Industrial Marketer

Not every customer or prospect touch point is created equal in the world of industrial marketing. That's one of the reasons you should be leveraging real-time marketing to meet prospects and customers on their terms. Real-time marketing is a way for your company to stand out in the onslaught of data.

Your industrial workforce recruitment messaging is actually pretty simple: Tell people why they should want to work at your company, and tell them why people stay. The hard part is ensuring your company can articulate its purpose and has an “employer of choice” culture.Here are the great articles mentioned in the podcast:What those new hires who don't work out running fromWhat it means to be an employer of choiceWhy you should rethink your old hiring rules

In the latest edition of the Industrial Marketer Podcast, co-hosts Joey and Nels offer suggestions on how to get started with webinars, which can be especially effective for long buying cycles and niche manufacturing marketing. They are a preferred method of gathering information, create a dialogue with qualified leads, nurture relationships, and have high conversion rates.

The technology behind targeting can be intimidating for industrial marketers who deal with complex buying journeys. The Industrial Marketer podcast offers up a three-step approach to help you get started. It includes dipping your toe into the intent/big data waters, a little bit of account based marketing, and a whole lot of importance on personas.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools lead the forefront of current marketing conversations in 2023. Joey and Nels are diving into how they can be used by industrial marketers and what you need to know to be prepared for the coming revolution. 

With apologies to the Magi, co-hosts Joey and Nels offer up manufacturing marketing holiday gifts from the Indusrti in the form of industrial gold, marketing frankincense, and wisdom myrrh.

It may be a surprise to manufacturers that social media advertising can be a strong driver of growing prospects or even conversions. But the rich data in social media is a fertile testing ground for custom audiences. The Industrial Marketer podcast explains.

 Google Analytics 4 is not just an update of the popular, free web traffic tool. GA4 is an entirely new platform. Since Google has not made major changes in its analytics in 10 years, this is kind of a big deal. For many marketers, Google's current version, known as Universal Analytics, is all they know. The Industrial Marketer Podcast breaks down what you need to know about this important transition. 

The key to the awareness phase in industrial marketing is getting on the prospects' radar screen. Another way to think of it is as the Attraction Phase. You want the prospect to be attracted to your brand and how you will meet their needs. For both the prospect and the marketer, that means the awareness phase messaging should be about solving problems, getting answers and meeting needs. Listen to this episode of the Industrial Marketer Podcast to learn more.

The pandemic forced a massive, two-year pause in the industrial trade show world. And while we learned that we need to do a much better job of treating our websites like an always-on exhibit, we also learned that the in-person aspect is difficult to replace. In the latest edition of the Industrial Marketer Podcast, co-hosts J

The incentive for adding video to the mix for your manufacturing marketing comes down to three key factors: people prefer visual learning, search algorithms increasingly reward sites with video content, and users engage through video at much higher levels than with other forms of content. In this edition of the Industrial Marketing podcast hosts Joey and Nels discuss 5 ways manufacturers can leverage video in their marketing.

Industrial buyers have high expectations when they visit your manufacturing website. They want to learn how you can help alleviate their pain points and that you will be able to answer their specific questions. They want to see what your products can do for them, and they want as little friction as possible in being able to configure a solution, get a rough cost estimate and determine if you are a serious contender for their business. This episode of the Industrial Marketer Podcast discusses how to meet their expectations.

You can improve your chances for a successful hiring campaign if you follow these three guidelines. Effective recruitment starts with: 1) defining your employer brand, 2) clarifying your candidate personas, and 3) developing your strategic playbook. The Industrial Marketer podcast offers up a roadmap. 

The industrial buying journey has evolved into buying committees and an extremely elongated, complicated process. That makes the consideration phase especially crucial for sorting out who you will be doing business with.

As the world has become more digital, the industrial buying journey has become more complex. It's an elongated, non-linear process that usually involves multiple stakeholders from each prospective company or current client. The stakeholders are doing massive amounts of online research independent of each other before anyone engages with the seller. That means it is more important than ever to understand who you are marketing to and when those touchpoints are taking place.

Don't let your clients' hesitancy to divulge sensitive information stop you from sharing your successes with the marketplace. In this episode, the Industrial Marketer podcast offers suggestions on ways to replace the traditional metric-driven case study with testimonials and success stories. These are powerful pieces for your digital content library that awaits prospects who are increasingly doing research on your website.

A good content plan has become an essential starting point for industrial marketing as the industrial buying journey has become more elongated and complex, and more buyers are doing a majority of their research online before engaging with companies. And while there are more content channels and types of content than ever, putting together a content plan does not have to be complicated. The Industrial Marketing Podcast takes you through a simple process for creating a content plan.

The elongated buying journeys in the industrial sector are a great argument for using a customer relations management tool. The many touchpoints and check-ins during the journey provide fuel to power your CRM engine, and that data eventually helps you make insights about the best sources for customers and key points in their buying journey.

Developing an Ideal Client Profile not only helps you align your sales and marketing strategies and tactics, it also can help reduce the risks and unintended consequences that come with bringing on new clients. The Industrial Marketer podcast helps you get started.

Co-hosts Joey and Nels give thanks to advances in the industrial marketer sector, from clients embracing new mindsets and technologies to the evolving nature of trade shows and the industrial companies that have become agile and made the most of unexpected opportunities throughout the past two disruptive years.

Lead scoring for industrial marketers doesn't need to be complex or mysterious for it to be effective. It needs to account for whatever in your typical buying journey triggers when a prospect transitions from interest to intent.

Account Based Marketing (ABM) is not based on nurturing leads, but on nurturing accounts. It's about working through the many relationships in the complex industrial buying journey: the decision maker, the end user, the influencer, the CFO, the procurement department, etc. Joey and Nels explain in the latest episode of the Industrial Marketer podcast.

Joey and Nels delve into the seven types of sales collateral industrial marketers need to equip their sales team through a typical industrial sales cycle.

The Industrial Marketer podcast explains how the ability to “cross track” data points helps you harness marketing data and turn it into actionable insights. You might learn that one qualified lead actually was responsible for four unqualified leads and discover what was the original source of their interest.

Industrial distributors should market themselves based on what value they provide to customers and how they differentiate themselves from competitors, not what products they offer. This is essential as digital becomes the dominant sales channel. 

A successful industrial marketing strategy starts with goals and objectives and seeks to answer how those results can be achieved. Key components for executing against your strategy include content, channels and distribution, and tools to measure and analyze the outcomes.

The industrial sector of our economy is unlike any other. So it comes as no surprise that its well defined segments and elongated buying cycles make lead generation a challenge. In this episode, the Industrial Marketer Podcast looks at how to bring an “industrial” lens to a variety of marketing tactics.

In this episode, we talk about five things that every manufacturer can do to improve their lead generation. The costs are minimal but they will involve a commitment of time and, perhaps, education. But there is a lot of value in these activities.

No matter how scant your budget, here are 10 actionable items marketers on the frontliners can take to boost digital marketing for manufacturers.The reference to the industrial buying cycle is here.

Trends come and go quickly in marketing, but one truism holds: Email is king in B2B marketing. No other tactic comes close to combining the power of distribution, engagement and prospect information gathering.A couple of interesting stats about B2B email marketing:Email is the third most influential source of information for B2B audiences, behind only colleague recommendations and industry-specific thought leaders.86% of business professionals prefer to use email when communicating for business purposes.Click-through rates are 47% higher for B2B email campaigns than B2C email campaigns.59% of B2B marketers say email is their most effective channel in terms of revenue generation.

The Industrial Marketer podcast scratches the surface on the topic of social media for manufacturers. One tip: Authenticity is the key to social media, and it means different things on different sites. Finding the right tone is important on every channel, and it will be different from the tone on your website.

Much like the larger world around us, the manufacturing and industrial information ecosystems have become very fragmented. People consume information in all sorts of ways through all sorts of channels. In this episode, the Industrial Marketer Podcast looks at combating fragmentation by taking a holistic approach to search engine marketing. Plan your paid search investments to align with and coincide with your organic search efforts. Make sure your paid search is properly targeted to marry up with your content marketing to reinforce how your solutions help your prospects and customers. Consider the many ways you can target paid search:GeographyTiming, including these parameters:Buying cycling; when you need to get prospects into your lead gen funnelSeasonalTrade publication editorial calendarsEvents and trade showsCustomer segmentsProduct launches PersonasTargeting your paid search increases the odds that you will bring people to your good work and what you have been building toward.

A competitive analysis looks at product, sales and marketing strategies for you and your competitors. The Industrial Marketer Podcast in this latest episode will help you get started by looking at the tools and technologies available and how to frame an analysis in terms of goals and perspective. But the benefits of a competitive analysis really can be simplified by asking these questions:Where do my competitors show up?How do my competitors get visibility/traffic?Where are they that I am not?Where am I where they are not?The internal diagnostic is an important foundation in a competitive analysis. It will show you where you are strong in the market, and then you can layer in your competition. With both in hand, you can tweak your tactics and dial up or down marketing and sales initiatives.

What do industrial marketers need to know about CRM tools? Here's a hint: technology improves your overall equipment efficiency (OEE), and an ERP streamlines your inventory and production schedule. A Customer Relationship Management system provides data for how long it takes to get through your marketing funnel or a sales cycle, information about your close rate and why deals don't close, such as responsiveness or competitor price. 

You rely on data for insights into your manufacturing operation; your sales operation should be no different. Industrial sales enablement is about discipline and processes. The ability to know the value of leads by varying sources, and how they move through the funnel at different speeds, allows you to more effectively experiment with your sales and marketing tactics. We'll help you with what industrial sales enablement is, what it isn't, and how you can get started. And we offer up Joey Strawn's top 10 tools that industrial marketers should possess in order to enable their sales teams:Sales DecksMarket ResearchCase StudiesTarget Persona OutlinesSales ScriptsBlog PostsProduct/Service SheetsOne-PagesCompetitor Comparison GuidesVisualized Customer Journey Map

The ROI for industrial marketing begins with understanding the difference between data and analytics. The essentials for determining your ROI for industrial marketing include:Have tracking in place so you know where your leads come from.Develop a lead scoring system to determine what are your best leads and where they come from.Track conversions, which is extremely important for the long buying cycles in the industrial and manufacturing sectors.

A professional website that focuses on customer solutions is now a cost of doing business for manufacturers. Ideally, your content is at the intersection of what you want to convey and the questions prospects ask about how to solve their pain points.These top the list for must-dos:Provide searchable content that is customer-focused.Leverage SEO.Design for mobile.And these top the list for don'ts:Assume a prospect knows what your company does.Make it all about your company.Underestimate the power of video.Links mentioned in the episode:Nearly three-quarters of respondents in a survey say they are conducting more than half of the buying process online before choosing to speak with someone at a company.https://www.globalspec.com/advertising/trends-wp/SMFE_2020

It's always been difficult for manufacturers to communicate what they do through their name and branding. We look at the importance of visual branding to let industrials know what you do and how you can help them.

Co-hosts Joey Strawn and Nels Jensen look at the unique aspects of marketing to manufacturers, including the narrow target audiences, and how content plays a key role in educating different personas through the elongated buying process. Links to mentions in the show:Website usage increase for sales:https://blog.thomasnet.com/industrial-distributor-website-examples-that-increase-salesIncrease in digital spend by manufacturershttps://mediaradar.com/blog/b2b-industries-increasing-spend/Industrial Marketing Budget Guide:https://industrialstrengthmarketing.com/industrial-marketing-budget-guide-2021/Explanatory video of metal forging:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKz7FFIduYcSandvik Coromant site:https://www.sandvik.coromant.com/en-gb/pages/default.aspx

Co-hosts Joey Strawn and Nels Jensen discuss trends in manufacturing and digital advertising, and how the two intersect in ways that will impact marketing stakeholders in 2021.Links: 5 Trends in Industrial Sales and Marketing You Don't Want to Miss in 2021https://industrialstrengthmarketing.com/insights/articles/5-trends-in-industrial-sales-and-marketing-you-dont-want-to-miss/Manufacturing growth in digital spend in 2020:https://mediaradar.com/blog/b2b-industries-increasing-spend/Manufacturing investment in equipment in 2020: https://www.ismworld.org/supply-management-news-and-reports/news-publications/inside-supply-management-magazine/blog/2020-10/report-on-business-roundup-september-manufacturing-pmi/89 percent say they are not going back to old tactics:https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/survey-global-b2b-decision-maker-response-to-covid-19-crisis

Industrial Marketing is not simply B2B marketing for manufacturing and distribution. Industrial Marketing involves a narrow audience and a long buying cycle. Many manufacturing companies have an engineering-driven culture that traditionally focuses on product features as opposed to customer solutions.

Joey and Nels discuss what developments from the many disruptions in 2020 are carrying into 2021 and beyond in terms of manufacturing and digital marketing. Hint: We are not reverting to pre-pandemic tactics. Each of the hosts also offers up worthy content entities for you to read and engage with.Joey's suggestions for digital media tipsThe HubSpot BlogSocialMediaExaminerIndustrialMarketerNels' suggestions for learning about the industrial sectorsThe Z Axis column from Modern Machine Shop editor Peter Zelinski. @z_Axis_MMSMarketing Maven's newsletter and blog. @MarketingMaven2Manufacturing Marketer by Gardner Business Media @GardnerBizMedia

The Industrial Marketer Podcast is about the intersection of digital marketing and the industrial and B2B sectors. Experts and practitioners in the the field, co-hosts Joey Strawn and Nels Jensen discuss how The Industrial Marketer show came about and set the stage to share trends, tips and tools to help stakeholders such as:Sales and marketing managers focused on qualified leadsMarketing doers who have been delegated a wide range of tactical activitiesAgency professionals who may not be familiar with the sector