Industrial marketing involves working with industrial and commercial enterprises to gain visibility and sales. Industrial marketing typically involves working with larger business-to-business enterprises, as opposed to marketing for consumer-facing companies. Despite the differences, there are a range of strategies that successful industrial marketing teams utilize to improve visibility, engagement and sales of products and services.
1.Niche Focus
The industrial market is a vast space thats filled with many products, services and solutions. While trying to serve all possible prospects may sound logical on the face, it is often a waste of resources and leads to missed targeting opportunities. Instead, look for specialized needs or pain points of the segments you are focusing on and aim to solve those needs for those specific prospects. This strategy helps cut through the noise and creates higher returns with less risk.
2.Content-Driven Strategy
Content-driven strategies are key to create thought leadership in the industrial space. Focusing on creating quality content that speaks to industrial solutions, solutions to common pain points, etc. can generate organic website traffic and visibility. Content-driven strategies can also help build brand recognition and trust. High-quality content can establish your brand as an authority in the industrial space and differentiate you from competitors.
3.Identifying and Utilizing Thought Leaders
The industrial space is filled with knowledgeable professionals who are respected in their field. Identifying and engaging key thought leaders can help generate visibility and branding efforts as these professionals can become an extension of your marketing efforts. For example, if you have identified a thought leader in the industrial space who has an influential blog or podcast, having that leader become a part of your content creation process can be a huge driver for increased visibility.
4.Inbound and Outbound Strategies
Many businesses focus solely on outbound marketing strategies to drive sales. Outbound strategies are effective, but oftentimes overlook the long-term effects of inbound marketing. Inbound marketing initiatives such as SEO, content creation, social media and email marketing can be very effective for generating organic traffic to your website. Furthermore, inbound strategies can also help create more organic leads, which are overall higher quality leads.
5.Leveraging Relevant Trade Shows
Trade shows are a great way to not only gain visibility, but also to gain valuable insights directly from target audiences. By attending industry-specific trade shows you can think of creative ways to engage customers and prospects while also learning more about the challenges and needs of these prospects. This helps you create more tailored solutions and messages that can help you gain a competitive advantage.
6.Optimizing Digital Presence
For industrial companies, digital presence largely consists of organic search marketing, organic social media strategies, website optimization, and email marketing. By focusing on targeted organic strategies with a long-term view, industrial marketers can achieve a high return on investment and improved visibility. Additionally, by optimising the website experience and implementing targeted strategies, industrial marketers can drive more leads from their digital efforts.
7.Omni-Channel Approach
Industrial marketing teams need to think beyond traditional marketing and create an omni-channel approach in order to provide the best possible customer experience. An omni-channel approach involves having the same message, branding, and offers across all platforms. This means that prospects can receive a consistent message, no matter where they are in the buyer’s journey and your brand can become top of mind when they are ready to make a purchase.
8.Follow-up and Nurture Strategies
The industrial market is filled with long, complex sales cycles. This means that your team needs to focus on follow-up and nurture strategies to maximize sales.The best way to do this is to create tailored nurture campaigns based on customer or prospect segments. These campaigns should focus on keeping your brand top of mind and also pushing for sales when prospects are ready.
Industrial marketing strategies are unique, but when done right, they can be extremely effective. By focusing on niche focus, content-driven strategies, identifying and engaging thought leaders, leveraging relevant trade shows, optimizing digital presence, developing an omni-channel approach, and implementing follow-up and nurture strategies, industrial marketers can set themselves up for success.