Value-Added Marketing Solutions

Digital Marketing and Advertising Strategies

OUTdrive Episode 32 with Patti DeWalt

In this episode of OUTdrive, Cliff visits with Patti DeWalt, Director of Marketing at Butler Manufacturing. Patti leverages her extensive experience to develop and guide the brand’s marketing strategy to cultivate lasting partnerships with Butler builders, retain current customers and grow market share.

Read more about their thoughts on providing value-added marketing solutions for customers, utilizing emerging digital technologies and understanding client needs at every level. They also discuss the importance of sticking to the basics, the peacefulness of rural America and share some great life lessons.

Delivering Business Solutions that Add Value

Butler Manufacturing partners with builders and construction companies around the world to deliver premium quality building solutions. As part of these partnerships, builders are provided with value-added marketing solutions that are mutually beneficial for their companies and Butler. These marketing solutions have become a significant benefit for Butler builders.

She shares some of the specific programs they provide for builders. “We do what’s called an active market report, where we have a market analyst that will look at trending markets and construction by looking at economic information. He also looks at our quote log so we can see what we’re quoting and what’s coming ahead ,” she says. “Then we supply these reports to builders and pull specific businesses in their market and give them those names in that trending market.”

In addition to providing insight into prospective projects, Butler provides individual contact information and even offers a telemarketing program for builders where they will reach out to prospects for the builder. Patti expresses that these efforts result in strong relationships with partnering builders and deliver strong conversion rates. In addition to specific programs such as the active market report, Butler also offers builders turnkey marketing solutions, focusing mainly on digital strategies.

Patti understands that remaining educated and up-to-date with trending technologies and strategies is difficult for marketing professionals, much less construction professionals and business owners. With this challenge in mind, Butler provides solutions for builders so they can focus on getting the job done right while enjoying the return on investment of digital marketing.

“A lot of builders will admit that maybe they’re not doing as much as they should. Digital marketing can be too much for them, so we provide all of these programs to use and will reimburse half of the cost,” she says. “We provide a turnkey social media program where we have a partner that will develop a monthly social media calendar for them, do all of their postings, paid LinkedIn advertising and Google advertising.”

Thanks to Patti and her team, builders can reap the benefits of a strategic marketing plan while focusing on other aspects of their business. By understanding and delivering upon customer needs, Butler is growing the businesses of others as well as their own market share.

Utilizing Digital Marketing Technologies

Part of providing value-added solutions for customers is remaining up-to-date on trends and ensuring that you are leading with the most effective strategies and tactics in mind. When asked by Cliff what marketing strategies her team uses the most, Patti explains that Butler prioritizes digital marketing for all efforts.

“Pretty much everything is digital and done over the internet. There are so many different ways to advertise on the internet. You can do campaigns on LinkedIn, Facebook or similar things,” she says. “You can do advertising like programmatic, retargeting or IP targeting. There are so many new and different ways to reach people and they’re all very targeted.”

Digital marketing strategies such as these are an effective way to reach audiences. In addition, they offer advanced insights and analytics that can be leveraged to formulate the best messages. Patti shares her thoughts on this and how technology has changed the way marketing is done.

“With all of this change, we can tell exactly who we’ve served our advertising to, so that makes a big difference in the data,” she says. “Marketing has gone from reaching people at an emotional level, and now it’s so targeted and specific that you can serve up a particular message to a particular individual through the internet.”

As the conversation continues, Patti shares that the advanced insights allow her team to better communicate the return on investment to company leadership. Digital marketing enables companies to measure and attribute leads and sales more easily than other advertising methods, meaning the expenditure is easier to justify.

Understanding and Meeting Customer Needs

Much of Patti’s success can be attributed to remaining dedicated to the basics and focusing on meeting customer needs. While value-added programs and turnkey marketing solutions are great examples, her dedication to the basics can be seen in every aspect of her life and career.

Patti uses the annual Butler Builder meeting as an example of understanding customer needs and delivering content to meet them. When she stepped into her previous role with Butler, she recognized that a shift needed to be made in the direction of the meeting. “We had this sales meeting every year that we called the sales meeting, and the name sounded dated. I thought ‘Let’s shift the paradigm and the attitude of everybody involved,” she says. “It’s a builder meeting and it’s about them. They pay money to go to this meeting and they want to network with other builders.”

Understanding why customers are attending the meetings allowed Butler to tailor content to best meet their needs. “All of our content really needs to be focused on them, not Butler. Butler can meet their needs, but the content has to be set up in such a way that it’s driven towards them,” she continues. “So we took this entirely different approach and the research afterwards showed that there was a huge shift in attitude and it worked.”

Focusing on the basics and keeping your customers at the core of everything you do is the foundation of an effective marketing and communications plan. Gain additional insight from Patti and Cliff on delivering value-added solutions for customers, utilizing digital marketing strategies and more guiding life and business principles in this episode of OUTdrive. Check it out!