Safety Marketing Group / Safety Marketing Services. One word can make a big difference! The names are so similar that it has caused confusion on more than one occasion. It’s almost as if one of them should change their name (Teaser: More on that later!)

While these two organizations share a similar name, and a similar mission; SMS and SMG offer very different ways of helping safety suppliers and distributors succeed.

Safety Marketing Services (SMS) is an independent marketing agency dedicated to helping safety companies grow.

SMS services include:

• Inbound Marketing
• Email, Social, and Content Creation
• eCommerce Solutions for Independent Distributors
• Custom Printed Catalogs
• Video Production
• Website Design
• Custom Consultation

SMS employs a creative team of digital marketing managers, designers, content specialists, and print specialists to deliver the goods that help you grow your business, and they’ve been doing it consistently for SMG members for over 13 years.

It’s no surprise that SMG has partnered with SMS since their inception, and we are proud to continue that partnership today. Here are some ways that SMS continues to help us accomplish our goals to make this group the very best in the industry.

        1. Partnership Conference Support

Each year, our own Jennifer Hogeland goes to incredible lengths to plan and coordinate our annual partnership conference. This is a huge task that includes dozens of deliverables both online and in print. SMG would need to hire additional staff in order to design, manage, and deliver this list of deliverables ourselves. Thanks to SMS, we are able to bring it all together smoothly for a fraction of the cost it would require to do it in-house. Some of the things SMS does for the partnership conference include:

• Presentation design
• Banners and signage
• Online conference registration
• Badges, booklets and handouts
• JMA awards
• Video communications

       2. Website Design, Hosting, and Maintenance

Everyone needs a great website that is easy to use with up-to-date information. SMG is no exception. We rely on SMS to securely host our website, manage content, and they are always on call at a moment’s notice when things need to change. In fact, at the time this article is published, SMS is working behind the scenes to launch a brand new website design that we trust will be an amazing resource for our members. Stay tuned for the launch of this exciting new site.

       3. Content Publishing and Thought Leadership

The article you are reading right now was produced by SMS, and so were the previous articles, and the ones that are coming soon. That’s right! We have partnered with SMS to help us consistently publish these communication blog articles for you, our valued member. The content is derived from SMG leadership, but the execution is all SMS. Each month, we sit down with our SMS Marketing Manager and Content Specialist to discuss the coming month’s content strategy. We talk about the topics we want to write about, and SMS helps put our thoughts into writing. Once the blog is proofed, edited, and published, SMS schedules emails that get this content into your inbox. They also are posting our content on our social pages, which you can follow here, here, and here. This aspect of our partnership helps us communicate with you on a regular schedule. We believe it’s one the most important things we can do to add value to our members. We just started this initiative, and we’re excited about continually improving our content in 2017.

       4. Video Production

Have you seen our new monthly videos? Check them out here. These videos highlight the exciting progress we’re making as a group to support the safety industry and really put an exclamation mark on our commitment to create thought leadership. SMS has professional equipment and production processes that, frankly, make us look good. We understand that you are busy running your business, and sometimes a video is the best media to help you stay up-to-date with the best practices in our industry. It’s our goal to produce one video each month in 2017. If you haven’t done so already, subscribe to our YouTube channel so you don’t miss this great content.

       5. The SMG Marketplace (Coming Soon)

One of our strategic initiatives is to create a sales tool that will put the group’s premium supplier product content in the hands of our distributor sales members. SMS has been instrumental in helping us create the vision and scope of this exciting project. Much will be said about the SMG Marketplace Website and Quoting Tool in the coming months, but here’s a little sneak peek. This website will function much like the best retail distribution websites in the world. It will include premium, rich, product data, that distributor sales reps can use to prepare a world-class quote. These quotes will help distributors bridge the education gap at the end-user level and win more opportunities. We’re very excited about this initiative. Stay tuned for more updates on this project coming soon.

A Shared Mission and Vision

SMS has been a valuable partner for SMG, and we think they could be a powerful ally for you as well. Many of you already use SMS to help you host and maintain your websites, publish your printed catalogs, but in today’s changing economy that’s just the beginning. We believe and endorse the SMS message about the “New Buyer’s Journey”. If you are not prepared to communicate your value proposition in a digital world, we suggest you reach out to SMS and schedule a consultation today.