According to a recent report by Associated Equipment Distributors (AED), more than 50 percent of dealers within the construction equipment industry have shifted their marketing budget from traditional to online, and thanks to solutions and services offered byExpert Heavy Equipment (EHE), buyers, sellers, suppliers, and dealers are able to capitalize on ever changing marketing trends.
“Like any industry, understanding the market trends and forecasts will be instrumental in positioning our company for continued growth and success,” said Milissa Wise, director of operations for Expert Heavy Equipment, which is owned and operated by a former female Marine. “We are extremely grateful for this market information from AED/ Equipment Data Associates (EDA) to ensure we become more effective and increase our ROI.”
According to the AED’s 2014 Marketing Report for the construction industry, over the past several years the Internet has fundamentally changed the way businesses find suppliers and consequently the way businesses market their products. Dealers are no exception.
To determine which marketing methods dealers find to be most effective, (AED) and (EDA) joined forces on a comprehensive survey investigating construction equipment dealer marketing practices.
Wise pointed out that the results confirm that many construction equipment dealers are transitioning away from traditional forms of marketing to digital and online marketing.
Email marketing is the only budget item that none of the dealers surveyed are going to cut this year, the report revealed.
“More than half of all dealers surveyed reported that measuring return on investment for marketing was a challenge. A lack of time to execute programs and generating qualified sales leads were a challenge for approximately four in 10 dealers surveyed.”
A lack of expertise in marketing and lack of budget was a challenge for about 3 in 10 dealers.
The dealers surveyed prefer Facebook where the global preference outside of the industry is Twitter. For half of all dealer respondents, measuring ROI is the biggest challenge.
Lacking time, marketing expertise and sometimes data, the quandary continues about where to spend marketing dollars.
Nowhere is this more evident than in Yellow Pages/Directory Advertising usage.
In fact, 72 percent of the 134 dealers surveyed still use it, yet more than half of those who do, find it “ineffective.” No one surveyed found it “very effective.” It’s an indication of just how difficult it can be for dealers to let go of traditional marketing methods.
Wise noted that while there is no substitute for the due diligence of tracking where leads come from, the AED/EDA Marketing Study provides a good starting point for dealers to evaluate their current marketing efforts and learn from their peers.
When it comes to the services offered by EHE, Wise said, “We will ensure that we will have the lowest prices on high demand equipment. Our goal is to become a leading provider for used heavy construction equipment internationally. We will have the equipment that is in demand listed for wholesale pricing. And if we don’t have it, we will do all the hard work in finding it and negotiating the lowest pricing.”
For more information, please visit: http://www.experthe.com.
