can be much more affordable than local TV depending on your market. Radio: Audio medium that determines the percentage of people in your target audience and how many times you reach them with your message. Newspaper/Business Journal: Business Journals deliver readers within your target of potential building owners and are an effective advertising vehicle. General newspaper ads are also an effective way to get your message out depending on the size of your market. 4 Marketing Plan

6 Digital Banner Ads: Great way to increase your online presence. Digital Banner Ads send potential customers directly to your website. Website: A well designed, easy to navigate website is imperative for every business. All your web marketing will be directed to your website so it needs to provide a visual demonstration of your capabilities and company image. Google AdWords : Another way to increase your web presence. Choose specific key words that will come up in a Google search. You only pay if someone clicks on your ad. Direct Mail: The most targeted medium available which allows you to pinpoint potential customers in your area. Postcards are highly customizable with your photos and copy. Local Listings Management: Much like a Yellow Pages listing on the internet, local listings management allows you to appear on all the major search engines like Google, Yahoo, Local and Bing with your company name, address, phone, web address and reviews. A mix of media is the best way to reach those potential customers. If you focus on one medium, your chances of reaching many people in your target market are limited. Example 1: ABC Construction wants to reach architects and specifiers as its target market to generate leads and build brand awareness. The most effective way to reach that market is very specific, targeted media and nonmedia events such as lunch and learns or webinars. The best media choices would be direct mail, trade journal print ads and digital banner ads on the trade journal websites. Example 2: XYZ Construction needs to reach business owners who potentially need warehouse space in the near future. The best vehicles to reach that audience depend on the size of your community. If you are in a smaller community, you might consider billboards, radio, TV or cable TV, print advertising in the local paper, digital banner ads on the Chamber of Commerce website, and Google AdWords. Once again, a mix of media is the best way to reach as many potential customers as possible. If you are in a big city, you will need to narrow your media approach due to the cost of 5 ButleriConnect BUTLERiCONNECT

7 the media. Here is where you might consider direct mail, Business Journal advertising, digital banner ads on specific websites and Google AdWords. Additional marketing should also be implemented as part of your plan including public relations, sponsorships and social media. Calculating Your Budget: As a general rule, successful companies allocate 3% of their gross revenue to marketing and advertising. Since the ButleriConnect co-marketing program is designed to supplement your overall marketing, considering 3% of your Butler steel goal is an effective way of budgeting because of the ButleriConnect dollar for dollar match. So that radio schedule you re thinking about costs ½ by applying those funds! The next step is to allocate your dollars to each medium but you need to know what those costs are. If you work with local media reps, you can ask for ad schedules and their rates. If you don t, ButleriConnect can have a media plan prepared for you. If you plan to spend over $6,000, your plan is no charge. A media plan developed for you in the ButleriConnect program under $6,000 requires a fee of $600. You cannot apply your ButleriConnect funds to this cost. Media Advtg. Type Estimated Cost Actual Cost Butler iconnect Funds Total 6 Marketing Plan

8 When do you want to execute and finish your marketing? _ Timeline/Responsibilities Creating a timeline and assigning responsibilities is crucial to successful execution of your plan. Accountability is absolutely necessary. Check quarterly to see if the action item has been completed and if your plan is on target. Action Item Status Responsibility Due Date You can track your leads in ButleriConnect under the My Leads tab! Set up a system to track the leads you generate from your marketing. Have your staff ask people who call where they heard about your company or set up an alias account that can be used to allow contacts to your company or track the leads that come in through your Contact Us page on your website. Now you have your marketing game plan for the year. Going through this simple process annually and reviewing it quarterly helps to keep you focused on your original objective increasing revenue! AdWords and Google are registered trademarks of Google Inc BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc. All rights reserved. Butler Manufacturing is a division of BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc. Find your independent Butler Builder at Form No /13 ButleriConnect BUTLERiCONNECT Marketing Plan