Thomas has been connecting industrial buyers and suppliers for more than 125 years. The Industrial Icons blog series celebrates the longtime customers who have grown their businesses with Thomas and the marketing and advertising solutions that have evolved along with them over the years.
For more than 50 years, Interior Maintenance Co., Inc. has provided cleaning and maintenance services to commercial and industrial customers throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. Vice President Matt Mongiello discusses how IMC’s decades-long partnership with Thomas has helped the family-run company adapt its marketing strategy and reach the right customers.
How and when did you get started advertising with Thomas?
I joined my family's company right out of college in 1991 after I graduated with a marketing background. At that time, we were primarily a janitorial maintenance company, but my father had decided to get into some other specialty cleaning services; one of them was air duct cleaning. It was a great opportunity for me to put a lot of the [practices] I learned in college to work. At the time, the Thomas directory was one of the things we were looking at, along with some other publications. We knew that we wanted to market to commercial and industrial facilities, and Thomas was what we needed at the time to put our name out there. The air duct cleaning we did was a niche service, and we wanted to differentiate ourselves from some of the other janitorial maintenance firms.
What has kept you with Thomas for so long?
My short answer is: It works. It's worked for us, especially with what we do. It could be kitchen hood cleaning in Washington, D.C., commercial air duct cleaning in Philadelphia, or combustible dust cleaning in New Jersey. Thomas helps us target an industry with a service and within a geographic area. If we get just one or two very large projects or contracts from a customer, it is worth the cost. The reason I've stayed with Thomas is because of all the changes that you have made to adapt to the internet and the digital age.
What’s a trend you’re seeing in your industry/sector right now? How are you adapting your marketing strategy to meet that trend?
One of the things that we're trying to focus on now is lead generation, specifically through educating the buyer about certain services, such as combustible dust cleaning. So eBooks, educational pieces, and conversion actions are really what we’re focused on now.
What gives you hope for the future of your industry?
Right now we're seeing a lot of cautiousness in the industry. I think everyone's waiting to see what happens politically. I'm certainly optimistic about the future. I think [the current political moment] is going to be good for business, for industry and manufacturing. I see a lot of that booming in the next year or two. Deregulation and increased focus on business are going to certainly help my business because as a lot of those manufacturing and industrial facilities grow, so do we.
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