Category: Industrial Marketing

Industrial Website Redesign—When Failure is Not an Option
Are you considering an industrial website redesign? This is a topic of discussion as Q3 ends and, as Q4 starts, many companies begin to do their annual planning and budgeting.

However, the sad truth is that many of these redesigns fail to deliver the desired results. You are not alone. Many manufacturers and engineering companies have embarked on this journey, hoping to transform their websites into powerful sales tools.

There are many reasons for these epic failures. To learn more about how to avoid some of these common pitfalls, read my post, Why do so Many Industrial Website Redesigns Fail?

In this article, I want to focus on success and not failures.

The importance of strategy before design

Before diving into the design phase, it is essential to spend time developing a comprehensive website redesign strategy. This strategy should align closely with your sales process, business goals, and content marketing strategy. Understanding your sales process and how the new website fits into that workflow is crucial.

This is especially true for industrial companies with long, complex sales cycles involving multiple stakeholders. By developing a robust and realistic strategy, you can ensure an efficient and effective website redesign that meets your business goals.

Planning website content for success

Website content should never be an afterthought in the redesign process. It is a critical component that must be planned and executed strategically. Many industrial companies fall into the trap of delaying content creation until after the redesign is almost complete.

This can result in a lack of budget or a misconception that writing good marketing copy is easy. However, neglecting content creation can hurt the success of your website. Your content must speak directly to your target audience, providing site visitors with valuable and relevant information that showcases your expertise and differentiates you from your competitors.

See Why Retrofitting Industrial Website Redesigns Usually Don’t Work.

Understanding what engineers want from a supplier’s website

Engineers and technical professionals have specific needs when it comes to supplier websites. They are looking for technically accurate, current, and valuable information relevant to their work-related challenges.

Engineers rely more on supplier websites for the information they need, especially since many trade shows were canceled due to the pandemic. To meet their expectations, it is crucial to understand what engineers want from a supplier’s website:
- Technical accuracy and relevance: Engineers want information that is specific to their industry and applications. Highlight your technical expertise and knowledge to establish credibility. Bring your in-house Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to the forefront.
- Clear and concise product information: Engineers are looking for detailed product specifications, features, and benefits. Make sure your product information is easily accessible, easy to understand, and up to date.
- CAD and BIM files: Providing CAD and BIM files can be valuable for engineers. These files allow them to incorporate your products into their designs seamlessly. (Using CAD and BIM Files in Manufacturing Content Marketing)
- Intuitive navigation: Engineers value websites that are easy to navigate. Ensure your website has a user-friendly interface and logical organization of information.
Understanding and meeting these expectations will help you create a supplier website that engineers find valuable and informative.

(Source: 2023 State of Marketing to Engineers, TREW Marketing and GlobalSpec)

Tips for a successful industrial website redesign

A. Visual Design
- Emphasize clean and professional design:
- Avoid cluttered layouts and excessive visual elements that can overwhelm visitors.
- Incorporate relevant, high-quality images to enhance the overall design and create visual appeal.
- Include industry-specific design elements or your own drawings and schematics.
- Use colors and typography that align with your industry and resonate with your target audience.
B. Navigation Design
- Prioritize user-friendly navigation over the cool factor – Implement intuitive and easy-to-use menus and navigation bars to help visitors find what they need quickly.
- Include search functionality for users to locate specific information they are looking for quickly and easily.
- Optimize website layout for easy exploration – Organize your content logically and categorize information effectively so visitors can navigate your site effortlessly.
- Provide clear and concise labels for navigation links to guide users effectively.
C. Calls to Action and Conversion Rate Optimization
- Strategically place and design call-to-action buttons – Use contrasting colors and persuasive language to attract attention and encourage action.
- Position them strategically based on user behavior patterns and the flow of your website.
- Optimize forms and landing pages for conversions.
- Create forms with minimal fields and clear instructions to reduce friction for users.
- A/B test different designs and layouts to improve conversion rates and optimize user experience.
D. Mobile Friendly and Responsive Design
- Create a mobile-first design approach – Prioritize the user experience on mobile devices, as more and more people use smartphones for browsing. However, if you check your site analytics, you’ll find that most site visitors are desktop users. Responsive design is very important, but keep in mind how your visitors are accessing your site.
- Ensure responsive design for seamless usability across various screen sizes and resolutions.
- Test website performance on mobile devices.
- Optimize load times and minimize data usage for a smoother mobile experience.
- Use responsive images and fonts to enhance mobile performance while maintaining visual appeal.
Tracking and measuring your success

Once your industrial website redesign is complete and the new site launched, tracking its performance and measuring its success is essential. Implementing site analytics and reporting tools will provide valuable insights into user behavior, traffic sources, and conversion rates.

Regularly reviewing these metrics will allow you to make data-driven decisions and identify areas for improvement. Don’t wait six months or a year to assess the effectiveness of your redesign. Ongoing monitoring and fine-tuning based on key performance indicators (KPIs) will help you optimize your website’s performance and maximize its impact on your business goals.

Measuring and tracking have been a challenge for many manufacturing marketers. The difficulties are not limited to industrial websites but manufacturing content marketing in general. The results from the 2023 Manufacturing Content Marketing Report published by the Content Marketing Insitute found, “The top challenge manufacturing marketers face with measuring content performance is difficulty integrating/correlating data across multiple platforms (48%).”

A successful industrial website redesign requires a strategic approach encompassing planning, content development, and execution. You can transform an informational industrial website into a high-performing sales tool by involving all stakeholders, understanding what engineers want from a supplier’s website, creating engaging content, incorporating effective calls to action, and ensuring intuitive navigation.

Yes, there are many moving parts and details to keep track of, but the time and effort are worth it when you can pull off a successful industrial website redesign because it is the hub of your online presence.

Now that you know, you’ll better appreciate the differences between a $200 website and one that costs $20,000+.

My team and I have completed many successful industrial website redesigns. Take a look at some of our work samples. Let’s talk if you have any questions or need assistance with your industrial website redesign.
September 18, 2023
Industrial Marketing Strategy vs. Plan
I’m sure you’ve heard marketing consultants like me talk about the importance of creating a marketing strategy and then following a plan for success. But what exactly is the difference between an industrial marketing strategy and a plan? I can assure you they are not just consulting jargon.

In this article, I will delve into the nuances of these two concepts and explore how they contribute to the growth and profitability of industrial businesses. However, it is important to understand that industrial marketing strategies and plans go hand in hand.

Understanding the difference between an industrial marketing strategy and a plan

While the two terms are often used interchangeably, a marketing plan and a marketing strategy are distinct from each other. A marketing strategy is the broader framework that defines a brand’s overall direction and positioning. It defines the target audience, the value proposition and the key messages that differentiate a company from its competitors.

It sets the stage for the marketing plan by providing a clear understanding of the market dynamics and opportunities.

A marketing plan, on the other hand, is a comprehensive document outlining the objectives, tactics, and resources needed to achieve a company’s marketing goals. It provides a roadmap that guides all marketing activities and ensures a focused approach.

While a marketing plan focuses on the specific actions and tactics to be executed, a marketing strategy provides the overarching vision and direction that guides those actions.

To summarize the differences into short sentences—Strategy is about answering the Who and the Why questions. While planning is about answering the What and the How questions.

Key components of an industrial marketing strategy

The marketing strategy provides the overall direction and positioning of the brand. The key components of an industrial marketing strategy include:
- Target market identification: Clearly defining the target market and understanding their needs, pain points, and buying behaviors. This helps in developing targeted marketing messages and campaigns.
- Competitive analysis: Conducting a thorough analysis of the competition to identify their strengths, weaknesses, and market positioning. This enables manufacturers and other industrial businesses to differentiate themselves from competitors and identify market gaps.
- Value proposition development: Developing a compelling value proposition that clearly communicates the unique benefits and advantages of the product or service. This helps in positioning the brand effectively in the market. (See Content Can Differentiate Industrial Companies When There’s Parity in Value Propositions)
- Brand positioning: Defining the desired brand image and positioning in the market. This includes determining the brand personality, messaging, and visual identity.
- Measurement and evaluation: Establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics to measure the marketing strategy’s success. This includes tracking website traffic, leads generated, conversions, and ROI.
When it comes to industrial content marketing, the strategy can not only be in someone’s head. It needs to be documented and refined over time using measurement and analysis. The survey results published by the Content Marketing Insitute show that only 32% of manufacturing marketers having a documented content marketing strategy.

They also said, “…too many content marketers are creating content for the sake of creating content – in many cases, this could mean responding to ad hoc requests.” I couldn’t agree more with that statement.

Key components of an industrial marketing plan

A comprehensive industrial marketing plan comprises of several key components that work together to achieve the desired marketing objectives. You’ll find some overlap between a plan and a strategy.
- Market research: Involves analyzing market trends, customer demographics, and competitor strategies.
- Target market segmentation: Identifying and segmenting the target market allows industrial businesses to tailor their marketing messages and strategies to specific customer groups. This ensures that marketing efforts are more focused and effective.
- Marketing objectives: Setting clear and measurable marketing objectives is crucial for tracking progress and evaluating the success of marketing efforts. Objectives should be specific, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).
- Marketing tactics: Determining the specific tactics and activities that will be used to achieve the marketing objectives. This may include content marketing, email marketing, social media, digital and print advertising, public relations, and trade shows, to name some of the typical industrial marketing tactics.
- Budget and resources: Allocating the necessary budget and resources to support the marketing plan. This includes determining the marketing budget, staffing requirements, and technology investments.
- Implementation timeline: Creating a detailed timeline that outlines the specific tasks and milestones for implementing the marketing plan. This ensures that all activities are executed in a timely manner.
Measuring the success of your industrial marketing strategy and plan

Measuring the success of an industrial marketing strategy and a plan is crucial for evaluating the effectiveness of the efforts and making necessary adjustments. Here are some key metrics to consider:
- Website traffic: Monitor website traffic to determine the effectiveness of various marketing channels in driving visitors to the site. Track the number of unique visitors, page views, and time spent on the site.
- Lead generation: Measure the number of leads generated through various marketing channels. This includes form submissions, email sign-ups, and downloads of gated content.
- Conversion rate: Calculate the conversion rate by dividing the number of conversions by the total number of visitors. This helps determine the website’s effectiveness in converting visitors into leads.
- Return on investment (ROI): Calculate the ROI by comparing the revenue generated from marketing efforts to the cost of those efforts. This helps in determining the profitability of the marketing activities. This is a complex process because of long sales cycles and multiple stakeholders involved in the buying decisions. See Manufacturing Content Marketing Distribution and Measurement.
- Customer satisfaction: Monitor customer satisfaction through surveys, feedback forms, and customer reviews. This provides insights into the effectiveness of marketing efforts in meeting customer needs and expectations.
- Brand awareness: Measure brand awareness by tracking brand mentions, social media followers, and search engine rankings. This helps in evaluating the effectiveness of marketing efforts in increasing brand visibility.
A well-defined marketing strategy and a detailed plan are essential for success in industrial marketing, especially in a globally competitive market(s). While a marketing plan provides a roadmap for achieving marketing objectives, a marketing strategy sets the overall direction and positioning of the brand.

By understanding the differences between these two components and effectively implementing them, industrial companies can reach their target audience, differentiate themselves from competitors, and achieve their business objectives. So, invest the time and effort in developing a comprehensive marketing strategy and a plan and propel your industrial marketing efforts to new heights.

Need help developing your industrial marketing strategy? Let’s discuss how I can help you with our industrial marketing consulting service.
September 5, 2023
6 Innovative Manufacturing Marketing Strategies
Manufacturers have unique marketing challenges that other businesses don’t face. As a result, they must develop innovative manufacturing marketing strategies to reach their target audience to succeed. Engineers and technical professionals are two key audiences that manufacturers need to focus on. This blog post will discuss six innovative marketing strategies that manufacturing companies can use in their own marketing efforts.

Understanding marketing strategies is vital if you’re a manufacturer looking to stay ahead of the competition and grow your sales. As technology advances and your customer base evolves, remaining relevant in today’s competitive global markets requires creative problem-solving and up-to-date marketing approaches.

“58 percent of engineers said that the competitive landscape is global and competes 24/7.” (Source: 2021 Pulse of Engineering Survey published by GlobalSpec)

That’s why I have gathered six innovative ways manufacturers can beef up their current manufacturing marketing strategy to remain competitive in their rapidly and ever-changing industries. Here’s my recommended list:
1. Focus on trust-building through educational content
2. Utilize modern social media channels for outreach
3. Provide proof of concept to overcome skepticism
4. Invest in video marketing to explain complex concepts and provide after-sales support
5. Effective use of online advertising and PPC to reach targeted audiences
6. Maintain top-of-mind awareness with email marketing and newsletters
In this post, I will discuss each manufacturing marketing strategy and share my thoughts on implementing them to help you improve your industrial marketing.

Provide Educational Content

Create content that educates potential customers about your products, manufacturing processes, and how your products can help them solve their problems. Sometimes raising awareness of the problem is necessary before you can sell your solution. (See Problem-centric Industrial Marketing).

Providing educational content about your complex engineering solutions is an invaluable step in the marketing process. It creates awareness for potential customers and educates them on the problem they are trying to solve.

With educational material breaking down the more technical aspects of what you offer, customers can better understand how you may help them, allowing them to make informed buying decisions before investing in your products and services.

Leverage Social Media

Use social media platforms to share news and updates about your company and its products and promote new content. Engage with customers and potential customers when and where they hang out.

Leveraging social media for manufacturing marketing is essential for businesses to reach engineers and industrial professionals. However, engineers tend to be passive participants on social media platforms, resulting in lower engagements from them compared to other industries.

As such, manufacturers should have realistic expectations regarding engineers’ interactions on their social media channels since this audience likes to read and watch but rarely comment or share. With a well-assembled suite of content and valuable resources, engineers can become long-time brand followers since you allow them to access the helpful information they need and can use it in their daily work.

(Source: 2023 State of Marketing to Engineers published by TREW Marketing & GlobalSpec)

Utilize Testimonials and Case Studies

When it comes to emphasizing the value of your product or service, case studies provide engineers with much-needed assurance to get over any skepticism they may have.

Case studies are real-life stories from actual users and serve as proof of concept. Keep it simple—stick with a proven formula of a problem statement, the solution provided, and the results delivered. Try to be as specific as possible by adding statistics and quantifying results. Case studies are powerful tools that help you build credibility and trust with specifiers and key decision-makers.

Testimonials have lost some of their value over time because people have lost faith in them since some of them are simply unbelievable. You can make yours more authentic and impactful by using video testimonials.

Testimonials and case studies are both hard to come by because of restrictions from NDAs and customers unwilling to be seen as endorsing a vendor. However, there are ways to overcome some of the hurdles if you cannot name names.

Use both judiciously to demonstrate the value of your product or service and show that you can deliver on your promises.

Invest in Video Marketing

Investing in video marketing can be highly beneficial for manufacturers. How-to videos are a great way to showcase the unique features of your products or services and how customers can use them.

Adding how-to videos provide easy-to-follow steps on using your product and help to make complex concepts much easier to understand. As a result, they will increase visitor engagement.

Additionally, this type of content is particularly effective for MRO professionals and field personnel, who can access these how-to videos anytime and gain the information they need 24/7. It is an easy way to provide after-sales support and increase brand loyalty.

“Videos were the top content type produced as well as the top predicted area of content marketing investment for 2022. 86% of respondents [manufacturing content marketers] used videos for content marketing purposes in the last 12 months.”

(Source: Manufacturing Content Marketing – Insights for 2022 published by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI)).

Focus on Targeted Digital Ads

When advertising online, be sure to target specific audiences interested in what you offer rather than just casting a wide net without considering who will find it most useful/valuable. These advertisements will not only help you reach a more specific and receptive audience that is interested in what you are offering, it will also help to avoid wasting resources on users who are unlikely to convert.

This is another area where you need to have realistic expectations. Online ads will raise brand awareness and drive traffic to your site from what I refer to as “curious clicks,” but don’t expect a high conversion rate.

Many of my manufacturing clients complain about PPC ads being a waste of good money. They work well for selling industrial consumables like desiccants and spare parts but are ineffective if you manufacture custom-engineered systems. Therefore, these factors should all be considered when deciding whether paid advertising would benefit your company.

Email Marketing and Newsletters

Email marketing and newsletters do work even in this day and age of social media. These two tactics are very effective in maintaining top-of-mind awareness. But, of course, you don’t have to take my word for it. I’ll let the findings from CMI’s survey convince you.

“The top four owned-media platforms that manufacturing marketers used in the last 12 months were their organization’s website, email newsletters, email, and blogs.”

Still not convinced? Here’s one more chart. This one is from the 2023 State of Marketing to Engineers study I cited earlier.

“Eighty-nine percent of engineers subscribe to at least one newsletter, while 54 percent subscribe to at least three newsletters.”

Okay, that’s my short list of 6 manufacturing marketing strategies you can deploy. Your industry is constantly evolving, so focusing on putting your company in front of the right audience via digital marketing tools is essential.

Ultimately, focus on the target audience’s needs when deciding how your message should be conveyed and create a solid and well-rounded online presence. Remember, if potential customers aren’t regularly exposed to what you do, they will forget you even exist.

If the thought of putting in all this time and effort in strategy and implementation seems overwhelming, or if you need help developing an effective marketing strategy for the manufacturers, don’t hesitate to reach out to industrial marketing professionals who can guide you. Contact me and let me know how I can help.
March 23, 2023
What You Need to Know About Marketing to Engineers in 2023
Marketing to engineers has always been a challenge. Fine-tune your industrial marketing armed with research findings and knowledge about how engineers and technical professionals make buying decisions. I’ve downloaded the 2023 State of Marketing to Engineers report published by TREW Marketing in partnership with GlobalSpec. It is packed with valuable research data and expert opinions.

Understanding the survey audience for marketing to engineers

Before we dive into the data, let’s understand the survey audience. One can find plenty of B2B marketing information online, but it is not easy to find data on engineers and industrial buyers. The survey respondents either make the final buying decision and/or strongly influence it. That’s why I liked the focus of this report instead of relying on answers from marketers.

I’ve combined two charts from the report to give you a quick summary of the engineering audience.

Job Function plays an important role at different stages of the buying journey. The chart below is from an earlier survey report.

Read my post, Industrial Content Marketing that Engages Engineers, to learn more.

What information sources do engineers rely on for work-related decisions?

It shouldn’t surprise you that most engineers (82%) go straight to vendor/supplier websites. However, that doesn’t mean you can ignore other sources that your technical audience uses. Pay attention to the chart below to understand the different channels where you need to maintain a strong presence.

Notice how email newsletters are sort of middle of the pack. Nevertheless, don’t discount their effectiveness in 2023. I say this based on my own experience working with manufacturers and engineering companies. The research data also validate my experiences.

89% of engineers subscribe to at least one newsletter, while 54% subscribe to at least three newsletters.

If you have a small list or need to expand your market reach, it may be more effective to ride the coattails of highly-respected industry publications or portals. They have a captive audience of engineers and technical professionals who have given their permission to receive newsletters and are eager for helpful information from suppliers.

Content preferences of engineers and industrial buyers

This audience uses a variety of content in their buying journey. The most helpful content is Datasheets, which have consistently remained the #1 source for several years (See chart).

What was missing earlier were CAD drawings. I refer to this type of content as “sales enablers” because 82% of CAD/BIM downloads turn into actual sales. You can’t argue against those numbers for getting results from industrial content marketing . (Read the post, Using CAD and BIM Files in Manufacturing Content Marketing).

SEO, search rankings, and paid ads

Did you know that 43% of engineers will filter through at least five pages of search results to find the information that is relevant to their search? Getting to page 1 in Google search results is great and takes a lot of hard work and knowledge.

You can see engineers tend to go well beyond the first page of search results to find information that is relevant to them. So don’t obsess over first-page rankings. Instead, focus on creating content that addresses the challenges engineers face in their daily work.

I can hear the frustrations in the voices of my manufacturing clients when discussing Pay Per Click ads (PPC). They’ve spent lots of money on PPC but haven’t really seen the results. They ask me if they should continue. Unfortunately, it is not possible to give a quick and pat answer that is right for everyone. The truth is that one needs to do a complete PPC audit to discover the problems before deciding whether it is the right strategy.

Here’s what the survey found about how engineers use PPC ads.

51% of engineers avoid paid search ads at all costs. However, if a paid link demonstrates a direct connection to a search inquiry or links to a familiar site, 44 percent will click.

Getting back to the point about search engine optimization (SEO), I’ve seen too many industrial companies base their entire website redesign and/or content marketing strategy on “being found on page 1 of Google.” You are not using the full power of manufacturing content marketing if SEO is your sole objective. That may sound counterproductive, but it is an area that is often misunderstood.

If you’ve been a regular reader of this blog, I thank you; you already know SEO is not all there is to it. I’ve written several articles about this problem. Let me point you to two:
1. Industrial Marketing is Not Just for ToFU
2. How Industrial Companies are Stuck on SEO for Content Marketing Strategy
Win the mindshare of engineers with technically accurate content and published under the names of your in-house Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). Don’t expect your SMEs to write the content because they are busy doing what they do best. Read my post, Industrial Blogging Lessons Learned from Working with Technical SMEs, if you need help.

As a manufacturing content marketer, you must learn to extract the key talking points locked in their heads, Then develop bullet points into cohesive content. Consistently creating such content is not easy. Refer to Technical Content Writing is Challenging for Manufacturing Marketers.

Armed with the research data and my comments with links to additional articles, you should be better prepared for marketing to engineers in 2023.
January 16, 2023
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

December 22, 2022
What Content do Engineers Want When Visiting Websites?

What content do engineers want is probably a question you’ve asked yourself many times. An industrial website is the hub for manufacturing content marketing. It is by far the most important digital asset you own. I don’t need to repeat all the reasons for having a robust website. Yet, I’ve seen content take a backseat instead of driving an industrial website redesign.

Where do engineers go to find information for making a purchase decision?

Let’s back up a bit to see the sources engineers use to find content when making a buying decision. According to the 2022 State of Marketing to Engineers research report published by GlobalSpec and TREW Marketing, 69% of engineers go right to the source—supplier/vendor websites when researching a product or service for a business purchase.

Now that we know the number one source of information, let’s ask ourselves, what content do engineers want to see and consume? Here’s another chart from the same research study I’ve cited above.

Surprised by #1? After all, datasheets are considered product-centric and not really customer-centric content.

If you manufacture industrial components, your product specs must meet the engineer’s design specifications. Otherwise, the conversation doesn’t even start.

Now, you may be saying to yourself, “We have plenty of those.” Then let me ask you, “When was the last time you downloaded and read one of your datasheets?”

I’m not trying to be a smart-a** here. I’ve seen outdated datasheets that do not match current product specifications, added options, and features. You may lose a sales opportunity or, at the very least, damage your credibility when this happens. Do a complete audit of all your current product literature, update old ones, and create new materials if necessary.

Challenges in manufacturing content marketing

Okay, so all you need to do is create more datasheets, easy peasy lemon squeezy, right? Think again!

As a manufacturer or a distributor, your primary audience is engineers, MRO, and other industrial professionals. Creating technically accurate content that this audience will find relevant and moving them forward logically in their buying journey is a big challenge. I’ve read several research studies documenting this problem which has persisted for a few years.

It takes knowledge of the technical topic and preparing intelligent questions to ask of in-house Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to extract the key talking points. Then, add good copywriting, editing, and SEO skills on top of that. You must go back to the SME for his/her approval before publishing any content. Rehashing product features with clever wordsmithing won’t cut it.

“Respondents said their top three content marketing challenges are creating valuable content instead of sales-oriented content (51%), overcoming the traditional marketing and sales mindset (51%), and accessing subject matter experts to create content (50%).”

That’s a direct quote from the 2022 Manufacturing Content Marketing report published by the Content Marketing Institute.

It isn’t as simple as outsourcing technical content creation either. According to the same report, 59% of respondents said their organization outsources at least one content marketing activity. Their top challenge is finding partners with adequate topical expertise (60%).

Industrial blogging—benefits and difficulties

Industrial blogging is an essential and integral part of manufacturing content marketing. If you’ve been blogging for a while, you already know blogging’s positive impact on organic SEO. That’s not all. Consistently publishing posts your audience wants to read will help win the engineer’s mindshare and build trust.

However, industrial blogging is an underutilized content strategy and has its own challenges. Read my earlier post, Using Manufacturing Blogs for Lead Generation, to learn more.

Manufacturing marketing budgets

The average marketing spend increased from 6.4% to 9.5% of company revenue across almost all industries in 2022. (Source: Gartner).

However, manufacturers tend to lag as compared to other industries. According to the latest CMO Survey, the marketing budget for manufacturers averages 4.52% of revenue and 7.65% of the total company budget as compared to 8.6% of firm revenue and 12.1% of the total budget across industries.

Marketing to engineers is not easy

I’ve worked with many in-house marketers at manufacturing companies who know marketing but struggle with engaging with engineers and technical professionals. It is not just about creating content; they need help understanding how this audience makes buying decisions.

In addition, they have difficulties formulating effective strategies for marketing to a committee of stakeholders, some of whom may never visit their websites, and the sales cycle is usually long. They want me to coach and consult with them to overcome some of these hurdles of marketing to engineers.

My presentation topic at the 2019 Content Marketing World Conference was “The Unique Challenges of Marketing to Engineers and Industrial Buyers.” You can view the video recording here.

Don’t be a victim of the “shiny new toy” syndrome

As an industrial marketer, adding a new technology stack that will make you and your team more efficient and add cool new features to your website is tempting. Nothing wrong with that goal per se. However, you probably won’t get an increase in the marketing budget if technology is the primary focus at the next planning meeting.

I recently read an interesting article by Robert Rose, the founder and chief strategy officer of The Content Advisory, the education and consulting group for The Content Marketing Institute. He explains why technology alone is not the answer, and the initial subscription cost may just be the tip of the iceberg. Read his post, “Your 2023 Planning Shouldn’t Be All About That Tech,” for valuable insights.

Content should drive your website redesign plan and the strategy for manufacturing content marketing. Don’t try to retrofit content to a design or a strategy as an afterthought.

October 18, 2022
Using Manufacturing Blogs for Lead Generation
Manufacturing blogs are probably not the first thing that comes to mind for industrial lead generation, but they are related, as I’ll explain in this post. However, writing and publishing technical posts that engineers and industrial professionals find relevant and engaging takes time, effort, and knowledge not easily found in freelance copywriters.

51% of manufacturing content marketers said creating valuable content instead of sales-oriented content is their biggest challenge. (Source: Manufacturing Content Marketing—Insights for 2022 published by the Content Marketing Institute).

Blogging time and frequency impact results

The amount of time you put in and the frequency of publishing directly and positively impact your blogging results. That is not a major revelation, but validating your gut feeling with data from independent research studies is reassuring. Here are two charts from the survey done by Orbit Media Studios.

While it is true that those who publish blog posts more frequently get better results, it is unrealistic for most manufacturers and industrial companies with a small or one-person marketing team to produce new posts several times a week or month. The reality for these companies is less spectacular than some of the big stats you may read online.

“Blogging still works, but driving big results is a challenge,” is a quote from the excellent article by Andy Crestodina that I’ve cited above. Do read his article for other statistics and comments from several content marketing experts.

Earned, owned, and paid media

You have probably heard of those terms and are familiar with them. If not, here’s a handy Venn diagram from a post by Michael Brenner of Insider Marketing Group. It explains the different types and how they overlap.

This interrelationship between different media types has a bearing on manufacturing content marketing. The charts below show how manufacturing marketers used various media to distribute content in the last 12 months. They are all from the survey done by the Content Marketing Institute that I mentioned earlier.
- The organization’s website, email newsletters, and blogs are the top four owned-media platforms.
- 61% of respondents used media/public relations to distribute content in the last 12 months.
- 85% of manufacturing marketers used paid media to distribute content
- 77% of the respondents used social media advertising/promoted posts
How do manufacturing blogs help in lead generation?

This is one area where there’s much confusion among the manufacturers I speak with. It isn’t easy for them to understand that blogging is not like one-off campaigns. They want to know how soon they can get new leads.

The very definition of a qualified lead is another source of confusion. Sales teams want leads ready for an RFQ. They don’t want to hear anything about qualifying and/or nurturing leads.

It’s my job and those of you who are responsible for industrial content marketing to take the time to explain how blog posts help in earning trust, building credibility, and highlighting in-house expertise. Taken together, they play a big role in setting the table for salespeople to have more productive conversations and increase their wins.

For more on this complex relationship, you may want to read my post, Industrial Lead Generation for Sales – It’s Complicated!

An engineering audience tends to be skeptical about claims made by suppliers. They want proof of concepts and read case studies. Writing blog posts about these content assets will help them discover your valuable content instead of relying 100% on organic SEO.

You can gate these middle-of-the-funnel content, then send your readers to a landing page with a simple sign-up form. Use this strategy to generate Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs).

This post should give you a clearer picture about manufacturing blogs and distributing content via different media channels to generate leads, even if the relationship is not easily seen.
August 24, 2022
Why Industrial Websites Shouldn’t be an Afterthought for Manufacturers
Industrial websites and manufacturers’ expectations are not always in sync. I say that from my regular conversations with manufacturers from various industries and from around the world. They come in all shapes and sizes, but they have one thing in common–generate more leads by targeting industrial buyers in North America.

Industrial website goals and usage are misaligned

Using an industrial website for lead generation has always been a priority for manufacturers. Lately, I have seen an encouraging shift towards “better quality leads.” However, the people I talk to are not happy with the results. That’s why they contact me in the first place.

Let me walk you through a typical conversation.

Manufacturer: We redesigned our industrial website two years ago, but it hasn’t generated too many good leads.

Me: What marketing have you done to promote the site?

Manufacturer: We pay an SEO company to improve our rankings and spend money on Google Ads.

Me: What were the results?

Manufacturer: We really don’t know other than not getting enough leads, and PPC ads have been a waste of money.

Me: Okay, how do you use your website in your sales process?

Manufacturer: (After a noticeable pause) We tell people to visit our website for more information after a salesperson has talked to them.

The above conversation is not an isolated example but a regular one. I’ve simplified it and made it into a composite conversation.

What is the problem with industrial websites?

In my analysis, there are several underlying problems. In general, manufacturers feel the symptoms (low traffic, lack of leads, poor conversions, etc.), but the cause is that expectations do not match site design.
- An industrial website redesign is not the same as ongoing efforts for organic SEO. Don’t expect to show up on page 1 of Google search results after a redesign
- Little to no time spent by the developer and the manufacturer in planning, identifying buyer personas, and creating a website strategy to address buyers’ concerns
- Adding bells and whistles on top of old, sometimes outdated, and incorrect product-centric content
- Using the new website the same old way—as brochureware. Think of the old days when salespeople used marketing collateral as leave-behinds after a sales call
I could go on listing other problems that I have seen. Instead, you may want to read my post, “5 Critical Components of a Successful Website Design for Manufacturers.”

Where manufacturers tend to go wrong

There is a deep-rooted problem in the mindset of most manufacturing organizations. But, of course, there are exceptions in companies that have embraced digital marketing. That’s not just me pointing the finger—“overcoming the traditional marketing and sales mindset (51%)” was one of the top 3 challenges faced by manufacturing marketers. (Source).

I’ve found that many manufacturers think of Marketing as merely sales support. It is difficult for them to accept that now you must use a blended approach. Sales and Marketing have to work together for industrial lead generation. Neither can do it alone because industrial buyers are in self-select and self-serve mode for a better part of their buying journey. Therefore, they are unwilling to engage with Sales until they are ready.

It is not difficult to understand then why industrial websites are an afterthought. Manufacturers are not convinced websites can help their sales because they have been burned before by developers and agencies that lack the experience and understanding of how engineers and technical professionals make buying decisions.

Don’t shortchange your industrial website

It is definitely worth taking the time to plan carefully and invest the marketing dollars in developing a robust industrial website that fits your sales process and addresses the needs of your target audience.

I understand if you are skeptical about that statement since my company offers industrial website redesigns. Let me present independent survey findings as evidence to support what I said.

Exhibit A: When researching a product or service for a business purchase, 69 percent of engineers go right to the source: supplier/vendor websites. (Source).

Exhibit B: The top four owned-media platforms that manufacturing marketers used in the last 12 months were their organization’s website, email newsletters, email, and blogs. (Source).

Exhibit C: 73% of Engineers and Architects said a “simple and easy to use website” was at the top of their wishlist. (Source).

The industrial website should be the hub of your digital marketing plan and not an afterthought. This post should help you if you are planning an industrial website redesign soon.
June 16, 2022
How Industrial Marketing for Manufacturers Helps in Building New Relationships
Job #1 of industrial marketing for manufacturers is to generate leads. Is that assumption valid? To me, that’s like putting the cart before the horse. So, before I explain why I said what I just said, let’s look at the goals manufacturing marketers have achieved by using industrial content marketing over the past 12 months.

(Source)

Let’s reverse engineer the above chart to understand the process of generating good quality industrial leads using industrial marketing for manufacturers.

Step 1: Raise brand awareness – Your target audience must know about you and find you (SEO) during the early stages of their buying journey.

Step 2: Earning trust – You have to win their mindshare by publishing content that helps your visitors gain confidence in your ability to understand and provide a solution for their challenges or applications.

Step 3: Be prepared – When a prospect contacts you, you must be ready to provide relevant and technically accurate content to help that industrial buyer make a more informed decision. They don’t want to hear a sales pitch without proof of concept.

In this day and age, when industrial buyers are in self-select and self-serve mode, the adage buyer beware has been turned on its head to seller beware.

Engineers were most annoyed by the “lack of technical knowledge” when interacting with a supplier’s sales team. That was one of the findings from the State of Marketing to Engineers, 2022 report.

Sales first mindset is a problem with manufacturers

I had a recent conversation with a manufacturer of micro injection molding machines. He wanted his target audience to find his site on Google and contact his sales team. He didn’t have an answer when I asked him, “Why should a site visitor contact you and not the competition?”

He assumed that his site visitors would be so impressed with his history of being in business for 50+ years that they would contact his sales team after the first visit.

51% of manufacturing marketers were challenged to create valuable content instead of sales-oriented content and overcome the traditional marketing and sales mindset.

Discovery optimization (SEO) is hard enough, but it is not the same as conversion optimization (CRO), even though they are related. It is not uncommon to find manufacturers who find it hard to wrap their heads around the concept of Marketing and Sales working together as a team. It has always been that the sales team generated leads, and Marketing only provided sales support as in trade show graphics, brochures, and PowerPoint presentations.

That is not just my experience. For example, the CMI report I cited earlier in this post found that 51% of manufacturing marketers were challenged to create valuable content instead of sales-oriented content and overcome the traditional marketing and sales mindset.

Build new relationships using industrial marketing for manufacturers

A related problem to the sales mindset is relying too heavily, in some cases exclusively, on old relationships. I understand that building new relationships is hard work and takes time. Most manufacturers have heard of the Pareto principle, which states that 80% of a company’s sales come from 20% of its customers. So why bother building new relationships.

As Bob Dylan’s hit song goes, “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” if you haven’t already realized that.

The retirement of aging engineers is a well-documented problem in the manufacturing industry. On top of that, there have been cutbacks from offshoring and downsizing. The shrinking team sizes have led to two significant issues. These problems have a bearing on industrial marketing for manufacturers.
- About 33% of engineers stated that employee loss due to retirement or layoffs/downsizing has increased or increased significantly over the past two years
- 58% of engineers indicated that knowledge and/or information loss as employees left the company was very or extremely important
Source: 2021 Pulse of Engineering Survey

In the first case, engineers say they are under tremendous pressure, more so than before, to do more with less.

As an industrial marketer, you need to do all you can to alleviate some of this pressure. The most effective way is to make content marketing a core component of your strategy for industrial marketing for manufacturers. It will help you forge new relationships with younger engineers and win their mindshare and loyalty.

Offering downloadable CAD files, eCatalogs, and online design tools are enormous time savers and improve design consistency. Added benefit – 82% of CAD/BIM downloads turn into actual sales.

Read my earlier post, Using CAD and BIM Files in Manufacturing Content Marketing.

Engineers and other technical professionals constantly seek out and use content to help them perform their jobs better. Younger and less experienced engineers are increasingly looking to their suppliers to fill the knowledge gap as in-house resources shrink.

What can you offer them to build new relationships? Think about creating a robust online resource library of online training courses, webinars, eBooks, quick start guides, and white papers. Focus on making these assets more educational with judicious mentions of your solutions and products.

A word of caution here, don’t just pump out more product-centric content and thinly disguised promotional pieces. Engineers want technically accurate and current content written by Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). This is another challenge for manufacturing content marketers. 50% of them said they are challenged with accessing subject matter experts to create content. (Source: CMI Report).

My solution and advice to others who have to overcome this hurdle is, do your own research, and then interview your SMEs with a list of relevant questions to ask based on your research. This will help you get the key talking points about the topic and then as a content marketer, it is our/your job to expand those points into cohesive customer-centric content. Don’t be in a hurry to publish before your draft is fully vetted by your SMEs.

The last point, publish your content under the SME’s name(s) for credibility, even though you did the heavy lifting.

Here’s something else I’ve observed working with manufacturers. Don’t just focus on getting in front of the key decision-makers and ignore strong influencers. Less experienced engineers are often tasked with gathering information in the early stages. They are the ones who are online, researching and creating the shortlist of vendors with possible solutions. You may never make it to the RFQ stage if you don’t build relationships with them.

Younger engineers may not have final buying authority today, but ignore them at your own peril.

Another strong reason for building new relationships is that people are promoted to new roles or move to other companies as part of their professional growth. Engineers stated they are, on average, only moderately likely to be employed at the same company five years from now. (Source: 2021 Pulse of Engineering Survey).

Since today’s engineers and technical professionals spend a good portion of their buying journey online before contacting a salesperson, it makes sense to use the full power of industrial marketing for manufacturers to start new relationships and build trust. This will pave the way for you to generate high-quality leads that turn into sales opportunities.
May 25, 2022
Industrial Marketing is Not Just for ToFU

Industrial marketing has become more digital now than in the past. (See Marketing to Engineers—Why Digital is the Dominant Strategy). ToFU stands for Top of the Funnel in marketing and not the edible kind. 😊 Manufacturers and engineering companies realize digital industrial marketing or industrial content marketing is more effective for lead generation than traditional marketing strategies. However, many are underutilizing it. I say that based on my daily conversations with industrial companies.

Many manufacturers are using content marketing, but few consider it effective in generating leads that turn into sales opportunities.

“75% of the manufacturing companies surveyed by the Content Marketing Institute said they are Moderate to Not at all successful with content marketing.” (Source)

The 2-part problem with industrial marketing

The way I see it, there are two parts to the problem of ineffective industrial marketing. First, most of my conversations with manufacturers start with some form of, “We want more leads from our website.” However, there is a serious disconnect here.

Their entire industrial marketing strategy focuses on the goal of getting found on Google and other search engines. The decision-makers at these industrial companies assume that their target audience will find them on Google, visit their sites and call their crack sales team after the first visit. As a result, their industrial marketing strategy is all about top of the funnel (ToFU) goals. Needless to say, that is not producing the results they want.

Assuming your marketing people have done a terrific job with organic SEO, not an easy task to begin with, you start to see an increase in traffic. Great! However, there is a big difference between discovery optimization (SEO) and conversion optimization (CRO). That is the second half of the equation, which is about converting those visitors into leads. This part is just as challenging as SEO, if not more so. Read more about this in my post, Industrial Content Marketing — Goals are Misunderstood and Misaligned.

The second problem I see is about the behavior of industrial buyers today as compared to just a few years ago. Most industrial professionals are in self-serve and self-select mode now, where they complete a large portion of their buying journey on their own while remaining anonymous. They will only contact your salespeople when they are ready. As a result, your sales team may be finding it difficult to get in front of or have conversations with decision-makers early in the journey.

A while back, I had read a quote by Laura Ramos, Vice President, Principal Analyst at Forrester. She said, “Business buyers can now access an abundance of digital information to research and shop for solutions on their own terms.” It is more relevant today than ever before.

Manufacturers are having a tough time accepting that reality. They expect industrial content marketing to produce quick results like traditional past campaigns. If that doesn’t work, resort to cold calling and/or email blasts. You don’t need me to tell you those don’t work very well either.

Understanding MQLs and SQLs in industrial lead generation

Generating Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs), which are typically new contacts from downloading a content asset, is only part of an industrial marketer’s responsibility. They need to be actively involved in nurturing those MQLs into Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs). This is another challenge in industrial marketing.

Sales and Marketing need to work together to define lead scoring and qualifying rules. Marketing can then qualify MQLs according to these preset rules. Once MQLs reach a certain threshold to become SQLs, they can then hand those leads over to Sales. This handover is usually called SAL. It stands for Sales Accepted Lead. This is a critical step in bringing together Sales and Marketing. Read my post; SAL is the Glue that Binds Sales and Marketing in Lead Generation. FYI: I published this post in 2010, and it is still one of my Top 10 posts visited consistently. That’s proof for you about the power of blogging.

Once Sales accepts a lead, they must take follow-up action to determine if a lead represents a real sales opportunity or not. They must provide feedback to marketing to refine these definitions over time as needed. That’s how you create an efficient lead generation system.

For more information about MQLs vs. SQLs, read Industrial Lead Generation – MQL vs. SQL.

Creating relevant industrial marketing content for various stages of the buyer’s journey is not an easy task. Many manufacturers struggle with it.

Manufacturers who responded to the CMI survey I mentioned earlier said their top three content marketing challenges were creating valuable content instead of sales-oriented content, overcoming the traditional marketing and sales mindset, and accessing subject matter experts to create content.

Let me sum this up by saying that industrial marketing for manufacturers and engineering companies cannot be restricted only to ToFu. You must utilize the full power of content marketing for all phases of the buyer’s journey and address the different needs of various stakeholders involved in the buying decision. Your content must be found when and where the target audience is searching for solutions to their problems.

April 25, 2022