How to Improve Your B2B Industrial Marketing Strategy by Speaking an Engineer's Language

CADENAS USA

4 Oct 201906:53

Summary

TLDRThe speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding the industrial environment for effective marketing, especially when it comes to complex products. They discuss the need to engage with engineers and SMEs to ask the right questions and provide valuable, industry-specific content. The speaker highlights the value of product information, technical articles, and how-to videos in the decision-making process for engineers. They also suggest repurposing presentations into written content to overcome challenges in content creation and stress the importance of a documented strategy to align marketing efforts with customer needs and business goals.

Takeaways

🧐 Understanding the industrial environment is crucial for effective marketing, especially when starting out without a background in the field.
🔍 To market industrial products effectively, one must dig deep, ask the right questions, and learn from SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) and engineers.
🤝 Working closely with engineers in a manufacturing facility provides a unique opportunity to understand the products and their applications.
📚 Educating senior management and product leaders about the value of marketing is essential, as it can be challenging for them to grasp its importance.
🛠 Engineers seek knowledge and solutions, so providing them with the right information about product categories, industry applications, and systems is key.
📈 Offering tools that simplify comparison and decision-making processes for engineers adds value and can help push them through the buying cycle.
📊 Product information is highly valued by engineers, as it helps them determine if a product meets their specifications, especially in the early stages.
📈 CAD drawings are a key indicator of interest and potential specification, as they are often downloaded when an engineer is considering a product for a project.
🎥 Creating content such as technical articles, white papers, and how-to videos is valuable, but it's important to focus on the value provided to the audience rather than just meeting content quotas.
📝 Repurposing presentations from SMEs into written content can be an effective way to create detailed and informative material for engineers.
📋 Having a documented content strategy helps in understanding customer pain points, aligning with business goals, and prioritizing marketing efforts.

Q & A

What was the initial challenge the speaker faced when starting to learn about industrial products?
-The speaker initially found it hard to understand the industrial environment and the products they were marketing, as they were just big boxes going into various applications that they didn't comprehend.
How did the speaker approach learning about the products they market?
-The speaker had to dig deep, reach out to SMEs and engineers they work with, and learn how to ask the right questions to understand the products and their applications better.
What is the speaker's role in the manufacturing facility?
-The speaker works in a manufacturing facility and has the opportunity to interact with two to three hundred engineers daily, which aids in their learning process.
Why is it important for an industrial marketer to understand the product they are marketing?
-Understanding the product is crucial for an industrial marketer to be effective, as it enables them to provide accurate and helpful information to customers and stakeholders.
What was the speaker's strategy to educate senior management and product leaders on the value of marketing?
-The speaker focused on educating senior management and product leaders by demonstrating the value marketing brings through knowledge sharing and solving problems.
What type of content do engineers typically value according to the CFE Media survey mentioned in the script?
-According to the CFE Media survey, engineers value product information the most, followed closely by technical articles, white papers, and how-to videos.
Why is product information considered so important for engineers?
-Product information is important because it helps engineers determine if a product meets their specifications, which is crucial in the early stages of their decision-making process.
What is a key indicator for the speaker when engineers are downloading CAD drawings?
-When engineers download CAD drawings, it is a strong indicator that the product is either being specified or has made it onto the shortlist for consideration.
How does the speaker suggest capturing content from SMEs who are reluctant to write technical articles?
-The speaker suggests recording presentations given by SMEs and repurposing the content into technical articles on their behalf, as a way to capture detailed and valuable information.
What is the importance of having a documented content strategy according to the speaker?
-A documented content strategy helps in understanding customer pain points, aligning them with marketing and business goals, and prioritizing content creation effectively.
How does the speaker address the challenge of stakeholders requesting more content without a clear strategy?
-The speaker emphasizes the need to show stakeholders the real priorities based on a documented content strategy, which helps in focusing on what truly adds value to the audience.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Understanding the Industrial Environment Through Deep Learning

The speaker emphasizes the importance of having a deep understanding of the industrial and environmental background when marketing industrial products. Initially, they found the products they marketed to be complex and difficult to comprehend. To become an effective marketer, they had to engage with subject matter experts (SMEs) and engineers daily, learning to ask the right questions. The speaker discusses the challenge of educating senior management and product leaders about the value of marketing, especially in an industry where the understanding of marketing's role can be limited. They highlight the need to provide engineers with the right tools and information to facilitate decision-making, such as product comparisons and specifications, which can streamline the buying cycle and add value to their work.

05:00

🎥 Leveraging SME Expertise for Content Creation

This paragraph discusses the process of capturing and repurposing expert knowledge into valuable content. The speaker shares a strategy of recording presentations given by SMEs, which can later be transformed into technical articles or other content types by content specialists. This method is presented as a way to overcome the challenge of obtaining detailed and useful content from SMEs. The speaker also stresses the importance of having a documented content strategy that aligns with customer pain points and business goals, which helps in prioritizing and justifying content creation efforts to stakeholders. The paragraph concludes with a mention of the importance of understanding and documenting a content strategy for effective marketing.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡Industrial Marketing

Industrial marketing refers to the promotion and sale of products or services that are typically used as intermediate goods in the production process. It is distinct from consumer marketing due to its focus on business-to-business transactions. In the script, the speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding the products being marketed in an industrial setting, highlighting the need for deep knowledge to be an effective marketer in this domain.

💡SMEs

SMEs stands for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. These are businesses that are larger than micro-enterprises but smaller than large corporations, often playing a crucial role in innovation and job creation. The script mentions reaching out to SMEs as part of the marketing process, indicating the importance of engaging with these businesses to understand market needs and build relationships.

💡Engineers

Engineers are professionals who apply scientific principles to design, build, and maintain structures, machines, systems, and processes. In the context of the script, engineers are the target audience for the industrial marketer, who must understand their needs and the technical aspects of the products they are marketing to effectively communicate with them.

💡Product Managers

Product managers are responsible for the success of a product and serve as the voice of the customer within an organization. They are mentioned in the script as having a good understanding of the product but may lack understanding of marketing or how to use the product effectively in various applications, indicating the need for collaboration between product managers and marketers.

💡Technical Content

Technical content refers to any material that provides detailed information about a technical subject, often used for instruction, specification, or problem-solving. The script discusses the importance of providing the right technical content to engineers, who are looking for solutions and knowledge about the products being marketed.

💡Marketing Value

The marketing value refers to the worth or usefulness that marketing brings to an organization, such as brand awareness, customer engagement, or sales growth. The speaker in the script talks about the challenge of educating senior management and product leaders about the value that marketing brings to the company.

💡Product Information

Product information encompasses all the details about a product, including its features, benefits, specifications, and applications. It is highlighted in the script as being crucial for engineers who need to understand if a product meets their specifications, especially in the early stages of the buying cycle.

💡CAD Drawings

CAD stands for Computer-Aided Design, and CAD drawings are detailed technical illustrations used in engineering and manufacturing. The script mentions CAD drawings as an indicator of interest from engineers, suggesting that when someone downloads a CAD drawing, it is a strong sign that the product is being considered for specification.

💡Content Strategy

A content strategy is a plan for the creation, delivery, and governance of content. In the script, the speaker discusses the importance of having a documented content strategy to understand customer pain points, align with marketing and business goals, and prioritize content creation effectively.

💡White Papers

White papers are authoritative reports or guides that inform readers about a complex issue, with the goal of persuading them and promoting a point of view or a product. The script mentions the need for white papers as a form of content that engineers value, indicating their importance in the industrial marketing mix.

💡How-to Videos

How-to videos are instructional videos that demonstrate how to perform a specific task or use a product. The script notes that while how-to videos are valued by engineers, it is important for marketers to understand the value they bring to the audience and the specific solutions they address before creating them.

Highlights

Importance of understanding the industrial environment for effective marketing.

The initial challenge of perceiving products as 'big boxes' without context.

Necessity to communicate with SMEs and engineers to gain deep product knowledge.

Utilizing daily interactions with hundreds of engineers for learning.

The need to ask the right questions to understand technical content and marketing.

Educating senior management on the value of marketing in industrial settings.

The role of marketing in providing knowledge and solutions to engineers.

Creating content that facilitates the buying cycle and decision-making process.

Providing tools to compare products and ease the decision-making for engineers.

The value of white papers and videos in marketing, but with a focus on audience needs.

CFE Media survey insights on the types of content engineers value.

Product information as a top priority for engineers in the decision-making process.

Importance of CAD drawings as an indicator of product specification or shortlisting.

Challenges in getting SMEs to create content and repurposing presentations.

The significance of having a documented content strategy for alignment with business goals.

Prioritizing content creation based on customer pain points and marketing goals.

Using a documented strategy to guide content creation and manage stakeholder expectations.