I have been involved in web development and web marketing since 1998. I guess that makes me an expert if you use Malcolm Gladwell’s “10,000 hours of practice” rule.
When I started a web development company in 2006 with my partner. I was an early adaptor of the web in general. I was, clearly, an early adaptor for SEO (search engine optimization) for the industrial market when we started. We have helped many mid-size industrial companies with lead generation by building web sites with solid SEO practices. While these practices are still effective, there is more that we can do.
Boy… have things changed in the last couple of years. Mostly your buyer has changed due to the proliferation of quality content that rushes him through the buyer’s journey at a pace unimaginable just 3-4 years ago.
WAKE UP FOLKS. Your go-to-market strategy must change NOW!
I constantly monitor some of the best minds in industrial marketing. I read books about from the leaders in web marketing and apply them to the industrial market. I listen to my own customers. I help my industrial customers develop effective web marketing strategies. I walk through manufacturing plants and industrial supply businesses with owners & CEO’s scared to death of the web market place. I read several blogs devoted to web-based industrial marketing. (Yes, there are a few out there.)
One blog that I monitor is Bruce McDuffee’s blog, Modern Marketing for Industry. I like Bruce’s blog because he is not a consultant, he is practitioner. He gets his hands dirty. Bruce is passionate about the current evolution of technologies and the positive effect they can have on industrial marketing. He calls it “Modern Marketing 2.0”. I recently came across Bruce’s “The Manufacturer’s Growth Manifesto” which was published in early December.
<iframe src=”//www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/EXoflnu0fOUxWb” width=”595″ height=”485″ frameborder=”0″ marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” style=”border:1px solid #CCC; border-width:1px; margin-bottom:5px; max-width: 100%;” allowfullscreen> </iframe> <div style=”margin-bottom:5px”> <strong> <a href=”//www.slideshare.net/BruceMcDuffee/manufacturers-growth-manifesto-3rd-edition” title=”Manufacturer's Growth Manifesto – 3rd edition” target=”_blank”>Manufacturer's Growth Manifesto – 3rd edition</a> </strong> from <strong><a target=”_blank” href=”//www.slideshare.net/BruceMcDuffee”>Manufacturing Marketing Institute</a></strong> </div>
Based on my “expert” status I believe Bruce has captured, in one SlideShare presentation, the top-level strategy and critical changes CEO’s need to make right now. Bruce considers B2B manufacturing companies vulnerable and at the same time ripe with opportunity to gain significant market share. From my vantage point, I consider industrial suppliers just as vulnerable and at the same time capable of gaining market share using modern marketing methods.
For me, Bruce’s “The Manufacturer’s Growth Manifesto” is a brilliant synopsis of what it takes… NOW…for industrial marketers to compete in the Age of Google.
My next blog will feature an interview with Bruce with more details about “Modern Marketing 2.0” and how be become so passionate about his craft. In “Manifesto” Bruce claims 10%-30% growth using “Modern Marketing 2.0”. I will ask Bruce to share more details about his success.
I addressed this same issue, from a different tangent, in an earlier blog titled, Industrial Marketing Wisdom from the Salty Dog Cafe.
If you embrace the idea of changing your company’s go-to-market strategy with content marketing, your very first step is to establish a blog on your web site’s domain. Yes, a blog is content too. A blog is the very best kind of content, if done properly, according to Google.
“By Tom Repp”
