Prue Lotharius, the Vice President of Marketing for Rolling Suds, will be presenting at AMA Madison’s Craft Marketing event at the Thirsty Goat on November 28th, 2023. This month, we will explore how marketers can positively impact the bottom line by reaching their target markets with effective marketing messages.
Why attend this month’s Craft Marketing?
Targeted messaging can go a long way in increasing sales and helping your business grow. But finding the right target markets for you and determining how to reach them can be tricky. Register now to get Prue’s expert advice on how to accomplish it all, plus you’ll get to enjoy a complimentary beverage of your choice.
What to expect: Q&A with Prue
1. AMA: Tell us a little about yourself and what Rolling Suds does.
I grew up in Madison, WI, left for a few years to get my MBA at Syracuse University in NY and then to work in Connecticut for a couple Fortune 200 insurance companies in Corporate Marketing. I have a very textbook and classic marketing foundation, which was a great beginning. Upon moving back to Wisconsin after having two little girls, I started with a large plumbing wholesale organization where I built their marketing strategy and department from scratch. I began getting creative and stepping outside the lines and proving that marketing could do more than we were tasked with. It was a lot of fun and we made a lot of money. COVID hit, and I decided to try something completely new – I bought a franchised bakery ultimately taking on all aspects of owning and growing a business, not just marketing, which gave me even better insight into how important and effective marketing is.
Fast forward to today, I am Vice President of Marketing for Rolling Suds, a recently franchised residential and commercial power washing company. We’ve sold 54 territories across 13 states in 8 months. Our goal is to make power washing one less thing to worry about, and we do this through building relationships. Our mission statement is “This is a Relationship” and it’s truly the reason we are so successful, we practice this in everything we do and at every level.
2. AMA: As your presentation will address, choosing the right channels to reach your target markets is vital. Can you give us a few examples of the emerging or underutilized marketing channels that marketers should consider in their marketing strategies?
- An important marketing channel that is often thought of as dying or ineffective is Print. I feel strongly about working Print into any multi-touch campaign as long as it is tailored to the specific audience, offers a clear takeaway and is very unique. Direct mail should be engaging and memorable.
- Texting is an excellent channel to use to stay in front of customers and prospects and still be purposeful.
- Geo-targeting is extremely effective. This is one of the ways digital marketing has evolved; it essentially targets individuals in a specific location with a very targeted message making the spend very worth it.
3. AMA: What are some key performance indicators (KPIs) or metrics that businesses should track to assess the impact of their B2B marketing campaigns?
SALES! Tie your marketing efforts directly to leads and sales. Marketing can prove itself as a profit maker, no longer a cost-center.
4. AMA: Creating compelling, persuasive marketing messages that’ll captivate your precise audience can be tough. Are there any common missteps marketers take when crafting their messaging that we should steer clear of?
- Unless significant market research is conducted and you’re able to watch it on video, many marketers don’t truly understand the product/service they are marketing – how it came to be, what customers are wanting from it, the pain points, etc. This requires a strong relationship with many areas of the company – product development, sales, etc. Marketers should sit with salespeople on their sales calls or co-travel with them for a day and watch and listen to the pain points the product/service is solving, what words are resonating, at what point do customers say Yes to buying. Too often we try to craft messages without having the entire picture and that ends up making our messages pretty ineffective.
- I think too many marketers try to cover too much and reach too broad of an audience and end up with a watered-down message that is very generic and boring. I’ll talk about some techniques to try in my presentation, such as establishing a goal, or point you want to get across, write it down, put it in front of you and make sure all the messaging that comes to mind ties back clearly and succinctly to that point.
5. AMA: Can you give us a preview of the big takeaway people can expect if they attend the event?
- The difference between B2C and B2B marketing and how to identify the right markets, channels and messaging for your product/service.
- How B2C marketing can often be used as the foundation for B2B marketing – often times, a product or service meant for a single consumer can solve the needs of an entire organization and with creative marketing efforts Marketing can take some ownership in the resulting sales.
- Marketing does not need to be a cost-center, it can be a profit maker. Always tie your efforts to leads and sales.
See You at the Thirsty Goat for November’s Craft Marketing
Craft Marketing invites you to its next live in-person event at the Thirsty Goat in Fitchburg at 4:00 PM on November 28th, “Increasing Sales with Targeted B2B Marketing Efforts” presented by Prue Lotharius. You’ll get to network with your peers and enjoy a delicious beverage of your choice.
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About the Author
Kara Martin, Content Writer at Naviant, specializes in written B2B content, from case studies to blogs and beyond. She transforms complex technical information into compelling, data-driven content that helps organizations turn their digital transformation goals into a reality.