In conversations over the past year or so I have noticed a trend – where many companies have walked away from successful marketing activities stating their intention to do it in house. Now with a year or so to look back on I see that to varying degrees they have done very little in-house or otherwise – while the ones who have stayed with proven activities are having record sales.

There has been a lot of panic and a dash for change, all for the best of possible reasons, so may I respectfully suggest that now would be a good time to review the past, put aside our pride, consider carefully the shiny bells and whistles of the Googlesphere and choose to do some simple, effective and low-cost marketing.

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Just to refresh for the sake of anybody considering their way forward I offer a personal view of the role of PR in B2B sales/marketing

• PR is an integral support for the sales team
• PR/media activities reach potential new customers without the need for cold calling
• They free salespeople from low-value calls, which are in any case not well received by people often working from home with their phones switched off
• A media/content program frees a company from the need to employ high-quality and expensive sales engineers to do low-return cold calls.
• This enables sales engineers to focus on what they do best – dealing with specification enquiries and resolving problems – often requiring face-to-face interaction.

Who wouldn’t want such a program on their team at this time of change?

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What can PR and the tech media do that Google can’t?

Well, that is a very good question with some interesting answers:

• Between us, we can provide a constant stream of valuable information
• Create multiple points of contact over an extended time period
• Provide a huge background of archived information which builds up over many years
• Present in-depth pieces about technology, application, and guidance for usage
• Offer guidance about trends

This results in a de facto relationship between the supplier and their customer audience generated by the working relationship active between PR content providers and the trade/tech press, both online and print-based. A relationship that exists in the minds of the participants purely because they are engaged across the media.

Regarding traditional print media – it has been shown to be significantly easier to read than a screen, while the information gathered this way is also better understood and remembered.

Google itself does none of these things, although we use it and other search engines as librarians to aid us in achieving them.

Within the industrial manufacturing arena “Marketing” seems to be in a period of once again being poorly understood and undervalued, this is a fashion that cycles around every few years.

It seems to be considered that everything has changed with the Internet. It has not – the basics and the principles have stayed the same – sadly the baby has often been thrown out with the bathwater and new marketing embraces much that is a fashionable (and expensive) new gimmick, while forgetting proven old ideas simply because they are old, without realising that they are also very effective.

Contact us to discuss an industrially oriented marketing program for your company.

I have been reading a bit about how the last two years have been marked by change in the industrial/B2B/SME marketplace and how our websites should help potential customers through their research and selection process with perhaps a zoom call occasionally with a salesperson to iron out any problems.

Really? Hasn’t it always been the case that customers want the quickest route to identifying a solution to their purchasing questions? What is clear is that instead of interrogating a catalogue and a sales rep or telesales today the process is much shorter. People are less receptive to speculative calls – actually, most are unreachable since they are working at home with their phones off. This means that the old role of the sales rep no longer includes seeking out new business – they are now needed to follow up when invited or to present an onsite presence in sorting out detailed specifications or dealing with problems.

The front end conclusion, therefore, is that it is ever more important for suppliers to get their online profile in front of engineers seeking products and processes, and that means appearing on page one of your favourite search engine organic results – unless you want to pay, which is also an option, but probably more difficult and expensive than it appears.

Which brings us to the world of Press Relations (PR) and Social Media – frequently dismissed (perhaps because of old prejudices) but actually one of the few ways where we can present design and production engineers with a steady flow of useful or even valuable information that helps them to resolve their questions. We do this by joining the established media flow which presents a steady and timely data stream from suppliers to customers – a communication channel including the web and print media. When our clients stand out in this channel their website traffic and RFQs increase – also giving an opportunity for an interpersonal sales discussion. The process hasn’t really changed but the emphasis has, making PR and Social Media so much more important to the whole industrial marketplace.

Critical to this information flow is the presence of an established and respected trade and tech media in the shape of proactive publishing houses that address the many niches that exist.

Once again we hear that industrial commodities are in short supply and pricing has gone up for any one of many reasons – this is a cycle we have seen before of course and will settle out in time. Do you remember the year that the Chinese bought up all the scrap steel on the planet – or the time that copper theft was a major crime wave?

What it indicates of course is that manufacturing has rebounded from COVID and we will now be in a period of shortage with extended deliveries and increased pricing – but it will be important to remember that everyone is in the same situation. So it is not a good idea to stop marketing on the basis that “we can’t deliver” because neither can anybody else.

Now is the time to keep your marketing going, do your best for every customer and they will thank you for it when business rebounds.

“The Deficit Myth” by Stephanie Kelton – a clear read which explains Modern Monetary Theory and how our governments could do a load of things differently. Fascinating and inspiring – well worth a read. and interesting that (some) economists are working with a different and very positive perspective.

It seems to me that industrial marketing is like talking to an interested audience in a small room – it is not necessary to raise your voice too much to have a big effect.

Trade and tech media are very helpful in this as they specifically focus on the very engineers, specifiers, and buyers who make up this niche.

It is similar in fact to a very large national trade exhibition where all your potential customers come together – but re-run 24/7 using the impact of print media and the convenience of the internet.

One of the things that drew me to marketing originally was the element of planning – and the present situation is a great example. The media are all looking ahead planning what they can do over the next year and that is what we are also recommending to clients.

Marketing is always a matter of trying to understand your market and where it is going – for me the interesting thing often is that industrial markets run differently from the high street. This means that it is important to stay focused on the positive – when business is down then that is the time to make marketing plans and to initiate action.

There are timing lags in every system and industrial marketing is no different – what is the time lag in your business process?