A few clear industrial marketing trends have emerged from the many disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, that are changing how we look at measuring marketing content. Trade shows and personal sales calls are still on the sideline, which has put many manufacturers and service providers into catchup mode if they had been slow to invest in digital marketing. (And let’s be honest, many were.)
The biggest winners on the industrial marketing front are:
Another reality: after the pandemic ends, industrial marketers are not eager to return to previous tactics. Some 89% of those who are developing new digital selling models are “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to retain them.
As industrial companies increase their digital marketing spend, and as more wade into the pool, the importance of good data reporting and measuring marketing efforts via analytics will come into focus.
The digital marketing world is far more fragmented, and the buying cycle far more complicated, than the legacy models. Say what you will about trade shows and personal sales networks, but savvy sales people knew where their leads came from.
Your competitors also are getting more sophisticated about their marketing and what channels are working for them. A manufacturer with some marketing savvy can make great headway if their competitors are not keeping pace.
Digital media is no longer a differentiation in industrial marketing. Analytics may be now, but it won’t be for long.
How good are your analytics? Investing in digital marketing means investing in reporting tools and talent. Can you afford to not know where your leads are coming from? Are you using content marketing analytics to determine if your website content is driving lead generation?
Let’s use a hypothetical example. You are trying out a new digital channel, and $5,000 the first month produced 100 leads. You have a way to capture leads, but you don’t necessarily know where leads are coming from. The next month that same spend resulted in slightly fewer leads, but you are not sure why. You do not want to end up with 6 months of losing inbound lead volume.
A good analytics foundation can address:
That analytics foundation will also help you improve in each of those three areas.
When measuring your marketing results, you have to be proactive to have some knowledge of where those leads are coming from. Why does a tactic work, and why does another channel not work? What adjustments do you make on the input, and how do you measure the performance?
If you are like most companies, you have had to cut back on staffing and find ways to do more with less. Much like the operational side of manufacturing, there are efficiencies in automation for marketing as well. Marketing technology can:
These tools, especially website analytics tools, will grow in use and are quickly evolving.
Another marketing technology-related trend for will be optimizing your CRM and inbound marketing platform. Many of these tools are incredibly robust; it’s worth the investment in time and training to be able to mine your existing data and leverage the capabilities of the platform.
Many manufacturers are using this “slow time” to invest in equipment upgrades and implement new processes in anticipation of an economic rebound. Industrial marketers would be wise to consider something similar to better measure marketing efforts. Investing in analytics and tools will bring efficiency as requirements grow for understanding the leads that come in digitally.
To get more perspectives on what it takes to make marketing the strength of your business, visit our insights page.
We can help you develop strategies for winning more business during uncertain times.
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