A Beginner’s Guide To Marketing For Industrial Companies

There are around 24 industrial groups and 69 industries. Considering all the types of industrial groups there are, it’s important to be aware of the best types of marketing strategies there are for these groups.

When you know what kind of social media, email marketing, and other strategies to use in your marketing strategy, it can help your industrial business attract the right audience. It can help your industrial business to dominate the competition.

Yet, each industry has its own trends, metrics, and audiences to consider, alongside the specific goals and needs of each company. Marketing for industrial companies is not the same as consumer marketing, or even many forms of business to business sales.

It might feel like the traditionally hands-on industrial profile is at odds with heavily digital marketing trends, but the two can work together well. Digital marketing for industrial companies has not always been a big concern for manufacturers, with only eight percent of the average manufacturer’s budget going to marketing, but, in today’s interconnected and fast paced world, marketing is vital for competitiveness. Just 26 percent of manufacturers believe their digital marketing is ahead of the competition, which means you have an excellent opportunity to do more and become more.

We have created this beginner’s guide to marketing for industrial companies so you know where to start in adopting today’s technology for yourself.

Social Media

Social media is rampant. There are so many platforms that so many people use to spread awareness of their business. That’s why it’s one of the best ways to advertised your products regardless of what kind of business you’re in. It’s important to know what social media platforms your target market is using so you have the best results.

For instance, if your target market was on Facebook, you should consider doing Facebook ads. You should consider running Facebook ads to your core audience and see what kind of results you can produce.

Another way to use social media besides paying for it is to post constantly on your platforms. For example, you can use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other platforms to spread awareness of your business. You can post pictures and videos of your industrial business and how it works. The more you post and the higher the quality the post, the better it is for your business. It can lead to more follows.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the best marketing tips to consider for industrial companies. This is a digital strategy that helps industrial companies connect with their audience without trying to oversell them. For example, your industrial company can use email marketing to send updates about their business. It can be a great way to send alerts of how your company is changing.

Another way of using email marketing for industrial companies is to send information about what you do. If someone doesn’t know the process of how you make a product, it can be a great way to offer tutorials. You can show people through videos and email stories what your industrial company does. You can them every step of what you do and why it’s important.

But email also takes a lot of work to get the open rate and engagement rate higher.

Understand the Industrial Buying Cycle

The industrial buying cycle is often longer and more complicated than other sales. Add in the complexity of business to business sales, if that’s the focus of your industrial company, and it becomes that much more intense. It is important to understand your clients’ buying cycle to know where to target them with the right information.

Typically, a buyer starts by identifying their need. They will research that product or service, evaluate the options, and narrow their list down into a few top contenders. Then, after more research or conversation, they make their purchase from the best industrial company on their shortlist.

In marketing, you can influence buyers at any of these stages. Ideally, with digital marketing for industrial companies, you want to position your business as a source of expertise early on, so when buyers think about a product or service they need, they automatically turn to you in the research stage. If a buyer is researching based on your knowledge, it’s that much easier to sell them one of your own products. Search engine optimization and regular content marketing help here.

Know what your target audience needs and provide detailed information. This brings you further up the shortlist, as the buyer will not need to dig further or waste a lot of time finding out what you have to offer. In marketing, this comes in the form of a high quality, accessible website marketing strategy with many digital assets.

To encourage conversation, ensure that your contact information is easy to find and that your business is approachable across various channels, including social media. Create clear calls to action in all of your marketing, and make sure that your sales team is following through on any leads generated through marketing, as quickly as possible.

Set Your Marketing Goal and Metrics

Industrial companies need to set a specific goal for marketing efforts. That could be sales, brand awareness, lead generation, customer engagement, retaining existing customers, or something else. Whatever it is, it needs to be at the center of your marketing decisions. When you are looking at the industrial buying cycle, your marketing goals should directly and positively impact at least one of these areas.

Setting a clear goal is also crucial because it informs which metrics and key performance indicators you need to watch to ascertain if you are meeting your target. For instance, if you want to drive more lead generation, it makes sense to watch lead quality and conversion rates. Those metrics are less important if you are focused on loyalty and retention.

Consider Content Creation

Whatever marketing for industrial companies strategy you choose, content is likely involved in some way. If you are increasing your social media presence, content is what brings more people to your platforms. If you are finessing your search engine optimization to rank higher, relevant and useful content is vital.

You can even double up on your content by using your social media platforms to link back to your website and you can use your website to host some social media content. Make sure that your site is mobile responsive so anyone can access your content from any device!

Find Your Audience

Based on your marketing goals, consider where your audience will be so you can put those ideas into motion. You may be surprised to find out how much of your target audience is reachable online, specifically on social media.

Research shows that 44 percent of manufacturing marketers think social media is the most critical tactic to content marketing success, which makes sense given that 74 percent of tech professionals in the industrial sector are on LinkedIn and at least 61 percent are on Facebook. These people, your potential customers, want to know more about your business and your products, so why not meet them where they are to give them what they want to know? With interactive social media platforms you are then able to chat with your leads, encourage sharing, and otherwise keep the lines of communication open.

Of course, social media marketing is one part of what can and should be a multichannel approach. Popular channels and tactics for marketing for industrial companies include email marketing, trade shows, search engine optimization, paid search, webinars and traditional print ads. With a good mix of marketing you can fill in any gaps and ensure that you are meeting as much of your audience as possible, both online and offline.

Evaluate Your Marketing Plans

Remember those initial marketing goals and metrics? Evaluating your planning and programming is key to ongoing success. If your metrics show that your goal is out of reach, it’s a good sign that you need to modify your plans or change the goal. That is why metrics are so important, giving your company the opportunity to change without a lot of pain or wasted time.

If you are ready to do more with your digital marketing for industrial companies, with careful evaluation every step of the way, you can rely on us to bring in more business and keep your existing clients happy.

Now You Know Marketing for Industrial Companies

When it comes to developing marketing for industrial companies, you have to know where to start. You have to know the best platforms and email strategies that can help spread awareness to your target market.

At David Taylor Digital, we are experienced in bringing every piece of a marketing plan to life. Our industrial company clients benefit from our extensive experience and expertise, from revamping existing marketing strategies to overhauling the entire plan to bring in something modern and more effective. We understand the specific needs of this industry and its buyers, who are knowledgeable, cost-efficient, and making careful decisions about high-level purchases. We base all of our marketing plans on buyer behavior, market trends and data, and your own product mix, so no two strategies are alike.

Get in touch with us today. You can also call us at 973-317-8765 or email us at [email protected].