The Thomas Blog

5 Things Every Product Manufacturer Must Know To Drive Leads

Engineers and sourcing professionals rely on comprehensive, digitized product data in order to do their jobs. They need accurate data, and they need it fast. Many manufacturers rely on a website and phone number to handle inquiries for new data, but is it really the most efficient way? 

According to Forrester Research, rich omni-channel experiences deliver several competitive advantages for B2B businesses — especially those with complex products. Omni-channel supply chains serve customers across different channels. The difference with a multi-channel approach is that with an omni-channel approach, the channels are fully integrated in order to provide a seamless customer experience. We’ve listed out five things all OEMs and industrial manufacturers must know to generate more leads, satisfy customers needs and increase sales.

6 Ways To Turn A Lead Into A Customer

You worked hard to market your capabilities and nurture your prospects. Now your sales team has a healthy list of leads. However, research shows that 40-50% of these leads are ignored and never followed up on, which can add up to a lot of lost revenue for your business.

Developing an effective lead follow-up process can ensure that you don’t leave potential opportunities on the table. Here are the strategies that should be a part of your process.

MQLs Vs. SQLs: What's The Difference

Studies show that 68% of B2B marketers struggle with generating quality leads. And lead generation strategies are successful for only 13% of marketers in the space.

All in all, only a mere 5% to 10% of B2B leads actually turn into paying customers. So what can be done to boost these numbers?

First, industrial marketers must understand that not all leads are created equal — and the industrial buyer's journey is actually pretty complicated. 

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.

Supplement Word-Of-Mouth Referrals With Inbound Marketing

For many years, word-of-mouth referral was a tactic that used to occur offline. For small industrial businesses looking to gain new leads, word-of-mouth referrals can still be effective, allowing businesses to expand brand awareness organically. But over time, they began to learn that relying solely on word-of-mouth can hinder efforts lead generation efforts.

With the emergence of social media and the digital transformation of sales and marketing, the ways of traditional marketing and how referrals are shared have shifted. Rather than asking a friend in person for a business recommendation, most people might post a status on one of their social media networks (like LinkedIn or Twitter) and wait for someone from their network to comment their suggestions. Others are more likely to do a Google search.

Inbound Marketing Case Study: How One Manufacturer Increased Leads by 285%

If you were to ask any business leader what their main goals for their company are, the answer would most likely be something along the lines of increasing sales and leads. In fact, even if they mentioned other goals, such as improving website performance and SEO, or redesigning a website for better user experience — the main objective behind these actions is to get more people onto the site, ideally leading to more sales.

For Corrugated Metals, Inc., these were the goals in a nutshell. But as with many companies in the industrial space, carving out time to improve their online footprint was a daunting task. As a roll forming manufacturer creating necessary products for the construction, equipment, transportation, and defense industries, focusing on customer needs usually trumped their own business development.

Why Quality Is More Important Than Quantity For Website Traffic

It’s common sense that you need to drive traffic to your website in order to increase leads. And if you’re showing signs of growth, that’s a great start! But many companies get fooled by statistics showing heavy site traffic and essentially disregard how qualified — or unqualified — those visitors actually are.

SEO and PPC tactics can be extremely effective in getting people to your website, but you also need to have some metrics in place in order to discern how many of your visitors are serious buyers and how many are merely tire kickers.

10 Stats You Didn't Know About Thomas

Industrial buyers are typically 70% of the way through their purchase decision process before they reach out to a supplier.

If you are a manufacturer trying to grow your business, this is an eye-opening, game-changing stat. It means that the buyers you want to do business with — the ones you need to connect with in order to grow your company — are researching, designing, evaluating, shortlisting, and, ultimately, making their purchase decisions online, all with very limited interaction with your sales people.

How, then, can you forge the connections you need while staying top of mind throughout the long and complex buying process?

30 Industrial Lead Generation Tips, Tricks And Ideas

Generating leads is the most important component of marketing.

When you turn a site visitor into a lead, and then that lead becomes a customer, you’ve done your job, but you need to follow up on that accomplishment. As the experts at HubSpot say, “A successful lead generation engine is what keeps the funnel full of sales prospects while you sleep.”