Summer is a good time to look back at what has worked for lead generation and compare yourself with your peers as you plan for the second half of the year. You could use some of these findings to validate your own industrial marketing strategy and/or find some new ideas to fine-tune it for the remainder of 2012. With that in mind, here are some useful data and charts from various sources. Click on each chart to see a larger image.
MarketingSherpa: (www.marketingsherpa.com)
What were the most effective SEO tactics used for lead generation in 2012? Here are the results from a survey of 1,530 B2B marketers during this year’s B2B Benchmark Study to find what works in online and offline marketing.
In another survey of nearly 2,000 B2B marketers, participants were asked, “Please indicate the expected changes to your lead generation budget for the following channels for 2012.”
And the survey says…
Do these statistics and findings match what manufacturers and industrial companies are reporting?
GlobalSpec: (www.globalspec.com)
According to their Trends in Industrial Marketing 2012, it is a close match with some differences. In the chart below, I have added green arrows next to the traditional marketing tactics that are still popular (top 10) within the industrial sector. I have recently used trade magazine ads and direct mail for manufacturing clients. Both marketing tactics produced traffic, leads and new customers. See my post from last year, “Inbound Marketing Alone May Not Be Enough for Industrial Companies.”
ThomasNet: (www.thomasnet.com)
Their 2012 Industrial Marketing Trends report shows a much closer match between industrial marketers and general B2B marketing. Here is a chart from their survey.
Here is a key takeaway from the report, “When it comes to generating new business, industrial companies are focused on quality, rather than quantity. The priority for many marketers is to attract only those leads that have a high likelihood of turning into sales. Moreover, there is a clear preference for long-term business relationships.” I find this definite shift in focus from quantity to quality of leads to be very encouraging.
Now that you have seen the stats and charts, I urge you to use your good judgment to interpret them in the context of your own situation. The saying “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics” popularized by Mark Twain applies here.
Do the findings in this post reflect your own experience with industrial marketing for lead generation?
Industrial Marketing Today is an integral part of Tiecas, Inc., a Houston-based industrial marketing agency. We’ve been in business since 1987, serving the marketing needs of manufacturers, distributors, and engineering companies from various industries.
Vikas Bhatt says:
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