DIGITAL MARKETING IN THE TRADE & INDUSTRIAL SECTORS

By Swordfish Advertising & Marketing July 2013

New Research: Digital Disruption arrives in the Trade and Industrial sectors. Now you must adapt.
Digital Disruption has well and truly taken hold in the industrial sector; a newly published US study* shows the extent to which industrial professionals are using digital resources more than ever before to perform work-related tasks throughout the buy cycle. The implications for industrial marketers couldnt be clearer: if you havent adjusted your marketing to include an effective digital component, you are missing out on business. This just-published survey delivers a clear mandate for industrial marketers: to more effectively engage your target audience, you must be highly visible across multiple online channels. Single-channel marketing is a tactic of the past, and traditional marketing barely reaches industrial professionals.

Highlights from the report:

 84% use the internet to find equipment, 74% to compare products 61% use it to request a quote  86% use search engines to seek information 44% use EDM as an information source 31% use printed trade publications  44% do all their product research online (ie no dealer involved) and 19% of the market dont contact the vendor until their mind is made up on which product to buy,  Trade shows have lost favour, 51% attended none  They subscribe to three times as many digital publications vs printed trade magazines  29% read work related content on social media, 46% use youtube
Source: * HIS Global Spec: 2013 Digital Media Use in the Industrial Sector. Survey among 1,828 industrial professionals in North America. Ninety-three percent are involved in the purchase of components and services.

 51% use online forums to find technical information, 49% to search for product information Todays research and decision-making tools are overwhelmingly digital and for many the essential part of the buy cycle is often completed BEFORE prospects speak to you or your dealer. If you dont take this into account when planning your marketing you could simply be missed by your prospective customers: According to another IHS GlobalSpec research report, in 2012 over half of industrial marketers spent 36 percent or less of their marketing budget online. This allocation of marketing dollars seems poorly aligned with the behaviour of the industrial professional audience. Its time to adjust your budget and plans. This reports tells you how and why.

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Low hanging fruit

As a manager of technical products and services, you need to choose the right mix of channels that meet your marketing objectivesproducing qualified sales and marketing opportunities, and increasing the visibility of your company, brand and products. What results are current marketing channels delivering? This chart provides an index of the effectiveness vs difficulty to execute of various lead generation activities. Its based on quantified data from almost 2,000 organisations. Its hard to imagine a more pragmatic approach to resource allocation planning for this allimportant component of marketing activity. As you see, email marketing and PPC (Adwords) score most effective/easiest and, although easy, print scores least effective in generating leads.

Source: *Marketing Sherpa 2013

Of course whats missing is a third dimension cost. Applying that would push trade shows and print advertising further back (theyre very expensive), and email marketing further ahead. Not sure you believe it? You should! Heres another study which broadly aligns:

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Email Marketing cheap and powerful

One of the most cost-effective programs you can run is establishing regular email contact with a customer or prospect base. Heres what the average business is using email marketing for:

There are some golden rules of email marketing which most users ignore!  You need to provide genuinely value-adding content thats a relevant to the recipient as possible, in other words your email should be as tailored and personal as possible.  Include clear call-to-actions in your email, preferably incentivise click through to your site, probably to landing pages. And once there, again include clear call-to-actions.  Commit to a regular ongoing program. The elements are: database development (segmented to allow personalisation); content development; selecting a good email program and creating formatted html templates; publishing strong landing pages in your website.

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SEO and SEM: mainstays of your digital activity

Both SEO and SEM continue to prove themselves in driving traffic to your site, and both deservedly receive significant budget allocation.

Social time to start the journey

SEO and SEM are intsinically linked, and can readily integrate into your social media marketing tests

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B2B are not big users of Facebook but that doesnt mean they dont use social! Trade and industrial focused online forums are huge in other markets compared to Australia, And that means there are great opportunities here for early adopters.

The use of video is also booming, and why wouldnt it be? Its perfect to explain and emo complex products and these days it can be produced cheaply. In this case you dont need to go further than youtube:

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10 key action points for right now

It costs 62% less to generate a lead using the inbound marketing techniques weve been discussing here compared to traditional outbound technique like press advertising and read shows (Hubspot 2011). 1.   Create a digital strategy and move most of your marketing budget into it, committing to ongoing investment in creating content and opening digital distribution channels 2. Prioritise your website as your digital base camp and hang everything around it. Invest as necessary 3. Ensure your sales team understands the new digital realities at play 4. Ensure your brand is being delivered into the digital channels intact and with values unaltered 5. More active SEO and SEM (PPC) 6. Analytics to optimise and refine all the above 7. Content generation probably including thought leadership and video. Possibly a blog. 8.  Participation in or hosting of forums, webinars, and other community building activities 9.  Collation of a structured email database and commitments to a regular EDM program 10. Experimentation with a social media presence Many of these activities are readily executed, and not necessarily at great cost, particularly in relation to their effectiveness and compared to what you may be doing now.

And 11 Mistakes to avoid

1. F  ailing to continually monitor your marketing programs. The phrase you can only manage what you measure is true. Online marketing offers you the ability to measure your marketing programs. This allows you to know what components of your marketing program are working, and what you should consider refining. So with far more quantifiable data available to you, make sure you use it. Online marketing campaigns provide a wealth of data making it very easy for you to determine the success of your campaign. 2. Staying on the same path. Sometimes the only constant is change. Objectives shift to align with business goals, new marketing channels enter the mix, and prospects begin using different resources to obtain relevant business information. Therefore, unless youve proven your current program is optimized for todays marketing environment, your plan needs to evolve accordingly. Stay across new marketing techniques, consumer trends and customer needs and alter your marketing activity accordingly. 3. F  orgetting to fish where the fish are. Virtually all engineering, technical, industrial and manufacturing professionals now use the Internet throughout their work processes. Are you reaching this target audience where they can be found looking for products and services like yours? 4. I gnoring frequency Fishing where the fish are is only one component of a successful marketing campaign. Equally as important is how often you are reaching your target audience. Are you pushing your message out to the market on a regular basis, or are your efforts sporadic at best? Are you attracting your target audience where they are looking and when they are looking for what you have to offer? 5. Working in a bubble Are the results you are seeing from your marketing campaign in line with what your sales team is looking for? Its vital for marketing and sales to work together to ensure that your campaigns are delivering relevant sales leads. 6. F  ocusing on quantity versus quality. Leads that provide intelligence to begin a relationship and gain a customer are more valuable than piles of nameless, faceless clicks. Be sure to capture relevant information.

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Mistakes to avoid (continued)

7. T  reating all potential customers the same. Your customers, genuine leads, and general inquiries are three very different groups with three very different areas of interest in your company and offerings. The same content cannot (and should not) serve all three. Not everyone will read an email while an e-newsletter can feel like a one-way mass communication. If you are trying to start a relationship with a new inquiry, you need to do more than just send an email. 8. F  ollowing Up Leads Days Later. Congratulations you have just successfully generated a significant number of leads via a campaign. Did you know that the longer that you take to follow up those leads, the less success you will have? Particularly with online campaigns. 9. O  verlooking timing. Are your marketing initiatives in sync with company-wide events such as product or service launches or trade show appearances? Neglecting to keep timing in mind can mean missed opportunities. 10. B  ig booths at Tradeshows (year after year). Tradeshows takes up considerable time and resources and often dont attract key decision makers or new business. Try instead holding an intimate breakfast series with a drawcard speaker as a separate event and time. 11. A  bandoning branding and exposure. An increased emphasis on leads has resulted in some businesses shifting their focus away from branding and exposure. However, continuous exposure to your target audience will ultimately result in qualified sales and marketing opportunities. Do you have a clear brand strategy? Are you distinctive?

And finally: know the future. (Because its already here!)

Where is all this headed? What will trade and industrial marketers be busy with next year and the year after. Well, the answer is, much the same as the most sophisticated BtoC marketers are starting to be busy with today! That is:  Websites (and content management systems behind them) that recognise you and automatically serve personalised content relevant to you (including suggested purchases) based on your past behaviour (Amazon have made billions by perfecting this) responsive sites (that detect what size screen you are using and optimise the layout accordingly)  omni-channel, multi-screen content delivery which allow you to start your web interaction on one screen (eg a using tablet during TV commercials) and complete it seamlessly on another (eg making a detailed transaction on a desktop)  better data collection and analysis providing more optimisation (eg testing different content and layouts on your site to see what provides the best response) and better attiribution (ie knowing where your leads have come from and then becoming more active in those places  automated marketing systems which identify market opportunity and by modelling RoI on directing spend there, continually adjust your marketing mix and budget allocation continued growth of reliance on digital publications (at the expense of paper publications)  more professionally-focussed online communities forming (Linked In is the biggest example), the continued growth in importance of customer reviews and greater efforts to be present in social conversations continued growth in app use

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Your next step

Talk to us! Were experienced marketers of B2B (and B2C) products and services both online and off. We can help you from brand strategy, market planning, digital strategy and execution and campaign management. Our model is to create virtual partnerships built around the needs of any given business. It keep overheads (and charges) low, ensures only properly qualified people are deployed and allows us to reallocate resources as your marketing activities evolve and change. Contact Mark Schroeder at mark@swordfishgroup.com.au or 0417 371 071

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