Industrial content marketing is facing a big challenge because manufacturers are struggling to make it more engaging for their target audience. They have a good grasp of industrial content marketing’s contributions at the top of funnel but can’t quite connect the dots when it comes to measuring its effectiveness in driving sales.
The problem is not just a matter of better analytics and/or in-depth ROI reports from Marketing Automation. These marketing tools are a big help but can’t completely close the gap. The decision makers at these industrial companies want to know how industrial content marketing will increase their sales before they invest the money. In other words, they are saying, “Show me the money.”
Challenges with industrial content marketing exist across different industries and varying company sizes. Consider these key findings from the sixth annual content marketing survey, 2016 B2B Manufacturing Content Marketing Trends—North America: Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs:
There is a big disconnect here between industrial content marketing and its impact on sales.
It would be easy to say that industrial content marketing is flawed and infective for industrial sales. I’ve had conversations with manufacturers where they have been very dismissive and frankly, frustrated with the lack of results. I’m being PC and polite here but someone once told me, “This s**t doesn’t work!”
However, the problem is not with content marketing as an industrial marketing strategy. To use a football terminology, “upon further review,” it turns out the real problem is not understanding how to align industrial content marketing with the manufacturer’s sales process and set the table for Sales to have productive conversations that turn into wins.
Refer to my post, “How Manufacturing Content Marketing Sets the Table for Sales” for more on how to use content marketing effectively at every stage of the sales funnel.
It is critical that either the in-house marketing team or your outsourced industrial content marketing company takes the time to understand the sales process and plan a strategy around it. Doing it the other way around is doomed to fail from the get-go.
Not taking the time to fully understand the sales process doesn’t just negatively impact content marketing, but other areas of industrial marketing too. (See Why do so Many Industrial Website Redesigns Fail?)
Another issue I’ve found is the serious underutilization of industrial marketing by manufacturers. They have latched on to this idea that it is the new way for achieving higher rankings in Google and other major search engines. As a result, they do not consider using the full potential of content marketing at every stage of the buy cycle.
To make your content marketing more engaging, the focus must shift from the just technical aspects of SEO (discovery optimization) to conversion optimization (CRO – Conversion Rate Optimization). The two are connected and related but very different. Read my post, “Industrial Companies are Stuck on SEO for Content Marketing Strategy” for more on this issue.
Creating more content is not the answer for engaging with engineers and industrial buyers. There is a big difference between content creation and content marketing. You are not going to win the mindshare of engineers and technical buyers or earn their trust with more marketing fluff.
To engage with this audience, your content must be specific to their needs, technically accurate, provide proof of concept and address their “fear of failure” concerns by providing validation for your claims and results.
Bring your Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to the forefront and let Marketing be in the background. Content published by SMEs (even if Marketing ghostwrote the content) will create true differentiation for you by highlighting your technical experience and expertise, something that your competition can’t easily copy. (See Content Can Differentiate Industrial Companies When There’s Parity in Value Propositions). Engineers view content from other SMEs and their peers as more trustworthy. One engineer to another is a very effective and powerful strategy for earning their trust. Take a look at these charts from two different studies.
Passive reading of your content is not going to help you generate leads that turn into RFQs and wins. You also need content assets that are time-savers for engineers and help them spec or “design in” your components. Listed here are some of the content marketing assets that usually lead to RFQs and build customer loyalty.
A part is ultimately purchased 77% of the time a CAD file is downloaded according to an engineering survey done by CADENAS PARTsolutions.
I’m not implying that going 100% with industrial content marketing is the right answer for every manufacturer. There are situations where a mix of digital and traditional media is very effective. I call this integrated industrial marketing.
Industrial content marketing that adds real value to your sales process requires much more than writing blog posts and tweeting about them. It requires thinking of every stakeholder involved on your customer’s end, the role they play in the buying decision and then delivering the right content, at the right time and in their preferred format.
Keep these points in mind as you plan and budget for your industrial content marketing in 2017.
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.
Lifting Equipment says:
This is absolutely agree with you. Thank you for sharing some very useful information.
SWLifting says:
Great information you shared. Actually, just 3 months ago we introduced the online lifting equipment store. And, we highly focus on content marketing and email marketing, that leads our sales and traffic to our site.
Smita says:
Great information shared.
Paola Medina says:
What a great content Achinta. I had just stumbled with this post doing some research on Buzzsumo about content marketing. There’s a few things that got me thinking. I’ve bookmarked the post for future references. Nicely done. I thought that you might be interested in this post I wrote http://blog.thesocialus.com/want-a-lifesaver-for-your-product-create-a-buyer-persona
Best,
Paola
Steven says:
thank you very much for the information
John says:
I would 100% agree with you that industrial content marketers have a huge issue coming up with content. I find myself with writers block all the time, and I have to reach out to alot of my customers for inspiration. DIY blogs are always good for me, but it doesn’t help me sell…
tpois.com says:
This is really very informative blog regarding industrial market & products.
Thanks for sharing as we will use this information in our business.
George Kuhn says:
Some great points here. We always tell our manufacturing clients if you can create valuable content, they will find you, regardless of how niche your industry is. We argue niche may actually be better on digital because of the lack of competition offering quality content.
Achinta Mitra says:
Thanks @Qgspl and @Joan
Joan says:
Thanks for your blog, we’ve got new ideas for our business. We will implement this and we hope for better result.
Qgspl says:
Amazing Blog for industrial tips and information.