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.

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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 ).

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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. One example would be inviting them to a webinar.

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Industrial Marketing Today

FEBRUARY 3, 2012

If you want your industrial website to generate qualified leads and drive sales (Who doesn’t?), make sure the site is aligned with your sales process. Without this critical link, your newly redesigned industrial website may be nothing more than eye candy that does very little for your sales.

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Industrial Marketing Today

FEBRUARY 24, 2012

Every manufacturing or industrial company that I talk to wants more leads. However, there is a serious disconnect between sales and marketing when it comes to defining a qualified lead. Google sales and marketing disconnect and you will find thousands of articles written on this topic.

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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.

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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. A similar trend is seen in the industrial sector. See chart ). See chart ).

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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.

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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. See Content Marketing: Think Like a Publisher, Act Like an Investor).

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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. Let’s take a closer look at both.

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Industrial Marketing Today

DECEMBER 7, 2010

Here’s the shocking reality of B2B lead generation – 79% of marketing leads never convert into sales opportunities. Source: Marketing Sherpa/ KnowledgeStorm). B2B marketing and lead generation experts point to a lack of lead nurturing as the primary cause of this poor performance.

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Industrial Marketing Today

NOVEMBER 10, 2011

Content marketing has become indispensable for addressing this changed buyer behavior. It is only at the last stage, Procurement when buyers have already prepared a shortlist of vendors do they contact a manufacturer’s sales rep. On the contrary, it makes them more productive by providing valuable insight into the lead.

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Industrial Marketing Today

MAY 11, 2010

The top findings I got out of the release were: 47% of the sales professionals reported a slight increase in the size of their B2B pipelines this year as compared to last year. However, the sales cycles have also become longer, making it much harder to close deals. The success of outbound marketing does make sense in this context.

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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).

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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.

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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. The old way of hiring away salespeople from the competition with their “ready book of business” is not producing the quick sales they had expected. How can industrial marketing remove this disconnect?

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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?

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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?

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Industrial Marketing Today

MAY 7, 2012

In my last post, I talked about using content to convert website traffic into leads and customers. In this post, I want to continue with a similar theme and talk about why your content marketing must have a purpose. See Content Marketing: Think Like a Publisher, Act Like an Investor ). See Problem-centric Industrial Marketing ).

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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. In order to meet new revenue and ROI goals, marketers need to improve their strategic skills (50%) and sales skills (40%).

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Industrial Marketing Today

OCTOBER 9, 2012

A Value Proposition plays an important role in differentiation, which in turn affects lead generation. There are experts who are more qualified than I am in crafting a Value Proposition that is so unique to a company that it cannot be easily duplicated by others. These work best for middle of the sales funnel (MoFU).

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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.

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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.

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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!

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Industrial Marketing Today

MARCH 12, 2012

Whereas the study (2011 Social Media in Industry Survey) conducted by Semplice Industry Marketing states, “Of those who used Twitter in 2011, 78% found it somewhat to very useful.”. However, after the initial phase, you have to focus on providing meaningful content if you want to convert your success in phase 1 into qualified leads and sales.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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Industrial Marketing Today

JANUARY 18, 2012

The two main reasons are 1) Not showing up in Google search results ( SEO – Organic Search Engine Optimization ) and/or 2) Not getting enough qualified leads from the website (Traffic and Conversion). Site content to match visitor needs, role and position in the buy cycle (See Creating Digital Content for Industrial Marketing ).

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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.

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Industrial Marketing Today

JANUARY 21, 2011

As all good content marketers know, engaging marketing content moves the needle. It persuades readers to take action and guides them along in their sales cycle in a logical manner. Pushing out blatant product-centric sales messages are sure to turn off your audience. billion of sales in 2010.

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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.” ). (See Add a link…you know the drill!

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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. It makes perfect sense then to put a good deal of effort into nurturing new leads and building strong relationships in order to convert them into loyal customers.

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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. Ardath Albee, CEO of Marketing Interactions, Inc. Convert prospects into leads – a prospect that has made an inquiry or responded to an offer is now a lead.

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