Marketing Blog

Your homepage gets the most visits. Obvious right? But do you know the page most people visit second to your home page? That’s right; it is your “About page.” It doesn’t matter if you have an industrial website or financial services, or construction.

Your “About” page is important.

So why are people always screwing up their “About page”? I think the name throws people off. People hear “about page” and believe it is supposed to be about your company. It is not.

Nope, Nobody cares about your company. Really. Want to know why?
People visit your website because they care about what you can do for them. 

Most industrial companies squander the opportunity to relate to how they can solve a problem. Instead, they tell people about how Granddaddy Randolph founded this company in 19-dixety-six. He traded the onion tied to his belt for the hammer he used to, whatever, whatever.

And don’t get me wrong, people love compelling stories. However, you need to tie the story to the problem you solve.

So how do you craft our about page to be more about your visitors? You focus on your visitors.

First Step: If you haven’t already crafted a few buyer personas now would be a good time to do that. You want to know who your buyers are so you can tailor a message that appeals to them.

This is important because you talk differently to a 25-year-old coordinator than a 40-year-old project manager. Your coordinator and PM have a much different viewpoint and problems that they want to solve. Let’s use them as examples.

But you say “we have a lot of different personas.” Great most companies do, So how can you talk to all of them at once? First focus on your most likely to buy companies.

Then narrow that down to a few personas.

We have with our coordinator, PM and let’s say there is also a senior manager.

So who is visiting your website first? Probably someone doing research. So the intro of your about page is where we start talking to your “researchers.” In the above example that would be your coordinator.

Your researchers are most likely going to be more junior so write accordingly. What problem do they have? What is going to get you to the next round?

Second Step: On another part of your about page, may be called “Success.” Talk about a successful project that you completed for a customer, then link to a more detailed page somewhere else on the site.

You can do that from a short excerpt of a case study or a video. The key is to make it relatable to other companies that face the same issue.

This is going to more geared to your PM. Feel free to write about it a little more detailed than the intro.

You could also use a testimonial from a customer. What you accomplished and mention some concrete results.

Remember when you talk about your product or solution talk it about it from a benefit side. Don’t talk about what your product does, but the problems that it solves.

Third Step: Ok, so you know our buyers. You have introduced how you can help them by providing a concrete example of where you helped similar clients. What are their main challenges and goals? What does your senior management want to accomplish?

Now you build the rest of our about page around solving them.

Maybe you call this “Executive Summary.” It is a bulleted list of benefits that you give to your customers and problems you help your clients solve. The list may be broad but remember to incorporate your USP.

Don’t forget to keep it short; it is a summary after all.

Final Step: A call to action. You need a strong call to action to get people into your funnel. I would prefer to use a case study or something educational as opposed to a “Contact Us.”

If they want to reach out directly to you, there is always that option in the menu, but for now, they are still getting to know you so don’t move too fast and scare them off. Picture it like trying to get a stray puppy to trust you. No sudden movements!

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You want to have a successful industrial marketing video, right?

Yes, sure Phil in accounting said it was good, and your mom loves it, but how well did it do with your intended audience?

You won’t know unless you set realistic goals but you can’t have goals unless you look at your metrics for a successful video. Below are four key metrics that you can use to set goals for your videos.

Keep in mind these metrics that we are going to talk about are not for video ads (ads that run in front of content) this is for the video content itself.

Views: The most natural metric to measure is with views. Views is how many times anyone watched your video, right?

Well, how a view is measured depends on the platform that your audience views them. A view can mean that someone scrolled past your thumbnail, started watching a second, or even half of your video. You need to know what the platform you use counts as a view.

So views are a spongy metric. Views are excellent, but really don’t give you the whole picture.

Engagement: Engagement is a more precise version of views. Engagement details what percentage of people watch what percentage of your video. It is much more helpful than a grab bag of “views,” but it can be a bit misleading as well.

For instance, let’s say with video “A” you lose 40% of your viewers in the first 2% of your video (called the nose) and another 10% at the halfway mark. Compare that to video “B” where you lose 10% in the nose and 40% after the midway point.

In both cases, you have 50% viewership, but in video “B” a lot more of your message is absorbed. Note: you will very rarely have 100% viewer engagement, so don’t hold yourself up to an unrealistic goal.

According to Wistia average drop off in the nose is “4.9% for videos 1 – 2 minutes in length”. That engagement loss increases to 17.3% for videos 5 – 10 minutes in length”. So depending on the length of your video you can find an appropriate goal for your engagement.

Shares: Share on social media are another metric to consider. Shares are a great way to introduce your video to other audiences. Moreover, they send a social signal to the search engines that “this is good content; show it more often.”

A caveat is this metric is going to vary greatly depending on your social media presence and savvy. A consistent way to look at your share ratio is “shares/views.”

Now we all know that the shares of an industrial video are not going to be anywhere near those of “insert popular rapper/singer/boy-band here,” but if you can get a ratio that beats around 1/100 you are doing great. Your share of “previously referenced popular rapper/singer/boy-band” is probably going for a ratio of 1/50 or lower. Real viral videos are around 1/25 or less. 

Click-through: Click through rate (CTR), or conversion rate is my favorite metric. Not only have people watched your video but it also encouraged them to take action. Whether the action is to download a case study, sign up for a demo, or join your newsletter, you now have some who have self-selected.

So what is a reasonable goal for our video content CTR? Unfortunately, it can vary widely. The best bet might be to take some other piece of content, say a blog, and compare it to a page where your video is hosted. That will give you a starting point.

If you want help with your marketing video for industrial, material handling or construction, you can download our Guide to Video Marketing here

Every video production project has unique challenges. From conception to creation, to shooting, to distribution there are a ton of moving parts that you have to nail to get the results you want.

And when you create a material handling video, the issues that you face are compounded.

But not to worry! We have some pro tips to ensure that your material handling video project is a success.Let’s start off with some general video guidelines and then delve into some more warehouse specific tips.

First, have a goal in mind for what you want to accomplish. Is your goal to drive leads, build brand awareness, or educate employees? Extra points for making sure that your goal is SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely).

Goals: Focus on your goal throughout the entire process. It makes it much easier as you go through the stages of development. For instance, if you have a question about a line (or anything else) as you move through production ask yourself, “Will this help meet my goal”?

Message: You should have one overarching message that you present in your material handling video. This message is the takeaway that you want your viewers to retain.

o be creative. The last thing anyone needs is another dull material handling video. No one will watch it, and you will have wasted resources that could have gone elsewhere.
Engagement: Be sure that you have something of value for your viewers and demonstrate that value every second of the video. You need to edit your video strictly to ensure that every second is required.

Viewers fall off the instance they feel that you are not speaking to them.

Call to Action: What do you want your viewers to do after watching the video?

Do you want them to watch another video? Do you want them to download your white paper? Do you want them to check out your case study that examines your project more closely?

Your call to action should work hand in hand with your goals and message. We tend to put our CTA near the end of the video. However, you can place one anywhere throughout the video.

Distribution: While Facebook and YouTube are great, they aren’t necessarily the best place to initially host your video. You don’t control these properties or how they might change in the future. You do manage your website, so it makes sense to host your video on your site. We use Wistia to host videos on our site.

Now let’s get into some specifics for material handling videos.

Location: Filming in a warehouse or distribution center is much different from filming in an office, boardroom or even outdoors.

First are the variety of environmental issues.

Noise: Even the quietest of conveyors makes noise, and sensitive sound equipment is going to pick it up. We wouldn’t suggest that you shoot interviews on the floor of a distribution center. (learned that one the hard way). You might want to tape testimonial or explanations somewhere else and then lay over video of the solution in post-production.

Dirt: Warehouse, DC’s and manufacturing plants are not the cleanest places in the world. Be aware of the conditions when your actors choose their clothing. Also, remember to protect your equipment from the grime.

Lighting: Designers don’t light distribution centers for shooting video. When you go into a DC look around at the lighting situation. Pretty dim, eh? You may need to have some portable lights for parts of the video.

Work: In most distribution centers you are probably filming in a working area. There are people, forklifts, cranes, AGV’s, conveyors, etc. In essence, there are a ton of moving parts, and you need to be aware of them for both safety and filming.

Pro Tip: Make sure that the floor supervisors and management have an idea of what you will be shooting, where you need to be and if you need help from any associates on the floor.

For instance, if you are shooting a pick wall, it is much more useful if you have an associate doing picking while you are filming.

The dynamics of action shooting in a warehouse or manufacturing setting are excellent, but it is a double-edged sword. Always be aware of your surroundings and be safe.

Also, be prepared with steel toe boots, goggles, hard hats and any other safety equipment for everyone that will be on the floor.

If you would like some more tips on more ways to make your video project a success check out our ebook here.

“But wait,” you say “Qualifying leads is an important part of the sales process. I don’t want to waste time trying to sell to someone who can’t or won’t buy my solution, right?”

I couldn’t agree more. So why would I say “Your Sales Team Should Stop Qualifying Leads”?

Well, for one because it makes read the article.

But more importantly, because it makes more sense for your sales team to focus on selling not qualifying.

I am not saying you shouldn’t qualify leads. I am saying it is a waste of time for sales to qualify leads. In fact, salespeople don’t even want leads so why should they waste more time on what they don’t want?

I know, I know, I am just full of contradictory statements today, aren’t I? Let’s look at a scenario. You are in sales. It hasn’t been a great quarter so you are a little down.

But wait!

You get a hot lead from the marketing department for “Derrick”. You immediately pick up the phone to follow up. You get his voicemail.

That’s ok, you can call back. And it was his cell phone so you don’t have to get through a gatekeeper. Bonus!

You call back after lunch, voice mail again. Fine, you can call before close of business. You do and get his voicemail. Again.

You try again the next morning and…Derrick answers! Angels sing, trumpets sound! All is good with the world!

Right up until you find out Derrick is a college student doing research on the market.

Or a competitor. Or someone else that has no chance of buying.

Now, how excited are you going to be about the marketing leads if you keep getting “Derricks”? Not very, right?

Like I said your salespeople don’t want leads; they want sales and leads are only the first step to getting a sale. There are many steps between the two.

What your sales team wants are qualified leads. Qualified leads are leads that are already…well….qualified.

Your Derricks are weeded out and only “good leads” remain. And Good news, properly done, inbound marketing excels at generating qualified leads.

How Inbound Qualifies Leads

Marketing and sales get together and discuss whom sales want to talk to. Marketing builds personas for each target audience. The leads that they give to sales already meet those criteria so are “qualified leads” (We call them MQL’s (Marketing Qualified Leads) because there is no need for sales to qualify them).

Just think how much more effective your sales team could be if you remove the qualifying and prospecting out of the sales process, and give them better-qualified leads that they have a chance to close.

They can concentrate on the MQL’s and get a better close rate and make more money for themselves and the company. Awesome, right?

With inbound marketing, your sales teams can spend more time closing sales (generating revenue) and less time in business development and qualifying (not generating revenue).

How Your Marketing Team get MQL’s

One of the main tactics of inbound is content marketing. With content marketing, you create a variety of collateral that educates potential customers and illustrates the benefits of your solutions. Each piece you design appeals to a buyer persona and helps lead them down the funnel to become a qualified lead.

This means that not only does your salesperson get an MQL, but they also find out the interest points of potential buyers. Did they read an infographic about your solution vs. others in the market? Did they download a case study about how you were able to solve a particular problem for a customer?

That Information is Gold to Sales

Inbound is Sales Enablement: Did you know that with the help of the internet your customers go 60% of the way down the funnel before they even talk to a salesperson?

Inbound fills in the gap between your prospect discovering they have a problem and contacting your company.

Your content educates the customer about your solution, the benefits, and frames the problem. And if your content does that successfully don’t you think you are more likely to get the sale?

Another benefit is that your content not only appeals to specific persona but also to where that person is in their sales journey. Some content will appeal to a person at the beginning of their journey. Some will appeal to someone who is ready to make a decision and is choosing between different providers.

In fact, your collateral can even supplement the information that your sales teams shares with your prospects after they make contact.

Closing the Loop

Inbound can also help with a prospect who doesn’t buy initially. Let’s take the scenario where you give an MQL to sales, but the prospect doesn’t buy. That’s not ideal, but it is OK.

Traditionally you just cast off the lead and move on. But now you can put the prospect in a specific funnel that appeals to their demographic and buyer cycle. When you publish information that applies to their persona, those prospects automatically get that information.

If they heat up again, marketing knows. And better yet with more advanced inbound marketing automation your salespeople can know as well and pick up the phone at the exact right moment.

Want to learn how to start your inbound marketing campaign? Check out this blog article that guides you through the process.

Inbound marketing works for material handling and industrial for several different reasons but the three main ones are…

• There is a sales consideration period
• The sales price is worth much more than the investment for inbound
• You can demonstrate that you are a Thought Leader in your content creation

The first two reasons are immutable facts about the industry. However, the last one can be a bit tricky. It requires work, because unfortunately content does not create itself.

Sure you want fantastic content, but wanting great content is not enough.People prioritize tasks to do first that are urgent and important. Priorities, like getting out quotes, going to trade shows and  everything else you have to do we let content creation fall by the wayside.

Content creation is important, but it is not necessarily urgent, so how do we make it urgent?

An excellent way to make it urgent is to create a publishing timeline. Knowing that you are going to publish something every day, week or month helps to develop a sense of urgency.

However, it only makes it falsely urgent. Once you skip the first  publishing time, it is easier to skip it the next time, then you have a blog that hasn’t been updated this quarter. An abandoned blog is a bad look.

Another way to get regular content for your inbound marketing is to hire an outside source. Since your freelancer’s expert’s raison d’etre is the content creation for them, it is both important, and urgent.

If you have already seen the light of inbound, but want some help in the content creation side here is my suggestion for working with freelancers or outside agencies.

1. Look closely at outside agencies. A lot of people say they do content creation, but remember you want content creation that is a PART of the inbound strategy. Content creation is not a strategy; it is a tactic. Talk to your prospective partners about the difference.

2. Does the agency have their own content creation? Hiring someone with an abandoned or non-existent blog might not be the best strategy.

3. Talk to the agency about what you want to accomplish: What are your goals? How can they help you meet those goals?

4. People: We have often said that B2B is a misnomer. It is people working with people. Can you work with the people at the agency?

With consistent content creation in place, your inbound efforts should yield more consistent results.

If you want some help with your content creation calendar for inbound marketing, feel free to download our guide.

When we build websites for companies, there is usually a lot of discussion about how to get more visitors. That makes perfect sense right? Why create this beautiful website, if no one is going to see it? And in the end, more visitors helps drive more sales.

The traditional answer to the question of how to get more views on your site is content creation, blogging for instance. This is simple mathematics. Website + Content = More pages (and more pages equals more chances to capture eyeballs).

However, we feel that traditional content creation is only a tactic. It is part of a broader strategy of inbound marketing. Inbound marketing goes with sales like peanut butter and jelly.

I believe that inbound marketing is hands down the best all inclusive strategy for getting more MQL (or marketing qualified leads, i.e., leads that your sales team wants.)

However, not everyone is in the position to launch a full-scale inbound marketing campaign. It requires a considered sales process, a particular value of your sales (above 2k) and a chunk of the marketing budget, as well.So what do you do if you don’t have the resources or sales structure for an inbound marketing strategy? Good news you can still use some of the tactics. The best bang for the buck is strategic content creation.

Just as a quick refresher what does content creation do for your sales team?

SEO: Content creation helps you with your search engine optimization. You create content based on topics that you want to rank for, and if your content is good (plus some other factors), it has the potential to rank high on searches for your key phrases.

Thought Leadership: If you have a unique take or opinion on how you can help your clients or customers, content creation is a great way to express it. It allows you to present not just a “me too” solution.

Personable: Content creation allows you to express yourself and act like a person. B2B is a misnomer; people buy from people. So don’t be afraid to be people.

Content Creation vs. Strategic Content Creation

Now that we all know what content creation is you may have the question what is the difference between strategic content creation and regular content creation? Traditional content creation is more “write something and post it!”

Strategic content creation is a lot closer to true inbound marketing. You have a strategy and a plan to execute that strategy.

For instance here is a typical strategy you can use to help build your first campaign.

Step: 1: Goals. Step one is always the goals. Not just goals but SMART Goals. If you don’t have measurable goals how will you know if you hit them?

Step 2: Research. You can’t assume that what you want to talk about is what your customers want to hear. That doesn’t mean you should change your product or lie; it means to talk about the benefits (not features) that appeal to your customers and prospects.

How do we find that out? Well…ask them, whether you do it face-to-face or using a survey find out.

Step 3: Plan. now that you know what resonates with your customers, you need to plan what you are going to create.

You need to have one core piece of premium content. This piece of content may be an e-book, whitepaper or video. Everything else you create will relate back to that one piece.

Why?

We need a premium piece to “anchor” everything. A concerted campaign is a key to strategic content creation. It keeps your content creation on track and guides your effort.

Also, the premium piece is something that is worth being exchanged for information (email and name, perhaps). That is one of the ways we will generate sales leads from our content creation.

Step 4: Timeline. A reasonable timeline to start with is three months. Two weeks to research and plan a concept for your premium piece. One week to create it. Then you start building “regular content pieces”around it. Think blogs.

Then you write pieces around the premium content for three months and then repeat with another piece of premium content.

Want to learn more about lead generation? Get our 30 Greatest Lead Generation Tips, Tricks and Ideas.