Category: Industrial Marketing

  • Marketing to Engineers—Why Digital is the Dominant Strategy

    Marketing to Engineers—Why Digital is the Dominant Strategy

    Digital marketing to engineers works for several reasons. And you can’t argue against the results. I’ve been a big believer and a practitioner of digital marketing strategies and tactics for my industrial marketing and consultancy clients for several years now.

    Let’s look at the big picture first – B2B sales. After all, engineering services and manufacturing companies are a subset of B2B companies. A survey conducted by management consulting firm Bain & Company found that 92% of B2B buyers prefer virtual sales interactions, up 17% from May 2020. The report notes that 79% of sellers also say virtual selling is effective, compared with 54% last year. (Source: Sales Content that Closes published by Allego).

    virtual sales preferred by b2b buyers

    Interestingly, Bain & Company has put together a webinar with the provocative title; Digital Marketing is Dead. Obviously, it is not dead, but digital marketing “as usual” won’t work either.

    Digital marketing to engineers is effective

    As I wrote in the opening paragraph, the results speak for themselves.

    “Online information sources are the dominant ‘go-to’ for engineers researching a product or service for a business purchase.”

    That finding is from the 2022 State of Marketing to Engineers report published by TREW Marketing and GlobalSpec.

    69% of engineers go right to the source, the supplier’s, or the vendor’s website when researching a product or service. Research and information gathering happens in the early stages of their buying journey.

    sources used by engineers to find work-related information

    In short, an industrial website is the hub of your digital marketing strategy. It may be time for you to do a complete audit of your current website. It shouldn’t be limited to just technical issues for SEO. You should evaluate the following:

    • Is the core messaging an accurate reflection of your company today?
    • Do you have outdated information on products and services?
    • What do you want site visitors to do after they find your site? Expecting them to call or email you after the first visit is unrealistic.
    • Do you have clear calls to action for moving them logically through their buying journey?
    • Have you taken steps to minimize the number of clicks required for visitors to find relevant information?
    • Is the navigation intuitive and logical?
    • Can you improve the user experience?

    Honest answers to these questions will help you identify gaps in your website content and whether or not you should consider a complete industrial website redesign.

    Content preferences of engineers

    What sort of content do engineers use in making work-related decisions? When it comes to manufacturing content marketing, we often think of blog posts, white papers, e-books, etc.

    Surprise, surprise – the good old datasheets are still #1! This is followed by downloadable CAD drawings. I’ve already written a few posts about the value of the second item as an effective sales enabler. (See my previous post).

    Content preferences in marketing to engineers

    Video plays a dominant role in engineering marketing

    Looking at the above chart closely, you’ll see various forms of video mentioned. 96% of engineers consume videos for work-related purposes, with 53% watching one hour or more weekly.

    Time spent by engineers in watching videos

    Younger engineers, those 35 and under, tend to spend more time watching videos for work-related purposes.

    Younger engineers spend more time watching videos

    Also, check out 4 Reasons Why Manufacturers Use Video Marketing, published by ThomasNet.

    How to make content useful for your sales team

    So far, I’ve talked about how engineers consume content in digital marketing. Now, let’s look at how the sales team can use content to become more productive. If you are an outside industrial marketing consultant like me or an in-house marketer, you know it is challenging to get Sales to use the content you produce.

    I’m sure you’ve read this statistic before, but it is worth repeating. In 2013, Forrester reported that 60% to 70% of content produced by B2B marketing organizations goes unused. Even more startling was that many of their clients said that 80% of their content went unused. Needless to say, there’s a problem.

    I’m not going to repeat all that’s been written about creating synergies between Sales and Marketing. However, I did find two key takeaways from Allego’s report for making content more beneficial for the sales team.

    Making content more helpful for sales

    So there you have it—my take on why digital marketing to engineers is dominant today, backed by data from independent research studies.

  • Industrial Marketing: What Manufacturers Need to Know

    Industrial Marketing: What Manufacturers Need to Know

    Industrial marketing, or as some refer to it as manufacturing marketing, is very different from B2C marketing. In my experience working with manufacturers and engineering companies, I’ve found differences with other B2B marketing even though industrial is a subset of B2B.

    How is industrial marketing different from B2C and B2B marketing?

    (Source: CADENAS PARTsolutions. See the full infographic below)

    Industrial marketing frustrations faced by manufacturers

    I work with in-house marketers and management in manufacturing companies, so I hear some of their frustrations firsthand. Probably the most common complaint I hear is, “We’ve been working with a B2B marketing agency for a while now, but they seem to force-fit their strategies into our industrial business. That just isn’t producing the results.” 

    Marketing to engineers and technical buyers is a challenge. Yes, I understand and acknowledge the fact that you are still marketing to people, and of course, engineers are people too. However, they make work-related buying decisions differently from their personal lives even though the lines have blurred somewhat.

    Let me also put to rest a myth that engineers hate marketing. No, they don’t. I should know because I’m a Mechanical Engineer and have been in industrial marketing for 30+ years. However, engineers can easily see through marketing fluff, and they don’t react well to that.

    Understand the unique differences in industrial marketing

    By now, I’m sure you know that the industrial sales process is long and complex, and usually, a committee of stakeholders makes buying decisions instead of an individual. There are other challenges too. Let me zero in on two unique differences in industrial marketing

    • Specifier vs. functional buyer: You are most likely to run into this issue if you manufacture industrial components. Your part needs to be “designed in” and added to the Bill of Materials (BOM) by a Design Engineer before the Purchasing Department can send out RFPs and RFQs. In essence, you need to market the Specifier who doesn’t have the final buying authority. Engineers today are time-challenged and under tremendous pressure to do more with less while time to market has become shorter. As a manufacturer, you have to do everything you can to save them time and improve their design accuracy. (See Using CAD and BIM Files in Manufacturing Content Marketing)
    • Attribution issues: If you are an in-house manufacturing marketer, you have to prove ROI or Return on marketing investment (ROMI) to upper management. Showing charts and graphs from Google Analytics is not going to satisfy them. They want to see proof of growth in sales and revenues. That’s not an easy task in industrial marketing because of the long sales cycles and multiple touchpoints with different stakeholders. I’ve seen industrial marketers give 100% attribution to the last interaction since that’s how the sales lead was generated. I call this the “last click” syndrome. You will get a distorted picture of what is working and what is not with this method. I’ve also seen in-house marketers give up on measuring ROI because it is too complicated. You’ll need a Marketing Automation tool to track leads from start to finish for proper attribution.

    These two major differences in industrial marketing were key talking points in my presentation at the Industrial Marketing Summit as part of Content Marketing World.

    I could continue and write hundreds of words explaining more about what is industrial marketing. However, if you are a visual person, you will benefit a lot more by referring to this comprehensive and well-researched infographic by the team at CADENAS PARTsolutions. I’m honored to be quoted in it along with other industrial marketing experts.

    Infographic by CADENAS PARTsolutions

    Industrial Marketing

    You can download a PDF version of the infographic from here.

    This post and the infographic should give manufacturers an in-depth understanding of industrial marketing and its differences from B2C and general B2B marketing.

  • Industrial Blogging Requires Commitment and Perseverance

    Industrial Blogging Requires Commitment and Perseverance

    Industrial blogging is an important and integral part of manufacturing content marketing. Yet, I’ve found that many manufacturers and engineering companies are not willing to invest the time and resources for industrial blogging. I once had the VP of Business Development at a manufacturing company tell me, “This s**t doesn’t work.”

    The problem is not with industrial blogging, but in my experience, the fault lies with not having a clear understanding of a blog’s purpose and goals. Let me make it crystal clear—blogging is not a quick fix for not enough sales leads.

    Industrial blogging and B2B buyers

    You’ve probably read that blogging doesn’t play an active role in the industrial sales process. I look at it differently; let me share some independent research data on how B2B buyers interact with blogs to make my case.

    My sources are the 2020 Content Preferences Study published by DemandGen and the 12th Annual B2B Content Marketing Report published by the Content Marketing Institute. The findings are relevant to industrial blogging since both surveys included respondents from the manufacturing sector.

    The pandemic forced cancellations of many in-person tradeshows and face-to-face meetings, which meant the use of virtual conferences and Zoom meetings grew exponentially. So it shouldn’t surprise you to read some of the findings from the surveys.

    “B2B buyers increasingly look for credible ‘show-and-tell’ experiences to drive buying decisions.”

    DemandGen

    “The pandemic forced us to start content marketing and add marketing as a focus. We were previously very sales oriented.”

    Content Marketing Institute

    Key findings from both reports:

    • 67% of respondents said they rely even more on content than they did last year to research and make informed purchase decisions (DemandGen)
    • 77% read from 3 to more than 7 pieces of content before engaging with a salesperson (DemandGen)
    • 56% read blogs during their buying process, which puts it in the #3 spot with video at #1 (65%) and white papers at #2 (60%) (DemandGen)
    • 77% reported that their organization has a content marketing strategy. Of those, 58% said their strategy is moderately or slightly different now versus pre-pandemic (CMI)
    • 78% of small companies (1 – 99 employees) and 52% of medium companies (100 – 999 employees) have a small or one-person marketing/content marketing team serving the entire organization (CMI)
    • 61% of large companies (More than 1,0000 employees) indicated last year that they outsourced marketing activities. This year, the figure was up to 75% (CMI)
    • 65% of the respondents who outsourced said their top challenge is finding partners with adequate topical expertise (CMI)

    Role of blogs in content distribution and lead generation

    Past research reports have found the technical audience to be passive participants in social media. However, they do share blog posts with their peers. 36% share blog posts with their peers and colleagues, with LinkedIn being the most popular channel at 81%, followed by Email at 70% (DemandGen).

    A company’s website remains the primary channel for content distribution. However, a blog is the second most popular distribution channel, as seen in this chart from CMI.

    A blog is the second most popular channel for content distribution

    While lead generation continues to be the top priority for most industrial companies, manufacturing marketers are using content to achieve various goals. In my opinion, raising brand awareness, earning trust, educating less experienced engineers, winning their mindshare, and increasing subscribers, all play critical roles in generating high-quality leads that need nurturing to turn them into sales opportunities.

    Goals achieved by manufacturing content marketers

    Committed individuals launch manufacturing blogs

    Don’t assume that an industrial or manufacturing blog requires a big staff to launch and maintain. That is not always the case. Let me give you a real-life example of a blog from a manufacturer that two individuals started and have grown their blog into a highly respected source of technical information in their niche.

    Emerson Automation Experts Blog: As the name says, this blog is part of the multi-billion dollar global company, Emerson Electric Co. However, the blog was started by two committed individuals, Jim Cahill and Debra Franke (She has since left the company). The two of them worked tirelessly without any support from the upper management. They had to prove the value of blogging by taking baby steps at first.

    Emerson Automation Experts blog

    I’ve known Jim since 2007 and remember seeing his presentation at an American Marketing Association’s meeting. He shared a story with me, the gist of which went something like this, “…one of my blog posts generated an email about the early stages of a very large greenfield project and gave Emerson an early start in the sales process and an opportunity to help shape the vision for the project.”

    Today, a few other Subject Matter Experts from various fields contribute content. The blog now generates several unsolicited RFQs, which Jim routes to the proper sales organizations.

    Jim is the Chief Blogger, Surface Dweller, and Head of Social Media for Emerson Automation Solutions and has been blogging since 2006. The Emerson blog was named BtoB magazine’s Best Corporate Blog for 2010.

    As you can see, it takes time, dedication, and hard work for an industrial blog to produce results.

    I write about all things industrial marketing here and have been blogging since 2008. I now get 3.5x more traffic from this blog as compared to my company’s website. Blogging has boosted my organic SEO rankings and the bulk of my new leads are inbound leads from either this blog or people who find the blog first and then visit the company website. (I’ll be happy to share my story about why I have two sites. Let’s Talk).

    I help my clients set up their industrial blogs, develop a blogging strategy, and create/edit their blog posts. The research findings cited here and the example I have shared should convince you that industrial blogging does produce results but it requires a serious commitment of time and resources. Don’t blame the strategy if you are not willing to take a long-term approach and persevere.

  • E-Commerce for Manufacturers and Distributors—What You Need to Know

    E-Commerce for Manufacturers and Distributors—What You Need to Know

    Historically, e-commerce for manufacturers and distributors has been lagging with some exceptions. I know of two industries that have adopted e-commerce quickly—distributors of industrial automation products and electronic components.

    However, times have changed. Industrial manufacturers and distributors are poised to dive right into e-commerce. The pandemic has accelerated the trend towards online sales.

    According to an article published by PwC, “Two-thirds of U.S. manufacturers (66%) agree that implementing digital marketing and sales over the next two years is a “high” or “very high” priority.” (See chart below).

    Industrial e-commerce for manufacturers

    Why are industrial companies jumping on the e-commerce bandwagon?

    The pandemic has disrupted supply chains for many manufacturers, and there is still a lot of uncertainty about the long-term impact of the COVID-19 outbreak.

    The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) surveyed its members on the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak from February 28 to March 9, 2020, and reported some telling facts.

    COVID-19's impact on U.S. manufacturers

    Supply chain disruptions had a significant impact. When commenting on supply chain disruptions, respondents noted issues with parts arriving late and delivering to customers late as a result. While some say these disruptions are “manageable at this point,” they do create “some additional costs.”

    Many mentioned having to find “alternative suppliers,” and while disruptions are characterized as “minor now,” they are expected to become more serious “if slowdowns continue beyond next quarter.”

    So what does all this have to do with e-commerce for manufacturers and distributors? Glad you asked. Here are some positive statistics on this trend: (Source: Statista).

    Total manufacturing B2B e-commerce sales in the United States from 2016 to 2018 (in billion U.S. dollars)

    Total manufacturing B2B e-commerce sales in the United States

    E-commerce as percentage of total manufacturing shipments in the United States from 2010 to 2019

    Percentage of manufacturing e-commerce sales

    More statistics from Statista:

    • Manufacturing revenue amounted to 354 billion U.S. dollars in B2B e-commerce sales, with a growth rate of 23 percent from 2017 to 2018.
    • In 2019, e-commerce sales accounted for 67.8 percent of manufacturing shipments in the United States, up from the previous years.
    • In 2019, e-commerce accounted for almost 64 percent of total shipments in the machinery manufacturing sector.
    • In 2019, e-commerce accounted for over 67.6 percent of total shipments in the chemical manufacturing sector.

    Those are some big numbers, and one can’t just ignore them.

    Changes in industrial buying dynamics

    How have all these changes affected the industrial buying process? To understand that, I went to the source – UPS, after all, that’s “where the rubber meets the road” and downloaded their 2019 Industrial Buying Dynamics Study. They reported some interesting findings, many that were broken out by age groups.

    Millennials, Gen Xers, and Boomers all rely on a vendor’s website for information in the Research phase of their buying journey. Millennials supplement that source with social media, whereas the Boomers tend to reach for Sales Reps.

    The differences in buyer behavior by age don’t stop at the research phase. It influences the buying pattern too. Millennials are far more likely to purchase from manufacturers and online marketplaces (68 percent) than are Gen Xers (62 percent) or Boomers (54 percent). An online marketplace is an e-commerce site that connects sellers with buyers.

    You may be thinking that Boomers are quickly reaching retirement age, and you don’t need to market to them much longer, think again!

    A 2018 Gallup poll revealed that 41 percent of Boomers expected to work past age 65. (In 1995, only 13 percent of Boomers stayed on the job past 65.)

    You already know that Millennials are growing in numbers. However, they don’t have years of experience and the final buying authority like their senior colleagues. So for all practical purposes, Boomers will continue to wield buying influence, even if in diminishing numbers.

    I have written several posts about the importance of understanding the age difference among engineers. Read some of them if you want to learn more about this topic.

    It is not just age differences that influence the source of industrial purchases. The product type also matters in choosing the source, as seen in this chart from the UPS study.

    Product type influences e-commerce for manufacturers and distributors

    Looking beyond the numbers for industrial e-commerce

    Statistics are great for planning and strategizing, but what do those numbers mean in the real world? In other words, what are some of the advantages of online sales for industrial companies?

    Let me summarize what I have found based on several articles that I’ve read from trusted sources. But, more importantly, these findings align very well with what I’ve seen first-hand working with my manufacturing and distributor clients who have implemented e-commerce.

    • Add an extra revenue stream to your existing sales channels
    • Reduce the cost of selling
    • Scale up without increasing the size of your sales team and improve efficiencies
    • Use a mix of purchasing models – 100% online (research and buy online) and RoPo (research online, purchase offline)
    • Build stronger relationships with direct access to your customers
    • Provide a more personalized experience by tracking how site visitors shop online
    • Sell 24/7 and globally
    • Initial e-commerce sales can lead to bigger projects in the future

    Pitfalls to avoid in e-commerce for manufacturers and distributors

    I don’t want to make it sound like adding e-commerce to an industrial website is all there is to it. There are many moving parts to mesh together and take care of many details. I say that from my own experiences of creating e-commerce websites for manufacturers and distributors.

    Some of the challenges that I have seen are:

    • Integration – this is a big one, especially for distributors. Most use an ERP system to run their businesses. However, integrating the front-end site with the back-end ERP system usually requires custom programming, outside consultants, and sometimes, buying an API license. These costs can quickly add up; none of them are cheap and will take much longer to launch your e-commerce site than you expected.
    • Complex pricing structures – It is easy to add quantity discounts to a shopping cart. However, I’ve seen many manufacturers with very complex tiered and negotiated pricing structures. Most off-the-shelf e-commerce apps cannot handle these easily.
    • Channel partners – You could easily upset existing channel partners when selling directly to end-users. Therefore, one has to plan how you will continue to support your partners without cannibalizing their sales. At the very least, you may need to create a secured and private area accessible only to your authorized distributors and not visible to the public and search engines.
    • Business rules – Planning for MOQs (Minimum Order Quantities), shipping, payment processing, and sales tax can be time-consuming if you sell nationally and/or internationally through your online store. You also have to plan for regulatory compliance, return policies, and support (This may result in hiring and training more inside sales and support people).
    • If you build it, they will come  – This one is a classic mistake that I’ve seen companies make. Don’t build an e-commerce site unless you understand your customers’ journey in their buying decision. Read my post, Industrial Customer Journey and the Digital Experience for a good overview.

    To see examples of industrial e-commerce, read these two case studies where I worked on setting up e-commerce for my clients. The first one is for a manufacturer and is a straightforward e-commerce example, and the second one is for a distributor with ERP integration.

    1. Manufacturer Uses Online Sales to Add a New Source of Revenue and Grow Sales
    2. E-commerce Website for Distributor

    This post provides a good overview of what is involved in e-commerce for manufacturers and distributors, but there’s a lot more to it. So let’s talk if you are interested.

  • The Industrial Buyer’s Journey—What Manufacturing Marketers Need to Know

    The Industrial Buyer’s Journey—What Manufacturing Marketers Need to Know

    The Industrial buyer’s journey can be complex and typically involves a committee of decision-makers. Sometimes the sales cycles may be as long as 12 to 18 months, for example, custom-engineered systems. Of course, not all industrial sales take that long. You may want to read my earlier post on the industrial customer journey.

    The industrial buyer’s journey has changed

    Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 5 – 7 years, you’ve undoubtedly heard and read plenty about how most of the buyer’s journey is now done online while prospects remain anonymous. So naturally, these changes affect industrial marketing and the sales process. The pandemic has not only accelerated this trend, but some of the changes are expected to be permanent.

    Here’s a direct quote from the Future of B2B Buying Journey Report published by Gartner:

    “B2B buyers report spending exceedingly little time with sales reps. Considering the average deal involves multiple suppliers, any given sales rep has roughly 5% of a customer’s total purchase time.”

    Gartner

    The norm is to think of the industrial buy cycle as four discrete stages—1) Needs Awareness, 2) Research, 3) Consideration & Comparison, and 4) Procurement. That hasn’t changed, but the B2B buyer doesn’t go on a linear journey from one stage to the next.

    According to the same Gartner report, the B2B buying journey is much more complicated than that. It almost looks like a maze!

    Does this mean salespeople are obsolete now? No, not in my opinion, not in industrial sales, but their role has changed dramatically. There will always be a need for consultative selling where the sales rep adds value to the process and helps the buyer make a more informed decision. However, the prospect doesn’t need to and/or want to contact your sales team for product information. They’ll interact with your salespeople only when they are ready.

    The adage, “Buyer Beware,” has been turned on its head to “Seller Beware” because industrial buyers today are in self-select and self-serve mode.

    There is a built-in skepticism about what buyers hear from sales reps, and it varies by age group. The following chart from the Gartner report underscores this point.

    To understand the importance of the age difference among engineers, read my post, Industrial Content Marketing that Engages Engineers.

    What do manufacturing marketers need to know to adapt to today’s industrial buyer behavior?

    What can manufacturing marketers do to increase the effectiveness of their marketing given this shift in buyer behavior?

    Needless to say, the industrial website needs to be the hub of your digital marketing strategy. This point is reinforced by a finding from the 2021 Industrial Buying Habits Survey published by Thomas™.

    Pay close attention to the quote at the bottom of the chart from Thomas to understand what information buyers want from a vendor’s website.

    Online product configurators and downloadable CAD files play essential roles for industrial components and parts manufacturers targeting design engineers. (See Using CAD and BIM Files in Manufacturing Content Marketing).

    Product datasheets and specifications play a significant role in the early stages of the buyer’s journey. However, those alone cannot help you earn their trust and create a true differentiation when there is a parity in Value Proposition between vendors. That’s when you will need manufacturing content marketing to build strong relationships based on earned trust. That’s how your customers will begin to see you as a real “value-added partner” instead of just another supplier.

    Manufacturing marketers must take the time to understand the industrial buyer’s journey as it stands today for them to generate better quality leads that turn into sales opportunities.

  • 3 FAQs About Manufacturing Content Marketing

    3 FAQs About Manufacturing Content Marketing

    I understand you may have more than three Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about manufacturing content marketing. This post will focus on the three questions that my manufacturing clients ask me most often.

    To validate my own experiences, I’ll refer to research findings from the report Manufacturing Content Marketing Insights for 2021 published by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI).

    How will manufacturing content marketing improve our sales process?

    This is a broad question and really gets to the heart of the matter—Why bother doing manufacturing content marketing in the first place. Traditionally, most manufacturers have considered marketing as only sales support. It is difficult for them to reset their mindset that today we need a more hybrid approach where Sales and Marketing need to work together towards a common goal of growing sales and increasing revenues.

    This change has been forced upon them by the change in the behavior of industrial buyers. They prefer to remain anonymous for a larger portion of their buying journey and only interact with your sales team when they are ready.

    I have talked to manufacturers who think of manufacturing content marketing as the new way of doing organic SEO. The logic goes something like this, Get found in Google > Get visitors to the site > They’ll contact your sales team after the first visit.

    Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. There’s a big difference between discovery optimization (SEO) and conversion optimization (CRO), even though they are related. You are not using the full power of manufacturing content marketing if that’s your narrow understanding.

    Manufacturing content marketing needs to play a more active role in setting the table for Sales. It must achieve many goals for it to generate more qualified leads successfully. Here are the goals achieved by manufacturers in the past 12 months, according to the CMI report.

    Goals achieved by manufacturing marketers with content

    Why haven’t we seen any results from all the content we’ve created?

    How long it takes to produce measurable results with manufacturing content marketing is a significant area of concern and frustration. The problem as I see it is that decision-makers in manufacturing companies tend to think of this industrial marketing strategy as a campaign that they are accustomed to from the past.

    My answer to this question is always the same, “Industrial content marketing is a process and not a one-off campaign.” Let me expand on that a little bit to provide some clarity. It can take anywhere from 6 to 9 months, depending on the competition and the state of your own marketing. I’m upfront with my clients in telling them that it is not a quick fix for slow sales.  I recommend that they consider other options if they are not prepared to invest the time and money to do content marketing correctly over the long haul. I have mentioned this fact in a few of my earlier posts too.

    I also make them aware that they should expect and will see interim results such as more traffic to the site, top-of-the-funnel leads, fixing technical issues that may negatively impact engagement, and improving on-page SEO.

    Manufacturers have become better at content marketing over the years. However, many had to adjust their messaging and content because of the pandemic. Here are three key findings and a chart from the CMI report.

    • 39% of respondents said that their companies were in the sophisticated/mature phase of content marketing maturity as compared to 29% last year
    • 70% of manufacturing marketers surveyed changed their targeting/messaging strategy in response to the pandemic
    • 69% of manufacturing marketers surveyed think the pandemic will have a significant or moderate long-term impact on their organization’s overall content marketing success

    Manufacturing content marketing maturity

    How can we do content marketing when we have limited bandwidth?

    The time crunch is a constant one for manufacturers because marketing is not their primary job. Their Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are busy doing what they do best and don’t have time to create content.

    You are not alone if you feel that way if that’s any consolation. More than half the manufacturers have small teams serving the entire company and they may also be handling other marketing responsibilities.

    Team size among manufacturers for content marketing

    It shouldn’t surprise you that 61% of manufacturing marketers indicated that they outsourced at least one content marketing activity. Content creation is the activity outsourced most often.

    Most putsourced content marketing activity by manufacturing marketers

    There’s another problem manufacturers must deal with because of the technical nature of their business and the target audience of engineers and industrial professionals—Finding the right partner.

    Challenges faced by manufacturing content marketers

    One thing to keep in mind is that content creation is not the same as content marketing. It is not just a matter of copywriting and or clever wordsmithing. There are many more aspects, such as a deep understanding of how engineers and industrial buyers make work-related decisions, interviewing SMEs to extract the key talking points, converting those bullet points into cohesive content that is technically accurate and presented logically, knowledge of SEO, and content distribution.

    I have published articles on each of those aspects of manufacturing content marketing. Search this blog, and you should be able to find those posts.

  • Industrial Customer Journey and the Digital Experience

    Industrial Customer Journey and the Digital Experience

    Understanding the industrial customer journey is essential to the success of digital marketing with content. Based on my conversations with manufacturers, I sometimes get the impression that it is just a marketing exercise to them and is not taken seriously. Why do I say that? Let me give you two examples.

    Example #1: Conversation with the VP of Business Development of a manufacturer of industrial mixers and agitators.

    Me: “How long is your sales cycle?”

    VP: “Oh, it is just a matter of a week or two for us to get an RFQ or PO after we’ve talked to the right decision-maker(s).”

    He was either clueless or chose to ignore the time it took for the prospect to go through his or her process or journey before deciding to contact this manufacturer. The concept of mapping the customer journey was alien to him, and he told me that it was a waste of time.

    Example #2: Conversation with the National Sales Manager of a manufacturer of Butterfly and Control valves.

    Me: “How do you define a qualified lead?”

    Manager: “I don’t consider a prospect a lead until we have a serious conversation about putting together a quote.”

    He couldn’t care less about top-of-the-funnel Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs), nurturing them into Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) before handing them off to Sales. All he was interested in are leads that were ready to buy. (See my article, “SAL is the Glue that Binds Sales and Marketing in Lead Generation.”)

    FYI: I published that article in December 2010, and it is still the third-highest visited post after more than ten years. Talk about the power of blogging!

    Industrial buy cycle and the customer journey

    The industrial buy cycle consists of four distinct stages, at least that is the conventional definition. The stages are:

    1. Needs Awareness
    2. Research
    3. Consideration & Comparison
    4. Procurement

    According to the research done and published by THOMAS™ for industry (Thomas Publishing Company), the industrial buying process is now made up of 6 stages. Their version applies to all industrial buyers—Engineers, MRO, and Purchasing professionals in companies of various sizes and industries.

    Industrial buying process - ThomasNet

    Now, you may be saying to yourself, “Okay, it has grown from 4 to 6 stages. No big deal.” Wait, things get a lot more complicated because engineers and buyers face many challenges at each stage, and they present new opportunities for the supplier. Look at this chart from another ThomasNet presentation.

    Industrial customer journey & challenges

    Personal buying experiences influencing industrial buying expectations

    Buyers of generators, pumps, motors, etc., expect the same kind of easy access to digital information, search capabilities, and comparison features that they are familiar with and similar to their personal online buying experiences. Anything less, and the visitor is off to another site with a click of the mouse.

    I recently read a fascinating white paper published by Accenture. They defined this change in industrial customers’ expectations as Industrial Consumerism. I think that’s a brilliant and apt label.

    Here’s a direct quote and an illustration from the white paper, which was published in 2016.

    “By 2020, thanks to a seismic shift in customer expectations, B2B companies will need a completely different approach to driving growth. Is your sales and marketing organization ready?”

    Industrial consumerism

    Conventional differentiation of the past where industrial companies relied on superior product features, may no longer be enough. Today, they must leverage newer technologies to better understand the customer journey and meet the digital expectations of industrial buyers who are in self-serve and self-select mode.

    The Accenture report identified areas where digital technologies will have the most significant impact and where gaps exist.

    Impact of digital technologies on industrial companies and existing gaps

    Enter the 4th Industrial Revolution and the COVID pandemic

    If the changes in industrial buyer expectations weren’t enough, the 4th Industrial Revolution has brought about significant digital disruptions in industrial sales and marketing. The COVID pandemic of 2020 has only accelerated some of these changes, and many will become permanent.

    Klaus Schwab, executive chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF), introduced the concept of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in his article which was first published in Foreign Affairs in December 2015.

    Most manufacturers and engineering companies are playing catchup when it comes to digital disruptions. That extends well beyond just sales and marketing. Some companies have taken the lead and embraced digital initiatives in transforming their industrial sales and marketing strategies to better align with customer expectations.

    I came across the article “Industrial Firms Need to Give Their Customers a Digital Experience,” published in the Harvard Business Review which cited several good examples. Here’s one:

    Linde AR App“Linde, a global industrial gases and engineering solutions company, developed an augmented reality (AR) application to engage customers and facilitate the sales conversion process. Their tool uses AR to give customers a ‘live’ experience with the company’s cryogenic freezers by projecting an image of the freezer into the customer’s factory setup. While clarity on dimensions within the actual production space had previously driven a lengthy sales process, Linde’s use of AR has helped customers get over the conversion hump and improved the overall purchase experience.”

    Also, read my earlier post, “Manufacturing Marketing in the Age of Industry 4.0.”

    The importance of mapping the industrial customer journey

    Google the phrase mapping customer journey, and you’ll get 245,000,000 results as of writing this post. Obviously, there’s a ton of information out there. However, information or someone’s opinion doesn’t easily translate into actual action.

    The point is, there are no shortcuts when it comes to understanding the customer journey. Apply those insights to rethink your industrial marketing strategies and sales processes to deliver a better experience to your customers and align well with their expectations.

    You can read some of my earlier articles on industrial content marketing to learn more about using this strategy for engaging with industrial buyers at every stage of their customer journey.

  • Industrial Marketing—You Want Coaching With That?

    Industrial Marketing—You Want Coaching With That?

    Industrial marketing coaching is something I’m asked about often, especially in the past 6 to 8 months. The headline of this post is my tongue in cheek attempt at the famous McDonald’s® age-old question, “You Want Fries With That?”

    It was a simple marketing strategy that worked brilliantly for upselling and continues to make millions of dollars a year for the company. It became so popular that McDonald’s® held a contest in 2011 to celebrate it.

    My strategy of turning an existing service, industrial marketing consulting into coaching is really more in response to meeting the needs of my clients rather than upselling. Either way, it is working!

    The need for industrial marketing coaching

    Why are manufacturing marketers asking me for coaching instead of traditional consulting? The answer can be best explained by giving you actual examples of different people who are now active coaching clients.

    1. The General Manager of the US subsidiary of a German manufacturer of electrical interface products needed me to coach him to reach new customers in industries outside the German parent’s niche. He had enough in-house resources to implement tactics but needed my help and guidance with building brand awareness in North America, earning trust with his target audience and generating quality leads.
    2. An outside marketing consultant for a manufacturer of protective packaging knows her client’s operations well and is very well versed in current digital marketing tactics. She needed my help to take their industrial marketing to a higher level because both the management and she felt strongly that they could and should be getting more value from their marketing spend.
    3. A newly appointed Director of Marketing at a service provider of gearbox and industrial repair of heavy rotary equipment needed my help to improve her skills at industrial marketing and putting together a solid marketing plan. She’s a Mechanical Engineer herself and has experience working in various departments in a customer-facing role but was brand new to her role as a Marketing Director.

    As you can see from these three examples that each client has different needs and goals, but they all need my insider’s knowledge in industrial marketing with an outsider’s objectivity to take their own marketing skills up a few notches.

    What they want is my 30+ years of hands-on experience marketing to engineers and industrial buyers and not some untested, pie in the sky marketing theories.

    Industrial marketing coaching vs consulting

    While there is a lot of overlap between coaching and consulting, and it can be confusing for many, I think it is worthwhile to understand the difference, so you can have a more realistic expectation.

    As a consultant, I use my 30+ years of proven experience and expertise in industrial marketing to provide you solutions to a specific marketing problem or problems, quickly and efficiently.

    As your coach or trainer, I first take the time to ask probing questions to understand your strengths, identify areas that need improvement and then help you maximize your own skills to succeed in industrial marketing.

    As a coach, I’m not there to compete with you but augment and amplify your own marketing skills to help you become better at marketing to engineers and industrial buyers.

    It’s like the old proverb, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”

    On-demand industrial marketing coaching and training

    Over the past few months as I’ve been coaching these clients, some new ideas have cropped up in my mind based on additional questions that I have received. Most have to do with how different people learn at their own pace.

    My current service is live, one-on-one coaching that is tailored specifically to each individual client. However, I have also been asked if I could provide on-demand video coaching and training that they can watch and learn at their own pace.

    There are two big differences here:

    1. Live coaching is specific to a client’s business whereas on-demand training is based on my experience working with different clients. It is up to you to adapt what you learn to your needs and situation.
    2. Live coaching costs $2,850 for a block of 15 hours which doesn’t ever expire, and you use it as you need it. Prerecorded video training will be at a lower cost and you’ll have unlimited access to the videos and can view them whenever you need to.

    The first training video I’ll be releasing this year is called Industrial Content Marketing – Practical Training. Right now, it is about 3 hours long which may grow by the time the final version is released. I’m trying to make the training videos into bite-sized modules with easily digestible information in each, instead of one long session. The plan is to release one new industrial marketing coaching and training course every quarter.

    I haven’t decided yet what the price structure will be for on-demand video training. That’s where I need your feedback to help me refine my on-demand industrial marketing coaching and training videos. I’m going to add a few free valuable bonuses to the training videos so that you get more value from them. Stay tuned.

    If you provide your name and email address, you’ll be the first to know when training courses are released, and I’ll probably include an “early bird discount” coupon.

    [qsm quiz=2]

  • Unique Challenges in Manufacturing Content Marketing

    Unique Challenges in Manufacturing Content Marketing

    Manufacturing content marketing has its own challenges and frustrations as many industrial marketers have experienced. I touched on some of them in my last post about writing technical blog posts.

    While the age-old problem of “What should we write about?” still exists, new research findings show a myriad of other challenges. Some of these may not be unique or specific to manufacturing content marketing, but most do apply in my experience.

    I’ll come back to the problem of finding relevant content topics a little later in this post.

    Long vs short posts in industrial blogging

    Industrial blogging is usually a central part of any manufacturing content marketing strategy. I came across a new research report published by Orbit Media Studios. It is called [New Research] How has Blogging Changed? 5 Years of Blogging Statistics, Data and Trends.

    It is chock-full of data and useful information about the state of blogging today. A few of the findings are contrary to some long-standing beliefs. For example, keep posts easy to read and help with quick scanning by using bullet points.

    The new research found that the average blog post in 2019 was 1,236 words long. That’s 53% longer than six years ago!

    post length in industrial blogging

    It is not surprising then that bloggers are now spending more time writing blog posts than in the past. The average blog post takes 3 hours and 57 minutes to write which is 30 minutes more than 2018 posts and is up 65% since 2014.

    Average time spent writing posts

    It probably doesn’t include the time to do research, interview Subject Matter Experts, find or create appropriate images, editing and distribution—steps that you have to repeat for each new post. Yes, that is a lot of work.

    You may want to seriously consider outsourcing technical blog post writing if you already have a lot on your marketing plate.

    Manufacturing content marketing is too focused on top of the funnel (ToFU)

    Many manufacturing content marketers have learned some hard lessons about the ineffectiveness of the “One-size-fits-all” industrial content marketing strategy. Yet, according to the Manufacturing Content Marketing 2020 report published by the Content Marketing Institute, only 40% of manufacturing marketers always or frequently create content for specific stages of the customer journey.

    Manufacturing content marketing for buyer's journey

    Related to this problem is the fact that 50% of the content created by manufacturing marketers is for the early stages of the buyer’s journey. Most of the effort is for the ToFU results, the low hanging fruit if you will.

    Only 36% of the content created is for mid-funnel (consideration/intent) and late-stage (evaluation/purchase) of the buying decision.

    Manufacturing content marketing for ToFU

    I had written another post that addressed this issue of putting too much focus on ToFU. See Content Marketing for Manufacturers: Are You Using its Full Power?

    The other big challenge is the lack of ROI or proving it. It is complicated to correctly attribute industrial marketing’s contribution to sales and revenues when sales cycles are long and complex with multiple stakeholders involved. Correct attribution is a big problem in manufacturing content marketing. Follow the link in this paragraph to read my post about this issue.

    Content consumption by key decision makers in industrial sales

    Conventional wisdom says key decision makers don’t have time to read content. That simply isn’t true when targeting an engineering audience.

    Here’s a chart from the 2019 study, How Engineers Find Information 2019 published by engineering.com.

    The study found that the more authority a respondent has in the decision-making process, the more total information they consumed.

    Content consuption of decision makers in industrial sales

    While engineers tend to consume more short form articles, long form articles and recorded videos are at #3 and #4 respectively, so they aren’t too far behind.

    Content formats preferred by engineers

    How to find relevant topic ideas for industrial blogging and content creation

    Unlike the world of B2C marketing, there isn’t a lot of data available on industrial customer behavior and their content consumption.

    You do keyword research and build your list of focus keyword phrases, secondary and tertiary keywords, that’s the bare minimum these days. However, I have seen some industrial marketers just skip this step because they are so focused on writing about their latest solution or the greatest product since sliced bread.

    How do you get a pulse of your technical audience? What content are they consuming? Those are important questions when it comes to creating relevant content for engaging with technical professionals.

    I want to give a shoutout to David Fortino, SVP Audience and Product at NetLine Corporation. He and his team have created an incredibly valuable tool, the Audience Explorer. They call it the only real-time interactive buyer engagement tool that helps B2B content marketers outsmart the competition. Best of all, it is FREE.

    You can pick and choose your exact target audience and geographic markets. The results update in real time as you make your selections and returns a wealth of useful information to help you personalize your content and make it engaging for your target audience.

    For example, I started with the broad category of engineering as the type of buyer. Then drilled down and refined my audience with these selections:

    • Job Function > Design Engineering and Mechanical Engineering
    • Industry > Aerospace/Aviation, Automotive, Manufacturing, and Utility/Energy
    • Job Level > C-Level, VP, Director, Manager, and Consultant
    • Region > Canada, Latin America, Mexico, UK, and US
    • Employee Size > 100 – 249, 250 – 499, and 500 – 999

    Results: Total Buyer Content Recommendations (last 180 days): 4,861 (Based on content consumption associated to available NetLine client content.)

    I think this screenshot is self-explanatory for the rest of the results.

    Audience Explorer for technical content marketing

    Give Audience Explorer a try. Note how you can get information on not just high-value content such as white papers and case studies, but it could also spark some ideas about blog post topics in support of those content assets for lead generation.

    My company Tiecas, has partnered with NetLine to offer industrial marketers a service called Content-Centric Lead Gen. See if it might help you.

    Yes, there are some challenges that are unique to manufacturing content marketing and industrial blogging. I hope this post will set you on the right track knowing some of the pitfalls to avoid.