A multifaceted approach focused on attracting customers through the dissemination of helpful, relevant content and thoughtful interaction, inbound marketing allows potential customers to find you through various channels, including blogs, social media, and search engines. While traditional outbound marketing aims to push products, inbound marketing allows potential clients to become aware of a company organically.

But technological innovations and general shifts in the B2B landscape are drastically changing the way inbound marketing campaigns are structured and implemented. Chances are, you’re no longer reading emails on a Blackberry or browsing the internet using a dial-up connection; with today’s technology, content can be accessed in countless ways, whether in the office or on the go.

Below are four major technology trends shaping the face of inbound marketing today and what they mean for your company’s marketing campaigns.

To successfully reach the buyers you’re targeting and garner the leads you’re looking for, inbound marketing campaigns should encompass a range of different methods and channels.

Social media, in particular, is playing an increasingly important role in industrial digital marketing, allowing companies to connect personally with fellow industry leaders and attract potential leads.

In the United States alone, organizations are spending $18 billion on social advertising, and this number is expected to reach $23.6 billion by 2019.

But establishing a social media presence means more than just creating a profile, adding some followers, and posting company updates every so often.

Below are a few key tips to keep in mind when creating an effective social media marketing campaign.

Now is an ideal time to check on your progress toward your 2017 marketing goals. Are you on track for lead generation? What about spending? More importantly, have your efforts shown signs of profitability?

According to a recent ENGINEERING.com Market Research Report on 2017 spending plans, marketing budgets are trending upward as more and more companies recognize the value of marketing for all aspects of their business. Businesses still face various challenges, however, when establishing and maintaining a successful marketing strategy, and as the bar for effective marketing continues to rise, so too do expectations for results.

To see how your team compares, here are some of the top challenges marketers have said they are facing this year.

As technologies continue to advance and industrial buyers increasingly turn to the internet for the information they need to find suppliers and source products, digital marketing has become indispensable in the B2B manufacturing and industrial sphere. Sending out mailers or relying on word of mouth is no longer enough to attract and convert valuable leads; now, a multifaceted approach is necessary to stay relevant in today’s shifting B2B landscape. 

A successful, ongoing digital marketing campaign will encompass a few different digital marketing strategies and elements; a strong, interactive social media presence, pay-per-click (PPC) ads, and use of SEO best practices are just a few of the many channels being used today to expand company awareness and gain leads.

But once you have a solid digital foundation in place, what are the best ways to stay ahead of the curve? Below, we’ll delve into five simple — but super-effective — ways to amp up your digital marketing presence.

In today’s increasingly connected world, establishing a strong digital presence is crucial for effective brand exposure and lead generation. With more and more people accessing business and product information online, it’s no longer effective to rely solely on broadcast commercials, newspaper ads, or telephone campaigns for effective B2B marketing.

As technology and industrial marketing methods continue to evolve, implementing a comprehensive, multifaceted approach is critical for staying ahead of the curve and ensuring potential leads become aware of your company.

Below, we’ve outlined some of the many different ways to advertise your business online and generate valuable leads.

So you’ve realized that your old traditional and digital marketing business tactics just weren’t working, and you’ve taken steps to get your inbound marketing program off the ground.

Now what?

Well, now comes the hard part — you’ll need to create content that your prospects actually want to read. Don’t panic. While this can seem like a big undertaking, understanding the inbound marketing funnel can make this process a lot more manageable — not to mention a lot more effective. Let’s take a look.

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.

As industrial marketing budgets continue to rise, more funds are being allocated to the creation of content — in the form of blogs, eBooks, email campaigns, videos, webinars, infographics, and so on — as good content is at the core of any successful inbound marketing program. 

Like with any investment, the marketers and manufacturing companies that are making them 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. 

Inbound marketing is the art of driving customers to your business’ products and services through a coordinated strategy of design, content, social media, and SEO tactics. Seems like something that would be more suited toward consumer goods and B2C rather than manufacturing and industrial companies, right? Wrong. 

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

Think about all the spec sheets, research, data, and product catalogs you have just lying around on a desk or in a drawer somewhere. These materials can be converted into valuable marketing tools to help drive your business forward — these materials just need to be set up the right way. 

We’re here to lay out some steps to turn the resources you already have into powerful tools for lead generation.

The punchline of every presentation at the first annual IMPACT Live, a two-day conference for sales and marketing executives, this week seemed to be "If there's one thing you can takeaway from this to bring back to your own company..." Which, of course, means I have more than 15 "one things" as action items in my brain — in addition to the dozens of ideas I tweeted about and my boss logged in Trello.

But if you're reading this post, you probably weren't there or feeling as inspired as we all are (or maybe you did attend and you want to re-live the magic), and I think it's unfair for me to not share at least some of the knowledge I gained from: networking with 150 marketing, sales and business professionals; listening to presentations from big names such as Marcus Sheridan, Mike Volpe, David Meerman Scott and Mark Roberge; and bouncing ideas off of the Thomas team.

There were plenty of pointers on being genuine in your company and discussions on the importance of taking risks, but if I were to write out all of the takeaways from the event, this blog post would be about 25,000 words. So, I'll keep it short (but you can get a full recap on IMPACT's blog) — here are a few considerations for you: