The Thomas Blog

Does Your Industrial Company Need a Marketing Agency? (Take The Quiz!)

With all of the uncertainties that exist in today's manufacturing world, there's one thing that's guaranteed: Agencies will cold call and email you to try and sell you their marketing services. And it makes sense — industrial companies are set up for successful marketing programs and typically don't even know it.

After decades of relying on word-of-mouth referrals to bring in new business, you might be hesitant to bring in someone new to your process. But marketing agencies can be very helpful in generating qualified leads and helping your sales team close your dream customers. But if you don't have certain goals or a budget to put behind their services, how will you know what's worth your time and how to spend your money effectively?

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.

How To Meet The Needs Of B2B Industrial Buyers

No matter what your role is — sales, marketing, operations, or leadership — you have a lot to accomplish.

So do your buyers. 

By understanding what your buyers have on their plates, you can more easily accomplish one of the most important things on yours — generating more leads. Here’s what you should know to meet their needs and create more meaningful connections to win more business.

Customer Delight: How To Ace The Last Phase Of Inbound Marketing

Buyers often encounter different challenges every day, and each phase of the buying process has opportunities (using inbound marketing!) for suppliers like you to position yourself as the best partner. 

Inbound marketing is defined as the data-driven approach to marketing that attracts people to your brand, engages them, and converts them to lasting customers. The approach is multi-channel and accounts for where people are, and how they want to interact with you using the main driver of quality content. It allows you to bring visitors into your site through various forms of channels like blogs, email marketing, and social media.

Unfortunately, a lot of marketers don’t even consider this last element of inbound marketing after the sale is made. That phase — customer delight — is perhaps one of the most important of all.

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. 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 outline the difference between marketing goals and a marketing strategy so you can improve yours and connect with higher-quality prospects.

Inbound Marketing and 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?

Industrial Marketing: Train In-House Or Hire An Agency, Freelancer?

Industrial marketing requires a lot of time and expertise. If you don’t quite have either, you’re not alone. Many manufacturing companies don’t have in-house marketing departments, and those that do often have limited budgets and personnel.

So what's the solution — training current employees, seeking out freelancers, or hiring an agency? Let's look at the pros and cons of each.

The Ultimate Guide to Marketing for Manufacturers

Marketing isn't a new practice (actually it has been around for centuries) but for some companies in the industrial space, there is still an opportunity to completely embrace its effectiveness.

Using Google Docs, Slides, & Sheets For Marketing

Word documents, slide decks, data spreadsheets. What do these things have to do with industrial marketing? You might be surprised.

If you’re in charge of content marketing for your business, chances are you’re writing a lot of the copy in Word documents, presenting your ideas from slide decks, and analyzing data with spreadsheets.