Here are 5 Simple Steps for Creating a Geospatial Marketing Plan that works for you!
Example: to grow sales by 20% in the Construction market to $1m USD.
The trick is FOCUS! 📋
You need a goal in order to know where you are going and what it looks like when you have got there!
It must be SMART
Keep it simple – don’t over complicate it
Sales conversion is a NUMBERS GAME and the rule of thumb is 1% conversion. For example: for 100 people signed up for your webinar; 1 person will purchase. Monitor it for YOU! Start here! This is a general rule of thumb.
a. Who is your market and who are your buyers?
It might be that you focus on Project Managers (your key client or as I call it “your bread and butter customers”) and Developers (those who you don’t necessarily deal with directly, but who are super ‘influential’ in the buying process) as your audience segment. When you come to content planning and campaign management; your content will be focused around these two types of buyers.
b. Where do they hang out?
c. What problems do they have that we can solve with our business?
d. How can we reach them?
e. What tools can I use to get my message across?
f. What freebie or ‘value added’ content can i share to gain new leads? Ie webinar
g. Date for launch of webinar
h. Review the path
Example: grow construction market by 3 new clients per quarter
Re-engineer the numbers; how many do you need on the webinar to make 1% sales?
Example: I need 300 eye balls on the webinar, so we will do 3 webinars over 3 months
Review, rinse it and repeat the process
Three phases to this:
Understanding the funnel is crucial for sales development!
THE SALES FUNNEL CONTENT ROAD MAP
AWARENESS
The visitor is new to your brand. So keep the content short and to the point. It must be PUNCHY! Think of a newspaper heading!
Keep the content simple and consistent for best results
“Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, “make me feel important” not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life” Mary Kay Ash
EDUCATE
If you are not allowed to showcase your client; do a video showcasing what the problem is and how you are going to solve it. You don’t need to reference the client but show you doing something in action. CSTi in New Mexico, USA are great at showcasing ‘how to solve problems’ without showing off their private client. Check out their Instagram
Make sure you have a good Call To Action like “Sign up to my Newsletter” or “Watch this video” or “Download this document explaining how we solved the problem for x client”
Calls to action are the golden nuggets (known as Marketing Qualified Leads) that give the visitor a cross roads to do something!
BUY
I use a document to highlight all the things (content) that prospects might ask during the final stages of the buying process – a cheat sheet. This is super useful for sharing and a great way to keep the prospect on track. It can answer questions that hidden-buyers within the buying journey may ask your prospect.
Don’t be afraid to ask for that sale!
When you don’t close a sale, open a relationship
Patricia Fripp
A campaign is a bunch of activities using tools and content focused on one goal or message.
-Write out a campaign focused on your goal. When we’re trying to attract ‘developers’ for example;
-Focus on where they hang out; like LinkedIn
-Do a search and find them using keywords like “Property Developer” or “Construction Manager” – get super savvy with LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator to really refine your search.
-Spend some money boosting your posts, again focused on key words and job titles of that target audience
Psst: I’ve teamed up with Charlie Whyman who is delivering LinkedIn Training starting 8th February; don’t miss out – Charlie Whyman LinkedIn Sales Training (If you are a GMAer; this is FREE for you)
-Do they hangout in any groups (again could be Linkedin)?
-What magazines do they read?
-Then you need to review what they are interested in and what problems they have? – this is where your content strategy kicks in. What content you will be sharing with them to add value.
-Remember you are looking for places where they hang out and plot out a steady trickle of juicy content that attracts them (top of funnel), that they will find useful. Educates and hopefully leads to purchase 💸. Use content like videos and educational pieces that attract and pull the follower through the funnel.
-Build a landing page just for the campaign with different elements of the funnel on the page. See Geospatial Marketing Academy as an example! Lots of great juicy content there covering top, middle and bottom of funnel.
WATCH THIS VIDEO ON LANDING PAGES
Tip: If after your desired time period, the plan hasn’t worked, reflect and analyse your path and change the plan – not the goal!
Keep it simple, consistent, timely and focused.
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Welcome to the 7th edition of the Geospatial Marketing Academy Newsletter – a fortnightly newsletter by me, Elaine Ball, on all the stuff that matters – geospatial marketing, life! A special non-contact high five to Lauren and Balaraman. Welcome to my world.
Happy New Year, Friend!
2020 has caused havoc to every Geospatialer in more ways than one! From personal life changes like having the kids at home! 🙀 to living on ZOOM calls 👹 But in a time of crisis it can be hard for marketers to know where to begin.
The other week I asked my Instagram followers “what is important for 2021?”
“Getting past the pandemic” was a hot topic to talk about! Obviously!
Let’s take a closer look
― Albert Einstein
Super shift to a digital world!
Have you noticed our industry has had to embrace digital marketing! More and more of you have taken to the online methods, despite the uncomfortableness (is that even a word 🤷♀️) of it all, I mean “group video calls”! 🙅♀️
Geospatialers who jump head first and embrace new ways despite how they feel will build better and stronger businesses! Change has to be embraced!
We have seen a webinar pandemic (literally) over the past 6months and even shows going online. Exhibitions like Intergeo jumping head first into the into the virtual world, client user conferences like ESRI embracing the new norm? Despite the uncomfortableness of it all – these guys have taken a leap of faith and will have learnt a ton of “what works and what doesn’t!” making them stronger! 🤔
So how do you get past the pandemic? What should you do?
Start with your purse 👛 strings. Review your overall spending, not just your marketing capital but those little subscriptions and costs that don’t seem very important but inflict your bottom line; do a bit of spring cleaning (even though its January)
80/ 20 Rule. Focus on the 20% of clients that make you money. These are your bread and butter clients. Improve your relationship with these as they will thank you for it in the future through recommendations
Understand your market by figuring out who you really want as a client! List all the pros and cons of your current user base. Design content that attracts more of that type of client by addressing their frustrations, problems and concerns! Remember your product or service is solving a ‘pain-in-the-butt’ problem, so educate them! Build trust and make it super easy to buy from you!
Build a subscription list. Yes – there is money in a following! Build a list of fans keen to hear from you. Educate them, support them and add value to their lives through great content!
Nurture that community. From social media to subscription (email list) fans, these are all the people who want to hear from you. Don’t disappoint by ad-hoc messaging. Plan out a monthly series of great content that addresses problems and adds value. Use Mailchimp for email automation and Hootsuite for social content automation. This is gold to any Geospatial business!
Improve your customer service. Take the time to improve your P’s and Q’s. This will not only improve your brand positioning this minute, but improve your reputation! Customer service is going to be vital in the covid and post-covid world. Empathy will be super key in any Geospatialers marketing tool kit!
Brand Empathy. People will remember brands who do acts of good especially in a crisis. Have a think on how you can protect, support and help your community within this period. It will not only boost your brand but make you feel super good about yourself (self-care)
Outsource. Is ⏰ an issue to get stuff done? Look at outsourcing! Check out Upwork and Fiverr and find someone you can delegate those tasks you hate! Focus on what you love and improve how efficient you are!
Build a sales funnel. I love sales funnels. They work in every type of business! Review your sales process and implement. Want a copy of the Sales Leads Webinar i did in December 2020, drop me an email and get your house in order!
Invest in you. What are the key things you need to change in your business to take it to the next level? Fancy getting your hands on a ton of marketing lessons focused on the Geospatial Industry? Then check out GMA (Geospatial Marketing Academy) here.
Wishing you a prosperous 2021
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Thanks for reading to the bottom. Thanks for your kindness and generosity.
Stay safe. Stay sane. Wear a mask!
I’ll be back on 28th January 2021
Elaine
PS – If this email was forwarded to you but you’d like your own in future, just sign up here and I’ll do the rest. You can catch up on any of the old letters here.
– feel free to link up with me on LinkedIn here
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TOOLS
Marketing tools I learnt about this week:
LOOM – record video messages of your screen or cam or both with this funky app!
31st December 2020
Sheep Land (the Yorkshire Dales, England)
Welcome to the 6th edition of the Geospatial Marketing Academy Newsletter – a fortnightly newsletter by me, Elaine Ball, on all the stuff that matters – geospatial marketing, life! A special non-contact high five to Danila and John. I appreciate you!
If this email was forwarded to you but you’d like your own in future, just sign up here and I’ll do the rest. You can catch up on any of the old letters here.
Dear Friend,
Well this is the final day of the crazy, mad, weird 2020! One that will be written into the history books! This year has been wonderful for some and horrid for others! Businesses have been turned upside down, inside out and shaken all about! “Oohh that rhymes”
But on a serious note; no matter whether this year has been kind to you or not, 2021 is a brand spanking new year. I’m super excited to jump right in, head first sharing with you all my secrets, ideas and inspire you to improve your Geospatial Business!!
So to kick start this new year, here are 12 resolutions I’m making for 2021 – and I think you should join me 👇
Set goals that are so ambitious they make me nervous [take me way-out of my comfort zone!]
Focusing on scalable, high-impact actions instead of busy work
Avoid comparing myself, my business and my journey to ANYONE else
Learn new things to stretch and challenge myself
Grow my authority within my industry and niche
Lean-into instead of away-from conversations that challenge me and make me think
Filter feedback to only the people I trust to give that feedback
Get even better at delegating things [probably should make this number 1]
Keep my values at the forefront of everything I do
Say NO to things that don’t align with my trajectory, no matter how appealing
Stop taking failure personally
Prioritise my health and wellness in every area of my life
Would love to hear what your 2021 resolutions are?
Now remember the tradition is (in Scotland) to bring in a piece of coal past midnight! This is not only good for the fire (if you have one) but good luck for the new year! (read more about the traditions of Hogmanay here)
Send me a reply to this newsletter and let me know your plans.
HAPPY NEW YEAR my Geospatial Marketers!
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Thanks for reading to the bottom. Thanks for your kindness and generosity.
Stay safe. Stay sane. Sanitize!
I’ll be back on 14th January 2021
Elaine
PS – Pick up a book / biography on someone who has succeeded (in many ways) in what they have done. Give yourself a different perspective on life, success and failure! Broaden your horizons
I’ve chosen Dressed for War by Julie Summers’ the Story of Audrey Withers, Vogue editor extraordinaire from the Blitz to the Swinging Sixties
PSS – I grew up in Scotland, hence the ‘coal tradition’ above!
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TOOLS
Marketing tools I used this week:
Baaah… non, I’ve been eating mince pies, drinking copious (lots of) amounts of port and enjoying cold-crisp rides out on my Finn (horse)
Elly Ball, Elaine Ball and Emily Monsen at Content Marketing World 2019
Hi Friend,
Happy holidays to all and a very merry Christmas to those who follow Santa Claus! I hope you’ve all written your Dear Santa letters and put them up the chimney (if you have one!).
We closed the doors for registering for the Geospatial Marketing Academy (GMA) 1.0 on Monday 14 December. They’ll reopen in May. I’m now a very happy Yoda (teacher) to an ambitious group of students who are determined to improve their marketing for 2021. Yippee!
Rolling into 2021 with a fabulous new process in hand, these geospatial marketers now have no excuse not to improve their 2021 marketing plans! I’m super-excited to see what comes of these amazing people.
As we close out a weird year in all respects – pandemic, racism, wildfires, Brexit, US election, etc – I wanted to give you my ridiculously useful holiday gift guide for geospatial marketers. Yes, I know I’m probably a bit on the late side, but it’s ok… no sweat. You can still order!
The Geospatial Marketing Academy (of course) – the 12-month self-study programme for improving your sales revenue using marketing methods that have been tried and tested in the geospatial Industry. Even though the doors are closed, I’m offering you the chance to sign up! My wonderful news-goers. The fee is $3,995 (£3,250 + vat). It’s jam-packed with juicy content, tidbits, links, videos and live Q&A sessions. Use the code MRSCLAUS in the header of an email so I know you’ve come from this letter! Find out more about the ins and outs of GMA here. Remember, GMA 1.0 includes $2,500-worth of BONUS lessons from two best-selling authors! And if you are not quite ready, you can sign up to the WAITLIST GMA 2.0 here.
“This course gives you the foundation knowledge to help with marketing concepts and how to build your business. The course is streamlined and easy to follow with videos and workbooks to complete. I would recommend this to anyone interested in upskilling or wanting to learn about marketing and business. Thank you Elaine and team”. Peta Cox, Project Manager, Cardno Geospatial, Australia
Ann Handley’s best selling fandabidozi (amazing) book to help you brush up on your content marketing skills. Perfect for any geospatial marketer who wants to get an edge when it comes to writing awesome copy! I LOVE this book… it sleeps with me! You can find it on Amazon.
Environmentally friendly clothing for your team! Waves & Wild is a brand I absolutely love. They’re based on the Isle of Wight in the UK, and Lindsey has a fabulous story to share as well as great ethics: 50% of their profits go to charity. Check out her stuff!
Map socks are the perfect gift for the geospatialer who already has everything. Daniel O’Donohue doesn’t just offer map socks featuring topographics designs, he also has an AWESOME podcast in which he interviews interesting experts in our industry!
Access to the ultimate marketing conference, Content Marketing World in Cleveland, Ohio – I’ve been 3 times and it will blow your mind! The sessions are crammed full of amazing content ideas. Last year I even sat at a table with NASA marketers! Again for anyone who read that too fast: NASA. MARKETERS. Wow! The show caters for B2B and engineering… it’s all very, very relevant and a top find for any geospatial marketer! I managed to bring 7 geospatial marketers with me in 2019, including Emily Monsen from Monsen Engineering in Salt Lake City. Use discount code GEOSPATIAL21 and click here to register.
The Great British Treasure Hunt Book from Ordnance Survey – I’ve already devoured their puzzle book and it was AMAZEBALLS! So I’m sharing their latest and greatest book idea with you – check it out.
Map geeks – Get a personalised British map done by Ordnance Survey. How cool is that? OK, maybe not so cool if you live outside the UK, but fun to share this awesome gift. Psst.. I’ve asked Santa for one!
Lenses for iPhones! Check out this fabulous YouTube page. If you’re an aspiring YouTuber like Surveying with Robert, but don’t have the dosh to buy expensive camera kit, then check this out for the ultimate marketer’s gift!
Subscription to GRAMMARLY – content is king, right? So why not subscribe to the ultimate grammar checker (or check-err?)
A content scheduler – The ultimate time-saver for time-strapped geospatial marketers: subscribe to the wonderful Hootsuite and get organised in 2021!
That’s it – my top-10 Christmas list of mega gifts for mega geospatial marketers! Thanks for reading this far. Thanks for your kindness and generosity.
Stay safe. Stay sane. Wear a Christmas mask.
I’ll be back on 31 December.
Elaine
P.S. Forward this newsletter to a friend with an invitation to subscribe right here: https://www.elaineball.co.uk/get-the-latest-geospatial-marketing-tips/
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TOOLS
Marketing tools I used this week:
Mailchimp for lead nurturing. A simple, easy-to-use lead nurture system where you can set up a drip-feed campaign – ideal to nurture your target audience to take action! Enjoy!
Welcome to the 4th issue of the Geospatial Marketing Academy Newsletter – a fortnightly newsletter by me, Elaine Ball, on all the stuff that matters – geospatial marketing, life!
If this email was forwarded to you but you’d like your own in future, just sign up here and I’ll do the rest. You can catch up on any of the old letters here.
Dear Geospatialers,
I have a new Sheep Dog! Meet Bert.
Monday 30 November was one hell of a crazy day. We ran w “Marketing to Sales” workshops, got 135 registrations, made 2 sales totalling $7,990 for the Geospatial Marketing Academy (GMA), launched the GMA itself… AND made a trip in-between workshops to the farm up the valley to collect the newest addition to our family, Bert!
Post-crazy day, I didn’t even sleep well, fretting about Bert being alone downstairs with Nell, my other sheep dog, but she surprised me and my husband by stepping up as a surrogate mum. Bonus!
Boggy-eyed but bushy-tailed, with a dash of contentment, I got up on Tuesday morning to no accidents from Bert (YAY) and one happy-looking doggy. Happy mummy (me)! Today is recap day, and a chance to catch up on a ton of emails from excited workshop-goers. It’s also a chance to review the key pointers from the workshop to my new-found friends… you!
Monday’s workshop was free: it was what I call a “lead magnet” for the Geospatial Marketing Academy. My lead magnet. Important for me to point that out, as at the end of the day I’m here to pass on my geospatial marketing Wisdom! Like Yoda, I am. My goal is to successfully help you traverse the marketing world in a way that best fits with what you do – saving you a ton of time and money, and hopefully giving you a fatter bank account (not draining it!).
I had a lovely email from a guy called Alan who said he was being a Brit, and signed up to the freebie with no intention to pay for the full GMA. And that’s ok! He was interested enough to come to the freebie, which makes him a marketing-qualified lead. He may not be ready now, but he may be ready in 6 months, a year, or 3 years! That’s why you need awesome content at every level of your sales funnel.
As marketers, sales managers and business owners, it’s vital to develop your marketing ‘content’. This content should be at the core of your marketing. Content should attract people, grab their attention, and make them want more! The free sales workshop was key to explaining the marketing to sales funnel, and how marketing attracts, educates and converts. Alan was warm enough to sign up, and is now being nurtured. 😀
Alan, along with 134 other contacts, are now in my MQL database and will receive focused content including tips, tricks and other information which address problems and provide solutions! The aim is to build and nurture the target market so it all turns into moolah (money).
The overall process can be long (sometimes, if you’re lucky, it can be short). So have a plan, stick to it, and by all means tweak it. But be patient!
Look at the marketing to sales process as 3 phases:
Phase 1. Does it attract my ideal audience to read my content? Those I really, really want to buy my stuff? Will it help them?
Phase 2. Does it give them actions to take, in order to build them into my database and be able to nurture them?
Phase 3. Does it turn them into moolah?
Then work on the details in-between. Reverse-engineer the process from the bank account back up to the top of the funnel. It sounds simple when I put it like that, but I do this stuff in my sleep! It’s my world! That’s why I want to share it with you. Process leads to money.
So on that note, happy funnel-building!
Thanks for reading this far. Thanks for your kindness and generosity.
Stay safe. Stay sane. Wear a colourful mask.
I’ll be back on 17 December.
Elaine,
P.S. Forward this newsletter to a friend with an invitation to subscribe right here: https://www.elaineball.co.uk/get-the-latest-geospatial-marketing-tips/
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TOOLS
Marketing tools I used this week:
Mailchimp for lead nurturing. A simple, easy-to-use lead nurture system where you can set up a drip-feed campaign – ideal to nurture your target audience to take action! Enjoy!
19th November 2020
Sheep Land (the Yorkshire Dales, England)
Welcome to the third edition of the Geospatial Marketing Academy Newsletter – a fortnightly newsletter by me, Elaine Ball, on all the stuff that matters – geospatial marketing, life! A special non-contact high five to Mark, William, Bert and Steven. THANK YOU for being here.
If this email was forwarded to you but you’d like your own in future, just sign up here and I’ll do the rest. You can catch up on any of the old letters here.
Dear Fabulous Friend,
2020 has been one weird year, and with England in its second lockdown, I’m not even sure what planet I’m on! I’m sitting here in my little log office [bubble], looking at Brimham Rocks (a national park here in North Yorkshire) out of my mucky windows as I finalise my magazine article on Getting Ready for 2021: Here Are My Marketing Hacks!
2020 has been awkward and unnerving, and has literally thrown everything upside down. So as an equipment manufacturer or surveyor thinking about the months ahead, and what you may need to do differently, I’ve compiled 3 key things for your 2021 to-do list!
Credit: Denise Lee Yohn
“What on earth do you mean, Elaine?” Well, think about all the times and places when people come into contact with your brand. Whether that’s clients or potential clients, suppliers, partners, the general public… anyone. Anything from a personal meeting to your website to your LinkedIn posts to seeing your product or service in action.
Are these touchpoints positive? Are they effective? Where are they? Are they working? How do you KNOW – is it your opinion, or do you get real feedback?
Write down where your touchpoints are, which are the most effective (and which need a little TLC) and how you can deliver that TLC in 2021.
Doing this will give you a better focus on what you might be missing, and what you need to do differently. As my friend Albert Einstein says: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Use this table to keep it simple
| Touch points | Are they effective? | What to do? |
| Social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn etc) | Are you getting engagements, contacts or messages (DMs) from your target audience? | Figure out your customers’ pain points and address them individually and directly. Focus on problem solving tips. Use relevant hashtags. |
| Blog | Are you getting quality, multiple backlinks from other sites? This brings people to your site but also helps massively with your search engine rankings. | Blog (on your own site, on LinkedIn and as a guest blogger on other sites) and always add/ask for backlinks to relevant pages on your website. |
| Press releases | Are your stories getting packed up? Have journalists started calling you to ask for comments for stories? | List all the different online & print media relevant to you. Write short, clear, punchy releases. Plan to release news, stories and case studies throughout the year. |
| Face to face | Do some staff need extra training to deal with clients in meeting and negotiations? Or in account management? | Keep training up to date. Make sure all sales staff use a consistent brand message. Measure through customer feedback. |
| Podcast | Are you doing them, and if so what are people saying? | Get on more podcasts (eg The Geoholics) to raise your profile and prove your thought leadership. |
| Vehicle livery (signs on trucks!) | Is it visually attractive? Is it clear what you offer? Is it too small to read? | Stay on-brand, be clear. Give people a reason to remember you and look you up later. |
| ZOOM meetings and webinars | Is attendance good? Do clients engage? | Ask close clients for feedback on how to improve, and check out conference-call ‘how to’ articles online. |
To get your data, use apps such as SurveyMonkey or conduct polls on Facebook or Instagram. Pssst… did you know Google Drive now has ‘Google Forms’ so you can set up polls using that too! Eeek how exciting!
And don’t ignore one-on-one calls with your best AND your most challenging customers (yes!) to really get into the nitty gritty. And
Feed this back to your team and put in some actions to improve your brand
Build your reputation by sharing real life stories, experiences and your understanding of pain-points to boost your social value!
See Instagram stories by survey.inc [CSTi] and how they focus on end-user frustrations. David and John focus on users’ key problems, then address them in Stories on Instagram. Instagram Stories is an easy way to showcase real-life stories by focusing on the client’s problems (obviously without sharing confidential information). Stories are only live for 24 hours, so they’re ideal for building anticipation and eagerness for the next episodes, and therefore boosting your brand.
David does mini-videos which walk you through the problem they’re solving for their client. This speaks to all their other potential clients out there, so this creates trust and builds value in their brand. It also gives the duo real-life feedback as they’re walking through potential problems through the story-telling process.
“Sharing our stories has helped us to get better at understanding and delivering our true value to our customers. Also, in the process we have learned to simplify our message and cut out unnecessary noise, so it’s clear how we can make their jobs/lives better.”
David Acosta, CSTi Instagram handle: @Survey.inc
Follow Surveying with Robert on YouTube and see how he indirectly sells Trimble equipment by focusing on solving his clients’ frustrations around how to use it! Robert focuses on educating the user, not selling the tech. This no-nonsense attitude has boosted his sales and doubled his own income! He demonstrates value right there by giving a ton of it in his videos.
“Our initiative is to do $20million in 2020 – and we are scaring it to death! My training videos indirectly sell equipment because my focus is on solving the client’s problems. My Facebook account is inundated with surveyors asking questions daily from all over the world. This is gold for any business!”
– Robert
Get Kids into Survey addresses the real problem in our industry – the lack of people choosing it as a career. GKiS is headed by my kick-ass partner in crime (and sister) Elly Ball. She promotes our easy-to-follow, fun and creative lesson plans and posters. They’re so good, even surveyors love them!
GKiS’s creative gang boosts value by providing a ton of attractive content that teachers, kids, parents and even surveyors can use to build brand awareness of the industry globally. It covers all kind of things, from ‘what is a surveyor?’ to ‘using a compass’ to looking for the Loch Ness monster! Elly’s use of Stories on Instagram gets folks hooked and excited to hear ‘what’s next!’
GKiS has brand ambassadors (surveyors and geospatialers) who want to ‘do their bit’ at a local level. GKiS supports surveyors who go into schools to talk about surveying as a career by providing valuable, content-rich information. Showcasing these guys on social media helps connect the ambassadors with the community at large.
Partnering up with brand ambassadors, partners and associations, and showcasing the creative content on social media, has proven the real value of their mission to get kids into survey.
Build in human-to-human interaction to boost your brand by introducing live events showcased via webinar, on your website, via your own podcast… heck, even LIVE instagram TV like my own GEO Jabber chat show, which I hold on Instagram every Tuesday at 11:30 EST. It showcases the life of a real surveyor, telling their stories about survey antics and their business and marketing do’s and don’ts. It even invites non-survey talent to inject hot topics like marketing and innovative technologies.
The key with any of this is consistency! To build any brand, you’ve got to keep the flow of content going – consistently and regularly. Look at Kent Groh’s Geoholics Podcast, aired each week. Kent explains the reasons behind this:
“23K downloads in a little over a year. We knew from the beginning that calling the podcast The Geoholics had the potential to be branding gold. Our tagline – which is also our goal each and every week – is to “add value and make friends”. We accomplish this by being diligent and taking the time to research and really get to know our guests to determine what they’re passionate about. From this information, we build a show script that follows a consistent order and we develop a list of strategic potential questions to work from. We’ve got “I AM A GEOHOLIC” merch, too, from t-shirts, wristbands and koozies to pint glasses. I even have it tattooed on my ankle! Being consistent has allowed us to establish awareness and build the trust that our listeners will be entertained and educated every week.”
– Kent Groh, geoholic
So let us know how you get on with your to-do list! Remember, I’m never too far away…
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Thanks for reading this far. Thanks for your kindness and generosity.
Stay safe. Stay sane. Wear a mask.
I’ll be back on 3rd December
Elaine
PS – If you haven’t signed up to my *FREE* WORKSHOP: 10 SIMPLE STEPS TO MORE GEOSPATIAL SALES LEADS! check it out here! It’s exclusive to geospatialers. We go LIVE on 30th November and it’s FREE because we’re piloting a major new global geospatial training initiative. So here’s your chance to try it out! You get access to over 50 expert classes for a whole year.
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TOOLS
Marketing tools I used this week:
5th November 2020
Sheep Land (can you spot the sheep behind my garden office?)
Dear Friend,
Here’s my second monthly Geospatial Marketer Newsletter, a monthly newsletter from me, Elaine Ball, on all the stuff that matters in geospatial marketing.
A warm welcome to Peta, Kelly, Natassja, Jamie and Amalia! I hope you find this insightful and useful. I’d love to hear from you, so drop me a text or WhatsApp at any time on +44 7825 517 850.
If this email was forwarded to you but you’d like your own in future, just sign up here and I’ll do the rest.
If you didn’t read my first edition, then click here for a catch up! It will give you some context to my vision for geospatial marketing, and why I might be worth listening to (in other words, my background in this field).
In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity!
– Albert Einstein
Can you spot which one of these is my dad, and which is Albert Einstein? Apart from the fact that one picture’s in black and white, the only clue may be that I’m Facetiming one of them! (Do you think my dad will kill me for putting his picture here like this?)
My dad always made the most of opportunities, and I like to think it’s in my blood. Despite how hard something may be, we have to make changes, think creatively around the obstacles, and challenge the status quo.
In March, I was zooming down the slopes of the French Alps without a care in the world. The sun was shining and I was managing to keep up with my speed-demon of a husband. Suddenly, we noticed that the slopes were eerily quiet, with not a soul in sight.
Had they evacuated because of an avalanche risk? Nope: they’d shut down the country. And so the Coronavirus pandemic began for me.
Initially, my clients had the heebie-jeebies. I was told to ‘hold tight” (or in my Yorkshire vernacular, “Hold onto your knickers!”).
As it turned out, despite all the turmoil, my clients didn’t seem to suffer too much. My company even picked up 3 new customers during lockdown! As Covid continues to bounce around the world, I’m hearing the same thing, from survey-company owners to equipment manufacturers: “The show must go on!”
This got me thinking about my client base, and of course the wider geospatial community. I know major construction projects that have started must continue according to some of my major construction clients and friends, but what about all the smaller jobs? And isn’t marketing the first to go in any company that’s scaling back, because leaders often don’t understand its value?
So what is it about the leaders of the companies I’ve been talking to… are my type of followers just forward-thinkers? Problem solvers? Get-up-and-goers? Maybe.
I guess they may all have one thing in common: they’re opportunists!
CSTi, based in New Mexico, is a survey team of 8 people with two very forward-thinking surveyors at the helm, John and David. What sets these guys apart is their vision of success and the way they seize opportunity! (More of them later)
Is your boss right behind you?
Today I spoke with two marketers. Both are surveyors; one’s from a survey company, one’s from a reseller of geospatial equipment. They’ve ended up doing the marketing for their business. Both are very enthusiastic and keen to improve their marketing. They want to show their sales team what they can do, but more importantly they want to be seen as experts and build their reputations.
But both have the same problem. Management isn’t interested: they see marketing as a giant money-pit. Either that, or the department that does the colouring-in. In this time of COVID-19, management are thinking especially carefully about where they spend their money.
Maybe now’s just the right time to change their minds.
Here’s an example
Let’s strip this back a little and dive into the weeds.
At CSTi, things are moving along nicely. Their brand is growing, even more so during the current conditions. Their vision is: “To be the premier geospatial services and facilities company in the Southwestern USA”.
I believe the secret behind their marketing success is that they take the same approach to marketing as they do to their survey work. “What IS that approach?” I hear you say. Well, here are 5 key pointers:
There’s no reason why you can’t do this, even during a pandemic!
In “the middle of difficulty”, CSTi made the decision to plow on. They invested $$$ in their marketing, their equipment and their focus. And it’s paying off.
Here are my tips for making the most of your own opportunities – whatever they may be – in these times:
Ensure your plan is consistent. If you plan to post 4 times a week, then make sure it IS 4 times a week… believe me, it will pay off. CSTi is proof of this approach working well. Word of mouth has increased among their stakeholders and you can see all the building blocks beginning to form. And as that happens, people will trust your methodology.
Find out more or sign up today for my FREE workshop on Monday 30th November 2020.
This will give you an amazing new skill to implement immediately in your geospatial business, whether you’re an equipment reseller or a survey company.
Remember – in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity! See you on 19 November for my next newsletter.
Yours always,
Elaine
PS: In December I’ll be launching THE GEOSPATIAL MARKETING ACADEMY, a marketing platform for survey company owners, marketers of survey firms, directors, managers and marketers of geospatial equipment manufacturers and dealers. Each lesson encompases “how-to” methodology; you’ll learn at your own pace, and you’ll build the confidence to implement your learning. Each lesson comes with Industry examples. Fancy a sneak peek?
Dear Friend,
Welcome to the first ever Geospatial Marketer Newsletter, a monthly newsletter from me, Elaine Ball, on all the stuff that matters – geospatial marketing, life and horses! (OK… Maybe not so much on horses.)
A big thank you to my first 42 subscribers! A big hug from me!
And if this email was forwarded to you but you’d like your own in future, just sign up here and I’ll do the rest.
What to Expect
Over the course of the next few months, I’m going to share with you the basics to marketing management. That’s everything from what content marketing is to how to improve your sales funnel! Even how to build a business case for marketing in your geospatial business!
The whole objective is to build your business and attract your best clients. As we go on this journey together, I’ll share with you the best marketing I can possibly deliver.
Your feedback on this will also be extremely important, so please feel free to drop me a WhatsApp at any time on +44 7825 517850. This is my personal number and I give it to you with open arms.
I have something to prove to you
To begin with, I want to give you some background about me. Why? Because (quite rightly) you’ll never believe I can help you build your business unless I first prove to you why I can.
Who am I to tell you what you should do? What the hell do I know about geospatial surveying? Am I just a marketing girlie who trips around in high heels and has no clue about what all those machines actually do?
Here’s how I started out
I didn’t always want to be in the world of surveying. As some of you will know, I’m a keen horsewoman. So the first step on my career path was backing young racehorses in Texas, USA! I was the fat girl who could tire them out…
But my dad (Steve Ball) was tough. He told me there was no money in horses – and he was right, unless you’re a vet or racehorse owner who wins the Kentucky Derby!
My dad’s my mentor and my best friend, so I trusted and believed him.
So I started my career working for my father. He’s a hydrographer and a mine surveyor – and he’s done some sh*t!
Here’s a picture of my 21-year-old dad surveying the Calabar River on the Nigeria/Cameroon border for West African Surveys in 1970.
The river banks were just mangrove swamp. He had to drive long piles into the river bank to create a stable platform and reference point.
Wild T2 theodolite and microwave tellurometers (distance measurements) were the tools of the day!
He says it feels like only yesterday (ha ha).
So I went to work in the ‘family business’ and began my career manufacturing laser-range finders. Not just any rangefinder, but tools for harsh environments that would make life ‘easy’.
You will know some of our amazing tools, including Dynascan (now known as the Trimble MX2) and LaserAce, which was integrated into the Trimble Geo7x series. We even sold laser altimites (as landing redundancy units) to General Atomics, who integrated them into the Predator drone – so we were an interesting and diverse business.
We had this product called Quarryman (macho name, huh?). It looks like a theodolite, but it was an automatic laser scanner for measuring rock-face geometry in quarries. It was sold to blast engineers who needed to know the rock face measurements so they could use the right amount of explosive to blast it! The Quarryman retailed at £18k.
A large Survey Manufacturer sniffed around us in the early 2000s, as they couldn’t understand how we had built such a monopoly on the global quarry market. They just couldn’t shift their £35k+ fancy-damn theodolites against us. I remember they took a Quarryman to Switzerland, stripped it, and were like, “But it’s so simple!”
Stepping up, and loving it
So my career began, and in 2004 I became marketing director at MDL. My life was heaven! I was communicating with mine engineers, hydrographers, surveyors, engineers and foresters all over the globe. Back in the day, it was all about faxes, direct mail, working on press articles and attending numerous exhibitions. Using all the old-school marketing collateral, which I loved!
Dad booted me out of my comfort zone
In 2008, we hit £10 million in sales, with a healthy profit margin. One day, I made the mistake of saying in a board meeting: “I love my job!”
Turns out, that was entirely the wrong thing to say (who knew?!) My dad propelled me out of my comfort zone into the world of the boss. I even had to sit in his office, at his table.
What was I to do with all these engineers and production folks? How could I manage them? I had no experience! I was quite comfortable dealing with marketing, sales and surveyors.
And just when this happened, the global financial crisis hit. Great.
Who the hell did I think I was??
I’m very self-aware. I was conscious that I’d become the female boss (a lonely place). I was also the boss’s daughter, and I was 27 years old. It didn’t go down well with a couple of the board members (60+ male stale pale), but actually they were supportive enough to guide me in the right direction.
My heart still lies in working with people, and I was constantly going to training courses, executive camps and the Institute of Directors in Pall Mall, London. I was not going to sink! I refused to.
Investment time!
During the recession, Dad still wanted to raise money in order so we could grow. So we reached out to our shareholders (who had about 20% of the business; a business expansion fund set up by Maggie Thatcher, Scottish thing, because MDL was born in Aberdeen, Scotland). We asked to raise £1 million to help buffer the cash flow situation and get us over the next hurdle.
We had offers back from over 30 of our shareholders, even a famous hotel chain owner who will remain nameless (cool, huh?). One gentleman called John Deer (not the tractor guy) invited us to Bristol to a fancy hotel to have a chit-chat about our plans. As we sat in the Calcot Manor, sipping gin and tonics, in walked the entire board of directors from Renishaw plc, a big British engineering company. GULP!
John’s response while I was sipping my G&T was “I don’t want to give you some petty cash,” he said, “We want to buy you.” And so the acquisition game began.
Renishaw have skills in measurement, motion control, healthcare, spectroscopy and manufacturing. John Deer was their joint chairman, and had been an MDL shareholder since 1984. (But on the plus side, he was a horse owner! So we really hit it off.) Renishaw became the full owners of MDL in January 2013.
The lone search for amazingness
During my time at MDL as the boss woman, I was always on the lookout for ‘amazingness’, and hiring consultants left, right and center. My problem was that I could never find anyone who understood my technical world of geospatial. I could find technical writers, for example, but not hard-core marketers who were good with both people and technology!
So Elaine Ball Technical Marketing was born in May 2013. My first client was WipWare, a real-time fragmentation analysis company based in North Bay, Ontario… bear land! These guys measure the sizes of rocks on conveyor belts (sexy, or what?). Then, in the September, I got chatting to Pete Large, VP of Trimble and long-time friend (we literally grew up in similar roles, his much larger than mine). He hired me to help with his dealer network around the globe. So I basically sat on plane after plane after plane for the next two years, running marketing workshops with dealers and meeting some awesome folks along the way.
By 2014 I was heading to Social Media Marketing World in San Diego, Content Marketing World in Cleveland (where POB Magazine resides), and doing the Advanced Industrial Marketing Strategy Programme at INSEAD in France.
It was all to better my skills and cross-check real life with academia.
Today my training doesn’t stop! When you stop learning, you go stale.
And that’s why I also think I can pass on what I know and what I’m learning.
What’s Next?
Over the next 12 months I’m going to dive into essential marketing subjects and share with you valuable information that will excite you, give you the foundations to build a strong marketing base in your geospatial firm, and set you up for life!
Thanks for reading. Thanks for your kindness and generosity.
Stay safe – stay sane – above all, wear a mask.
I’ll be back on 5 November.
Yours,
Elaine
PS If you want to discuss Marketing at any time, join our PRIVATE Geospatial Marketing Academy Group on Instagram here.
Hello Surveyors and Geospatialers. Thank you for clicking through from Instagram – I’m pleased you are here! If you found us via the website; “well hello there, I’m pleased you found me!”
Welcome to the Onboarding Review doc Part 1 – add this to your bookmarks for safe keeping! Or Print this doc. Or copy and paste this page! Got questions? I won’t bite, Direct Message (DM) me any time – click here to connect?
An onboarding document helps you, your team, your suppliers and new employees become familiar with your organisation. It is the process for understanding what you do, why you exist and what you need to think about moving forwards. Helping to develop a strong purpose and strategy. And of course, to implement it! For me, it is imperative to get right! If you are clear from the outset, your planning should be easier to implement! Why? Because you can see clearly what you do and why you do it.
This is part one of the onboarding doc.
So let’s begin:
Why should your prospects do business with you over your competitor? It also explains CLEARLY the benefits of your services/ products in simple easy to understand lingo.
Try it……
EXAMPLE: We have a strong office team which means we are free to focus on the customer. We get new jobs via recommendation but we need to grow profitably.
It’s important we know the competition. Including their strengths and weaknesses in order to better position ourselves. Competitors include but are not limited to:
*******
*******
Strengths – what are you good at? This could be your people? Your products? Your culture? Your philosophy
Weaknesses – What are your weaknesses? What isn’t very good about you? Your product or service? This also could be your people, service, culture…
Opportunities – What opportunities are there in the market that you could take advantage of? Or What weaknesses do your competition have that you could take advantage of?
Threats – What threats are there in the market? From the competition? That you can’t control?
Who is your target audience? Within your market, you will have groups of common buyers with common needs/ problems. Spend some time reviewing these potential client audiences.
So you have identified your groups of potential clients with different needs? Wants? Now to understand who are your main buyers. This is known as BUYER PERSONAS. By understanding the buyer, you can tailor your marketing to the specific audience you are trying to attract? This is the foundation for getting your content and messages right! To attract your right audience.
Why creating Buyer Personas is so important in branding – FORBES
Example of a Survey Owner:
Buyer persona 1: Survey Owner
Age: Mid to late 40’s-50’s
Gender: Male (unfortunately it’s male)
Job: Business owner, Director or Managing Director, owner of survey firm
Description: Our buyer is someone who runs or owns their own survey business, they are not necessarily involved with the day to day execution of work. Our buyer is more concerned about sales, longer term business strategy and ultimately the companies profit and loss. They don’t want hassle, stress or added workload but at the same time they are cautious of relying on others to do quality work. Mid sized survey firm (15-25 people)
Goals
Common Objectives
Challenges & Pain Points
Experience he wants
Value Proposition: Increase in process productivity contributes dramatically to business opportunities and bottom line.
Messages
Got questions? Drop me a DM here elaine AT elaineball.co.uk or Instagram DM
Each month I will be showcasing a specific topic. July 2020 is all about Brand Awareness and how a Surveyor or Geospatial Tech Firm can grow their brand. To accompany these posts, I will share with you specific documents which I use with my clients. These are FREE! Enjoy!
Elaine
Tracking how effective your digital marketing efforts are for your geospatial business really boils down to being able track the performance metrics across all of your digital channels. When the data is integrated and flowing from each of your channels, it gives you necessary information to look for trends, see how people are interacting with your website and content, and arguably most importantly what ultimately ends up happening to the user.
When you’re looking at a website reporting dashboard, such as Google Analytics, it’s easy to be overwhelmed with the sheer amount of data and items reported. Fret not though, here’s a list of the most important things to look at and what they mean for your geospatial marketing.
‘Sessions’ refers to a person on your website and all of their activity under the duration of a singular visit. A single user can have multiple sessions if they find themselves on your website more than once – even that day. Since this is a very broad stat, it is used as the starting off point for narrowing down the information to give the rest of your data perspective. If you have only 3 contact form leads of someone looking for a surveyor in their area, it makes a big difference if those 3 leads were generated from 5 sessions (an amazing 60% conversion rate) versus 500 sessions (a 0.6% conversion rate).
‘Page Views’ refers to how many times a page on your website was viewed. *Important – this is where having easy to understand page names for each of your services (or geospatial product equipment names for ecommerce) is important. This stat gives you a look at what pages on your website are getting the most views.
‘Referrals’ is the main term telling you where your traffic is coming from externally. This could be an outside website that links to your site, your Google My Business listing, your social channels, or a campaign that you’re running. If you can get a high ranking, survey industry website like Point of Beginning, xyHT, or GeoConnexion to link to your website, this will help fuel organic traffic to your site (a massive SEO boost!).
‘Campaigns’ is a metric that you give special content or channels that you want to track the stats filtered out separately by itself. You can assign campaign names to QR codes, email campaigns, social ads, digital ad links, email signature links, etc.
Your ‘Bounce Rate’ is a percentage of sessions that DID NOT view two or more pages on your website. This number is like a golf score, the lower the better. If you have a 65% bounce rate for a given day, it means that 65% of people left your site only viewing the page they initially visited and 35% of people went on to view one or more additional pages after the page they entered.
The ‘Average Page per Session’ gives you an average of how many pages per session each visitor viewed and is directly correlated to your bounce rate, page views, and session numbers.
The ‘Session Duration’ gives you the amount of time in minutes and seconds that the session you’re investigating remained on your website.
When looking into your stats, looking into where geographically your visitors are located is important to know whether or not you’re reaching your intended targeted audience (especially if you service a particular territory or are wanting to focus on a geo-targeted region). This can be drilled down from Country, to Region, and all the way down to the City.
The ‘Devices’ stat is helpful to know how most people are viewing your site. If most of your traffic is coming in via social media, then a good percentage of visitors will likely be visiting on their mobile device. After seeing this, you know that your site and customer journey needs to be optimized to work well on a mobile interface.
Other demographic data, such as age and gender, can be helpful when you’re studying trends on your visitors. From this you’ll to be able to tailor content around your referral paths (such as a social media post or ad linking to the desired content on your website) to appeal to either your already dedicated visitors, or to draw in a new crowd.
For each page, date range, campaign, or other filtered metric, these core data points are the main reported information that will be the most helpful when understanding these questions. How people are getting to your website? What they’re doing on your website? Where are users dropping off? From answering these questions you’ll know where you can improve the customer journey to equal results.
Once you’re familiar with the basics of understanding your website data, you can dive into the more advanced world of custom ‘Event’ tags. This is where you flag particular actions around your site as key data points you want noted and tracked. Whether it’s someone clicking a specific button, filling out and submitting a form, adding an e-commerce product to their cart, or checking out – you can manually configure events to give you an even more detailed look to see how a user is moving through your planned customer journey. From this you’ll be able to measure direct ‘Conversion Rates’ relative to the rest of the metrics.
Interested to know how your Survey Business can benefit from understanding your stats? Follow Elaine on Instagram TV, Link up with her on LinkedIn, or fill in the contact form here.
