Now before the hordes of experts and ‘social commentators’ pipe up, as a marketing manager, of course I realise, and in fact use frequently, LinkedIn as a powerful B2B marketing tool.
It has been a process of cajoling and convincing other departments to harness the full potential of LinkedIn and with all fully on board, the results are coming in. Posting can be seen as frothy, glib marketing- in certain companies for sure- however even in the very industrial, unglamorous world of temporary buildings, marketing and PR activities are not just key components of the business, but now actively encouraged for all to join in, from ops to CEO and management. We do have a company page, yet we also encourage individualistic posting as befitting of that employee and their connections. Of course we ultimately want this to grow our page, but as a company we want our image to be that of open, approachable. Not soullessly corporate, but expertly professional so the ‘tone’ of our managers’ posts varies greatly- and we have no problem with that.
National sales manager Janos Szabo, although dubious at first, has totally accepted and ran with LinkedIn, not just as a concept but as the powerful sales tool that it is. Not posting for the sake of it, and sharing gritty realistic-often not pretty- images of temporary buildings and his latest completed projects, Janos has experienced first-hand the golden glowing feeling of when a marketing activity is rewarded with hard currency- a bona fide, genuine, cold stone sober, holy grail of an order directly from a request on LinkedIn.
Two things; Janos is one of our top sellers so this is unsurprising, secondly we know that many businesses and industries on here are au fait with generating leads from connections; after all that is the whole point of LinkedIn non? I am saying that with LinkedIn becoming an integral component in the marketing mix for us, in a sector that is slowly using social more and more, this is not as common for us (yet). Yes we make leads and connections and meetings, but we provide temporary buildings with high value orders so typically not a product someone requests direct from seeing the project on LinkedIn. Not an agency, not a service, not a mobile phone, we provide fast additional on-site warehousing space.
Which is what Mick Bunnie from Midland Caliper, commercial vehicle brake caliper remanufacturers, wanted. Mick saw one of Janos’ posts about his latest project with Nenplas- a basic warehouse storage temporary unit. The timing was perfect as Mick saw this and recognised that was exactly what his business needed.
Midland Caliper’s site was full to the brim and needed to expand their business. Spotting the Nenplas project, Mick left a message under the post asking for Janos to get in contact and the rest is history.
The post was on 26th June, by 21st August, Mick and his team had a bespoke 9m wide x 20m long x 5m high temporary building on site-no disruption to his operations, no fuss and more cost effective than a traditional warehouse.
As Mick explains: “I saw the picture of the Nenplas warehouse and thought- that’s exactly what we need! And within weeks we had it! Very professional, and a great team of lads.”
Janos adds: “It just goes to show how opportunistic LinkedIn is, that Mick happened to see my post at the exact time and needing something similarly appropriate. I love LinkedIn and love telling my connections all my latest projects.”
And in a further twist, while discussing the events with myself, Janos then posts about Midland Caliper reaching out as a result from his Nenplas project- and has had another direct request from this.
No matter what industry, no matter what age, sharing is caring. And we do it the Aganto way; no mess, no fuss, but honest.
Ruth Oxley, Aganto marketing manager, roxley@aganto.co.uk
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