Industrial Marketing Today

MAY 7, 2010

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. 58% of respondents said their role, as marketers did not end even after they handed off qualified leads to sales.

Lead Generation 60

Lead Generation Sales Qualified Leads Web 2.0 B2B Marketing 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JANUARY 30, 2011

Your landing page may be the culprit if your lead generation campaign is performing poorly. I realize that successful lead generation depends on many factors but the landing page is where your site traffic and email clicks convert into qualified prospects and leads. What is a landing page? Think again.

Landing Pages 60

Landing Pages Lead Generation Sales Qualified Leads Lead Ranking 60

Industrial Marketing Today

SEPTEMBER 24, 2012

Generating leads is always the central theme in my daily conversations with manufacturing, engineering and industrial companies. However, a qualified lead means different things to different people and it is rare for me to find too many of these companies to have a clear definition of what a lead means to them.

Lead Ranking 60

Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Paid Search Agency Sales Qualified Leads 60

Industrial Marketing Today

FEBRUARY 19, 2016

They both inquired about using manufacturing content marketing to help their sales efforts. Both these companies had used telemarketing and other conventional marketing tactics with very little success in generating sales qualified leads. Visit my website for more content on industrial marketing.].

Sales Qualified Leads 60

Sales Qualified Leads Telemarketing Content Marketing Content 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

AUGUST 27, 2012

Call it digital marketing or inbound marketing with content , the fact is marketing is now playing a much more active role in complex industrial sales. This has worked great in the past but the Internet and digital marketing have changed how that process works today. See Problem-centric Industrial Marketing ).

RFP 60

RFP Peer-to-peer High Quality Lead Lead Ranking 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. That is good advice and it is a proven tactic for inbound marketing.

Sales Qualified Leads 60

Sales Qualified Leads Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Top of Funnel 60

Industrial Marketing Today

FEBRUARY 3, 2012

If you want your industrial website to generate qualified leads and drive sales (Who doesn’t?), In my daily conversations with manufacturing and industrial companies, I find the mindset is still very much centered on marketing the old way. Read my post, Inbound Marketing Must Set the Table for Industrial Sales ).

Top of Funnel 60

Top of Funnel Process Marketing Websites Sales Qualified Leads 60

Industrial Marketing Today

SEPTEMBER 1, 2015

Sales people have been using BANT (Budget, Authority, Needs, and Timing/Timeframe) criteria to qualify leads and prospects for a long time ever since IBM first coined that acronym. Visit my website for more content on industrial marketing.]. This is only a content summary. This is only a content summary.

Sales Qualified Leads 60

Sales Qualified Leads High Quality Lead Leads Lead 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MARCH 16, 2012

Talking to manufacturers and industrial companies on a daily basis has convinced me that when they say they need help with their lead generation, they really want more RFQ (Request For Quote) opportunities. Generating new leads, qualifying and nurturing them until they turn into a RFQ is too much work for them.

Lead Management 60

Lead Management Lead Ranking Lead Scoring Sales Qualified Leads 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. Lead generation has always been a top priority in industrial and manufacturing marketing.

Top of Funnel 60

Top of Funnel Marketing Funnels Content Marketing High Quality Lead 60

Industrial Marketing Today

AUGUST 11, 2011

They now find themselves in uncharted waters where they have to think of and appreciate marketing as something more than mere sales support. It is time to get out of your comfort zones and rethink your industrial marketing strategies and tactics if you want your company to survive and thrive. Quality over quantity).

Word of Mouth 60

Word of Mouth Telemarketing Paid Search Agency Sales Qualified Leads 60

Industrial Marketing Today

OCTOBER 1, 2011

In my conversations with industrial companies about inbound marketing, I find my audience agreeing with me up to a certain point and then there is a big disconnect. I see heads nodding in face-to-face meetings or hear plenty of “Uh-huhs” on the phone when I talk about the benefits of inbound marketing.

Top of Funnel 60

Top of Funnel Inbound Marketing Bulldog Solutions Lead Ranking 60

Industrial Marketing Today

OCTOBER 9, 2012

A Value Proposition plays an important role in differentiation, which in turn affects lead generation. Most manufacturers and industrial companies make generic claims that are often copied by their competition and lack validation. Webinars for middle to late stage lead nurturing content.

Top of Funnel 60

Top of Funnel Differentiation Lead Ranking Lead Scoring 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. It scored 8.6

Marketing Automation Services 60

Marketing Automation Services Inbound Marketing Marketing Automation Top of Funnel 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JULY 16, 2012

In today’s uncertain economy, manufacturing and industrial companies are taking more than a hard look at their marketing spends. These companies have always thought of marketing as sales support, so it requires a lot of convincing to change that mind-set. According to them, that has always been a job done by sales and not marketing.

Lead Ranking 60

Lead Ranking Lead Scoring Marketing Management Paid Search Agency 60

Industrial Marketing Today

FEBRUARY 12, 2012

Lead nurturing plays an important role in industrial lead generation programs because it is rare that an industrial sale is completed on the first call or the first visit to the manufacturer’s website. Forrester, CSO Insights and Marketo reported that lead nurturing produced much better results. Still not convinced?

Lead Nurturing 60

Lead Nurturing Sales Management Top of Funnel Sales Qualified Leads 60

Industrial Marketing Today

AUGUST 1, 2012

Business as usual is not working – referrals are trickling in, if at all and the pipeline of leads is running dry. Next, they try a series of marketing tactics without a strategy or a plan, hoping something will produce results. In short, they are now looking for Cheap Miracles or may be, Industrial Marketing Made in China.

Tactics 60

Tactics Planning Paid Search Agency High Quality Lead 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JULY 2, 2012

Manufacturers usually want their industrial marketing to generate leads that result in RFQs as quickly as possible. Inbound marketing tactics such as SEO and other content marketing strategies do fill the top of their sales funnel. Design wins lead to prototype and production orders.

Lead Ranking 60

Lead Ranking Top of Funnel Sales Qualified Leads Buying Cycle 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

JANUARY 10, 2011

According to a new report released by the Content Marketing Institute, manufacturers have some of the highest adoption rates for content marketing tactics as compared to other industries. According to the same report, 82% of B2B manufacturing respondents indicated that they rely on content marketing to build brand awareness.

Video Marketing 60

Video Marketing Content Marketing Co-Registration High Quality Lead 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JUNE 5, 2012

In my daily interactions with manufacturing, engineering and industrial companies, inbound marketing or content marketing is a popular topic of discussion. Not that I’m complaining, this gap means more business opportunities for me as an industrial marketing consultant. Does that mean content marketing is useless for you?

Top of Funnel 60

Top of Funnel Content Marketing Planning Buying Cycle 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JANUARY 3, 2011

Are you leaving additional sales leads and revenues on the table? Industrial marketers who don’t use a business blog are missing a key component of feeding the top of their sales funnels. By not using every opportunity to generate high-quality leads, they may be leaving money on the table. Happy New Year!

Top of Funnel 60

Top of Funnel Business Blogging High Quality Lead Business 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JULY 9, 2010

Of course, Marketing Automation alone cannot live up to those hyped up expectations and has to take the brunt of the blame. That is unfortunate because Marketing Automation software is a very useful tool and in my opinion, a necessity these days. However, is improving efficiency enough to justify investing in Marketing Automation?

Marketing Automation Services 60

Marketing Automation Services Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Marketing Automation 60

Industrial Marketing Today

SEPTEMBER 6, 2011

The idea of combining a website with the benefits of a blog is very appealing to many industrial marketers. Blog sites as inbound marketing hubs. Industrial companies have realized the importance of inbound marketing and its impact on lead generation. Read my post Don’t Let Lack of Content Stop You from Blogging.

CMS Development 60

CMS Development Curation Inbound Marketing Marketing Management 60

Industrial Marketing Today

APRIL 2, 2012

If done right, they can be very effective in content marketing for manufacturers and industrial companies. In the early stages of lead generation, you are primarily dealing with “suspects” – people who you have not yet qualified as prospects or leads. Videos that are non-product oriented. Infotaining” stuff.

Top of Funnel 60

Top of Funnel Ideal Customer Profiles Content Marketing Planning 60

Industrial Marketing Today

DECEMBER 7, 2011

…fall back on tried-and-true marketing tactics that they have relied on for years. In the current tough economy, cutting edge and innovative marketing is taking a back seat to proven strategies for lead generation. Those three marketing channels received the largest allocation of the budget. See chart for details.

B2B Marketing 60

B2B Marketing Trade Show Allocation B2B 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JANUARY 14, 2011

Thriving in today’s content-driven online marketing world, demands that you think like a publisher. That’s the battle cry among content marketers. 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.

Content Marketing 60

Content Marketing High Quality Lead Planning BtoB 60

Industrial Marketing Today

AUGUST 1, 2011

Notice how discussions about content marketing are full of words like engagement, helpful, sharing, nurturing and community building. However, have we gone too soft with content marketing when it comes to selling industrial products and services? And that is… content marketing must deliver a real business value. I thought so.

Sales Qualified Leads 60

Sales Qualified Leads Content Marketing Planning Paid Search Agency 60

Industrial Marketing Today

SEPTEMBER 2, 2012

It is not surprising then that many of these industrial web redesigns are nothing more than a cosmetic facelift with copy-pasted content from their old site and/or outdated marketing collateral. I’ve had people call me and start the conversation by saying, “We’ve spent a lot of money on a site redesign but it hasn’t produced any leads.

Design 60

Design Wikipedia Content Sales Qualified Leads 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MARCH 17, 2011

As an industrial marketer, you recognize the importance of constantly publishing fresh and relevant content to attract qualified visitors and convert them into leads. See my earlier post, “Content Marketing: Think Like a Publisher, Act Like an Investor.” ). Add a link…you know the drill!

Top of Funnel 60

Top of Funnel FAQ Case Studies Content 60

Industrial Marketing Today

SEPTEMBER 13, 2010

The chart below shows the variety of content used at different stages of the industrial buy cycle (Source: Understanding the Industrial Buy Cycle: How to Align Your Marketing with Your Customers’ Buying Process from GlobalSpec). One can dedicate an entire site to SEO because it is such a wide and deep online marketing topic.

Buying Cycle 60

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

Industrial Marketing Today

JANUARY 21, 2011

As all good content marketers know, engaging marketing content moves the needle. NYSE:NSM), a leader in power management technology and manufacturer of high-performance analog products, has done a fantastic job of using engaging content that helps it core audience of design engineers while generating $1.42

Sample 60

Sample Content Sales Qualified Leads Sales Cycle 60

Industrial Marketing Today

NOVEMBER 3, 2011

I am seeing more manufacturers and industrial companies willing to try inbound marketing with content. A sure sign of that is the number of conversations that I have had recently with my current clients and new leads. This will increase exposure to your new blog and attract more qualified traffic.

Marketing Websites 60

Marketing Websites Curation Ad Exchange Case Study 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MARCH 8, 2011

It is heartening then to read about an industrial company’s success in building an engineering community, which in turn generates leads, produces sales and increases the company’s awareness among its target audience. Although many of the experts are Premier Farnell suppliers, being a supplier doesn’t automatically qualify them.

Communities 60

Communities Peer-to-peer BtoB Sales Qualified Leads 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. Add some sort of a lead capture mechanism on your landing pages.

Product 60

Product B2B Thought Leadership Cross-Selling Thought Leadership 60

Industrial Marketing Today

FEBRUARY 21, 2011

Needless to say, industrial and B2B marketers are constantly looking to improve the relevance of their content but are not always successful, as recent studies have shown. This is true no matter where the content is used – Websites, email campaigns, webinars or marketing collateral. The qualified lead comes from being designed in.

Relevance 60

Relevance Sales Qualified Leads Sales Leads Leads 60