The Thomas Blog

Marketing Goals vs. Marketing Strategy: What's The Difference

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.

Setting marketing benchmarks is the only way you’ll be able to achieve scalable growth throughout the next few months and beyond — it’s never too early to start planning your business goals for next quarter or even next month.

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.

What Are The B2B Buyer Personas In The Manufacturing Industry?

In today’s increasingly digital world, there are numerous ways for manufacturing companies to reach potential buyers — email blasts, eBooks, blog posts, social media, and even SMS texts can all be used to connect with target audiences and increase brand awareness.

Inbound marketing aims to entice your target customers to come to you on their own by providing valuable content that will help them reach their goals. 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.

The Ultimate Guide To A Manufacturing Marketing Strategy in 2022

Marketing isn't a new practice.

It has actually — if you can believe it — been around for centuries.

And while many manufacturing and industrial companies are successfully implementing aspects of marketing such as email campaigns, social media engagement, and a modern website, there's always room for improvement (or to get started if you haven't already).

A well executed strategy will have a place in each area of business, especially pricing, product, and sales, so it's important to do it right if you want to:

• Get more customers
• Acquire more high-quality leads
• Increase revenue
• Expand your business into new markets

Sound like a plan? Great!

In this blog, we’ll break down everything you need to know about starting and/or optimizing a strategy of your own — and we'll include additional marketing resources for deeper dives along the way.

How To Get Started With An Industrial Marketing Strategy This Year

Digital industrial marketing drives customers to your business’ products and services through coordinated design, content, social media, and SEO tactics. Many manufacturing and industrial companies may think that digital marketing would be more suited toward consumer goods and B2C than the industrial space, but that's not the case. With the rise of digital transformation of sales and marketing, successful B2B companies see 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 a marketing campaign — they just don’t know it yet. Here's how to get started.

How To Plan A New B2B Product Launch With Digital Marketing

Business owners are familiar with building their own go-to-market strategy. It's the official plan of how a new product gets launched, who the target audience is, the marketing plan, and sales strategy. But each product, industry, and market are different — especially in the manufacturing and industrial world. According to a small business survey done by Thomas, only 15.69% of small businesses in the U.S. use digital marketing as a primary marketing tactic. But in the past year, more leaders are making a move to digital transforming their sales and marketing.

The following steps outline how to plan your new B2B product launch with digital marketing and newer, better growth methods that meet a new age of buyers.

6 Ways To Redefine Your B2B Manufacturing Marketing Strategy In 2022

With 2021 drawing to a close, now is the time to look ahead and start setting your industrial marketing plan for the future. Upgrading your digital tools and supplementing your traditional tactics puts your manufacturing company in a better position for lead generation.

Here are ways you can boost your manufacturing marketing strategy to meet the changing needs of today's buyers and get more qualified leads.

The Stages Of Industrial Digital Marketing: Converting Traffic To Customers

Giving Thanks: B2B Customer Appreciation Tips For Manufacturers

You already know that your customers mean everything to your manufacturing business. However, it's important to let those customers know it every once in a while, too. Most companies likely spend a lot of time, money, and energy bringing in new clients, but very few companies expend anywhere near that much to retain the customers they already have. In fact, just 43% percent of B2B firms consider customer satisfaction a key goal. Studies show that organizations that focus on optimizing their customer engagement outperform their competitors by 26%.

Digital Marketing For Industrial Suppliers & Manufacturers: 3 Must-Haves

Potential customers do a great deal of research into every purchasing channel available to them. The latest Industrial Buyer's Search Habits Survey Results show that 40% of B2B buyers rate the quality of a manufacturer's website as an important factor when deciding whether to partner with a supplier. With B2C expectations driving change in B2B, industrial distributors can implement some digital marketing ideas to foster customer loyalty and increase revenue growth.

We've rounded up the digital marketing must-haves you need to successfully promote your industrial products and services and reach more buyers.