Digital marketing plays a key strategic role for publicity, reaching your audience, and ultimately resulting in sales. This also applies in the industrial products sector.
After the blow of the pandemic industrial markets are now on the rise, and have learned to utilise and invest in digital marketing. Moreover, many industrial brands are capitalising in paid content promotion.
This means that industrial products also need digital marketing, as it is already making a mark in the industrial segment.
Strategies
Various strategies exist, and an allocated budget for marketing is crucial in trade, an integral part of any company`s market plan, especially in a small business, which can`t afford any miscalculations.
So, how much money will be dedicated for marketing, and which is the best method to adopt?
There are no single methods or amounts cast in stone which guarantee success, or even a unique magic formula that works, but instead every business together with their marketing team needs to assess investment, and monitor regularly.
To simplify we can split strategies into traditional and digital.
Traditional vs Digital Marketing
It all goes down for which marketing a company is ready to opt and invest in, not only effort, but most importantly cash.
Going Traditional means taking matters into your own hands and publicise your industrial product by the various classics:
- Print (newspapers, magazines)
- Direct Mail (catalogues)
- Broadcasting (TV, radio)
- Outdoor (billboards, bus/taxi wraps, posters)
- Telemarketing (phone, text messages)
- Window (display, signs)
These methods are still very much considered, not only by seniors and a certain age bracket, also a Gen Z will note a billboard while driving.
As regards to Digital Marketing, this means that a company will be using digital channels such as websites and social media as tools for marketing communication.
We mention a few:
- Social media (Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn)
- Content (articles, photos, blogs also on your website)
- Search Engine Optimisation [SEO] (all those strategic and operational activities to give visibility to a website on search engines, outrank the competition and increase traffic, sales and leads)
- Pay-per-click [PPC] (modern advertising method in the form of visual ads, text ads and video ads)
- Community (indulge in discussions online about the industry you are operating in, send out pitches).
- Influencer (influencers can demonstrate your product online and review/recommend)
- Email Marketing (sending emails to your niche of targeted audience)
As industrial manufacturers seek to reach a wide national or even international audience, they must make sure they use a variety of digital marketing techniques to succeed. Digital marketing for industrial manufacturers requires industry knowledge and an understanding of the business to business (B2B) marketplace.
Benefits
Traditional Marketing
- Reach your target local audience easily
- The materials can be kept
- It’s easy to understand
Digital Marketing
- Along with international one, you can even target a local audience
- Your audience can choose the way they want to receive the content
- Interaction with your audience is possible
- Digital marketing is cost efficient
- Data and results are easily recorded
- Higher exposure and engagement
- Real time results and reduced cost
- Brand development
B2C vs B2B Digital Marketing
The main difference here isn`t much between the techniques you use, but the execution itself.
Business to business (B2B) funnels are on average quite longer than business to customer (B2C) funnels as you are effectively selling your product to a team of people, not a single consumer.
B2B requires more focus on the product/services you are selling and how that improves their business, while B2C can focus more on the benefits of the product/service and try to sell through emotional appeal.
Reputation Management
It goes without saying that a company needs to build a very good reputation, by delivering what is promoting, in our case effective excellent industrial products. Also, very good after sales, and continuous support and availability with customers are key.
These result in positive comments and reviews, that feature near a company`s Google search result, which will attire new customers, leads and sales.
A good reputation management is an essential component of an industrial manufacturer`s marketing plans.
Being credible and building trust is very important, because if you lose even one client in this industry, it may lead the company to suffer a grave loss, both financially and reputational.
Key Takeaway
The digital age has truly transformed the way businesses are advertising, and engaging with their audience. Digital marketing continues to have a big impact even on sectors like industrial products, and companies need to embrace and adapt to change if they want to survive for long among their competitors.
Having said that, as aforementioned, traditional marketing remains a valid integration, but somewhat limited. Digital marketing has surely a bigger reach, now that internet is easily accessible from almost all parts of the globe.
Proper digital marketing and advertising plan for your industrial products will have a deeply meaningful impact on the target audience and will lead you to a good return on investment (ROI). A proper balance of creativity and analytical element will help you achieve success in your digital marketing plan. The end goal is customer acquisition and retention.
Concluding
In this article we went through various interesting and effective salient points, as a guide to help you create your own marketing plan, so that your business will grow and thrive while maximizing your marketing budget.
Wrapping up, remember that it is imperative to have an excellent digital marketing team to leverage your business, to set you apart from your competitors and rise above your competition.
It can be daunting at first, as we understand that not all industrial businesses are capable or knowledgeable in the digital marketing world, that`s why we highly recommend to hire a skilled marketing team, and that could be us. So do get in touch and let us assist you.