Industrial Marketing Today

JANUARY 3, 2011

Getting found by more prospects that are actively looking for solutions that your products/services can provide. Showcasing in-house subject matter experts with blog posts written by your engineers, product designers and customer support people. It is easier and quicker to get your blog posts indexed than adding more Web pages.

Top of Funnel 60

Top of Funnel Business Blogging High Quality Lead Business 60

Industrial Marketing Today

OCTOBER 25, 2011

According to the recent MarketingSherpa’s B2B Marketing Benchmark Survey (June 2011) of more than 1,700 B2B marketers: 52% of the companies reported, “Converting qualified leads into paying customers” (MoFU) as their biggest challenge. 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

JUNE 22, 2011

They are prospects by my definition. They found your content interesting and valuable but are not likely to become customers ever. Track 1 should be for those prospects that you believe are good early stage non-SQL leads. Let’s face it; you are going to get a few sign ups just because it is free.

Sales Qualified Leads 60

Sales Qualified Leads Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 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. Don’t sell. Don’t interrupt.

Marketing Budget Creation 60

Marketing Budget Creation B2B Marketing Web 2.0 Marketing Budget 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JULY 6, 2010

Home Marketing Matters About Contact B2B Marketing Store Company Website Translate Features into Benefits if You Want Your Marketing Content to Engage and Sell by Achinta Mitra on July 6, 2010 in Content Marketing , Industrial Marketing Strategies , Sales Strategies Marketing 101 teaches you “Customers buy benefits and not product features.”

Features 60

Features Web 2.0 Planning Work Management 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JUNE 12, 2010

In order to get on the buyer’s short list as early in the buy cycle as possible, your B2B website needs to provide relevant information that your prospects are looking for. We want the prospect to contact us for pricing information so we can engage with them further 3. This may include basic pricing information.

Sales Management 60

Sales Management Pricing Price Marketing Websites 60

Industrial Marketing Today

AUGUST 11, 2011

Traditional sources of new business – word-of-mouth referrals and repeat business from existing customers have slowed to a trickle for many of these industrial companies. How do you enter a new market where you have no brand awareness, credibility or customer references? Source: 2011 Economic Outlook Survey by GlobalSpec.).

Word of Mouth 60

Word of Mouth Telemarketing Paid Search Agency Sales Qualified Leads 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JANUARY 14, 2011

Just as publishers start by learning everything about their target audience and what information they want, content marketers must realize it is not about them but about their customers. That was the advice from Joe Pulizzi (founder of Junta42 and co-author of Get Content Get Customers ) at a Content Strategy New England meetup last year.

Content Marketing 60

Content Marketing High Quality Lead Planning BtoB 60

Industrial Marketing Today

OCTOBER 21, 2010

Lead nurturing of a vast majority (up to 70% according to some studies) of site visitors and prospects who are not “sales ready” right now. Content is the heart and soul of inbound marketing because that’s how your prospects and customers will find and engage with you. Some marketers also refer to it as content marketing.

Marketing Automation Services 60

Marketing Automation Services Inbound Marketing Marketing Automation Top of Funnel 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

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. Prioritize your objectives if multiple needs have to be satisfied.

Email Marketing 60

Email Marketing Planning Web 2.0 BtoB 60

Industrial Marketing Today

AUGUST 27, 2012

Manufacturers and industrial companies often use solutions or consultative selling to add value for their customers and transform themselves from suppliers into trusted partners. Don’t assume that your customers have correctly diagnosed their problems. Meet your customers where they are choosing to learn – online. (See

RFP 60

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

Industrial Marketing Today

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

Every company claims that their success is built on building lasting relationships with their customers yet the sites emphasize their people, their expertise and their engineering capabilities. That’s how their prospects and customers identify themselves in a very familiar way. What’s yours?

Rules 60

Rules Paid Search Agency Companies Content Marketing 60

Industrial Marketing Today

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

Every company claims that their success is built on building lasting relationships with their customers yet the sites emphasize their people, their expertise and their engineering capabilities. That’s how their prospects and customers identify themselves in a very familiar way. What’s yours?

Paid Search Agency 60

Paid Search Agency Companies Content Buying Cycle 60

Industrial Marketing Today

OCTOBER 1, 2011

It is up to marketing to create relevant content, optimize it for search engines, promote it online via social media and other outlets, score prospects, nurture leads until they are “sales ready” before handing them off to sales. However, it is sales that actually hears how customers describe their products and services.

Top of Funnel 60

Top of Funnel Inbound Marketing Bulldog Solutions Lead Scoring 60

Industrial Marketing Today

APRIL 2, 2012

In the early stages of lead generation, you are primarily dealing with “suspects” – people who you have not yet qualified as prospects or leads. Even though suspects may not fit your ideal customer profile, they may be people who will share your content if they find it worthwhile and interesting.

Top of Funnel 60

Top of Funnel Ideal Customer Profiles Content Marketing Planning 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. Those are great but your customers are going to demand more than that if you sell to OEMs, system integrators and design engineers.

Lead Nurturing 60

Lead Nurturing Sales Management Top of Funnel Sales Qualified Leads 60

Industrial Marketing Today

SEPTEMBER 3, 2010

The big hurdle they face is in engaging and converting readers into prospects, leads and ultimately customers. Passive reading of your content will not move the prospect along in his/her decision making process. Most B2B marketers find it relatively easy to create and use content to gain search engine presence.

Buying Cycle 60

Buying Cycle Buy Marketing Budget Web 2.0 60

Industrial Marketing Today

APRIL 3, 2011

Building strong customer relationships is probably a close second only to lead generation for most manufacturers and industrial companies. Many of them will also tell you that the bulk of their new business comes from repeat customers. Ergo, highly personalized and relevant content will build strong long-term customer relationships.

Planning 60

Planning Work Management Marketing Automation Services Marketing Management 60

Industrial Marketing Today

FEBRUARY 3, 2012

You can talk value until you’re blue in the face but your customers and prospects will push back on price. You may have a clear picture in your head but until you put it down on paper, you will miss several smaller steps that lead to the conversation between the customer and your sales team. It is too late by then.

Top of Funnel 60

Top of Funnel Process Marketing Websites Sales Qualified Leads 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MAY 26, 2010

Typically, that means understanding the prospect’s pain and then offering a solution for relief. But not easy to execute because there usually is a disconnect between what your prospect wants to hear and what you want to say about your company and its products and services. Sounds simple, right?

Buying Cycle 60

Buying Cycle Buy Web 2.0 Allocation 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JULY 12, 2011

Seth summarizes problem-centric marketing brilliantly in his post Sell the problem where he wrote, “When a prospect comes to the table and says, ‘we have a problem,’ then you’re both on the same side of the table when it comes time to solve it. Then talk about how your solutions provided real relief to the customer.

Marketing Management 60

Marketing Management Paid Search Agency Comparison Inbound Marketing 60

Industrial Marketing Today

DECEMBER 22, 2010

Marketing automation is very effective in moving prospects through the middle of the marketing funnel until the handoff to sales and provides a good closed-loop system for lead recycling that would otherwise go to waste. I hope you’ll get some value and practical help from reading or rereading these articles. Read full article….

Top of Funnel 60

Top of Funnel B2B Thought Leadership Marketing Analytics Tools Curation 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MAY 11, 2010

An article I read on Eloqua’s blog “It’s All About Revenue,” shed some light on this. He also said, “Use of information from social media sources and web mining is growing as sales professionals are looking to leverage every piece of intelligence they can find to help progress deals.&#

Sales Cycle 60

Sales Cycle Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads B2B Sales 60

Industrial Marketing Today

SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

Most manufacturers and industrial companies use email marketing as a way to keep in touch with new leads and existing customers. To me, those contacts are prospects and not leads. This usually means sending out a bi-weekly or a monthly email newsletter. Here I am not referring to new subscribers to newsletters and free content.

Lead Generation 60

Lead Generation Auto Responder Generation Marketing Analytics Tools 60

Industrial Marketing Today

FEBRUARY 21, 2011

These pages are accessible without registration or customer log-in. A manufacturer of industrial automation parts gains new customers from custom design work by offering an online and downloadable version of their CAD Configurator. The qualified lead comes from being designed in. See below).

Relevance 60

Relevance Sales Qualified Leads Sales Leads Marketing Qualified Leads 60

Industrial Marketing Today

OCTOBER 1, 2012

This may seem obvious since you want to create content for your customers and prospects but it is somewhat of a tricky question. It should help you shift the focus from writing about your products and services to how you help your customers solve their challenges. You have the best solutions for your customers’ problems!

Paid Search Agency 60

Paid Search Agency Marketing Strategy Marketing & Strategy Work Management 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MAY 7, 2012

In my last post, I talked about using content to convert website traffic into leads and customers. Your prospects won’t take action unless your content convinces them that you understand their problem(s) and have a solution. Change the purpose of your marketing content from talking about you to addressing your readers’ needs.

Content Marketing 60

Content Marketing Planning Content Sales Qualified Leads 60

Industrial Marketing Today

OCTOBER 20, 2011

Traditionally used as customer support tools by manufacturers and industrial distributors, the discussion threads were primarily text-based. By listening carefully they can get a much closer understanding of their customers, how they use and feel about their industrial products. See chart). This kind of market intel is invaluable.

Communities 60

Communities Paid Search Agency Peer-to-peer Companies 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JUNE 29, 2010

One of the key findings from the study was that B2B marketers are realizing that developing brand awareness among their customers’ customers can capture a larger share of channel margins and build loyalty that can protect them against lower-priced competitors. Analytics is the new marketing creative!

Relevance 60

Relevance B2B Marketing Web 2.0 Branding 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MAY 31, 2010

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” ). Select Custom Structure and enter “/%postname%/” (Without the quotation marks). I highly recommend and use the Thesis Theme.

Optimization 60

Optimization SEO Buying Cycle Web 2.0 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. Pick their brains for what they know and are hearing from your customers. It may seem like I’m being flippant but there is a serious message here. Be prepared with a rough idea of your budget.

Marketing Websites 60

Marketing Websites Marketing Budget Creation Budget Programs Marketing Proposals 60

Industrial Marketing Today

NOVEMBER 5, 2010

The reason for not using content marketing that I hear most often from my industrial clients is “we don’t have and/or can’t produce enough content that our customers (engineering, technical and manufacturing professionals) will find valuable.”. Saxena answered, “Customers and our marketing strategies are the two biggest drivers.

Peer-to-peer 60

Peer-to-peer Social Marketing Paid Search Agency Content 60

Industrial Marketing Today

APRIL 14, 2012

It’s good to meet someone who understands our engineering and industrial customers and won’t be learning at our expense.” How could I ignore the “voice of the customer” (VOC)? However, it is especially gratifying when several clients tell you, “Ah!

Paid Search Agency 60

Paid Search Agency Work Management Marketing Management Companies 60

Industrial Marketing Today

AUGUST 1, 2012

Marketing does a lot more by building trust among your customers (branding) and sets the table for prospects to engage in more meaningful conversations with your sales team (See Inbound Marketing Must Set the Table for Industrial Sales ). Hold marketing accountable but don’t measure its real value only by the number of RFQs generated.

Tactics 60

Tactics Planning Paid Search Agency High Quality Lead 60

Industrial Marketing Today

AUGUST 17, 2010

After all, that’s how your prospects and customers will find your blog and/or Web site. I am referring to optimizing customer engagement in B2B marketing. When developing content, it’s important to build customer personas, and create individual content paths for each of them. Why is it important?

Optimization 60

Optimization Web 2.0 Planning Buying Cycle 60

Industrial Marketing Today

SEPTEMBER 12, 2011

As a result, the owners and decision makers at these companies are having a difficult time wrapping their heads around the concept of proactively using content to attract qualified prospects instead of sales initiating the contact and using content only on an “as needed” basis.

Paid Search Agency 60

Paid Search Agency Marketing Management Content Buying Cycle 60