We have had success using inbound marketing for industrial companies for years. Just as a refresher inbound marketing is the process of combining smart content marketing plus software automation.
The goal of inbound marketing is a holistic, data-driven approach to marketing that attracts companies and converts them into lasting customers.
Aren’t you glad we started with the first definition?
So why does inbound marketing work for industrial companies so well?
It is not because inbound marketing was necessarily built with industrial businesses in mind, but when we look for a good fit for inbound, industrial marketing checks a lot of the boxes. If we look at the customers we are trying to attract, and the way industrial sales work we can see why the inbound process works so well.
Let’s look at a few reasons why.
Sales cycle: The sales cycle for industrial marketing is at least a month and sometimes for more complex sales it can be three to six to twelve months.
Your customer must go from awareness of a problem, to consideration, to a decision. They are typically looking for information in the beginning. This need for information pairs well with the content creation side of inbound marketing. Industrial companies can work on regular content creation in a variety of mediums to help educate their customer in all stages of the decision-making process, not just consideration.
Also, the tracking of downloads of premium content (think, ebooks, white papers) that you create can also help educate customers and give your sales staff actionable leads. You know what your customers are downloading, and with the automation of inbound, you see when they visit and what pages of your site they find most interesting. This allows sales to hone in on where a prospect is in the sales cycle and how they can best present your company.
Sales amount: The sales amount from an industrial marketing customer also pairs well with the template for inbound marketing. Industrial sales above $5,000 require a certain amount of consideration from customers. I think there are very few industrial B2B sales that are less than 5k. In fact, I would wager that most are at least four to five times that amount.
With a sales amount in that range, you need to create content to differentiate yourself from your competition. You also need the automation that inbound affords so that you aren’t losing significant sales because you miss interested prospects.
In light of the sales amount, inbound fits well. You can demonstrate a high ROI with sales in 5,000+ range for industrial marketing.
Marketing Team: Industrial marketing teams are typically on the smaller side so they can benefit from inbound marketing. Whether your marketing team wants to do some or none of the program or wants to use an outside source to manage it all, inbound marketing gives a boost to your marketing efforts.
One of the best parts of inbound marketing for a smaller team is that it can allow them to focus on other parts of the marketing mix as well. The automation in inbound marketing also enables marketing to give robust reporting of metrics that matter to the executive team and sales.
Do you want to learn more about how inbound marketing can help your industrial company get more leads and convert those leads to sales? Download our Intro to Inbound Marketing.