Industrial Marketing Today

JANUARY 3, 2012

This is my first post in 2012 and I want to start the New Year by answering a perennial question about content marketing for manufacturers and industrial companies. The answer – create a content series. There are many advantages to this content marketing strategy. Fresh Content = Better SEO. Repurpose your content.

Long Tail Marketing 60

Long Tail Marketing Thought Leadership Content Marketing & Strategy 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JUNE 22, 2011

I’ve heard some of my manufacturing clients call their subscribers free content leads. I’ve also read articles by other industrial marketers where they recommend using free content to generate new leads. IMO, these people have merely raised their hands to indicate some interest in your company, content and the free offer.

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Sales Qualified Leads Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Top of Funnel 60

Industrial Marketing Today

SEPTEMBER 12, 2011

Yet, many of these industrial companies are struggling to implement digital marketing because of lack of relevant content. What I have learned is that these companies need help with content in digital marketing at many levels. Manufacturers are dealing with some big issues when it comes to content for digital marketing.

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Paid Search Agency Marketing Management Content Buying Cycle 60

Industrial Marketing Today

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

I figured these companies would be great examples of marketing with content. What I found was somewhat contrary to conventional content marketing practices. Free and valuable content is usually in-depth technical articles written by engineers and not produced by marketing as bait for capturing someone’s contact information.

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Paid Search Agency Companies Content Buying Cycle 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MAY 26, 2011

In general B2B and technology (software and IT) marketing, there is usually a well-defined path for lead generation and nurturing with content. These B2B marketers seem to have a bottomless well of content to tap into. Manufacturers of industrial products struggle when it comes to generating a steady flow of fresh marketing content.

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Product B2B Thought Leadership Cross-Selling Thought Leadership 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. Unfortunately, the answer is a big NO.

B2B Marketing 60

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

Industrial Marketing Today

SEPTEMBER 3, 2010

Home Marketing Matters About Contact B2B Marketing Store Company Website Content Auditing and Mapping it to the Industrial Buy Cycle by Achinta Mitra on September 3, 2010 in B2B Lead Generation , Content Marketing , Industrial Marketing Strategies , Integrated Industrial Marketing These days it is popular to say “Content is marketing currency.”

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Buying Cycle Buy Marketing Budget Web 2.0 60

Industrial Marketing Today

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

I figured these companies would be great examples of marketing with content. What I found contradicts the rules of content marketing as practiced today. Free and valuable content is usually in-depth technical articles written by engineers and not produced by marketing as bait for capturing someone’s contact information.

Rules 60

Rules Paid Search Agency Companies Content Marketing 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. We are all used to seeing case studies and they are powerful marketing content. Definitely not.”

Relevance 60

Relevance B2B Marketing Web 2.0 Brand Identity 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MAY 5, 2010

That however is only part of the solution because if your content doesn’t engage the visitor s/he won’t take a desired action to move forward in the sales cycle. said it best when she wrote, “Passive reading of your content is not going to help online marketing initiatives shorten buying cycles or increase customer acquisition and revenues.”

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Sales Cycle Web 2.0 Buying Cycle Privacy Policies 60

Industrial Marketing Today

NOVEMBER 3, 2011

I am seeing more manufacturers and industrial companies willing to try inbound marketing with content. Some companies need help setting up their business blogs but for most, the biggest obstacle is creating content. One way to get over this hurdle is to repurpose some of your existing content into blog posts.

Marketing Websites 60

Marketing Websites Curation Ad Exchange Case Study 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 14, 2010

Home Marketing Matters About Contact B2B Marketing Store Company Website 7 Strategies for Using Content to Market Industrial Products by Achinta Mitra on May 14, 2010 in Content Marketing , Industrial Marketing & Web 2.0 , Industrial Marketing Blog I am a big fan of Content Marketing or as some people like to refer to it as Inbound Marketing.

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Webinar Metrics Marketing & Strategy Marketing Strategy Product 60

Industrial Marketing Today

FEBRUARY 12, 2012

Lead nurturing is usually done by sending out helpful content to prospects and moves them from the top of the funnel (ToFU) to the bottom of the funnel (BoFU) where they are ready to make a purchase decision. Manufacturers find it difficult to produce good lead nurturing content. Some refer to this as “drip marketing.”.

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Lead Nurturing Sales Management Top of Funnel Sales Qualified Leads 60

Industrial Marketing Today

OCTOBER 2, 2010

Develop your email marketing strategy first Before you begin developing customized content and using sophisticated analytics, the first order of business is to develop a sound and sustainable email marketing strategy. Each has its own pain points and needs the right content to address them. WHAT : What do you expect your list to do?

Email Marketing 60

Email Marketing Planning Web 2.0 BtoB 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JULY 12, 2011

If you use a blog as part of your inbound marketing with content , focus more on real pain points of your customers. Use case studies to help your audience identify a problem that they may not be aware of and lower their skepticism about vendor claims. He sent it to me as helpful content as part of his lead nurturing program.

Marketing Management 60

Marketing Management Paid Search Agency Comparison Inbound Marketing 60

Industrial Marketing Today

DECEMBER 7, 2010

Content is what drives the lead nurturing engine. It is not just about posting a bunch of white papers, case studies, online demos and webinars on your website and hoping that someone will download and read. How do you nurture leads? Lead nurturing and its best practices is a vast subject.

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Lead Nurturing Lead Generation Sales Qualified Leads Marketing Qualified Leads 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MARCH 29, 2011

You can make this content ungated (doesn’t require registration) to help visitors specify your products long after their first visit. Use a mix of free and gated content to qualify and nurture your visitors. Do they need help finding the right part number? Do they need assistance with an application? Try to put this above the fold.

Marketing Websites 60

Marketing Websites Web 2.0 Sales Qualified Leads Lead Nurturing 60

Industrial Marketing Today

APRIL 22, 2010

I also found a fascinating video interview on Andrew’s blog that really drives home the point with a case study featuring Mr. Fred Whyte, President of STIHL Inc. You can buy the book from Amazon and visit his site at www.distributiontrap.com. The interview is split over four videos.

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Distribution Web 2.0 Lead Ranking Privacy Policies 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JANUARY 26, 2010

This trend towards lower-cost content marketing is likely to continue well into 2010. Create fresh content: Don’t copy-paste static brochureware text and put it on your website. Nothing will turn off your prospects more than outdated and stale content. Search engines love sites with constantly changing fresh content.

Rules 60

Rules Marketing Websites Web 2.0 Buying Cycle 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JULY 23, 2010

Today, technical buyers and engineers expect suppliers to have a substantial online presence with a website packed with relevant content in a variety of formats and easily searchable. The key here is to serve up relevant content that matches the prospect’s state or stage on the decision making process.

Rules 60

Rules Marketing Websites Marketing Automation Services Web 2.0 60

Industrial Marketing Today

APRIL 11, 2011

Are you paying too much attention to content marketing strategies and not enough to the details? Strategic planning and analysis does sound a lot more glamorous than writing content filled with nitty-gritty product details. I can just hear content purists groaning because product specifications and features lack emotional hooks.

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Content Marketing Proposals Case Studies Case Study 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MARCH 11, 2011

Tweet The challenge for many industrial marketers is making their content relevant to their prospects and customers. It is not possible to automatically trigger content when there are no regular behavioral patterns to measure and score. Why is industrial content reengineering important?

Relevance 60

Relevance Terms and Conditions Buying Cycle Content 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MAY 11, 2011

For one thing, you don’t have a ready-library of product data sheets, engineering and performance information to use as relevant content. Highlighting completed projects and a few case studies seem to be the norm. Building thought leadership with technical content. There is very little to differentiate one from another.

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Thought Leadership Marketing Management Peer-to-peer Service 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JULY 8, 2012

One caveat to the above rule of thumb – a page for downloading case studies probably will have a very high bounce rate but that doesn’t mean it is bad. It must provide relevant content that will help your site visitors make interim decisions and move them in a logical manner towards an RFQ or contacting your sales team.

Marketing Websites 60

Marketing Websites Sales Qualified Leads Lead Ranking Leads 60

Industrial Marketing Today

OCTOBER 10, 2011

One of the big draws of inbound marketing with content is that it helps a website get found early and often by its target audience. Search engines and SEO will drive traffic to your industrial site but it is your site’s content that must convert it into qualified leads. After all, why would you create a site that no one can find?

Marketing Websites 60

Marketing Websites Sales Qualified Leads Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 60