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Top Tips for Improving Industrial Auction Marketing

We work daily with auctioneers around the world selling used industrial assets. The products we help them to sell range from complete production facilities to single items of equipment.

We have gathered data from successful, and some not so successful campaigns and have compiled our top tips for improving marketing response rates for industrial auction marketing.

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Be clear on what you are selling

This may sound obvious, but we have reviewed creative that uses whole paragraphs to ‘summarise’ what is being sold. Your headline could make or break your campaign. If the recipient isn’t 100% clear on what you’re selling within seconds, they will likely ignore your message completely.

Give clear direction

When someone has read your email or brochure, what do you want them to do next? Be really clear on your calls to action – should they visit the website for a full list of equipment or sign up for the sale straightaway? If you ask someone to go to your website for more information, be sure they really will find more or your prospects could end up confused, or worse, disappointed.

Timing

When a customer reads your auction notice will they be completely clear on when the auction opens and closes? Will they understand if there is a staggered closing time? Do they understand which time zone the sale will occur in? If you are unsure of time zone add ‘local time’ and be sure to position the location alongside the times.

Language

Selling used assets is global, but don’t assume everyone speaks English (or your local language). If you’re targeting people in a specific world region take some time to find out the dominant business language and adjust your message accordingly.

An email written purely in English and sent to a French speaking recipient will most likely be overlooked.

It’s not always necessary to translate the complete piece – headlines and calls to action may be sufficient.

There are hundreds of translation services available and the small investment can pay big rewards.

Drop the jargon

If you’re an auctioneer, or work in the marketing department for an auctioneer words like ‘registration’ ‘clearance’ and ‘buyer’s premium’ and many more terms will be very familiar. Be careful not to assume your customers are as clear on the meanings as you are.

Sticking to plain English (or your chosen language) in your advert and providing simple FAQ’s on your website, can resolve a lot of queries. If you are selling into international markets, consider having these translated into several languages.

Test and measure

This is a must for all effective marketing. If you predominantly use email marketing, or any other form of web traffic generation it would be worth reading ‘Analyzing Results to Improve ROI’  

Making carefully considered changes to your creative can lead to far higher returns. Changes don’t have to be radical, the simple repositioning of key elements – such as your call to action – can have a dramatic impact on your results.

Need some help with your campaigns?

These are a just a few of the ways we help industrial auctioneers to improve their marketing effectiveness. To discuss your specific campaigns call me on +1 860-210-8088. Or email me dpeterson@worldinnovators.com.