June 2019 - StepUp

Nowadays, strategic marketing for engineers and industrial professionals has changed dramatically. Engineers mostly use the internet for seeking information about technologies, products, or services, which is why industrial marketers increasingly turn to online and content marketing. And as GlobalSpec’s 2019 Smart Marketing for Engineers Survey demonstrates, the importance of digital marketing cannot be overstated. In this article, we take a look at the survey’s most effective strategies, show you exactly how engineers prefer to consume your marketing, and how to gain a competitive edge using this information.

Dive Deeper: The Global Growth Methodology for Industrial Companies

Best Ideas: Strategic Marketing for Engineers

1. Embrace Content Marketing

It is clear that engineers regularly seek to consume content, most of it in digital form. This runs the gamut from vendor websites to trade publications, newsletters and so much more. That’s why content marketing is an integral part of any successful industrial marketing strategy.

2. Use Alternative forms of Content

Datasheets, cast studies, product demos, and how-to videos are the most preferred content types for engineers. And it makes sense, knowing how engineers are bottom-line thinkers, always looking for informative, dense, to-the-point content.

3. Use Newsletters

When it comes to newsletters, the statistics are hard to argue with. Across all age groups, 86% of engineers are subscribed to 2 or more newsletters, 87% of which they browse through or fully read. So maintaining a regular newsletter and inviting engineers to subscribe, is an opportunity that is too good to pass up.

4. Keep an Up-to-date Website

The survey shows that engineers find supplier/vendor websites the most valuable source of information, outranking even search engines and technical trade publications. This is why companies must have a website with a professional look and feel, coupled with informative and original content. These factors are important in building trust with engineers and can highly influence their decision-making.

5. Strive for Brand Awareness

Maintaining a uniform brand presence throughout all media is very important. For uniform visuals, invest in your brand’s logo & visual guidelines. Equally important is to invest in having a content marketing style guide, to ensure uniformity of content as well. With those two combined, you are guaranteed to keep your message consistent. This will ultimately breed brand trust and familiarity with engineers and industrial professionals, to your benefit.

6. Reach Out to Prospects Fast

Engineers are constantly dealing with challenges requiring immediate solutions. Once an engineer shows interest in your product or service, reach out to him as soon as possible. The ideal response time is immediate and up to 8 hours, although not always possible in our connected world of different time zones. However, as a rule of thumb, it’s best to reply within 24 hours.

7. Engage With Them Regularly

A large portion of engineers are either decision makers themselves or influence the purchasing decisions of industrial companies, mainly influenced by online content. That’s why it’s important to regularly engage with engineers through valuable and informative content, mainly achieved through inbound marketing and publishing material such as articles, newsletters, blog posts and white papers.

Gain a Competitive Edge

Research clearly shows that targeting engineers and industrial professionals is a very effective strategic marketing method for b2b companies. However, companies are often hesitant to take a deeper dive into this area. After all, targeting highly technical audiences requires specialization and skill, which can be challenging to master.

Now is your chance to act on this information. Today more than ever, getting the attention of engineers from all over the world can be achieved easily and quickly, using customized inbound marketing methods. But at the same time, you need to act fast, while the market is still new to inbound marketing targeted to technical audiences. This will ensure you stay ahead of the competition, giving you a competitive edge.

Do you want to create a proven industrial marketing strategy?

Advertising was never about just increasing sales. Increasing brand awareness, reaching a larger audience, and establishing trust, are just a few of the reasons organizations are traditionally advertising for.

In the context of modern industrial marketing, advertising occupies a similar space. But this is where the similarities end. The advent of technology makes a big difference in if, why, and how industries advertise today.

Should industrial companies consider advertising in their marketing budget? We think so. Read along to find out what we believe is the modern role of advertising in industrial marketing.

Dive Deeper: The Global Growth Methodology for Industrial Companies

5 Reasons to Advertise in Industrial Marketing

1. Increase Brand Awareness

Very few things guarantee brand persistence like remarketing campaigns. These are the repeatable ads you see following you around the web after you visit a certain page. They are a great tool to make your brand look big. A word of caution though: don’t overdo it with remarketing campaigns. They can sometimes be perceived as a pressing tactic and make it backfire.

2. Expand Audience Reach

Promoting your content on social media is a great tactic to enter a new market or expand your audience. And since it only requires to know how – and a bit of planning – it is a very cost effective method as well. Platforms like LinkedIn have made reaching out to new and targeted audiences easier than ever. You just need a solid social media strategy and great content that gets your message across.

3. Accelerate Sales

We’ve all been there. Standing on the fence, needing just a little push to help us make a purchasing decision. It’s the same with industrial companies decision makers. And strategic use of ads can greatly accelerate their buying decisions. To achieve just that, you must follow both new leads and existing sales opportunities. Showing them targeted case studies and branded content will greatly affect their purchasing decisions to your benefit.

4. Generate Hot Leads

It’s no accident that Google Ads have become the new advertising standard. Tools like AdWords and Analytics allow advertisers to target audiences with pinpoint accuracy. Coupled with the appropriate keywords for your field, these ads can generate hot and relevant leads. However, as simple as it may sound, defining the most appropriate keywords requires advertising to know how.

5. Test New Marketing

Marketing and advertising can drain your budget as fast as you allow them to. You should direct resources only to marketing that is effective for your case. That’s why it’s important to be able to test before deploying a new marketing strategy. And this is a significant advantage of online advertising: it offers fast testing and measurable results. These are your tools to check which advertising strategy works and direct your resources to the one that yields the best results.

Targeting the Right Audience

In marketing, it is often said that “if you’re talking to everybody, you’re reaching nobody”. Meaning that a targeted approach is always effective. After all, advertising is yet another tactic to accelerate marketing results; and targeting the right audience is the best way to achieve just that.

But it can only work if you know who your audience is. So the first thing to do is define your customer persona. Following that you need to tailor a solid marketing strategy. Only based on this strategy can you lay down actionable marketing and advertising plan. This will be your guide to delivering content that creates value for both you and your potential customers; which is what will truly accelerate your business.

Do you want to create a solid industrial marketing strategy?

Month: June 2019

7 Best Strategic Marketing Ideas For Engineers and Industrial Professionals