How to Choose and Optimize Channels for Industrial Product Marketing
- What are industrial products and their marketing process
- Identifying and segmenting the target market for industrial products
- Creating industrial product value propositions and selecting marketing channels
In this Article
Industrial and manufacturing companies often shun digital marketing, believing it’s only suited for consumer goods. However, this belief is far from accurate because digital marketing helps businesses connect with other businesses and directly impact revenue generation. Converting spec sheets, research data, and product catalogs about various industrial products into valuable marketing content can launch a successful marketing campaign.
A business-to-business approach is crucial when marketing industrial products. Therefore, the focus should always be on building relationships and establishing trust with manufacturers.
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What is an Industrial Product?
An industrial product is meticulously designed for utilization in the production of other goods or the provision of services by end-users. It is not directly usable by consumers, setting it apart from typical consumer products. Examples of industrial products encompass accessory equipment, installations, component parts, maintenance and repair components, raw materials, and fabricated materials.
The key defining factor is always the intended purpose of these products. Consequently, industrial products find their primary purchasers among other manufacturing companies involved in the production and service delivery sectors. In this scenario, they serve as integral tools for conducting business or industrial operations, rather than being consumed directly.
Industrial Products Characteristics
- Businesses purchase them in huge quantities to meet their needs.
- Purchased for either reproduction or resell purposes
- Industrial product buyers are few but large in size
- Industrial product purchasing is mostly technical with reasons
- Demand for industrial goods and services is inelastic
What is Industrial Product Marketing?
Often referred to as business-to-business marketing or B2B, industrial product marketing entails developing business relationships and trust with manufacturers. The ultimate goal is to reach a contractual agreement to see the manufacturers come for the various industrial products.
Unlike consumer goods, where one can focus on a broader market, Industrial marketers must focus their efforts on specific clients. In addition, they must tailor their marketing operations based on research and individual needs. Therefore, Industrial marketing involves direct client contact through emails, phone calls, and face-to-face meetings to sell industrial products directly to potential clients.
Industrial Marketing Process
An effective industrial marketing process should be detailed and focused on the target market. The process entails:
Step 1: Analyzing the Current Growth Strategy
The first step in plotting an industrial marketing process entails taking an audit of previous campaigns. The idea is to try and understand what worked and what didn’t to be able to come up with a new process. In previous campaigns, you must have answered customer’s questions that resulted in charts, graphs, and calculators. By looking at what was previously done, it becomes much easier to come up with an effective process.
Step 2: Decide Who to Market to
After completing an audit of previous campaigns, the next step involves identifying the target audience for the industrial products in question. Thorough research should be conducted to customize the marketing campaign. Strategically planned and tailored campaigns consistently result in higher conversion rates and more valuable leads. Consequently, the campaign should focus on specific audiences, as distinct content will always resonate with different clients.
Step 3: Collaborate Industrial Marketing with Sales
Once the target audiences or leads are generated, the next step entails collaborating with sales teams to close the deals. The sales team could greatly help, given their experience interacting with clients and closing deals. Therefore, there should be regular communication between the marketing and sales team to understand how the leads are progressing.
Step 4: Invest in Industrial Marketing Technology
A successful digital marketing campaign will always come down to the industrial marketing technology used. The most successful B2B companies and manufacturers leverage various digital marketing tools and technology. A modern website that displays and details all the industrial products on offer is one of the tools that any business should rely on. The use of social networks and other ad networks can also come in handy to reach a wider target market.
Step 5: Establish Metrics and Goals
Data will always be king. Therefore, it is important to keep track of everything, documenting all the efforts. Tabulating all the data on clients targeted and deals closed is crucial as it will help ascertain the campaign’s effectiveness.
Some of the metrics to track as part of the programs include web traffic to understand where the most qualified audience comes from. Likewise, tabulate the landing conversion rates to understand how many visitors a landing page is generating. This will also help in understanding the number of people who are converting by filling out a form.
When running a pay ad campaign, take a closer look and analyze the cost per lead. It’s important to only spend on high-quality leads at the least cost possible.
Setting goals to be achieved as part of the industrial marketing campaign and striving to achieve them is also essential. Each milestone achieved should be recorded and analyzed.
Industrial Marketing Goals
While carrying out industrial products marketing, it is essential to:
Diversify customer base: The ubiquity of digital marketing makes it easy for digital marketers to widen their customer base. Through targeted marketing, the focus should be on targeting a wider audience instead of focusing on a niche customer base.
Outsized returns: Any industrial marketing campaign should focus on clients likely to yield outsized returns. That’s the only way to shrug off the inelastic demand, a common feature with industrial products. Selling one or two products should be more than enough instead of looking to sell thousands of products at a go.
Enhance brand visibility: An effective industrial marketing campaign should boost brand visibility. Therefore, having a good web presence is essential to capture a broader target market.
Industrial Product Marketing Challenges
Any business engaged in business-to-business marketing faces unique challenges to businesses marketing directly to consumers. This is because B2B marketing requires a different content strategy focused on different channels. In addition, it is vital to set good metrics and track the impact of the efforts.
Some of the challenges that businesses experience include:
Producing quality content: Producing quality content is the only way to draw in an audience and generate quality leads. However, it can be a challenge in an industrial setting as the content has to be technical enough to show a clear understanding of the material without being complex to turn off potential leads.
Promoting the content: Once the marketing content is generated, promoting it to potential clients can pose significant challenges. Promoting the content could be challenging unless the business has a presence in different content channels. Therefore, it is important to understand the target market and the channels they are likely to use to target them. The ultimate goal is to make a good content distribution plan based on the target audience before publishing the content.
Setting goals and expectations: Runaway success with internet marketing is common. However, it is important to research what is typical in your industry before setting expectations and goals. Later on, revisit the plan and compare the expectations to actual campaign metrics.
Content generation consistency: The complexity of coming up with marketing content for industrial products can make it challenging to be consistent in content generation. Developing new content with fresh material containing the correct keywords can be a challenge when dealing with industrial products. Sticking to a publishing schedule can be challenging if a business does not have a dedicated team.
Trying new channels: If a business is having success with one content channel, it may face significant opposition and challenges when trying to introduce a new channel. Therefore, it is important to understand the target audience and stick with their preferred channel. However, it is also important to be considerate of other clients that prefer different channels.
How Do We Identify and Segment the Target Market for Industrial Products?
Satisfying some customers regardless of the product or service being rendered is only possible. Therefore, it is essential to identify the ideal customer and strive to provide them with what they want, often referred to as target marketing.
Therefore, identifying a market segment entails identifying the ideal customers for industrial products. Establishing a market segment makes it much easier to invest time, money, and effort in satisfying their needs and generating returns. Once a business strives to cater to all the needs of its target customers as opposed to some demands of all customers, the brand will always gain prominence.
Importance of Understanding the Target Market
Analysis of the market: Understanding the target market makes it easy to understand the total marketplace, including what the customers need and when they will likely buy the products. It becomes much easier to carry out an analysis of the entire market to provide the desired products.
Selection of key markets: While there will always be different markets for industrial products, target marketing makes it easy to settle on key markets likely to generate higher yields. Choosing the market segment that best fits the company’s capabilities becomes easy.
Marketing management: Once the target market is identified, it becomes easier to develop strategies, plans, and programs to meet the needs of the different market segments profitably.
How to Segment Target Market
You can segment a target market while considering various factors. They include:
Geographic
A business can segment its target market based on the location of its high-yield customers. It matters a lot whether the customers are in a rural or urban setting. Region or country is another critical factor to consider when segmenting.
Demographic
While the target audience might appear similar, there will always be differences between the individual customers. Some factors to analyze include the age, gender, income, and occupation of the target market.
Behavior, attitude, and beliefs
The target market’s lifestyle and personal traits are other vital elements looked at while analyzing the target market. Therefore, the market can be segmented based on various characteristics.
How to Identify and Segment a Target Market for Industrial Products
Market research
Carrying out in-depth market analysis is crucial while looking to segment the target market. The research should focus on identifying the different markets based on their needs, wants, and when. The research should also focus on the usage pattern of the industrial products, customers’ likes and dislikes of the product, as well as the demographic.
Surveys
Once the target market is identified, conducting an in-depth survey is vital to understand it better. This would be the perfect time to understand the market perception of the industrial product their likes and dislikes. It will also be vital to get an idea of the usage pattern as it could shed more light on how frequently to make the products available.
Analytics
Prior to making the industrial products available to a given niche market, it’s vital to analyze the potential profit from the market segment. Different markets may offer different profit margins or prospects. Analyzing the markets while taking into consideration the costs to be incurred could help formulate the ideal prices and design marketing programs.
How to Create and Communicate Value Proposition for Industrial Products
In the realm of business-to-business (B2B) production, a value proposition plays a crucial role in summarizing the benefits and value that an industrial product offers to its target customers. Unlike product features, which simply outline the technical aspects of the product, a value proposition delves deeper into the real-world advantages that the product can provide. It bridges the gap between the intricate details and the actual benefits available to the customers.
In this context, a well-crafted value proposition is essential as it can make an industrial product shine amidst the competition. It not only sets the product apart but also effectively communicates its unique selling points. This communication can be facilitated through various channels, including online websites, to ensure that the target audience fully grasps the value the product brings to their business operations.
Creating a Compelling Value Proposition
A value proposition is an important statement that makes industrial products compelling to the intended audience. How effective digital marketing for industrial products becomes will always boil down to how a business lays out the benefits of the industrial products on offer.
The first step to developing a unique and effective value proposition for an industrial product involves identifying the ideal or target market. The identification process should focus on understanding their needs, goals, and pain points. One can use various methods like demographics, psychographics, behavior, and geography to segment the market.
Upon having a clear understanding of the target market, it becomes easier to tailor the value proposition to address the specific needs and generate value in the process. The value proposition should explain how it will solve the problems of potential customers.
The next step entails analyzing the competitors, focusing on how they present and market themselves in the market. Evaluating their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats is important. Most importantly, looking at their value propositions to see how they appeal to customers is vital. This way, it becomes much easier to identify differentiators.
Craft your value proposition based on the target market and the differentiators upon understanding competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. The statement should be clear, concise, and compelling, answering all the questions the market might have.
Finally, test and validate the crafted value proposition with the target customers and get their feedback. In this case, you can use surveys, interviews, and landing pages to measure the effectiveness of the value proposition.
Value Proposition for Industrial Products
A value proposition for industrial products should consist of:
- A headline
- A more detailed sub-header
- Supporting bullet points
- Visuals that reinforce the message
The headline should be short and straight to the point while mentioning the products and their benefits. It should also have a subheader that links the product’s specific pain point using key terms. Listing the product’s key features in bullet points is vital as it helps distinguish the product from its competitors. Visuals in the form of graphics, diagrams, and photos can come in handy in determining the product from alternatives in the market.
Example
Subaru: “The most adventurous, most reliable, safest, best Subaru Outback ever.
Headline: “The most adventurous, most reliable, safest, best Subaru Outback ever.”
Subheadline/Paragraph: The 2022 Subaru Outback takes drivers to the most adventurous places in style with the most advanced safety technology
Visual Element: A picture of the new Subaru Outback showcasing its queue attributes
How to Choose and Optimize Channels for Industrial Product Marketing
An industrial product marketing channel, often referred to as a business-to-business (B2B) marketing channel, is an outlet platform that allows businesses to connect and communicate with their target audience in the realm of production and industrial goods. These channels encompass both online websites and offline avenues, with some being free to use and others necessitating payment.
Selecting the appropriate marketing channel is a critical strategic choice for any business, as it can significantly impact various aspects, including sales, customer satisfaction, and brand reputation. These communication channels facilitate the delivery of value propositions to the target market through a variety of means, such as online websites, physical stores, distributors, and direct sales.
Factors and Criteria for Choosing the Best Channels for Industrial Product Marketing
Define the target market.
It’s vital to define and clearly understand the target market before settling on the marketing channel. The first step entails knowing and understanding customers and focusing on their needs and preferences. Understanding the search for and buying products or services is vital.
Assess product or service characteristics.
Secondly, consider the features and benefits that make the industrial product stand out from the rest. The feature will influence the channel choice. For instance, if the industrial product is complex, one might have to settle on direct or personal channels to demonstrate and educate about the product.
Analyze the competition
Thirdly, consider the competitive landscape and any current or emerging trends to determine the ideal channel. By identifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in relation to competitors, one can settle on a channel likely to offer a competitive edge.
Evaluate the channel options.
Once you have a clear picture of the target audience, the industrial product at hand, and the competition, it becomes much easier to compare and contrast the various channel options at your disposal. Selecting a channel considers things like time, money, skills, and technology required to generate optimum value from the channel.
Channels for Industrial Product Marketing
Industrial products marketing channels are broadly classified into three
Direct Channels: Such channels allow companies to sell directly to customers. It’s an ideal channel when dealing with complex industrial products. In this case, the business will be able to deal directly with the clients, showing them how the products work and how to generate maximum value from them. Some of the direct channels include e-commerce platforms operated by industrial companies. Social media campaigns can also fall under this category. Emails, webinars, and live events can also come in handy in marketing the products directly to consumers.
Indirect channels: With indirect channels, companies leverage third-party services to showcase and market through industrial products. In this case, a business might have multiple distribution partners and intermediaries tasked with distributing the goods. Indirect channels might involve agent’s wholesales and brokers.
Hybrid Channels: It entails a combination of direct and indirect channels. In this case, a company might offer an industrial product on its e-commerce platform and then have an intermediary deliver it to the customer.
Optimizing Marketing with PIM and DAM Solutions
Digital asset management (DAM) and Product Information Management Software (PIM) are systems used for handling and managing large volumes of digital assets. The systems help arrange and keep all the data needed to market and sell items through distribution channels.
Therefore, a combination of PIM and DAM systems will always suit e-commerce businesses and industrial companies dealing with large volumes of traffic, products, and sales. PIM helps in managing all the data relating to the products as DAM deals with the digital assets relating to its product branding and marketing
In addition to reducing digital paperwork and chaos, PIM and DAM systems enable effective digital marketing campaigns that are data-driven and focused on a target market.
Bottom Line
Industrial product marketing is an important process, critical to the success of any business looking to market its product and services to other businesses. The success of business-to-business marketing depends on the relationships built and how well the products are presented. Coming up with a value proposition and leveraging various marketing channels go a long way in reaching the target market and generating high-yield leads.
To truly experience the power of strategic marketing and presentation, we invite you to schedule a demo with Catsy. Discover how Catsy’s innovative solutions can help you elevate your B2B marketing efforts and generate high-quality leads. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to take your business to the next level. Schedule a demo today and unlock your full marketing potential with Catsy!
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