The Thomas Blog

How To Use Digital Marketing To Get Customers In The Defense Industry

To help the manufacturing industry be appropriately equipped for change, we launched Thomas Industrial Data earlier this year.

Our sourcing activity data coupled with our Thomas Industrial Survey results, reveals interesting insights with North American suppliers shifting their businesses to meet the new normal.

• 55% of survey participants being likely to very likely to invest in Production Performance Automation in the next 12 months
• 69% of companies across the manufacturing and industrial sectors are likely to bring manufacturing production and sourcing back to North America
• 12% increase in website usage by manufacturers and industrial companies to connect with more buyers and customers

Manufacturing Day 2020: STEM Resources for High School and College Students

With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing many schools to shift away from in-person instruction toward a remote learning environment, the challenge of maintaining student engagement takes on increased significance. This is especially true in courses that involve STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).

When taught in a traditional in-person setting, STEM courses combine education in the theoretical treatment of the subject (gleaned from written material as found in textbooks) with the practical treatment of the subject (developed via hands-on work from labs, experimentation, and the use of instruments and materials). When shifting to a remote learning environment, the techniques for educating students on the underlying principles of a subject are much easier to transfer successfully than are the more practical hands-on aspects.

To help fill this gap, we have identified some resources that may be used to provide students at the high school or college level with practical hands-on projects that they can perform which will help them supplement their education in STEM subjects.

The resources below contain a mix of different potential project ideas, many of which can be performed from home with a minimal need to purchase special suppliers or materials. Other projects from the resources below, especially those at the college level, will likely require students to make some investment in materials, components, and equipment that would not usually be found in the typical household. These are higher level projects that normally would be accomplished in a college lab class, possibly in a collaborative group setting, under the guidance of an instructor or advisor.

Meet Manufacturer's Best Friends

At Thomas, we have a special place in our hearts for our furry friends and love to celebrate them on our new Instagram account, @manufacturersbestfriend. Below you'll meet some of the industry pets you'll see on our feed: 

How To Get People To Read Your Sales Emails (And What Not To Do)

It's no secret that email marketing is one of the best ways to drive leads to your sales team. However, most manufacturers and industrial companies don't realize that it's also one of the best ways to close those leads and convert them into customers.

So while a lot of time and energy is going into optimizing marketing emails, sales emails are often relegated to an afterthought. In fact, the task of writing, designing, and deploying sales emails often falls on individual sales reps, who have little guidance, direction, or support. That's a recipe for disaster, and it shouldn't be the case.

If you want to optimize your sales emails for maximum results, be sure to follow these suggestions. 

New and Noteworthy Categories on Thomasnet.com for September 2020

Most of the 1 million+ registered users on Thomasnet.com may not realize all of the new categories we add every month, from basic products like immersion coil heat exchangers to more exotic offerings like AI marine vessel monitoring systems and washable paper backpacks. Over the past month alone, we've seamlessly added over 50 new categories to our platform, and today we're giving you a peek at our 15 favorites.

How To Measure B2B Marketing Success

Measuring the return on investment for marketing is challenging in even the best cases. Many industrial marketers mistake commonly used online B2C metrics for effective measures of their efforts. But marketing effectiveness can affect business outcomes like revenue growth and customer retention — so with so many variables and items to test, how can industrial marketers measure the success of their marketing campaigns?

New Suppliers on Thomasnet.com for September 2020

When organizations like NASA, Tyson, ThermoFisher Scientific, Harvard, Ford, and Honeywell source on our platform, it's because they know we maintain a database of the newest, best, and brightest companies in North American Industry. Part of upholding that standard includes adding new and exciting companies every month to ensure we can supply the contact info for any supplier a B2B company may need.

This past month we've added over 400 new businesses to our database of over 500,000, including rapid COVID-19 test suppliers, IoT lighting system manufacturers, and autonomous robot companies. We're delving into the details on these and several of our other favorite companies below.

Meeting The Needs Of Your Buyers: Blog vs eBook

To effectively reach buyers and generate valuable leads, it’s critical to employ a dynamic, multifaceted digital marketing strategy — and that means creating a robust content marketing campaign.

Content marketing is a crucial tool for collecting valuable user details. It is a means of trading information; users provide data — their business, goals, their contact information — and in exchange, you provide insights and actionable advice in checklists, educational eBooks, or in-depth whitepapers.

Backlinks 101: For Manufacturers & Distributors

You’ve worked hard to build an online presence but now, as you’re trying to increase the quality of traffic to your website, you keep coming across the term “backlink.” Raise your hand if you’ve tried to ignore the term, what it means for your website, and focused on other SEO traffic-building tactics.

No shame! Some of the best marketers have been there before.