Industrial Marketing Today

MAY 7, 2012

Manufacturers and industrial companies cannot be content with just publishing content, their content marketing needs to drive the sales process. This interim action step moves them forward in their decision-making process and helps you collect leads that are more qualified. See Industrial Marketing Content that Helps Buyers ).

Content Marketing 60

Content Marketing Planning Content Sales Qualified Leads 60

Industrial Marketing Today

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

If you are in the process of redesigning your industrial website, pause for a moment and think about the site content first. A guide for Leak Detection and Repair (LDAR) best practices or Method 21 – Determination of Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) Leaks would be very helpful. Does your website content address those issues?

Marketing Websites 60

Marketing Websites Wiki Content Buying Cycle 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MAY 22, 2012

Live Chat and instant access to engineers for help with application and configuration. Digi-Key can process orders – from order entry to shipping – in as little as 15 minutes ( From their website ). Sells state-of-the-art machines that cover the entire surface mount production process, from prototyping to mid-volume assembly.

Advertising Channels 60

Advertising Channels Cable BtoB Distribution 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JULY 16, 2012

Let’s look at three scenarios that are very common in the industrial sales process. They rely on a few handpicked people they trust to filter out all the noise and provide only key facts to help them make a decision. These buy decisions are not going to happen without C-level execs giving you the nod.

Lead Ranking 60

Lead Ranking Lead Scoring Marketing Management Paid Search Agency 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

DECEMBER 1, 2011

It is definitely a process that involves much more than copywriting and clever wordsmithing. You need to gain a deeper insight into their needs, their roles in the buying process and their online behaviors. I have to quickly shift into my explaining mode right after that. Creating digital content is neither easy nor quick.

SIC 60

SIC Peer-to-peer Buying Cycle Copywriting 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JULY 23, 2010

Those punch lines and stereotypes may be amusing but they won’t really help you come up with an effective site redesign. The key here is to serve up relevant content that matches the prospect’s state or stage on the decision making process. One-size-fits-all site content will not help you engage.

Rules 60

Rules Marketing Websites Marketing Automation Services Web 2.0 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JUNE 5, 2012

You probably don’t see a good fit for higher value content because your sales process is different from someone selling an engineering or technical solution. Your process is more of a direct route, one that requires being “speced in” or “designed in” to generate an RFQ and/or sale. 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

FEBRUARY 24, 2012

Recently, a manufacturing client retained me to help them improve their industrial lead generation program. It became apparent to me that if I were to produce results, my first order of business had to be developing a structured process and not another lead generation campaign.

Lead Generation 60

Lead Generation Sales Qualified Leads Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads 60

Industrial Marketing Today

AUGUST 1, 2012

Marketing is a process that takes time to gel and produce results. Don’t look for an instant miracle; instead focus on incremental results and improvements as you build the process. That’s my take on how a good marketing strategy helps manufacturers and industrial companies generate leads and grow sales on a regular basis.

Tactics 60

Tactics Planning Paid Search Agency High Quality Lead 60

Industrial Marketing Today

FEBRUARY 12, 2012

Helped 9% more sales reps make quota and shortened ramp up time of new ones by 10%. 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. Still not convinced?

Lead Nurturing 60

Lead Nurturing Sales Management Top of Funnel Sales Qualified Leads 60

Industrial Marketing Today

OCTOBER 14, 2011

Inbound Marketing articles that I’ve published here may help to clear up some of those issues. It is not a one-off campaign or a project; it is a process! I recommend starting with inbound or content marketing and then moving on to marketing automation to make the entire lead generation process smooth and efficient.”.

Inbound Marketing 60

Inbound Marketing Top of Funnel Marketing Automation Services Allocation 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MAY 26, 2010

The problem becomes more acute for the industrial sector because the industrial buy cycle can be a long and complex process that often involves multiple decision makers. Without a clear understanding of the stages, it is difficult to align your marketing content with your customer’s decision-making process.

Buying Cycle 60

Buying Cycle Buy Web 2.0 Allocation 60

Industrial Marketing Today

NOVEMBER 28, 2010

An SEO consultant can help you develop an effective keyword research strategy based on their industry knowledge and expertise. Optimizing different pages within your site for different keywords will help you achieve the best results for each keyword. You may be too close to the forest to see the trees. Tread carefully!

Optimization 60

Optimization SEO Marketing Websites Keywords 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JULY 18, 2011

Nearly 9 out of 10 “Outperformers” credited their websites for helping them increase revenues, open new sources of business, compete more aggressively in core markets and serve customers better or more efficiently. Or download our free web design guide if you are in the process of redesigning your industrial website.

Marketing Websites 60

Marketing Websites Buyer Personas Customer Surveys Advertising Mediums 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JULY 25, 2011

IMO, the decision making process is more complex and there are many more stakeholders involved in industrial and B2B purchases but it still boils down to people doing business with people. It probably helps the retailer sell more merchandise because we often want more than one color of a shirt or blouse.

Tactics 60

Tactics Online Marketing B2B Thought Leadership Merchandising 60

Industrial Marketing Today

OCTOBER 21, 2010

Buyers want content of real value: Marketing automation helps you automate deployment based on set criteria. Sales cycles are longer in a down economy: Marketing automation supports drip marketing campaigns for lead nurturing to maintain top of mind awareness over a longer sales process. B2B sales processes are becoming “consumerized.”

Marketing Automation Services 60

Marketing Automation Services Inbound Marketing Marketing Automation Top of Funnel 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MAY 14, 2010

This is particularly helpful if you are a components manufacturer and have a large inventory of parts. Help the design engineer select the exact part number by selecting critical parameters s/he needs. The best example of an expertise blog that I know of is the Emerson Process Experts blog moderated by Jim Cahill.

Webinar Metrics 60

Webinar Metrics Marketing & Strategy Marketing Strategy Product 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 can’t help but think that the person at the other end is silently telling me, “Show Me the Money!”

Top of Funnel 60

Top of Funnel Inbound Marketing Bulldog Solutions Lead Scoring 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. But here’s the thing: Inbound Marketing Automation, like most complex issues, is a Process. I like your steps for Continuous Process Improvements.

Marketing Automation Services 60

Marketing Automation Services Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Marketing Automation 60

Industrial Marketing Today

APRIL 3, 2011

You are wasting your time and valuable resources if your content isn’t relevant and helpful to them. Help to frame the discussion in their minds. Add value to them with every visit to your site and/or download and help them make a more informed decision. That’s where you begin the process of building customer relationships.

Planning 60

Planning Work Management Marketing Automation Services Marketing Management 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JULY 7, 2011

I have seen some industrial distributors who have taken steps to make their sites more customer-friendly by adding helpful tools such as grouping their products by applications, part number finders, product selection wizards and Live Help. Grainger, Inc. They have built their own online community called SupplyLink.

Enterprise Management 60

Enterprise Management Effectiveness Content Marketing Marketing Management 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MARCH 1, 2011

Results: You (the seller) are considered to be the top contender because you helped frame the discussion in the buyer’s mind. Your content has helped them make a more informed decision. Lead nurturing has become even more important these days because of the fundamental change in the buying process.

Lead Nurturing 60

Lead Nurturing Cold Calling Leads Lead 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. The entire application is built to help engineers, designers and specifiers find the right part quickly and easily.

Lead Ranking 60

Lead Ranking Work Management Lead Scoring Marketing Management 60

Industrial Marketing Today

MAY 21, 2010

This timeless classic, one of the first bestselling self-help books published in 1937 and sold over 15 million copies globally is still relevant today. You do a great job of showcasing your experts at Emerson Process Experts. I agree with you about being able to contact experts or bloggers.

Web 2.0 60

Web 2.0 Buying Cycle B2B Blogger 60

Industrial Marketing Today

OCTOBER 17, 2010

While working on an email campaign for a client who markets to manufacturers in the Process Controls and Automation industry, I was asked if there was an easy way to combine web analytics with email marketing. Although funnels are optional, defining one can help you map where visitors drop off during the path to completing a goal.

Marketing Analytics Tools 60

Marketing Analytics Tools Lead Generation Analytics Google 60

Industrial Marketing Today

SEPTEMBER 2, 2012

The more detailed you make your content BOM, the smoother will be the site design process and chances are, you won’t be disappointed again by the performance of your new site. What kind of content will educate your customers and help them make an informed buying decision (Move away from price).

Design 60

Design Wikipedia Content Sales Qualified Leads 60

Industrial Marketing Today

SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

This will help you gather lead intelligence that is important for segmenting and improving relevance. Automatically triggered emails (personalized and customized) based on certain events, dates and/or rules will make the entire process function 24/7 without manual intervention. In short, you need to marry emails and website analytics.

Lead Generation 60

Lead Generation Auto Responder Generation Marketing Analytics Tools 60

Industrial Marketing Today

NOVEMBER 5, 2010

Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, TI is a global company that develops analog, digital signal processing, RF and DLP® semiconductor technologies used in consumer and industrial electronics products. B2B marketing tactics to use right now. What drove TI to adopt content and social marketing? Click here to view the embedded video.

Peer-to-peer 60

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

Industrial Marketing Today

APRIL 14, 2012

In 1998, I landed our first paying gig designing a Website for a process heater manufacturer. This content marketing strategy has helped us achieve several top 10 rankings in Google for competitive keywords and phrases. I began to explore Websites and the Internet on a 2400 bps Modem on a dial-up connection using AOL.

Paid Search Agency 60

Paid Search Agency Work Management Marketing Management Companies 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JULY 29, 2010

The “Mapping Marketing to the Transforming Buying Process,” report released by DemandGen Report revealed serious disconnects. Unfortunately, the answer is a big NO. There is a breakdown between the customer’s reality of engagement and the B2B marketer’s perception of it.

B2B Marketing 60

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

Industrial Marketing Today

JUNE 22, 2011

This is a critical step in making your lead generation and management an objective, quantitative process instead of a purely qualitative exercise. Send them valuable content that will help to move them to the next step until they are sales ready. Developing an effective scoring system requires marketing to work closely with sales.

Sales Qualified Leads 60

Sales Qualified Leads Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Top of Funnel 60

Industrial Marketing Today

APRIL 30, 2010

Not just any content, but ideas, information and expertise they find relevant and helpful for answering questions they have about problems they’re trying to solve. 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.

Planning 60

Planning B2B Marketing Emarketing B2B 60

Industrial Marketing Today

AUGUST 3, 2010

These metrics are all linked to 10 stages in Sopheon’s sales process. This way the company can see exactly where the leads are coming from, how old they are, where they are in the process, which account executive is handling them and where leads typically fall out. Let’s see how Google Analytics can help you do just that.

B2B 60

B2B Marketing Analytics Tools Web 2.0 Buying Cycle 60

Industrial Marketing Today

AUGUST 20, 2010

Anything you can do to help them find the right information quicker will score big with engineers. Offer engineering kits with a full range of standard values with free refills to help the electronics design engineer evaluate his designs without having to go to multiple sources. Design wins lead to production volume orders.

Web 2.0 60

Web 2.0 Planning Buying Cycle Lead Scoring 60

Industrial Marketing Today

AUGUST 26, 2011

For example, a Process Design Engineer is already aware that s/he needs an eletromatic ball valve that will provide overpressure protection. This where traditional outbound marketing like print ads, phone calls and direct mail can help in maintaining top-of-mind awareness even when the prospect is not actively looking to buy.

Inbound Marketing 60

Inbound Marketing Paid Search Agency Companies Ad Frequency 60

Industrial Marketing Today

JUNE 12, 2010

We can only provide prices after a formal RFQ process 5. Your prospects will find pricing information even without your help. Two options for solving the pricing dilemma Show a range of prices to help your prospects make an initial budgetary decision. We could have conflicts with our channel partners 4. There is no secrecy.

Sales Management 60

Sales Management Pricing Price Marketing Websites 60