Industrial Marketing Today

JULY 23, 2010

Rule #1: Natural or organic search engine optimization (SEO) In the research phase of the industrial buying cycle , engineers and industrial buyers tend to use broad keywords and phrases that describe their current problem. Passive reading of your content will not move the prospect any closer to his/her decision to buy from you.

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Rules Marketing Websites Marketing Automation Services Web 2.0 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MAY 6, 2011

It was reassuring then when the findings from Machine Builder Research and Buying Study 2011 done by Control Design mirrored what I’ve been hearing from my industrial clients. Yup, social media does work in the industrial sector, sometimes. This one left me scratching my head. It is definitely worth it.

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Design Work Management Marketing Management Paid Search Agency 60

Industrial Marketing Today

OCTOBER 9, 2012

These work best for middle of the sales funnel (MoFU). Project galleries with photos that have informative captions describing the work done, size and the location of each project. Even if they tried replicating your content marketing strategy, knowledge, experience and expertise are not easy to buy.

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Top of Funnel Differentiation Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 60

Industrial Marketing Today

AUGUST 27, 2012

This has worked great in the past but the Internet and digital marketing have changed how that process works today. The industrial buy cycle has not changed. One thing is certain; “business as usual” is not working in the industrial sector. However, the way potential buyers look for information has.

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RFP Peer-to-peer High Quality Lead Lead Scoring 60

Industrial Marketing Today

APRIL 22, 2010

That business model works for a while but in the long-term, it fails badly. You can buy the book from Amazon and visit his site at www.distributiontrap.com. For decades, business and management gurus have preached that manufacturers should focus on core competencies and innovate to remain competitive in a global market.

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Distribution Web 2.0 Lead Ranking Privacy Policies 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JUNE 12, 2010

ThomasNet study, 2006) For IT solutions in excess of $50,000, the most wanted data in the early stage awareness was price ( Source: Joint study done by MarketingSherpa and Enquiro , 2007) Today, a majority of industrial buying decisions begin online. This was second only to downloading product data sheets.

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Sales Management Pricing Price Marketing Websites 60

Industrial Marketing Today

APRIL 15, 2011

Downloadable CAD files have played a major role in components and parts being designed in – a key and necessary step in the industrial buying process. Working with PARTsolutions to deliver 3D Part Catalog Technology continues to benefit our business and bottom line.”. Now that’s truly relevant and engaging content.

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Lead Ranking Work Management Lead Scoring Marketing Management 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MARCH 16, 2012

Generating new leads, qualifying and nurturing them until they turn into a RFQ is too much work for them. Here are the steps I go through to change their minds and have worked well for me: Step 1: Give them an overview of what inbound marketing is all about and how it differs from traditional outbound marketing.

Lead Management 60

Lead Management Lead Ranking Lead Scoring Sales Qualified Leads 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MAY 21, 2010

As a B2B marketer, we want to reach our ideal prospects and communicate with customers to maintain top-of-mind awareness throughout their buying cycle. Stick to a posting schedule – Work out a posting schedule based on your workload and in-house resources. A B2B blog is the perfect online tool to accomplish that.

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Web 2.0 Buying Cycle B2B Blogger 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MAY 15, 2012

I have found this particularly true with marketing that targets engineers and industrial buyers where the buying process is long and complex with several stakeholders involved. (See my post, “Making Industrial E-mail Marketing More Relevant” ).

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Social Media Paid Search Agency Email Marketing Social Marketing 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MAY 14, 2010

Here are seven content marketing strategies that you can use to engage your prospects and move them forward in their buying cycle. Customize them to suit your particular product line, which makes it much easier to specify and buy your valves. You can see a working example on my client, Schulte Building Systems’ site.

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Webinar Metrics Marketing & Strategy Marketing Strategy Product 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MAY 31, 2010

Here’s an example from my post titled “Deconstructing the Four Stages of the Industrial Buy Cycle.” Out-of-the-box settings will work just fine for beginners and advanced users can fine-tune everything. Yes, that’s my affiliate link and I earn beer money if you use it to buy. You can get the Thesis Theme for WordPress from here.

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Optimization SEO Buying Cycle Web 2.0 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JUNE 3, 2010

It doesn’t matter whether you work for a corporate marketing department or the owner of a small business website. You spend countless hours, weeks and months working with the site designers developing site maps, wireframes and mock ups – but content? Is your website redesign project on hold waiting for marketing to deliver content?

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Marketing Websites Web 2.0 Work Management Buying Cycle 60

Industrial Marketing Today

AUGUST 20, 2010

Sure, they are human beings like the rest of us but they have very different emotional triggers and needs when it comes to making work-related decisions. Here are my top five industrial marketing lessons: Lesson #1: Save them time Most engineers, especially design engineers are already overloaded with work.

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Web 2.0 Planning Buying Cycle Lead Scoring 60

Industrial Marketing Today

OCTOBER 1, 2011

I know how strange that might sound, but for most companies, leads mean more work and very little to show for it. The two need to work together in setting up rules for lead scoring that closely match reality and more importantly, refine them over time with constant feedback to create a closed-loop system.

Top of Funnel 60

Top of Funnel Inbound Marketing Bulldog Solutions Lead Scoring 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MARCH 8, 2011

Building a thriving online community around your social media strategy takes a lot of hard work. In addition, their target audience wants volumes of reliable information that they can use to make their daily work easier. And the results of all this hard work? See Ben Begin Building a Pinball Machine.

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Communities Peer-to-peer BtoB Sales Qualified Leads 60

Industrial Marketing Today

AUGUST 26, 2011

Ergo, these people are too busy at work and couldn’t be bothered with anything that is deemed as interruption marketing. After all, every industrial marketer would like hordes of interested visitors swarming to his/her website, eager to sign up for free content and engage in a meaningful conversation at every stage of their buying cycle.

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Inbound Marketing Paid Search Agency Companies Ad Frequency 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JULY 29, 2009

What’s working for you? B2B Lead Generation Using a Business Blog Variety of Content is the Key in the Early Stages of the Industrial Buy Cycle Content Auditing and Mapping it to the Industrial Buy Cycle Is Your Industrial Website Still Just a Business Card? So, I’m leaning more towards Seth’s point of view.

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Social Networks Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Web 2.0 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MAY 1, 2012

You’ve done all the hard work of optimizing (SEO) your industrial website and now you have a steady stream of traffic to your site. A better content marketing strategy is to focus on answering the needs of your visitors and helping them frame the decision at the very early stages of their buying cycle. Congratulations!

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Traffic Marketing Analytics Tools Buying Cycle Lead Scoring 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MARCH 23, 2012

That’s because the way your industrial customers interact with you during their buying cycle has changed significantly over the past few years. Have an open and honest discussion with 2 or 3 companies on your short list to get a good feel for how they work, their grasp of your industrial customers and their industry experience.

Marketing Websites 60

Marketing Websites Marketing Budget Creation Budget Programs Marketing Proposals 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JULY 14, 2010

BTW, this post is a working example of content curation. A lot of critics seem to think it’s the lazy way out – but good curation is hard work, and as Ann Handley says, sifting through the huge mountain of information to pick out the best stuff is really valuable to people. Where do you stand on this debate?

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Industrial Marketing Today

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

To apply that quote in his work, Dr. Norr says, “ Once I understand a customer’s pain, I can point out how specifically my expertise can eliminate that pain. It’s not about making them buy; it’s about giving them the opportunity to buy a solution to s[ol]ve their problem.”. Hallelujah! Couldn’t have said it any better.

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Advertising Agencies Paid Search Agency Work Management CMO 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JANUARY 26, 2010

Consider hiring a coach or an SEO expert to work up a strategic plan that you can execute. The bottom line is for your content to engage your prospects and customers at every stage of the buying cycle. Unless your prospects can find your site when searching in major search engines, you are dead in the water.

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Rules Marketing Websites Web 2.0 Buying Cycle 60

Industrial Marketing Today

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

Of course, you don’t have to copy word for word any of the examples from above, you are the only one who can decide which approach works best for your product, service or list. You’ll receive your first issue immediately even if it is 2:00AM on a weekend.

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Email Marketing Web 2.0 Planning Opt-in 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MAY 26, 2011

I’m sure that’s not by accident but the result of forward thinking and a lot of hard work on the part of content marketers in those industries. However, their biggest impact is in the late stages of the industrial buy cycle and are not very effective in the early phases. Convert application notes into short how-to videos.

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Product B2B Thought Leadership Cross-Selling Thought Leadership 60

Industrial Marketing Today

AUGUST 16, 2011

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

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Social Media Effectiveness Media Work Management 60

Industrial Marketing Today

OCTOBER 7, 2010

Marketing’s role in interacting with prospects has expanded and goes further into the buy cycle than before. Especially now since industrial and technical buyers are relying more and more on online resources for their decision making process. This has resulted in fewer direct interactions with sales reps from vendors.

Lead Ranking 60

Lead Ranking Lead Scoring Sales Qualified Leads Marketing Qualified Leads 60

Industrial Marketing Today

OCTOBER 20, 2011

Similar studies have shown that engineers and industrial professionals prefer more peer-to-peer interactions for work-related purposes. Building a community forum is one of the content marketing tactics that you can use to move industrial prospects and leads through their buy cycle.

Communities 60

Communities Paid Search Agency Peer-to-peer Companies 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JULY 20, 2010

Working in small teams, the fifth graders first engaged in what creativity theorist Donald Treffinger describes as fact-finding. Then, problem-finding — anticipating all potential pitfalls so their designs are more likely to work. The students had four weeks to design proposals. How does sound travel through materials?

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Creativity B2B Marketing Lead Ranking Lead Scoring 60

Industrial Marketing Today

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

As part of a new Web design project that I’m working on for an engineering company, I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the past two weeks reviewing Websites of well-known engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) companies. Obviously, whatever they are doing is working to post those kinds of numbers despite the recession.

Rules 60

Rules Paid Search Agency Companies Content Marketing 60

Industrial Marketing Today

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

As part of a new Web design project that I’m working on for an engineering company, I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the past two weeks reviewing Websites of well-known engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) companies. Obviously, whatever they are doing is working to generate those kinds of numbers despite the recession.

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Paid Search Agency Companies Content Buying Cycle 60

Industrial Marketing Today

OCTOBER 2, 2010

Email strategy: Milwaukee Tool worked with email service provider (ESP) ExactTarget in developing an aggressive email campaign containing links to product videos. needed to drive more repeat visitors of its target audience of retailers, distributors, contractors and other building professionals.

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Email Marketing Planning Web 2.0 BtoB 60

Industrial Marketing Today

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

As a result, they are not as involved in the hands-on design work of their earlier years. Variety of Content is the Key in the Early Stages of the Industrial Buy Cycle. Site content for future needs. As engineers progress through their careers, they take on more management responsibilities.

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Marketing Websites Wiki Content Buying Cycle 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MARCH 11, 2011

Identifying where a prospect is on the buying cycle is sometimes difficult because there are long periods of silence with little to no online activity to track. One solution that I’ve found to work well is to reengineer your existing content to focus on answering the “What’s in it for me (WIFM)?”

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Industrial Marketing Today

JUNE 17, 2011

There is tremendous amount of resistance from the sales team to any kind of change that is perceived as affecting their livelihood, feeling of being relegated to the very end of the buying cycle and the loss of control over the way they have been doing their jobs.

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Industrial Marketing Today

DECEMBER 17, 2010

This works especially well with engineers who are very comfortable with flow diagrams. Force-fitting content into a new site design has never worked for me. See Variety of Content is the Key in the Early Stages of the Industrial Buy Cycle. There are times when I’ll create a schematic of the entire site structure.

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CMS Development Marketing Websites Marketing Budget Creation Work Management 60

Industrial Marketing Today

AUGUST 24, 2010

The chart below shows how engineers and industrial buyers use the Internet in work-related purchases ( Source: 2010 GlobalSpec Industrial Buy Cycle Survey ). Manufacturers and industrial companies have now realized that the vast majority of their target audience is online during a major portion of the buying cycle.

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Marketing Websites Marketing Budget Buying Cycle Web 2.0 60