Tips for Marketing to the Industrial Sector

MarketingStrategy As the economy has improved, companies who market to the industrial sector are ramping up their marketing efforts and utilizing social media.

Blogging, video, e-newsletters, white papers and social media are all ways to deliver your message, but the keys to an effective marketing strategy are content and engagement.

Prospective buyers want interesting content on their terms: what they want, when they want it. This is not an easy task to accomplish and it requires thought and planning into your marketing strategy.

In the article in ThomasNet’s The Industrial Marketer, 5 Predictions for Industrial Marketing in 2014, Jeff Morgan outlines the best ways to engage customers and prospective buyers. Community building is key and you should know what your prospects and customers care about and what they consider share-worthy.

He also recommends investing in video – visual storytelling – as users are always interested in the visual story and it is so easy to create videos with a smart phone and applications like YouTube, Vine and Instagram.

In the article, How to Use Social Media with a Purpose, the Marketing Maven talks about recent research that shows the top three uses for social media among technical professionals: keep up with the latest company news/products/technologies, to find product reviews, and to find new suppliers.

The Marketing Maven suggests that you invest in social media to build thought leadership, build brand awareness, and foster a community by hanging out with your customers. The article provides good tips on where to find your customer base, delivering useful content, and how to integrate your marketing efforts.

It is worth the investment to start using many of these inexpensive or free resources to market your company. Figure out your brand strategy - this article by Kerry O'Malley of Marketects can help you define it.

It just requires a bit of time and planning to assess your strategy and plan an effective path forward. The Marketing Maven and The Industrial Marketer and Marketects' blog are good resources to help you get started.

In addition to this blog, you can find Tribute, Inc. on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.