The Marketing Maven: Industrial Marketing Blog & B2B Marketing Tips

Be Small Act Large: Use Marketing to Position Yourself as a Big Company

One great thing about the Web is the way it levels the playing field between big and small companies. A small local operation can have a Web presence as robust and impressive as a multi-national company, allowing it to appear much larger than it actually is.

Of course, size doesn’t always matter. Small companies can promote the fact that every customer gets royal treatment and personal service. What does matter is finding your market niche, knowing what’s important to your customers and fulfilling those customer needs. But sometimes, looking bigger than you are can open doors that might otherwise be shut.

For those times when you need to look big, here’s how to use marketing to give you the look you need.

Reach New Market Segments Through Online Marketing

One challenge most marketers face at one time or another is penetrating a new market segment. Your company may introduce a new product that has appeal beyond your current market segment, or your current products offer a value proposition in markets you have not yet entered.

A new market segment could be geographically based — expanding a regional business, for example, or going international. Or the new market segment could be an industry you don’t currently sell into. 

To effectively reach a new market segment, put online marketing to work. Online marketing has no geographic boundaries and the right tactics can target the specific market segment you’re going after. Additionally, online marketing offers the benefit of speed – an online campaign can “go live” much more quickly than a print or direct mail campaign.  Several online tactics in particular can help raise the visibility of your brand to prospects unfamiliar with your company, and generate leads for your sales team to turn into customers.

Adding e-Newsletter Advertising to Your Marketing Mix

If you’re looking to connect with hard-to-reach prospects or gain visibility in new markets, it’s time to include e-newsletter advertising in your marketing mix. E-newsletter advertisements are a great complement to your in-house e-mail marketing efforts or a way to get started with e-mail marketing if you don’t have a house list.

Placing ads in online media such as e-newsletters can motivate your audience to take action. According to the results of the GlobalSpec 2007 Engineering Trends Survey, 81% of respondents reported having visited the advertiser’s Web site after seeing an online ad and 59% have e-mailed the advertiser.

With e-newsletter advertising, you can save costs and resources: you don’t have to manage the list, produce the content, or distribute and track the e-newsletter. You simply provide an ad to the publisher. In most cases, you’ll also set up a landing page on your own Web site for respondents who click on your ad.

7 Strategies for Marketing in a Downturn for Manufacturers

As we head into Memorial Day Weekend with gas prices crossing the $4.00 per gallon mark, I can only believe that difficult economic times are ahead of us - manufacturers, distributors, and service providers - anyone who has to ship goods and uses any plastics in their processes. 

With this in mind, now is the time to think about how you are going to prepare your company to weather an economic downturn.  Guy Maser, GlobalSpec's Senior Vice President of Marketing, has an article that can help you prepare your strategy. 

Read the seven strategies that can help your company in tough times.

Ad Agencies: How to Pick the Right One

Many agency relationships start off with such promise.  All the top people are involved with your account in the beginning. Then they disappear and you are left with the underlings.  I have often found that I get better work from boutique agency or an individual consultant.  My theory is that I am working more closely with the people who are doing the actual work, and I am closer to the principals. This isn’t to say that a large agency can’t deliver. 

Do your due diligence upfront before you choose an agency.  Significant money and resources can go into a project with an advertising agency so to protect your investment follow these guidelines when making your selection.

Round-up of the Top B2B Search Engines

Search Engine Land features a post on the top B2B search engines.  While Google, Yahoo and Microsoft have the lion’s share of the search traffic and dollars, vertical search engines continue to grow.  General search engines are often the starting point of a search and lead to vertical sites.  From the searcher’s view point, the vertical niche sites provide more relevant results and easier access to comprehensive content in a one-stop-search experience. 

For the B2B advertiser, vertical search engines offer much more than a general search engine.  Vertical search engines provide a higher quality lead as a result of their targeted audience.  In GlobalSpec’s case we provide more than a click - we provide contact information of the searcher to the advertiser. 

GlobalSpec is called out in the Search Engine Land article.  Click here to read the full article.

Part II - Hold on to Your Customers in Challenging Times: Survey Customers to Identify Problem Areas

In today's economy retaining and growing your existing customer base is more important than ever.  One key to retaining customers is to measure customer satisfaction. 

Although most marketers would agree that conducting a customer satisfaction survey is beneficial to the company, many do not do it.

Some of the typical reasons companies do not conduct a satisfaction survey are:

• Lack of in-house research expertise
• No money for research
• No time to put it together
• We already talk to our customers all the time through sales and customer support
• I already know what our performance is on many key quality areas like delivery, product quality, order processing
• What we don’t know won’t hurt us – or afraid of what it might uncover

Let me offer some suggestions on how to overcome these objections:

Hold on to Your Customers in Challenging Times: Survey Customers to Identify Problem Areas

In today’s economy retaining and growing your existing customer base is more important than ever.  One key to retaining customers is to measure customer satisfaction.  I recommend that every company assess customer satisfaction on a yearly basis at a minimum.

Some of the key baseline measurements that you should make are:

• Overall customer satisfaction
• Overall value of products/services sold
• Availability/Lead times
• Customer service
• Delivery
• Problem resolution
• Quality
• Sales personnel
• Technical support