Category: Industrial Marketing Strategies

  • How Industrial Marketing Strategy Must Change to Fill Pipelines Again

    How Industrial Marketing Strategy Must Change to Fill Pipelines Again

    Your industrial marketing strategy may have changed recently because of the coronavirus. I don’t think manufacturers have much of a choice because the pandemic has negatively impacted their sales pipelines. There is no getting around that fact.

    Some of these changes may be permanent, while others have become necessities at least for the foreseeable future. Either way, your industrial marketing strategies need to adapt to these changes as the economy begins to reopen.

    All of my manufacturing clients have taken the appropriate steps at their companies in accordance with CDC and local guidelines to make their workplaces safer for their employees, customers, and suppliers. Still, there are some noticeable changes, especially for industrial marketers.

    Impact of COVID-19 on industrial marketers

    Over the past few months, IEEE GlobalSpec has been tracking how industrial marketers have been impacted by the coronavirus. They shared some of their findings with me.

    Hours worked by industrial marketers

     

    Comfort level of industrial marketers

    Adjusting industrial marketing strategy and plans

    What can you do as a manufacturing or industrial marketer to make sure your sales pipeline has the right kind and the quantity of leads for the sales team to work with?

    Let’s look at a marketing strategy that have been the mainstay for manufacturers when it comes to filling pipelines with sales-qualified leads. I’m talking about in-person events like tradeshows.

    As recently as November 2019,  manufacturing marketers reported the following (Source: Manufacturing Content Marketing 2020)

    • 24% said that in-person events was their best source for securing leads
    • 33% reported they were the best way to convert leads

    Now see how things have changed over the past few months. These new stats from the IEE GlobalSpec survey.

    Industrial marketing strategy - tradeshows

    To mitigate some of this drop-off in attendance, virtual events and webinars have become very popular lately. Yet, I’ve heard most people say, “It isn’t the same.”

    The key takeaway here is that industrial marketers need to adjust their marketing strategies. It can’t be business (marketing) as usual. I’ve published two posts recently that address this issue.

    1. Is Your Industrial Website Ready for Business After the Coronavirus Pandemic?
    2. Adapting Your Industrial Content Marketing Strategy for COVID-19

    Redistributing marketing budgets for the rest of 2020

    It does feel good when some of my recommendations from those two articles are validated by research findings. This chart is also from the same IEEE GlobalSpec survey.

    Note the two key stats from the chart below which is also from the same IEEE GlobalSpec survey. They are:

    1. 27% have shifted funds to content creation
    2. 36% of the respondents were most confident about Industrial Content Marketing being their most successful channel

    Budget redistribution for industrial marketing strategy

    While I’ve seen some clients put a temporary hold on marketing and a few did cut their budgets, most have redistributed the same budget with more of the money going to digital marketing efforts.

    These research findings should help you modify your own industrial marketing strategy for the second half of 2020.

    Stay safe and healthy!

  • Why Industrial Marketing Plans and Strategy Must Go Together

    Why Industrial Marketing Plans and Strategy Must Go Together

    I’ve had many conversations about creating industrial marketing plans that start something like this, “Can you create an industrial marketing plan for us?”

    My answer: “Of course I can.”

    However, I find there is a disconnect in many of these conversations with manufacturers and engineering companies. Their assumption is that I should be able to tell them exactly what they should do to generate more leads and increase sales because I must know some standard or secret formula. Needless to say, they also expect it to be quick and cheap.

    Industrial marketing plans need strategy first

    Plans and strategy are distinctly different but interconnected. You can’t have one without the other. Here’s a famous quote that address this point.

    “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” —Sun Tzu.

    Quotes aside, here is some hardcore data to back that up.

    “41% of manufacturing marketers report their organization has a documented content marketing strategy, up from 21% last year.” (Source: Manufacturing Content Marketing 2020).

    Industrial marketing plans & strategy

    Industrial marketing planning vs strategy

    Let’s get the distinction(s) out of the way first. I’ll try to summarize them in a short sentence for each one.

    Strategy is about answering the Who and the Why questions.

    Planning is about answering the What and the How questions.

    In strategy, you want to ask questions that lead to you understanding who you will be marketing to, their challenges that you can address and your expectations of why your target audience will respond to your content and messaging.

    In a marketing plan, you want to focus on what steps (tactics) you want to take to achieve your goals, what it will cost (budget) to implement the plan, how you will execute the tasks (in-house vs. outsource) and what you will track (KPIs) to measure success.

    It should be clear by now that your strategy really should shape your plan. You can’t just jump into tactics without a strategy in place. You can choose to call it a strategic plan and make it matter of semantics if you like.

    How much does it cost to create industrial marketing plans?

    Of course, you want to know the cost, after all we live in the real world (May be drastically changed after the pandemic). I’m not trying to be evasive here, but it really is a wide range depending on what your needs are and whether you need an overarching industrial marketing plan or a plan for a specific marketing strategy (a website redesign plan or an industrial content marketing plan).

    I have created simple industrial marketing plans for $3,500 and at the other end of the range, as much as $15,000.

    Comprehensive industrial marketing plans could include:

    • Assessing current programs
    • Website, SEO, and content audit
    • Surveys and interviewing customers
    • Developing buyer personas
    • Creating a vetted and documented strategy
    • Identifying audience challenges and issues
    • Developing a plan of action with target dates
    • Building an editorial calendar
    • Identifying in-house resources, team members and SMEs
    • Assigning tasks and timelines
    • Evaluating and implementing marketing technology
    • Identifying KPIs and measurement tools

    On the other hand, you may feel confident about creating your own industrial marketing plan. You just want an outside expert as a trusted partner to provide validation, expertise, and coach you through some of the tough spots. A fixed term and fixed price consulting engagement may work very well for you in that case.

    My suggestion is to start with an initial conversation with your team or outside consultant to determine a broad list of needs and expectations. That is good starting point, especially if you are going to need outside help.

    I offer a free 30-minute consultation where I ask you a series of questions to determine your needs, targets, challenges, and expectations. I can probably give you a rough estimate of how much it would cost for me to create your industrial marketing plan.

  • Industrial Website Redesign and Content Marketing Strategy are Connected

    Industrial Website Redesign and Content Marketing Strategy are Connected

    An industrial website redesign is a major undertaking. It is not something that you should do on a whim or expect to launch a new site in a few weeks. According to a survey done by IEEE GlobalSpec, 60% of industrial companies will increase spending on their company website and 52% on content creation and distribution.

    There are pitfalls of diving straight into the design phase before creating a documented content marketing strategy. It must be fully vetted by all stakeholders and the document reviewed regularly.

    Industrial website redesign follows content marketing strategy

    You probably already know about the importance of having a documented strategy. Let me share two key findings from the research study published by the Content Marketing Institute if you are still not convinced.

    1. A documented content marketing strategy is often a key indicator of content marketing success
    2. Less than 1 in 4 (21%) of manufacturing content marketers have a documented strategy

    The above two points should remove any doubts about the importance of having a fully vetted documented content marketing strategy that aligns well with your goals and sales process. Like the majority of industrial companies, if your number one goal is to generate more of better-quality leads with content marketing, then let your strategy dictate how the website should be redesigned. Not the other way around.

    Business goals don’t align with the website redesign

    I have seen many website redesigns fail; it is not because they are aesthetically bad, but because they fail to meet the planned objectives. In essence, they end up being nothing more than a cosmetic facelift for the website. It doesn’t matter how much or how little money you spent on the redesign; it is still wasted.

    I don’t know how many times I’ve heard clients tell me, “We send people to our website after we’ve talked to someone (sales call) for them to get more information.” In the same breath, they’ll also tell me that they wanted their redesigned site to generate more high-quality leads by engaging with engineers and industrial buyers. Do you see the disconnect?

    There are many causes for redesign failures. Based on my experience, I can make suggestions to avoid a complete disaster.

    • Involve your sales team in strategy planning and goal setting. Don’t wait to ask for their opinion just before going live.
    • Get everyone on the review committee to participate in whatever capacity possible during content creation and reviewing drafts.
    • Ask for help from your in-house Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to ensure that the content is technically accurate, presented in a logical manner and talks about solutions to real-world challenges faced by your audience.
    • Do your due diligence for SEO. It needs to be part of your content marketing strategy and not an afterthought

    For more on this topic, let me direct you to two of my earlier articles.

    Invest the time in a content marketing strategy

    It is going to be difficult for any web designer or an outsourced web development company to design an industrial website that will be an efficient lead delivery system unless s/he has the necessary experience and the expertise in industrial marketing. By that I mean, a good understanding of complex industrial sales with long sales cycles involving many stakeholders.

    An industrial website redesign for lead generation requires careful planning, paying attention to many details and first-hand knowledge of what engineers and technical buyers want to see on a supplier’s site. That kind of experience and expertise isn’t cheap. That’s why you’ll see a wide range in prices for a site redesign.

    There is a lot at stake here, so it is critical that you spend the time in developing a documented content marketing strategy that aligns well with your sales process before diving into an industrial website redesign.

  • Industrial Buyers – Their Preferences and How to Market to Them

    Understanding the mindset of industrial buyers is important if you market to engineers and technical professionals. There are plenty of research reports published on buyer personas and the buying habits of consumers, but they focus mainly on B2C marketing. You can find data on general B2B marketing, but it is somewhat limited when it comes to industrial marketing.

    There are four annual surveys/reports that are done specifically about industrial buyers and manufacturing or engineering marketing. I read them regularly and I’m honored to be quoted in some of them.

    Sources and tools used by industrial buyers

    It shouldn’t surprise you that the majority of industrial buyers prefer digital or online sources and tools for gathering information when making their buying decisions. That was clear from the findings from all the reports that I am about to cite here. It is okay if you are somewhat skeptical about the findings considering the sources of the data, but it shouldn’t take anything away from you gaining a better understanding of the behavior and habits of industrial buyers.

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  • Using Digital Industrial Marketing for Reaching Younger Engineers

    Digital industrial marketing is the norm these days, not because it is fashionable but because that’s how industrial buyers now prefer to interact with their suppliers. I’m sure you are aware of the fact that the industrial buy cycle is made up of four stages. Publishing generic content that is not tailored to each stage is not very effective.

    It is virtually impossible to create relevant and engaging content unless you have a very good understanding of the roles engineers play at every stage of the buy cycle. Two more factors that you should be aware of to make your industrial digital/content marketing effective are:

    1. Engineers are time challenged – 44% of engineers are working on more projects now than they were two years ago and 55% of engineers are being asked to do more with less. (Source: IEEE Engineering360 survey).
    2. Understanding the age gap is important in digital marketing for industrial companies – 49% of engineers surveyed are less than 49 years old (Source: 2017 Digital Media Use in The Industrial Sector, IEEE GLOBALSPEC)

    For more on point number 1, see my post “Overcoming the Challenge of Marketing to Busy Engineers.”

    Role of the engineer in the buy decision

    In this post, I’ll focus on understanding the age difference and how it affects your industrial digital marketing strategy and tactics. Before I dive deep into that, first let me give you some anecdotal evidence as to why this is important.

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  • Why Manufacturers Need a Multichannel Industrial Marketing Strategy

    Multichannel industrial marketing strategy doesn’t get that much attention or buzz. It should, because it is a closer reflection of how manufacturing and engineering companies are marketing these days.

    It’s a fact that in 2016, manufacturers and industrial companies are spending more of their marketing dollars on digital marketing tactics. This of course makes sense because 53% of engineers and industrial professionals spend 6 hours or more per week on the Internet for work-related purposes.

    Manufacturing marketing budgets and satisfaction levels

    Here are a few charts from research studies done by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), ENGINEERING.COM and IHS Engineering360.

    Manufacturing marketing budgets and spends

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  • No Digital Marketing for Manufacturers = Marketing in the Past

    Are you marketing in the past without digital marketing for manufacturers?Most manufacturers including precision CNC machine shops and fabricators have difficulty understanding the true value of digital marketing for manufacturers. Some that have implemented it, struggle to produce tangible results, meaning a boost in sales that they can attribute to marketing.

    The need for a robust online presence (Website and customer-centric content marketing) is driven by your customer’s behavior and not because marketing consultants are telling you to do so. Today’s industrial buyers are in self-serve and self-select mode, making them virtually invisible and hard to reach. They don’t need or want to talk to your sales people to get product information. Your buyers will engage with your sales team only when they are ready. Hounding them with cold calls or unwanted spammy emails is not going to make them choose you over the competition.

    The lack of buy-in for digital marketing is a two-fold problem as I see it with my industrial clients. The first issue is a mindset at the top and the second part is one of incorrect attribution.

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  • Planning Your Industrial Marketing Strategy for 2015

    industrial marketing strategyI hope you have already started planning your industrial marketing strategy for 2015. You may be wondering why you need to spend the time and effort in creating an industrial marketing strategy when you already know the problem – not enough quality leads generated from your current website.

    It would be easy to dive right into redesigning your current industrial website. That however could be a mistake because the lack of leads is the symptom you are feeling, the underlying cause of the problem may be something completely different. You need to first identify the root cause and then come up a with plan of action to solve the problem. That plan of action is what I’m referring to as your industrial marketing strategy.

    Importance of a formal industrial marketing strategy

    Let’s take a step back and see why formulating an industrial marketing strategy is so important. I’m sure by now you have read or heard enough about how content marketing is the best strategy for generating more high quality leads at a lower cost per lead. So making content the cornerstone of your industrial marketing strategy is vital.

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  • Content Marketing for Industrial Companies – Authenticity is Mission Critical

    Authenticity in industrial content marketingMarketing sometimes gets a bad rap of being deceptive. There is a fine line between persuasion and deception. Stretching the truth, exaggerating the positives and putting a positive spin on the negatives have been staples of marketing for a long time.

    Today’s industrial buyers are far better informed and using deceptive marketing practices won’t get you too far with them. Authenticity and maintaining transparency are critical for industrial companies to succeed with content marketing. (See my previous post, “How Industrial Content Marketing Builds Stronger Relationships Based on Trust”)

    Your buyers don’t have to take your word for it, they have various social and online channels to check and confirm your claims. The quickest way to lose credibility is for you to say/write things that you can’t validate. The old adage of “Buyer Beware” has been turned on its head to “Seller Beware.”

    Authenticity and transparency in industrial content marketing sound great but are they realistic goals? Do profits, revenues and short-term goals take precedence? The honest answer is probably yes. So how can you be authentic with content marketing and still meet your business goals?

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