How does a Midwest OEM manufacturer generate $200,000 in sales, a 2300% ROI on marketing investment?
How does a New York manufacturing company become the, top-of-mind awareness champion, for their industry?
How does a little ‘ol swimming pool company in Virginia become a national leader in sales of fiberglass swimming pools?
Content marketing…baby!
I know my stuff and I know many owners of industrial companies.
These following statements are only anecdotal based on my own experience. However, they can be supported by GlobalSpec’s recent survey, 2014 Digital Media Use in the Industrial Sector.
Industrial marketers increasingly examine their brand message. Their keen instincts tell them they need to do something to help their, often-commoditized, products stand out on a crowded web.
I know the common feeling most business owners have when it comes to branding; “I am going to spend a lot money to pump up our brand. Where is the ROI?”
Trust me…I feel your pain.
I believe I have the answer and you know where this is going.
Content marketing…baby!
FACT: Once you develop a strong brand theme that separates your company from your competitors, content marketing is the least expensive way to extend your shiny new brand message.
Let me just give you a couple of examples. We are working with a Midwest, B2B manufacturer of OEM equipment. We gave their web site a fresh look and focused on graphics and copy that clearly defined their value. We positioned them as the experts, the problem-solvers, for a very specific OEM product.
We then extended that message to their blog. The owners were very skeptical
The manufacture will achieve an ROI of 2300% from blogging efforts. You can read the details on my recent blog post
If your are reading this post you really need to study the Indium Corporation. Indium is a supplier of specialty alloys and semiconductor packaging to the electronics and semiconductor industry. They have over a 100 blogs written by approximately 20 engineers and experts.
Indium’s brand tag line is now From One Engineer to Another. I have been in the industry almost 20 years. I have never seen a brand theme that resonates as well with the buyer, typically an engineer, than Indium’s. Hats off to Indium’s Director of Marketing Communication, Rick Short, who I interviewed for my blog post this past year.
Indium truly “walks the talk” by creating the, “go-to”, web site for engineers that need advice for electronic connections. Indium’s blog and the content they create is so well known, trade show attendees seek out specific engineers according to Anita Brown, Marketing Communications Manager at Indium.
That is how you extend your industrial brand theme using content marketing.
Although not an industrial example, Marcus Sheridan’s personal story of business survival by using his blog to answer specific questions about fiberglass pools is legendary. Just as Marcus’s swimming pool company was becoming profitable, the recession hit. Marcus and his partners were close to losing their homes when he started his blog. His formula was simple, “They Ask, We Answer”. As his blog started to attract more & more visitors, he received more & more leads and closed sales.
Go to Google and type in any question you might have about fiberglass pools and your will find River Pools and Spas. Then go to River Pool’s home page and check out the map pinpointing River Pool’s installations. It is safe to say that 90% of those installations came from Marcus’s blog started during the recession. River Pools has been so successful they are now manufacturing fiberglass pools.
Was Marcus’s commitment to content market and blogging worth it? Did content marketing extend Marcus’s brand?
Watch my interview with Marcus, this past March, while Marcus was in Kalamazoo.
GET STARTED BY DOWNLOADING: An Introduction to Industrial Blogging.
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