How Can I Improve Our Marketing
Marketing a Pipelines and Pipeline Services Business
Looking for innovative ways to market a pipelines and pipeline services business? Although you there are no magic bullets that will enable you to dominate the industry, there are several things you can do to improve visibility and market presence.
We see marketing as the great equalizer, a business discipline capable of dramatically increasing a small company's footprint in the marketplace.
Purpose in marketing is the key to success in this space. From our vantage point, it's clear that profitable pipelines and pipeline services businesses leave no stone unturned when it comes to marketing strategy. The inclusion of innovative tactics and techniques is important, but the consistent application of sound marketing principles may be the most important factor in raising your brand's visibility with buyers.
Hiring A Marketing Firm
Think you can handle your own marketing? There is a reason why many pipelines and pipeline services business operations turn to marketing firms for guidance. Professional marketers are usually on the bleeding edge of the industry and boast better returns for the investment than internal marketing units. Does a marketing firm cost money? Sure, but not as much as you may think. When it's time to look for a marketing firm to represent your pipelines and pipeline services business, experience should trump other considerations. Marketing firms that lack industry experience are sometimes unfamiliar with competitive marketing channels and may not understand the value propositions that dominate industry messaging.
Broadcast Advertising
Broadcast advertising has clearly taken some hits over the past couple of decades. The number of consumers who tune-in to local TV and radio has plummeted, and the industry has struggled to regain its footing. However, it would be a mistake to discount broadcast advertising entirely. Many pipelines and pipeline services businesses are leveraging broadcast media to perform specific aspects of their marketing strategies. It's critical to understand the limits and opportunities available in today's broadcast advertising industry. One area in which marketers continue to have success is during drive times when large numbers of listeners still tune-in to local radio. For pipelines and pipeline services businesses, the target audience is almost always local or regional. For broader reach, you'll likely need to look beyond broadcast venues and explore other online and offline marketing vehicles.
Media Monitoring
Some marketing initiatives lend themselves to simple measurement while others are more challenging. Direct mail can be evaluated by tallying the cost of inputs (e.g. a premium mailing list, printing, postage, etc.) and measuring the number of customer responses you receive from the campaign. The difficulty comes when you are tasked with quantifying market presence and brand influence. Fortunately, media monitoring has the ability to give your pipelines and pipeline services business a sense of market presence and other variables that are difficult to quantify. If executed properly, media monitoring can help your brand get ahead of negative messaging and exert greater influence over news cycles.
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