Category: Industrial Marketing Strategies

  • Small Manufacturers Use Social Media Effectively

    Social media still remains a mystery to many manufacturers and industrial companies even though there is an abundance of evidence of its success in general B2B marketing. Many engineers, specifiers, users and buyers of industrial products regularly use social media in their personal lives but work-related usage is limited among this audience.

    I’ve read a few articles and blog posts about how some manufacturers are using Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook to listen, engage and market to their customers. However, these have been from other industrial marketing consultants like me.

    I needed to find some real-world examples of manufacturers using social media effectively. And I don’t mean multinational behemoths that have deep pockets and can afford to experiment with marketing strategies. What about family owned and operated machine shops, fabricators and smaller manufacturers?

    Videos play a key role in manufacturing marketing

    Probably the most common use of social media is videos on YouTube. I found quite a few small manufacturers that offer precision CNC machining and fabrication services to large OEMs in a variety of industries.

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  • Manufacturer Successfully Uses a B2C Online Marketing Tactic

    I’m sure by now you’ve read or heard enough about how the lines are merging between Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C) marketing. Some have even called B2B marketing obsolete in this day and age.

    Whether you agree or not is a topic for another day. IMO, the decision making process is more complex and there are many more stakeholders involved in industrial and B2B purchases but it still boils down to people doing business with people.

    That’s why I say more power to the manufacturer if it can successfully use a B2C marketing tactic to help its customers select the right industrial product(s) quickly and easily.

    And that’s the focus of this blog post.

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  • Problem-centric Industrial Marketing

    Please indulge me if my headline made you go “Huh?” Read on…

    Industrial and manufacturing marketers are trained to sell solutions. Nobody buys product features, they want solutions. That’s marketing 101, right?

    I get that. However, if you are a manufacturer or an industrial services company, ask yourself this question, why would anyone buy your products or services if they don’t know they have a problem?

    It seems to me that industrial marketers need to first focus on raising awareness of the problem before they can sell their solution. That’s what I’m calling problem-centric industrial marketing.

    As radically different as that may sound, it is based on very sound advice from none other than Seth Godin. I consider him to be a pioneer in many ways and someone who is always on the leading edge of marketing.

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  • How an Industrial Distributor Uses Content Marketing Effectively

    Websites of most industrial distributors follow the same basic format – the focus is on their product line card. You will find little evidence of best practices in content marketing – relevant, valuable and compelling content for customers. In other words, the online content is very product-centric.

    It is rare to find explicit calls to action (C2A) on these sites. The C2A is typically a toll-free number pasted all over the site in a large font. The implied C2A is “interrupt your online activity and call us for a price quote.”

    In my experience that does not happen often enough and the end result is usually the industrial distributor blaming his Website for not producing enough leads and sales.

    Of course, there are exceptions to what I’ve just described. I have seen some industrial distributors who have taken steps to make their sites more customer-friendly by adding helpful tools such as grouping their products by applications, part number finders, product selection wizards and Live Help.

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  • Industrial E-mail Marketing: Use Application Notes to Engage Engineers

    E-mail marketing to in-house lists is the most popular marketing channel for reaching engineers and industrial professionals. This was one of the findings in a recent study published by GlobalSpec. The chart below shows the different online marketing tactics that manufacturers and industrial companies plan to use in 2011.

    Marketing Channels Planned Usage by Industrial Companies in 2011

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  • How Manufacturers can Resurrect Product Content from the Dead Zone

    In general B2B and technology (software and IT) marketing, there is usually a well-defined path for lead generation and nurturing with content. These B2B marketers seem to have a bottomless well of content to tap into.

    I’m sure that’s not by accident but the result of forward thinking and a lot of hard work on the part of content marketers in those industries.

    Manufacturers of industrial products struggle when it comes to generating a steady flow of fresh marketing content. Most manufacturing websites are packed with product data sheets and catalogs, a few case studies, some application notes, may be a technical article or two and not much else. In other words, their content is very product-centric.

    There is a good reason for that – see my earlier post, “Details Matter in Creating Content for Engineers.” In my opinion, product-centric content is and will always be very important in manufacturing marketing. However, their biggest impact is in the late stages of the industrial buy cycle and are not very effective in the early phases.

    How can manufacturers resurrect their existing product content and join the content marketing revolution? Here are some ways that I can suggest: (more…)

  • Is Mobile Marketing Right for Industrial Companies?

    The current buzz about mobile marketing is probably second only to the hype surrounding social media. There is a good reason for industrial marketers to seriously consider and/or revisit their mobile marketing strategies.

    Consider these research findings:

    • International Data Corp (IDC) predicts that the global mobile workforce will increase to over 1 billion workers in 2011, totaling 30% of the workforce worldwide. In the United States, numbers are still higher. A total of 70% of the American workforce will be mobile by 2012.
    • Gartner predicts mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common Web access device worldwide by 2013.
    • Forbes reports, 82% of executives have some kind of smartphone and nearly two-thirds indicated they’re comfortable making a business purchase on their mobile device.

    As an industrial marketer, how do you know if mobile marketing is right for you or not? (more…)

  • Thought Leadership: Marketing Engineering Services with Technical Articles

    Are you an in-house marketer or a consultant tasked with promoting engineering services? Then you know very well that it is fundamentally different from marketing industrial and/or manufactured products.

    For one thing, you don’t have a ready-library of product data sheets, engineering and performance information to use as relevant content. By default, many engineering services companies resort to bragging about themselves on their Websites. There is very little to differentiate one from another. Highlighting completed projects and a few case studies seem to be the norm.

    Fortunately, there are exceptions and some smart marketers are using technical articles to their advantage in order to establish thought leadership and rise above the competition.

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  • Digital Marketing for Control Engineers, Machine Builders and Designers

    As an industrial marketing consultant, I interact on a daily basis with engineers and technical professionals from the Automation and Process Control industry. I receive valuable firsthand feedback on what this audience wants and needs from their digital marketing initiatives.

    It was reassuring then when the findings from Machine Builder Research and Buying Study 2011 done by Control Design mirrored what I’ve been hearing from my industrial clients.

    I’ll summarize the major findings from the study in this post but the headline of the cover story from the March 2011 issue says it all, “Sign of the Times: Wider Adoption of Web-Based, Digital Tools Usage Is Cruising Ahead.”
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  • Manufacturers Use CAD and 3D Parts Catalogs to Generate Leads

    For a while now, manufacturers have been using online searchable product catalogs to generate new leads and sales. Downloadable CAD files have played a major role in components and parts being designed in – a key and necessary step in the industrial buying process.

    I have written about the benefits of creating an online CAD library in several of my posts in the past. See my previous article, “Details Matter in Creating Content for Engineers.”

    I believe it was ThomasNet that had pioneered the use of online CAD drawings in the industrial sector. Their unique CAD technology allowed manufacturers to put 3D CAD models of their products directly into the hands of more than 100,000 engineers and architects who had registered on their site. That was back in 2005. I’m sure that number has grown significantly since then.

    I found it quick and easy to search through the more than 67,000 categories listed in their CAD library. With just two clicks, I was able to narrow down my search to Pumps, Valves & Accessories > Valves: High Pressure. I could then select a specific manufacturer’s CAD library to view.

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