Industrial Marketing Today

DECEMBER 7, 2010

Here’s the shocking reality of B2B lead generation – 79% of marketing leads never convert into sales opportunities. B2B marketing and lead generation experts point to a lack of lead nurturing as the primary cause of this poor performance. Why is lead nurturing important? What is lead nurturing?

Lead Nurturing 60

Lead Nurturing Lead Generation Sales Qualified Leads Marketing Qualified Leads 60

Industrial Marketing Today

APRIL 21, 2010

How does one generate high quality, educated leads, not just site visitors on a marketing budget that is less than 1% of the projected revenue? Over the past six months, their website traffic is up 89%, their free download program is up over 200% and they’ve generated over 1,500 leads. All I can say is WOW!

Budget Programs 60

Budget Programs Education Marketing Budget Lead Scoring 60

Industrial Marketing Today

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

Home Marketing Matters About Contact B2B Marketing Store Company Website B2B Lead Generation Using a Business Blog by Achinta Mitra on September 20, 2010 in B2B Lead Generation , Industrial Marketing Blog In B2B lead generation, quantity versus quality is probably the biggest challenge faced by industrial marketers.

Lead Generation 60

Lead Generation Business Blogging Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 60

Industrial Marketing Today

OCTOBER 7, 2010

Lead scoring has become very important in today’s B2B marketing. Marketing’s role in interacting with prospects has expanded and goes further into the buy cycle than before. Lead scoring, a key component of lead nurturing and management, is an effective tool for aligning sales and marketing.

Lead Ranking 60

Lead Ranking Lead Scoring Sales Qualified Leads Marketing Qualified Leads 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MAY 11, 2010

A vast majority of the survey respondents reported that outbound tactics outperformed inbound initiatives for generating qualified leads. I am wondering if it is a result of the age-old disagreement between sales and marketing on the definition of a qualified lead. This one caught me by surprise.

Sales Cycle 60

Sales Cycle Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads B2B Sales 60

Industrial Marketing Today

SEPTEMBER 13, 2010

In Needs Awareness and Research phases, the first two stages of the industrial buy cycle (see my earlier post Deconstructing the Four Stages of the Industrial Buy Cycle ) your prospects and customers use a variety of online content to find solutions to their current problems and needs.

Buying Cycle 60

Buying Cycle Marketing Automation Services Peer-to-peer Web 2.0 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MAY 7, 2010

Organizations are spending considerable amounts of time and money on tracking and measuring lead generation metrics. Organizations are spending considerable amounts of time and money on tracking and measuring lead generation metrics. However, the role of B2B marketers is changing and evolving more into revenue generation.

Lead Generation 60

Lead Generation Sales Qualified Leads Web 2.0 B2B Marketing 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JULY 9, 2010

Let’s get one thing straight from the get go, if you are in a declining market with low demand for your products and services, no amount of automation will help you generate new leads. I’ve seen too many marketers crash and burn because they believed that by “automating” all of their lead gen problems would be over.

Marketing Automation Services 60

Marketing Automation Services Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Marketing Automation 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JANUARY 25, 2012

Here are some marketing content ideas for helping your buyers move closer to the procurement stage of the industrial buy cycle. They are very good for engaging with prospects and leads that are at the top and the middle of the sales funnel. Online product configurators. How to Order” part number builder.

Top of Funnel 60

Top of Funnel Buying Cycle Lead Ranking Digital Marketing Funnels 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. Your prospects will find pricing information even without your help.

Sales Management 60

Sales Management Pricing Price Marketing Websites 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JUNE 29, 2010

Relevant marketing content – key to thought leadership Positioning your company as a thought leader is critical in complex technical sales that have long buying cycles with many decision makers involved. Analytics is the new marketing creative!

Relevance 60

Relevance B2B Marketing Web 2.0 Brand Identity 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JANUARY 26, 2010

Is it so outdated that you avoid sending prospects and customers to your site? It goes well beyond just cutting costs, today, it is more about accountability, analytics and engaging customers and prospects by using free or inexpensive social media tactics. Nothing will turn off your prospects more than outdated and stale content.

Rules 60

Rules Marketing Websites Web 2.0 Buying Cycle 60

Industrial Marketing Today

OCTOBER 21, 2010

If you believe everything you read (and lately there’s been a lot) about marketing automation, you’d think it is the killer app to solve all your lead generation problems. Then there are scores of B2B marketers who swear by inbound marketing as the path to lead generation nirvana. How manufacturers are marketing today. It scored 8.6

Marketing Automation Services 60

Marketing Automation Services Inbound Marketing Marketing Automation Top of Funnel 60

Industrial Marketing Today

APRIL 26, 2010

Now, B2B content marketing’s agenda is to educate and inform customers and prospects. Educate, inform and provide value to customers and prospects. Instead of interrupting people with television ads, inbound marketers create videos that prospects want to see. The old ways of pushing out content is no longer effective.

Marketing Budget Creation 60

Marketing Budget Creation B2B Marketing Web 2.0 Marketing Budget 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MAY 14, 2010

How do you shift the focus from you or your company to your prospects and customers? Here are seven content marketing strategies that you can use to engage your prospects and move them forward in their buying cycle. When you do that, your B2B marketing content will also move the prospect closer in their buying process.

Webinar Metrics 60

Webinar Metrics Marketing & Strategy Marketing Strategy Product 60

Industrial Marketing Today

AUGUST 17, 2010

After all, that’s how your prospects and customers will find your blog and/or Web site. Because B2B and industrial buyers tend to be more sophisticated in the use of online content in making their decision over the entire buying cycle. I am referring to optimizing customer engagement in B2B marketing.

Optimization 60

Optimization Web 2.0 Planning Buying Cycle 60

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. This will lead to your visitors bookmarking your site for future reference and becoming a valuable resource.

Rules 60

Rules Marketing Websites Marketing Automation Services Web 2.0 60

Industrial Marketing Today

OCTOBER 25, 2011

B2B and industrial marketers are usually tasked with two main responsibilities: Fill the top of the sales funnel (ToFU) with high quality leads. Maximize the middle of the funnel (MoFU) for converting more leads into sales opportunities. This was followed by Lead Generation (ToFU) at 48% and Lead Nurturing (MoFU) at 40% (See chart).

Top of Funnel 60

Top of Funnel Marketing Funnels Content Marketing High Quality Lead 60

Industrial Marketing Today

AUGUST 27, 2012

For the sake of simplicity, I’ll refer to it as digital marketing in this post and state that content is what drives this engine for generating qualified leads and creating sales opportunities. The industrial buy cycle has not changed. However, the way potential buyers look for information has.

RFP 60

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

Industrial Marketing Today

JULY 20, 2010

by Achinta Mitra on July 20, 2010 in B2B Marketing Collateral , Content Marketing , Industrial Marketing Strategies , Integrated Industrial Marketing , Sales Strategies To be successful in industrial and B2B marketing, one has to engage with prospects and customers in a meaningful manner. Prospects will tune you out until that happens.

Creativity 60

Creativity B2B Marketing Lead Ranking Lead Scoring 60

Industrial Marketing Today

OCTOBER 1, 2011

They agree it helps them get found in search engines early and often, drives hordes of traffic to their site and fills the top of their funnel with qualified leads at a lower cost per lead. I know how strange that might sound, but for most companies, leads mean more work and very little to show for it.

Top of Funnel 60

Top of Funnel Inbound Marketing Bulldog Solutions Lead Scoring 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MAY 31, 2010

Just building a business blog is not going to help you drive traffic or generate leads. You need to optimize it for search engines in order for your target audience to find your B2B blog (see my earlier post, “How to Use a B2B Blog to Win Customers and Influence Prospects” ). Get the free “Step-by-Step Guide to Website (re)Design” now.

Optimization 60

Optimization SEO Buying Cycle Web 2.0 60

Industrial Marketing Today

OCTOBER 2, 2010

They are combining video, audio and sophisticated tracking tools to deliver email campaigns with highly customized messages that engage prospects in their preferred format and measure interactions beyond just open and click-thru rates and well into website behavior. WHEN : When on the sales cycle do you expect to engage with your prospects?

Email Marketing 60

Email Marketing Planning Web 2.0 BtoB 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JULY 29, 2010

Also see a very interesting post from Junta42, “Engage and Inspire Employees First, Customers Second.” ) Because of the longer cycles and the complexities of B2B and industrial sales, marketers find it very difficult to associate leads to specific marketing content. Get the free “Step-by-Step Guide to Website (re)Design” now.

B2B Marketing 60

B2B Marketing Top of Funnel BtoB Peer-to-peer 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JULY 6, 2010

What I do want to talk about here is the how and not the why of you should translate your features into tangible benefits if you want your marketing content to engage with prospects and convert them into customers. students at Harvard: “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.&#

Features 60

Features Web 2.0 Planning Work Management 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JUNE 3, 2010

The site redesign cycle of frustration Here’s a typical site redesign scenario: Our current site is more than 3 years old > Let’s do a redesign > Review new design mock ups > Love that cool new look with the scrolling thingies > Let’s launch the new site ASAP > What’s that “lorem ipsum dolor sit amet” on our pages? >

Marketing Websites 60

Marketing Websites Web 2.0 Work Management Buying Cycle 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MAY 18, 2010

Leave a Comment Previous post: 7 Strategies for Using Content to Market Industrial Products Next post: How to Use a B2B Blog to Win Customers and Influence Prospects FREE Marketing Guides Engineers Can Sell™ White Paper: Most people are skeptical about associating engineers with sales.

B2B Marketing 60

B2B Marketing Web 2.0 Planning Demand Generation Agencies 60

Industrial Marketing Today

APRIL 30, 2010

Additionally, when marketers create a nurturing program across the buying process, each new lead should start at the beginning of the program with touch 1. Think about new “arrangements&# of content as resource centers for prospects and/or customers. Get the free “Step-by-Step Guide to Website (re)Design” now.

Planning 60

Planning B2B Marketing Emarketing B2B 60

Industrial Marketing Today

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

Digital marketing has also changed how industrial and technical buyers behave, search and consume information that they need at different stages of the buy cycle. Here’s how I see the impact of the changes: Industrial buyers are using more and more online resources for initiating and going deeper into the industrial buy cycle.

Social Media 60

Social Media Social Marketing Media Planning 60

Industrial Marketing Today

AUGUST 26, 2011

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. Inbound marketing requires prospects to be actively searching for products and solutions.

Inbound Marketing 60

Inbound Marketing Paid Search Agency Companies Ad Frequency 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MAY 3, 2010

One way or another, you want it to be an integral part of your industrial marketing efforts in generating leads and driving sales. Lead them to it. How effective has it been for generating leads? I’m assuming you want your business blog to be more than just a personal journal. Do you want them to sign up for your newsletter?

Business Blogging 60

Business Blogging Web 2.0 Long Tail Marketing Business 60

Industrial Marketing Today

OCTOBER 20, 2011

I’ve written about both these companies in the past and how they are successfully using this social media channel to connect with engineers and generate high quality leads for sales. 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

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

White papers and other lead nurturing content are rare finds on these sites (exception being Fluor, they have done a great job on their case studies). That’s how their prospects and customers identify themselves in a very familiar way.

Rules 60

Rules Paid Search Agency Companies Content Marketing 60

Industrial Marketing Today

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

White papers and other lead nurturing content are rare finds on these sites (exception being Fluor, they have done a great job on their case studies). That’s how their prospects and customers identify themselves in a very familiar way.

Paid Search Agency 60

Paid Search Agency Companies Content Buying Cycle 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MARCH 23, 2012

We spent a lot of money on SEO and PPC programs but our site hasn’t generated good quality leads. That’s because the way your industrial customers interact with you during their buying cycle has changed significantly over the past few years. We put up a website because all our competitors have one.

Marketing Websites 60

Marketing Websites Marketing Budget Creation Budget Programs Marketing Proposals 60

Industrial Marketing Today

OCTOBER 13, 2010

What does that have to do with lead generation and content marketing? Traditional lead generation tactics usually involves creating some valuable marketing content such as a white paper to use as a giveaway for the purpose of collecting names and email addresses. How then do you generate leads if you set your content free?

Lead Ranking 60

Lead Ranking Leads Lead Marketing Qualified Leads 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MARCH 11, 2011

Tweet The challenge for many industrial marketers is making their content relevant to their prospects and customers. Industrial sales cycles are usually several months long and involve numerous people in different roles. Yet, these are qualified prospects so you can’t just discard them.

Relevance 60

Relevance Terms and Conditions Buying Cycle Content 60