Marketing to mining: how to connect with your prospects and clients

Many mining suppliers and service providers struggle communicating to their prospects and customers.

There are a variety of reasons why this happens, but in my experience it’s usually because they don’t have the time, desire or skills to communicate.

Most mining suppliers and service providers come from a technical background and also tend to get bogged down in detail.

The result is that marketing collateral ends up being awkward, stilted and unnatural and, therefore, fails to connect with prospects and customers.

Many mining suppliers and service providers mistakenly start the process of communication at the WHAT then the WHY and finally the WHO.

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

The process of communication should start at the WHO then the WHY and finally the WHAT.

The first place to start when communicating to prospects and customers is to determine WHO you are communicating to.

Is it a mine manager? Plant operator? Project director? Project manager? Someone in procurement? OH&S? Someone at C-suite level i.e. chief executive officer, chief operations officer or chief financial officer? Workshop supervisor? Haul truck driver?

The answer to this question to makes a big difference because each of these job types has different motivations and needs.

Someone in procurement will usually be more interested in the price of your solutions than the end user.

A mine manager or mine operations manager will be more interested in productivity and efficiency gains of your solutions.

Someone in OH&S will be more interested in the safety benefits of your solutions than their colleagues.

A project manager or project director will be more interested in how your solutions will help them deliver their project on time and on budget.

Someone at C-suite level for a junior mining explorer will only be interested in what you have to offer if it can help them get their greenfields project off the ground.

Now lets look at the WHY.

Why do you want to communicate to your target prospect or customer?

Is it to promote a new product or service?

Is it to position yourself as a thought leader in your industry for the solutions that you provide?

Is it to demonstrate successful outcomes that you have delivered for clients?

Is it to get a face-to-face meeting?

Is it to reconnect with clients that have fallen off the radar?

Is it to reach people ready to buy now?

Without a clear objective marketing efforts and resources will be wasted.

Now if writing is a struggle for you try this simple exercise:

Take a blank sheet of paper to write a letter.

Now, let’s pretend that you’re writing to a close relation – let’s say your uncle Rob – a keen amateur fisherman.

So you start your letter with ‘Dear Rob’.

And why are you writing to Rob?

Is it to get his home brew recipe? Borrow some tools or thank him for that fishing trip he invited you and your family on over the Easter break.

Let’s say it’s to ask Rob for the best places to go fishing during the next school holidays, what tackle to use, what bait to use et cetera.

Now consider all the things that you won’t need to worry about such as what to say, how to say it, what words to use and the tone of your message or if Rob will like the letter.

You’ll be able to write the letter quickly and with ease because you won’t be fretting or worrying about these things because you connected with Rob and made him feel valued and important.

This is exactly how MARKETING works: establish WHO you’re talking to, have a SPECIFIC reason for talking to them with an understanding of what’s important to them.

Try this exercise for any marketing campaign and you’ll not only find that writer’s block just melts away; you’ll have greater success in reaching your mark and them connecting with you.