The Thomas Blog

The Basics Of A/B Testing For Manufacturers And Industrial Companies

Much like the machines on your shop floor, you want to make sure that your industrial marketing is working to its full potential and producing results you expect. A/B testing (also referred to as split testing, multivariate testing, or iterative testing) can help you continuously update your online marketing efforts to ensure maximum ROI.

Not familiar with the term, or curious how A/B testing works? Here’s a basic overview.

Marketing Goals Vs. Marketing Strategy

Getting digital marketing right isn’t always easy — especially if that marketing is aimed at the manufacturing and industrial sector, which often involves high-volume, high-cost transactions and very long purchase cycles.

The decision-making process in this field is inherently slow, and oftentimes industrial marketers struggle to connect with their audience in a way that moves them through the buying cycle while providing them with directly useful, engaging content.

It’s never too early to start planning your business goals for next quarter or even next month. Setting marketing benchmarks is the only way you’ll be able to achieve scalable growth throughout the next few months and beyond. To help you plan, we've outlined the difference between marketing goals and a marketing strategy so you can improve yours and connect with higher-quality prospects.

Persona Targeting Basics for Manufacturing Companies

In today’s increasingly digital world, there are numerous ways for manufacturing companies to reach potential buyers — emails blasts, eBooks, blog posts, social media, and even SMS texts can all be used to connect with target audiences and increase brand awareness. The whole point of inbound marketing is to entice your target customers to come to you on their own by providing valuable content that will help them reach their goals. Think of it as the antithesis of cold calling. But before embarking on any of these efforts, it’s crucial to fully understand the types of buyers you’re looking to target. So how do you go about creating the content that will attract the customers you want? Well, that depends on the customers themselves.

Measuring The Industrial Marketing ROI Of Phone Calls

When it comes to measuring the return on investment (ROI) of your marketing activities, it’s essential that you’re actually measuring all of it. Thanks to the increasing prevalence of digital marketing, most marketers look at things like clicks, open rates and conversions. But if you’re like many industrial suppliers, you could be overlooking an essential piece of the marketing metrics puzzle — phone inquiries.

Inbound Marketing ROI: For Industrial Companies & Manufacturers

As the digital world reshapes the industrial world, marketing budgets are on the rise. According to ENGINEERING.com's annual survey of engineering marketers, twice as many respondents reported that their budgets were growing rather than shrinking in 2017.

Like with any investment, marketers and manufacturing companies want to ensure that they are receiving a positive return. We’ve outlined two major areas of return on investment (ROI) that illustrate the effectiveness of inbound marketing — but first, what exactly is the difference between inbound marketing and traditional marketing?

The Basics of Content Marketing for Manufacturers

Content marketing can persuade potential partners and influence buyers at every stage of the buying cycle, so it's important to understand the essential elements that make up a successful content marketing strategy and how they support sales.

Content marketing isn't limited to the types of content or channels you use to promote — many other moving pieces like sales, traditional marketing tactics, and brand evangelists play into it.

Top Suppliers on Thomasnet.com for February 2020

New Suppliers on Thomasnet.com for January 2020

New and exciting companies are constantly popping up across the industrial landscape in North America, and our expert team of content analysts is right there to capture information on hundreds of them every month. January's crop of new arrivals to our platform includes a supplier of biodegradable straws, a haptics software company that allows users to feel textures in smart screens, and a seismoelectric supplier with patent pending technology. Let's dive right in.

New and Noteworthy Categories on Thomasnet.com for January 2020

We may have celebrated our 122nd anniversary this past month at Thomas, but our platform is anything but old-fashioned. Every month our team of engineering experts keeps us future proof by adding new searchable categories to the 70,000+ we already have on the platform so that you can source the products and services you need. Want to see what we added in January to kick off our next decade of supporting industry? Our ten newest favorites are below.