Blogs have not taken off yet in the B2B industrial market place. According to research we have done, 13% of engineers and other technical buyers indicated that they use blogs for work-related purposes. In contrast more than 80% are visiting supplier websites and using search engines for work purposes.
You are not alone if your company doesn’t have a blog. About 6% of industrial suppliers have a blog today. Download full research report here.
If you have limited resources – people, time and money – then I would not put “starting a blog” at the top of your list. However, the use of blogs will only increase, and there is also a bit of a chicken and the egg issue at play here. If there are only a few blogs to be read, how can the industrial buyer use them?
My advice is to get familiar with blogs, read a few and keep abreast of the trends so you will be prepared to step into this area.
One example of a company who has stepped into the blogoshpere is Indium. They have several people within the company blogging on such topics as semiconductor packaging and electronics assembly. There are frequent posts, and from what I can tell, technical content which is what the industrial searcher craves. This is the kind of content that can position your company as an expert. Check it out if you want to see an example of how you can use blogs as part of your marketing strategy.
If you have a good example of a blog for engineers and other technical buyers please share.
We also have a blog for the manufacturing industry, along with a podcast. Both are going very well! I'll give you the links here, the blog is http://fedtech.multiply.com
And the podcast is www.modernmanufacturing.mypodcast.com
I look forward to seeing more industrial blogs, it would be fun to see a large variety.
Posted by: Sarah | January 21, 2009 at 10:36 AM
Very interesting read - I'm sure blog will become more popular as time goes by in industrial arenas.
Posted by: Steel Fabrication by DFI | January 12, 2009 at 08:37 AM