The Thomas Blog

Choosing A B2B Marketing Automation Platform: HubSpot Vs. Pardot

To stay ahead in today’s increasingly competitive B2B marketing landscape, automation is vital. Marketing automation software allows companies to automate various marketing tasks, such as emailing specific contacts or posting on social media.

Not only is this great for eliminating the boredom factor (no more repetitive emailing jobs that leave you blurry-eyed and dazed), it’s also great for creating a more dynamic, multichannel marketing strategy. And through automated tracking and data collection, companies gain better insight into prospects, enabling them to fine-tune and personalize their offerings as needed in order to reach valuable leads.

What Is ROI In Marketing [And How To Prove It]

It is more important than ever today for marketing professionals to maximize the return on investment (ROI) for their marketing efforts. But the ability to determine a clear ROI for marketing continues to elude many companies. While there is no single solution to getting more out of your marketing, there are some marketing methods that are both more effective and easier to measure the effectiveness of.

What To Expect When Hiring An Industrial Marketing Agency

Digital marketing is an ever-evolving practice that requires a great deal of attention and expertise. Creating comprehensive strategies across multiple digital channels can seem like a daunting task when you take into consideration the other daily challenges you’re facing running a business, especially when industrial marketing isn't your expertise. To make sure they’re creating strong marketing campaigns that accomplish specific business goals, many companies turn to marketing agencies for assistance.

Leveraging Omni-Channel Marketing For B2B

Today’s marketing world is filled with many terms and buzzwords. From acronyms like “KPI” and “CTR” to rising industry trends like “big data” and “hyperlocal,” sales and marketing leaders in the manufacturing space constantly find buzzwords left and right. So when you come across the word “omni-channel,” you may be quick to dismiss it.

That would be a mistake.

What Can B2B Industrial Marketers Learn From B2C Marketers?

When it comes to marketing, many manufacturers put themselves in a very narrow box, focusing on niche messaging — and niche strategies — to get the job done. As a result, you can end up looking, sounding, and acting a lot like your competitors. 

Business-to-business (B2B) marketing is designed for a complex process of consideration and comparison way of communication, often with heavy emphasis on cost or time-savings and efficiency — which makes sense since these products and services are often more expensive with longer purchasing cycles than those sold directly to consumers. Business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing, on the other hand, has greater flexibility to be light, creative, and even play to consumers’ emotions rather than pure logic.

7 Marketing Mistakes That Manufacturers Make Over And Over Again

After all of the time and resources you’ve invested into your digital marketing engine, you wouldn’t just walk away from the progress you’ve made, would you?

Common mistakes can derail months and even years of hard work. In many cases, the biggest risk is doing nothing at all — no more new content, not following up on industry trends, and not performing due diligence. Unfortunately, we see many companies making the same mistakes over and over again and it can cost them leads, customers, and a lot of revenue.

Here are common manufacturing marketing mistakes you should avoid:

Does Your Manufacturing Company Have A Unique Selling Proposition?

There are tens of thousands of job shops across the country. (As we know — we list many of them on our supplier discovery platform.)

Chances are, some of those suppliers are producing the very same products you are. So how can you stand out from the crowd when customers are deciding between you and your competitors? Start by developing a compelling unique selling proposition.

(Take The Quiz!) Do You Need Industrial Marketing Agency Services?

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?

The Last Phase Of Inbound Marketing: Keeping Your Customers Happy

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.