Industrial Marketing is not simply B2B marketing for manufacturing and distribution. Industrial Marketing involves a narrow audience and a long buying cycle. Many manufacturing companies have an engineering-driven culture that traditionally focuses on product features as opposed to customer solutions.
Industrial Marketing is not simply B2B marketing for manufacturing and distribution. Industrial Marketing involves a narrow audience and a long buying cycle. Many manufacturing companies have an engineering-driven culture that traditionally focuses on product features as opposed to customer solutions.
Welcome back everybody to the industrial marketer podcast. We are so excited to be back in a new here to talk the tips, tricks and trends that affect all of us who make move and manufacture the world. I am joined as always, by now snails, nobody else. How are you my man, it's good to see you in the new year.
Nels Jensen:Good to see you too. Joey, ready to rock and roll ready to get into the industrial marketing world?
Joey Strawn:Good. I mean, you better be we have like two weeks off. We didn't talk about any of this. For two weeks. We got to spend it with our families. I hope you got to spend it. I mean, the world's been crazy. But did you get to spend some time with your family? I know you guys have this into a new house. How's everything going?
Nels Jensen:Yep, got to get to see the little grandson. So that was really cool. So he's, uh, he's, he's ready to walk soon. Next time I see him he'll be a toddler.
Joey Strawn:I Okay, I gotta tell you ours, our 10 month old is already walking. And so now I've got a five year old who's running and a 10 month old who's walking, and there's no rest. Heather, Heather, yawn, Heather there anywhere in the house. So I look forward to these times when I can seclude myself and record. Again, it's nice to talk to just one person at a time for a change. Oh, I hope you guys had a restful holiday. I know that we did, we were able to recharge, read some books, watch the movies. But as you said, I am I'm ready to hit the ground running in 2021 talking about the things that are going to make a difference for industrial Marketers. Now, having said that, we've got a long journey ahead of us. Now. There's a lot of stuff to talk about within this world of industrial marketing. But what are we talking about today? like where do we start?
Nels Jensen:Yeah, so you know, what is industrial marketing is a pretty broad topic. But we're gonna, we're gonna talk a little bit about really what it is that we do, how it applies to this sector, this niche, what's the realities of the sector, you know, how you get out of, you know, b2b into a very narrow niche of b2b. And we're also going to hear from a guest.
Joey Strawn:Oh, yes, we have already bring in new voices onto the show you
Nels Jensen:do. We will be hearing from Virginia Roberson, the Content Manager at industrial, and she will help us understand how manufacturing companies tell their stories and what it is, though, as you might guess, customer focus based content, but we're gonna hear from the, from one of our content experts, and looking forward to having her join us.
Joey Strawn:That's exciting. And now it's kind of hinted at it, guys. But you know, one of the things that we want this show to be is helpful and actionable. And so not only are we going to have our discussions and our deep dives, and looking at trends and, and and resources that can help. But every show, we're going to have some segment, we're going to have some actionable on the shop and on the shop floor, if you will, of how to put this into practice. How can you actually walk away from these podcasts to be able to do something great with it? And so yeah, we've got Virginia lined up to really blow you guys's brains away with all this knowledge that she's gonna bring. But I you know, now you said it. Where do we start? I think we have to define what industrial marketing is because, and you and you said a key phrase that I want to start with here. You said b2b, and I agree with you. But I also think that for a long time, b2b has been erroneously made synonymous with industrial marketing. And I want to I want to establish first and foremost, that we're going a bit deeper than that with this show. You know, b2b is industrial marketing as a part of the b2b world. But we're talking industrials, talking to industrial marketing here. And that means something different than just business to business. What do you think now? Yeah, so
Nels Jensen:we were certainly we're talking about manufacturing, we're talking about logistics. You know, we're, we're talking about makers and movers and that's not just manufacturers, it's also the service providers within there, whether they're developing
Joey Strawn:Distribution networks.
Nels Jensen:Right, software for, you know, er peas or for other operational aspects. It's, it's just a tremendous technology driven world. And as we talked about frequently, it's always interesting in industrial marketing, because there's all sorts of great technology being put to use on shop floors, but it hasn't necessarily been applied in the knowledge base sides of the business in terms of The sales, customer relations and in terms of the marketing, fascinating juxtaposition for me anyway. So yeah, but we will talk, really, you know, so in my mind, what makes it different from other b2b is you have these narrowly targeted audiences, you have longer buying cycles, you have a lot of legacy networks, but what do you what do you mean when you say it's how it's different from b2b?
Joey Strawn:I couldn't agree with you more. I mean, one of the one of the main differences are not so much differences, but specifications when it comes to this industry is the industrial industry is you is plays kind of by its own set of rules. You mentioned, one of the things that is key for me is the buying cycle, you know, in standard marketing is Oh, well, if we can get them by the, you know, by the checkout lane, or let's make a fancy tagline, and put a million dollars into TV advertisement, just so everyone knows that they should look around and ask us, the industrial sector, b2b takes it a step further, it's like a lot of this is behind the scenes, businesses sell into businesses, you don't need to worry about it, we have our own ways of talking. And then you segmented even further. And you're talking about 10 million 100 and 50 million purchases, year long contract buying cycles that take 36 months of negotiations and NDA is and, and and companies like that have to partner with different supply chains and tiers of manufacturing needs and certification levels and approvals from different governing bodies. It's not as simple as saying, I'm going to roll up a Google ad and get this done. Yeah, you know, it is understanding that there are dozens of people that are going to touch this process. So you need to understand what that process looks like. And I know I'm talking in generalities here, but what is the process for someone who makes packaging, you know, safety packaging equipment for Florida, pharmaceuticals, is not going to be the same buying process, who's someone who buys a multi year defense contract for million dollar, metal presses to go in secret facilities, sure those buying cycles are going to be different, but need to be understood and marketed to accurately with the tools we have at our disposal. And that world's changing everyday to
Nels Jensen:Yeah, and in fact, you brought up examples of, to diverse industries that have different compliance and regulatory issues, too. So it's, it's a long, complicated buying cycle, in part because the equipment can be very, very expensive, and the processes are complicated. And the you know, they're all related to supply chains. You know, but there's also many other complexities rolled into these businesses. This is not they're very intertwined. You know, and it's, you know, you're talking about, as you point out very expensive products and services, but they're also related to many, many other complicated elements.
Joey Strawn:Yeah, and so, you know, the, the idea of, and again, the manufacturing sectors have been around for generations. And so the, the ways that they have grown in the past is a lot of repeat business partnerships. You know, those long extended relation, relationship based and account based selling, and, and, and renewals. And nowadays, those same principles apply. But the partnerships look different, or they're managed, and they're managed and maintained differently, and especially after the year that we had last year and the new, you know, pandemic culture that we're currently living in understanding the digital ways, and that's one of the areas that I focus, you know, primarily on is understanding how you're marketing yourself via digital methodologies or with the tools that allow us to not only understand and map out journey, the customer journeys, but all the different personnel that are going to be involved in the decisions and delivering the right assets to those right people at the right times. Sure. Having to have teams of hundreds of people to manage that you have a software that can do it. And then you know, and then trying to keep all that in mind when the manufacturing industry itself is changing with AI and new machine integration software and, you know, industry 4.0 we have we're have a whole episode on industry 4.0 coming up, so sure, you know, it's just, it's all changing so fast, and it's such a big ship that needs to shift with that change.
Nels Jensen:Well, I think if we can Also say industrial marketing right now is at this really interesting intersection where the pandemic and the quarantines related to it have forced companies to fast forward their digital marketing efforts. And at the same time, you already had this organic, you talked about the different, you know, people and personas involved in the in that buying process, you know, the world was already changing where engineers, younger engineers, especially searching for information about technology online, you have, you know, the purchasing managers involved or, you know, where do you look for things, you don't look for the old product brochures anymore, you, you search online, and you're, it's just the those two elements have intersected to sort of put a hyper focus on digital marketing for industrial marketing.
Joey Strawn:Yeah. And I would agree, I mean, I think that it's, it's like that old, you know, the, the, the old Bob Dylan song, the times, they, they are a changing, but it's also the phrase of everything changes, but everything stays the same. You know, we we talked about having account based marketing, you know, that's a term and a jargony term that's popped up lately, but the idea of building partnerships, and, you know, go get me the Nike account, or go get me the GM account, that's as old as advertising and marketing and business sales has existed. So you know, how we approach building those long term partnerships within the industrial sectors is key and to an understanding all the connection points and all the ways that we can efficiently do it without having to blow an entire budget on chasing one, you know, Ahab's white whale, if you will, you know, being able to build in those efficiencies through marketing, ideas, methodologies, teams, partnerships, and figuring out the new ways to do the old, successful industrial sales methods. So I mean, this again, it all comes back to Yes, if you're an engineer, and you're on the ground floor, you're a marketing executive, and you're researching information for your company, you know, you need to be able to be found, you need to be able to connect with those audiences. But if you're in the C suite, and you're looking at the bigger picture of how industry 4.0 and digital efficiencies and the pandemic is going to affect and needs to change how you're approaching things.
Nels Jensen:All of this is related. It has been it's a bigger question than kind of all of that, but knowing who you're talking to, and being able to expedite the process of getting them the correct information, is what all of this is about. Sure. I'm sure. And I think Virginia will speak to some of that as well, just in terms of, you know, it's not just what you do, it's how do you help your customers and understanding it's every customer, we have to be in industrial marketing, we have to be customer focused. And that's that's Captain Obvious here saying that. But that hasn't always been the case, in industrial marketing, I think that's part of the evolution that we're, we're kind of fast forwarding through is these are engineering driven company cultures. You know, for four years, it's been, here's what our machines do, here's the new features, here's the, here's the emerging technology. And it's been in a closed, as you know, to use your phrase, somewhat of a closed network, you know, it's a, it's a lot of personal sales network comes a lot of trade shows. And that industrial marketing has had to evolve very quickly, to move from that phase into a new phase that is honestly much more fragmented.
Joey Strawn:Yeah, well, and it's interesting, because you mentioned, you know, it's about the customer. And it seems obvious to say that, but what's the old famous Henry Ford quote, you know, oh, they can have the, the Model T in any color they want, as long as they want it in black. And, you know, it was like, I'm gonna make it and you're gonna buy it. And they're, that, you know, it's not always that it's a more modern, I would say, element to think of, well, the customer's always right, usually in the industrial sectors has been like, but now with the internet, it is kind of, well, the customer has more of a voice now. And they do know what to ask for, even if you haven't made it yet. So, in You're right, I am excited, because I think our next segment is gonna, you know, illuminate this a lot more for people because we're bringing Virginia on to really make some of this actionable. And we've talked in general concepts about what industrial marketing is and how it's changing and how it's growing. But Virginia is really going to be able to crystallize that for people. I think so. Good. Yeah. So, before we move to the next segment?
Nels Jensen:Well, I think it it is a lot about technology, right? It is a lot about digital marketing does have a lot of automation to it, it does have a lot of data reporting and analytics. And the better you get, the better off you are. But it's also about evolving the content. And I think that's where Virginia really is going to speak to is, you know, you can't just ignore social media. Yeah, Facebook is, is communities. But there is a horn, yeah, there is a place on Facebook, to talk about your community of manufacturing or your community of distribution. there absolutely should be places where you are talking about your company and your solutions, whether it's LinkedIn, or whether it's, you know, detailed white papers or whatever. So, anyway, I'm excited because of Virginia knows this content world inside and out. And really looking forward to what she has to say about what makes good industrial marketers from a content perspective.
Joey Strawn:Me too well, I say let's let's head on in and and see if we can't get Virginia on the phone. Talk to her. All right, guys, we have moved from our discussion on what is industrial marketing. And now we're actually going to move into the shop floor we want to give this segment and this shows a bit of actionable insight. So you can walk away from this, no matter what your role in this marketing world is you can walk away from these episodes with some actionable insights. Now Now, we've we've been talking about guests, we've been talking about one industrial marketing is you've brought someone really special to the table today. So we can we can learn these folks a thing or two, who would have you brought and why?
Nels Jensen:Well, we brought to the to the party, Virginia Roberson, who is the Content Manager at industrial, she among many other duties, she develops content plans to match up with specific marketing action plans, and herself has written hundreds of blog posts and white papers on many aspects of the industrial world. And one of the things I admire most about Virginia is her ability to translate these highly technical technologies, these highly technical machines and services, and put them into language that describe how clients is actually use them to solve problems and eliminate pain points, on their shop floors and in their operations. So Virginia, why don't you start out by telling us how successful manufacturing companies, how they describe their value proposition and how they tell their stories?
Virginia Roberson:Well, I think, you know, this, this may not be the exact answer you're looking for. But I think when it comes to telling a manufacturer story, the question is, if you're a successful manufacturer, you're not so much telling your story. You're telling how, as a manufacturer, you fit into your customer story, it's about the customer. And of course, if people say all the time, it's about the customer stupid, but it's amazing how many, you know, websites are all about flash and possess and look at all our features. When you have to go through tons of content, try and figure out what first the company does second, or what their stuff does to make the job easier. So successful manufacturing companies, you know, they're not worried about how to present themselves so much as they are offering a service or a value or a product that solves challenges for their customers. So I would say it Virginia, go ahead.
Joey Strawn:I love that, that you that you brought that up. And you know, the old adage is that content is king. You know, we've seen that writer tively through a lot of different mediums. So it probably be fair to say that your your content Queen, so that's great. So we have royalty here with us. And I love it. So well Virginia, would you just spend a little bit of time here making this actionable for some of our listeners. And when they're thinking of how they express who they are as an industrial, through their content and through their site. How can they do that? Like how do they do that and actually stand out in all the noise that's out there.
Virginia Roberson:Okay, if you want to stand out on your website, one of the first things you have to do is ask the question, what keeps our customers awake at night? You should be asking yourself that question. And you should be asking your customers that question on a regular basis because your customer's needs are always changing, especially in this pandemic, you know, pandemic we're going through right now. And here's the thing, if you're not asking that question, I guarantee you that your competitors are on the website. And so a good website. Basically no matter what type of industry you're in, people are coming to your website to get something done. They've got a challenge or a situation they need you to help address. So your website first to convey very quickly what your company does, that offers value to your customer with a solution. You know what? What Do you solve for the customer? What are you going to help them overcome, to help them meet their customer promises and help them solve their challenges? For example, I recently worked on a website for forging companies. So the website now features this concise solutions focused messaging. It's they engineer forgings, that save manufacturers time and money. So that's it very direct. This is what we do we engineer forgings that are net near net. So the reason that they're net near net, that's a benefit is it reduces machining costs, improves lead times and decreases cycle time. So, you know, they spent 30 years engaging with a client asking their clients, what keeps them up at night. And now their website provides those answers with it talks about not just their features, but how those features of their products or services, solve something or address an issue, which is downtime.
Joey Strawn:And that's directly related. I mean, to announce what we were talking about earlier, is part of industrial marketing, at its core is knowing who you're talking to, and knowing who your audience is. So the question that you have Virginia, which I think is fantastic, is, you know, what keeps you up at night, what keeps your customers up at night. But also the other thing of, well, man, that sounds really easy to understand. Yeah, it should be really easy to understand because your customers don't know you exist yet. They are looking for you without knowing what you specifically call your kitschy brand names and what you what made up acronyms you've made for, you know, your processes, but your your potential Googlers don't know those elements about you. So you need to be writing to the things that they are asking and the problems that they are experiencing. That makes a lot of sense. And I don't know, I don't know, it's not as complicated as people think industrial tech should be. It sounds really simple.
Virginia Roberson:It is simple. But getting to that point is not simple. Like I said they spent 30 years getting to this point. Okay, that takes a long time to interact with your customers and really talk about Okay, are we offering a service or product that's really meeting their challenges? And then how do we speak to the customer about you know, this, this product? To make sure that the features we're promoting really meet those challenges? Or is it just because we're promoting? We think it's really cool. There's a big difference there and a big disconnect with a lot of companies.
Joey Strawn:Well, Virginia, isn't this Oh, sorry. Nels please
Nels Jensen:I was just gonna s y one of the challenges, wh t keeps people awake at nigh, might be different for t e finance department. And it mig t be different for the shop flo r manager. And it might be n t necessarily what, you know, wh t is sellable for the sales a d marketing department as wel. So, you know, you have a challenge and as a as a conte t person, how do you speak o these different people at t e different points of their buyi g journey? What what are some f the ways that you can tell tho e examples share that informatio
Virginia Roberson:Well, one way of course, content is is king. Because you can speak to those different personas, you do your homework, you find out who you're talking to, first of all that you most want to reach many cases that is an engineer, if you're a if you're in the b2b market and industrial market, a lot of times you have like what they call betting teams, you'll have an engineer who basically is doing that first research, a lot of times it's an engineer, who's going on the websites and looking to see what vendors are out there. Then he'll take that information back to hit you know, to marketing to finance to procurement and say, okay, you know, is this someone we should partner with, and one of the things they're looking for, they love white papers, they love case studies. Engineers want to have some, you know, meet to give their finance people right, and their procurement people to save, they want to hire this company. So your website had better have First of all, you'd better be able to walk your talk and a case study is an excellent way to do that. And video, it makes it even more compelling. If you have video customer testimonials that talk about the actual bottom line value, how they saved machining costs, how much machining cost, they say, because you provided this service, or how you save them, like days of downtime.
Joey Strawn:I've seen, I've seen wonderful sites that have their Frequently Asked Questions section are just answered live video testimonial answers. I mean, it's so helpful. And again, it connects with your audience in the right way. Virginia, you mentioned something that again, now see when I talked about earlier in the episode of understanding that whole sequence like one of the things that is extremely different about industrial marketing, and the b2b cycle, but more specifically the industrial marketing cycle is that the person researching is not the decision maker. There are very few impulse purchases in this world. And so you need to understand that who you're researching is going to lead to this next step that needs to be in your thought process and accounted for and have assets for and then that person is going to branch off in these ways. You have to be able to either manually or nowadays, either via AI or via marketing automation, keep track of those segments and deliver the correct asset to the correct person at the correct time. And and only thinking about, well, what's the nifty name that we're going to give our product and let's put some Google Ads out there isn't going to do it anymore. And and I'm glad that you mentioned that is to say, knowing that the person researching it is going to have a couple questions, and that those are going to lead to different questions from different people. And we need to think about right.
Virginia Roberson:Absolutely, absolutely. If you have nothing but product spec sheets on your website, well, that's great. Once you get to the procurement stage, but your you know, engineers already lost interest, the engineer is going to quickly look at your website, what's the benefit? What are they offering that can help us, you know, better meet the needs of our customers? Great. And then once he sees that, okay, then he will start downloading the white papers and the case studies and blogs and spec sheets and features and all that technical requirement. And to finance came to take a look and see if they want to go with this company.
Joey Strawn:Right. So what I what I hear, and correct me if I'm wrong, Virginia, what I hear you saying is that a lot of this is not so much speaking about what we think is important. But researching and speaking on with data. What our searchers, yes, think is important what our customers and our prospects think are important.
Virginia Roberson:Absolutely, absolutely. There's been a lot of recent research out there, I would love to cite some right now. But we've actually we have an I think an article right now online on our website that talks about some recent research that talked about how manufacturers buy and and it talks about this process. And I think before you start looking at designing a website and figuring out what content you want a website, if you haven't already done your homework, figure out who your audience is, then you're just wasting your time and your money. You have to start with really researching how the buying process is happening. When they engage with you.
Nels Jensen:No more than 50% of the work going into discovery happens before they ever talk to somebody at the vendors, there is a lot of filtering that goes on. And that's why it's so important to have that searchable content Virginia is people are already making decisions about who they're going to pursue before they ever talk to anybody.
Virginia Roberson:That's right. That's exactly right. And so you have to have that searchable content, case studies, testimonials, blogs, white papers, and let's not just do a website, I'm talking about your social media presence, your YouTube channels, you better be you know, have those search terms that you've already done your homework on to figure out what they're looking for. Hmm,
Joey Strawn:yeah, and now, we can track down that resource that Virginia was talking about. And we'll link that in the show notes. And we'll link that in the article that accompanies this. This episode. So yeah, thank you for that. Yeah, we always love to whatever resources and data we can back up the conversations with we love to link those. So thank you for mentioning that Virginia. Before we wrap up here Is there anything else that industrial manufacturers whether the they're the in the C suite, whether they're on the floor, like doing these marketing activities themselves, or whether they're straddling the sales and marketing fence, what anything any final words of wisdom you want to leave these guys with and and these women with before we sign off here today,
Virginia Roberson:I think it's critical no matter how, what kind of marketing you're doing, but especially in the digital sphere, when you're talking about your website, talking about social is to make sure that the content you provide shows that you understand your customers challenges that you get their industry that you're sharing, free information that helps them do their jobs, better to get them interested, and they've helped them find that information. They're searching for that information all the time. Make sure it's on your website, make sure there's case studies, make sure there's news articles that relate to the industry helpful tips on whether it's welding or whether it's fabrication or you know, whether it's you know, spray equipment, make sure that you know, you have some helpful tips on ways to help them do their jobs better. And you know, better meet the needs of the customers. So make sure there's valuable content that shows you understand their industry and their challenges.
Joey Strawn:I love it. couldn't have said it better myself, which is why we have you here. Thank you. So very much Virginia, the constant Queen for joining us, and hopefully we're gonna have you back. Well, we're gonna have you back right?
Virginia Roberson:Oh, absolutely. I'm never tired of talking about content. So give me a Gillani sounds
Joey Strawn:good. We're never tired of hearing you talk about it. So expect another call from us. Thank you so much for joining us. And until then, we'll let you get back to work now. Thank you so much.
Nels Jensen:Thanks, Virginia. Good stuff.
Virginia Roberson:Thank you. Bye bye.
Joey Strawn:Oh, well nails. I think that pretty much wraps us up for today's episode. As always, I want to thank people for listening to the industrial marketer podcast. I will want everyone to follow us on social media you can find us on the website industrial marketer calm or look for us across all of your social medias. subscribe to the newsletter, read our blog posts, email us and ask us questions. We want this to be a community we want to grow together with you guys. So, for me here now, I'll see you next week. This is I look forward to these every week.
Nels Jensen:All right, and next week, I think we're gonna be talking about some trends and everybody loves talking about trends. So
Joey Strawn:something that we got to start off the year, you got to start the year talking trends, and if we're not doing that, alright, I'll see you next week.
Nels Jensen:All right. So long.