The Thomas Blog

Lead Nurturing: How To Convert Website Traffic To Leads

Sellers know all about leads. You know the difference between marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) and sales-qualified leads (SQLs). You know you need more of the former in order to get more of the latter.

That’s great. You can see the destination. But what about the traffic that's on your website? How can you identify MQLs in your sales pipeline and, more importantly, how can you offer effective nurturing that turns them into SQLs? Let's break down the basic steps.

SEO Vs. SEM Vs. PPC: What’s The Difference?

The industrial manufacturing sector is constantly seeing new technological innovations and advancements as businesses compete to stay ahead of the competition and at the forefront of their industry. Similarly, digital B2B advertising and marketing practices undergo the same rapid rate of change and advancement. But with so many options and platforms available today, getting started can be daunting — especially if you're new to the industrial marketing world.

Some of the most common questions we field at Thomas involve a slew of acronyms — SEO, SEM, and PPC: What’s the difference between SEO, SEM, and PPC, and what can they do for my company?

Green Manufacturing: The Business Benefits Of Sustainability

A few years ago, terms like “going green” and “eco-friendly” were all the rage for businesses. And while those words aren’t quite as buzzworthy today, they are still worth quite a lot to the people that really matter to manufacturers — B2B buyers.

More major players are driving toward a sustainability goal, like McDonald's who plans to use 100% recycled fiber-plastic packaging at every one of its locations worldwide by 2020. What this means for you is the increase of product options in demand and opportunities to tap into a new market and modernize your business.

4 Steps to Expanding Your Industrial Network on LinkedIn

Chances are you’re already using LinkedIn to keep an up-to-date roster of contacts, check out what connections are up to, scout out potential hires, and send messages.

This powerful tool serves as much more than a social network or recruiting outlet, though — it can play a major role in generating leads and sales for your industrial company.

There are a few steps for you to benefit from using LinkedIn to connect with people in their industry, so we wanted to lay out a few tips on how to get started. 

(We do want to note that although there's a paid version of LinkedIn known as LinkedIn Sales Navigator, we know you’re as budget-conscious as you are business-savvy, so we’ll be solely focusing on harnessing the power of free LinkedIn in this post.)

Website Basics For Manufacturers & Industrial Companies

If you're an OEM, industrial distributor, or custom manufacturer, these statements might sound pretty familiar: 

• "We need to talk to prospects in order to qualify them."
• "Too much information on my site would give my competitors an advantage."
• "We get all of our new business from word-of-mouth."
• "A new website won't help me get new business because my current website doesn't, either." 

It's understandable — it's not easy doing what you do. But if you want to start bringing in more new customers, you may want to rethink your approach. That's because more of your buyers and competitors are doing business digitally. Supplementing your traditional growth methods with an updated website and inbound marketing strategy helps out where cold calls and word-of-mouth fall short.

6 Quick Fixes For Your Manufacturing Website That Increases Clicks

It’s no secret that your website is the most important aspect of your digital marketing strategy. But are you taking the time to continually optimize its pages and features?

Studies show that we have less than 15 seconds to leave a good first impression with our website visitors.

If your website’s headline, call-to-action, or even its color scheme doesn’t hit all the right notes, your prospects will simply find a website that does — which, unfortunately, could be your competitor’s.

While you may rely on your products or services to close the sale, you need to employ a website design that leads prospects to the beginning of that sales journey. Below are some effective and easy website design tips to begin leveraging to increase clicks and (ultimately) sales.

5 Steps To Begin Successful Industrial Marketing

Inbound marketing drives customers to your business’ products and services through a coordinated strategy of design, content, social media, and SEO tactics. Most manufacturing and industrial companies may think that inbound marketing is something that would be more suited toward consumer goods and B2C rather than the industry space. But with the digital transformation of sales and marketing, successful B2B companies are now seeing marketing as a direct influence on revenue generation and more manufacturers are aligning their efforts with today's digital world.

In fact, most industrial manufacturers are practically already set up for an inbound marketing program — they just don’t know it yet.

7 Reasons It’s Great To Work In Manufacturing

The manufacturing industry is one of the largest and most influential sectors of the United States economy. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were an estimated 12.3M people employed in the Manufacturing Industry Sub-Sector in 2016 with a 1.17% year growth. It also accounts for a similarly large piece of the American workforce — the industry employs 8.7 percent of the country, making it the third-largest industry in terms of jobs.

But what is it like for the millions of people who actually work in the industry? The truth is, it's pretty fantastic. Here are some reasons why:  

7 Ways Thomas Can Help You Supercharge Industrial Sourcing

Here at Thomas, we've been powering North America’s largest and most active network of B2B buyers and industrial/commercial suppliers for over 120 years. We understand how hard it is to find the best and most reliable suppliers.

That's why we developed the Thomas Network to help you search for qualified manufacturers, distributors, and service companies - and it's completely free to use. There are some parts of our site that require registration to access, such as viewing suppliers’ certifications and downloading white papers, but registration is simple and free. We know you're busy, so let's us walk you through super quick our top seven features you can try today: