CSIT 155 FA 20 GregB - Week 16 Wrapping it Up

When I first started thinking about taking this class I  discussed this with our owner and her response was that Social Media was primarily for connecting with old friends and would not offer much value. But now having taken and finished the class I realize that there is a huge impact on how a business can communicate with both existing customers and potential new ones and increase our companies brand. Durable Casters has to get with the program and think outside the box. This class was our first step in evolving. 

At the end of 2019 we had signed up for and planned on participating in at least 10 trade shows. The Covid pandemic caused all of these live events to be cancelled. Therefore, I had to develop a new strategy for reaching clients. The timing for me taking this class could not have been better. I now realize that the traditional ways of calling on customers has changed. And Durable Casters needs to adapt to keep up with the changing marketplace. We can still pass out and mail out catalogs but the biggest and best return will require a marketing strategy that uses Social Media.

By developing a Facebook page and signing up for Instagram I see the benefits. Several of my existing customers have reached out to me and complimented me and my company for trying to develop our brand online. There has been an impact. For example, one of our primary dealers in Orange County noticed my Facebook page and linked this with my Instagram post on our new Hi Temp Bakery Rack Wheels. We received an order based off this information.

I now understand that Social Media is not just about looking up old friends. Social Media has transformed us by allowing Durable to get in front of a target customer. 

With the use and development of LinkedIn we now change the way we communicate with potential customers. I have been able to expand our online presence and the days of handing our catalogs and business cards are a thing of the past.  We have danced around with this site for few years but now I understand how to use it.

I looked up some statistics and about half the world is on social media every day so its makes sense that we now incorporate this as part of a marketing strategy. I feel excited that I can convince our staff that we can build long term relationships with our customers. Once our clients become more aware of our brand I can utilize this to find new markets that we currently do not serve.

Durable does absolutely no business with the US Military and we plan on developing a strategy to penetrate this market segment. We know that buyers are online shopping and the next step is to profile a select group of casters that will be approved by the military.

Finally, for me personally, I will continue to learn about the various social platforms and explore ways to connect and stay relevant. I understand the evolution of social media and how it can help Durable Casters grow. The changes in technology are coming more rapidly everyday and for a guy that started out his career using a pager I have come along way. 

CSIT - 155 FA 20 - Greg B - Week 15 Marketing Plan

I plan to use and implement several of the social media sites that we learned about in class.

Facebook

As discussed in the text, Facebook is the number one social network in the world and up until the time I signed up to become a member my employer,  Durable Casters had never signed up or taken an active role in developing our brand through this site.

I now understand this is not just website for looking up and connecting with old friend but rather a marketing avenue to connect with others as friends and improve our company through the use of likes, connecting profiles, joining groups, and most importantly for our business using the Facebook, " pages ", to build our brand and engage both potential customers and existing customers.

Facebook can offer Durable a tremendous opportunity to spread our footprint and engage in enough content to promote likes that in return help us improve our name in the industry.

Currently, very few of my competitors use Facebook and they have not yet learned the advantages of using this platform as a marketing device. I am hoping they stay ignorant and ignore it. Because I plan to focus on this aspect of our business.

As discussed in earlier blog posts, our business model has changed due to the Covid crisis and customers and potential clients are using the internet to find casters for their applications. Which means we have to change and adapt.

Instagram

Instagram is my favorite social media site that we discussed this fall term. This is a free photo sharing site and the ability to share images is the best thing that I have found. I think our casters translate well through images and videos and I plan on using this to promote our capabilities. The text mentions that Instagram works best when you have something beautiful to share. I like the idea of promoting new casters, wheels, accessories, that my customers can see. Additionally, by using generic hashtags I think Durable can come up with categories that a customer can search and find using this site.

Instagram provides our caster company the following benefits:

More businesses are joining so this is a growing sector. Its easy to target my audience ( buyers and engineers ). Customers like the visual aspect. We can engage with customers and identify where they spend there time. Finally, its great for building our brand and building up user content.

LinkedIn

Before taking this class I though this platform was strictly for finding a new job. But I have learned there is much more that I can do with this site to improve our business.

Lead Generation: Though networking and keeping the company page up to date Durable USA can brand itself as an expert and help potential customers identify which caster or wheel to use.

Increased Exposure  - With a company page that is constantly updated this is a great way to gain attention for your business.

Credibility - One can show off a new product and through the " Recommendations Page " I can receive more referrals based on positive comments by past customers.

Accomplishments  - I can build up future clients and show off a bit by touting our products that others have purchased.  This is almost, like a testimonial that helps customers select our company and products rather then the competition.

We plan on hiring a full time digital marketer to help develop our social media strategy. This will become a monthly business strategy whereby we promote either a new product or a success story each week or maybe quarterly.

Calendar 1st Quarter for Social Media Marketing Plan - Durable Casters

2021 

January - Begin posting weekly pictures of our spring catalog on Instagram.

February -  Introduce Durable Casters in Facebook.

March  - Produce new company video of our new Canadian Factory located in Ontario. This will be posted in both Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

April  - Introduce new short promotional video on our Guatemala Factory/Distribution Center located in Mexico. This will be posted on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

May -  Create a new, branded, success story on both all three websites with a brief synopsis on how we solved a problem for our customers.

CSIT 155 - FA 20: GregB - Homework Week 14 Social

Durable USA

Part 1

My company is a manufacturer and distributor of industrial casters and wheels. In order to build our online presence and increase our maximum search engine optimization I think we could benefit by using the following metrics through Google Analytics.

1. How do we stack up against our competition? Fortunately most of our competitors still think the business model for the caster & wheel business is a traditional brick and mortar type of business. After taking this class I now realize we can expand the scope of our footprint by taking steps to increase our web identity. This does not mean setting up an online website whereby customers can order but rather engaging in a more dynamic marketing program that tells our story vs. the competition. We need to sell potential customers on our brand.

Facebook allows us to help identify some of these statistics to help examine our marketing program. One example, is measuring the amount of likes we receive. 

2. We can measure what regions are customers are located. This would help areas of growth opportunities. For example, should we target market food equipment manufacturers on the West Coast vs. the East Coast or South.

3. It would be useful knowing knowing whether customers are downloading our catalog or prints to distinguish buyers from shoppers.

4. Analyze which websites are sending us traffic or visitors. This information would help us focus on which search engines are helping us in referrals.

5. Our ranking on Google, which right now is very low.

6. Finding out what products our visitors are looking at. This would help us structure the particular casters to promote.

Finally, do our customers that engage on our website actually buy?  Difficult to measure but by using such a website as Facebook the more likes we have the better our chances for increasing sales.

Part II

I don't have anywhere near enough likes to process the data from Facebook but I will try to extrapolate using the data from Aztec as it applies to my business.

The Covid Pandemic has also affected our business in numerous ways with many unforeseeable results.  In the Spring we saw a huge spike in orders from customers that were trying to convert and use existing and most often idle machinery and utilize their workers to build equipment for Covid related applications. Ventilators,  respirators, IV Poles, you name it and we were shipping casters for these type of requirements. So for a few months it was all hands on deck and business was booming. Most of the requests came from either an existing customer or a referral. For example, I sold 80,000 2" casters for IV poles for the State of MI. I would summarize by stating our reach was extending to all sectors of the market all over North America. Even saw a boost in orders from Canada.

After the initial rush, things began to slow down and we hit a lull during late summer. By Fall, business started picking up again and has remained steady with several new projects in the pipeline. So the data would show two peaks and valley with a rise starting in late August.

Most of the reach was existing customers using our stock to fill hot orders.

One can infer likes are growing and we are engaging with many new clients. Some were from linkedin since we are posting more and on a more consistent basis. But the data does not lie and we have seen a spike in non traditional customers due to the buzz in the marketplace.