The manufacturing industry sells complex products to other businesses needing components to produce their goods or services. Therefore, creating a strategy to attract new clients is complicated for industrial marketing.
What Is Industrial Marketing?
Industrial marketing is business-to-business marketing that promotes services and products from one business to another. Industrial marketing focuses on selling between manufacturers and buyers that need those components for production.
Industrial consumers are typically in the second or third phase of the purchase cycle before they reach out to manufacturers. That’s why industrial marketers must promote their products strategically while creating an image that boosts the manufacturing company.
What Are Benefits and Features of Industrial Marketing?
Industrial marketing requires a deep understanding of the techniques used for business to business (B2B) marketers use to promote products. For example:
- Industrial marketing requires fewer clients and larger purchase volumes than business-to-consumer (B2C) markets do
- B2B markets build a close relationship between customers and manufacturers as they influence one another.
- Buyers are well-versed in what features they need, so an industrial manufacturer needs a greater understanding of the products offered to promote goods successfully.
- The buying process takes longer to complete as the decision-making process is more complex than in B2C markets.
According to the Hook Agency, 56% of engineers are in their second or third stage of the buying process before they contact a vendor. Lead nurturing produces the outcome of a 50% higher sale than those that don’t nurture leads. Companies that institute digital marketing campaigns typically generate 15% more business from existing clients.
Industrial marking contributes to company development and increases employee tasks’ effectiveness as they all follow a central goal. It also provides a competitive advantage for your company.
What Are the Challenges of Industrial Marketing
Industrial marketing is different from most other types of marketing. Therefore, they have unique challenges to overcome for a successful marketing campaign.
Not Reaching Purchasing Decision-Makers
The engineers that look for your products aren’t necessarily the ones who make the final purchasing decisions. Instead, you have to overcome the challenge of providing the information engineers need to find the products while still appealing to the decision-makers.
Lack of Transparency Between Manufacturers and Customers
There is always a concern over the theft of intellectual property. Manufacturers know that as they share their data with potential clients, it can be stolen and used to make their products cheaper. Unfortunately, this fear often keeps manufacturing companies from sharing the data the engineers need to make their decision.
With a lack of transparency between manufacturers and customers, only about 20% of engineers are willing to contact suppliers that don’t offer a 3D model. As a result, manufacturers must build trust with their customers to share necessary information.
What Are Industrial Marketing Strategy?
You need a well-thought-out marketing strategy to market to your ideal buyer successfully. An industrial marketing strategy has some overlap with consumer marketing strategies. However, a few steps must be tweaked to fit the specific needs of industrial companies.
Market Analysis
Market analysis is one of the first steps to building a marketing stratFirst, you. First, you must study potential industrial buyers and learn their specific needs and problems. You also need to know how their companies may develop and which products you offer will meet their growing needs.
Potential buyers aren’t the only group you should analyze. You also should study your competitors and determine their strengths and weakness. Then, use your research to define your competitive advantage for future marketing.
Build Trust
All businesses must build trust between themselves and their clients. For example, in the industrial manufacturing niche, developers tend to withhold some information because they don’t know if they can trust the buyers with their proprietary information. While it is understandable not to want company secrets to leak to the wrong person, it is still essential that you build relationships.
Focus on your client’s needs and keep up with the needed changes. You must have a long-term cooperative relationship with your clients to achieve your sales goals and build customer trust.
Product Positioning
That’s why product positioning is essential. Your industrial clients will know what they’re looking for and won’t waste time searching. Positioning your products with all advantages and detailed information will help you build a trusting relationship with your customer base.
Industrial Marketing Agency
Industrial marketing has many facets as other B2B and B2C campaigns with PPC, social media, SEO, and content marketing. However, the complex subjects require someone who knows about industrial marketing to create and monitor your marketing campaigns.
At OEM Digital Marketing, we specialize in digital marketing for industrial companies. Our staff has over 35 years of manufacturing experience. We are dedicated to increasing sales and profits. Contact us today to see how we can help you grow your customer base.
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