Marketing Advice By Business Type

Marketing a Steel Fabricators and Erectors Business

Marketing a steel fabricators and erectors business isn't as simple as it seems. To get noticed, you'll need to invest time, energy, and resources in an innovative marketing plan.

Marketing is the bridge between an organization and its customer base. Build your bridge poorly and you'll quickly find your steel fabricators and erectors business cut off from the marketplace.

It's not hard to convince most business owners that marketing plays a vital role in strategic planning. But in a zero-sum economy, there are winners and losers -- and here are some of the things that will help keep your steel fabricators and erectors business at the top of the heap.

Marketing Collateral

Brochures, business cards, folders, direct mail pieces, and other types of promotional materials are called marketing collateral. For steel fabricators and erectors businesses, it's important to make sure every piece of marketing collateral generate reinforces your brand and value proposition. Some pieces of collateral can be customized for recipients, while others serve a more generic purpose. Either way, you have a stake in making sure it gets into the right hands. For direct mail campaigns, premium mailing lists from established vendors can protect the value of your investment. If you're like most business owners, you invest substantial resources in the creation of quality collateral. If you don't invest similar resources in mailing lists and other distribution channels, your steel fabricators and erectors business's investment in collateral will be pointless.

Strategic Partnerships

Strategic partnerships offer steel fabricators and erectors businesses economies of scale, not to mention a larger promotional footprint. Joint ad campaigns, mailings and other marketing initiatives can be conducted on either a short- or long-term basis, as long as each partner is involved in the creation of messaging and has approval authority over the content that is released.

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 steel fabricators and erectors businesses continue to find ways to attract audiences to their brand through broadcast media. Best practices for the use of broadcast advertising require businesses to evaluate their target audience's listening or viewing patterns and then tailor their media purchases to specific media outlets rather than blanketing the geography with brand messaging. When marketing steel fabricators and erectors businesses, a combination of marketing venues is preferable to relying exclusively on local broadcast opportunities.

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