In my work helping companies build their businesses in the manufacturing, engineering, and technical markets, I often receive pushback about the importance of inbound, digital, and outbound sales and marketing. So many of the prospects I deal with on a day-to-day basis insist they don't need help. They tell me they know who their customers are, they are too busy to take on new business, or they get their business from referrals. Why are they so resistant to new growth strategies? As an engineer myself, I understand how my fellow engineers and industry professionals think and seek out information, but my experience on the sales and marketing side has given me some insights that I'd like share.
As a lead generation company, we're always discussing the importance of being found on the internet through SEO, blogging, content development, the list goes on. But in addition to being found - you must be REMEMBERED.
Let's face it, getting found is a difficult task unless you have a big budget for marketing (which most of us don't). So, when you do get found, you'll want to take advantage of that opportunity and draw people in with something special and unique.
How do you do that? By telling YOUR story. Stories are retained, much more so than a list of products or services. A story will help you stand out in the crowd of companies vying for attention. You may say, "I don't have a story," but you do. Everyone has a story.
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After my team’s visit to the latest HubSpot conference I got thinking about this post I wrote a while back. It still resonates, but I have three more reflections that I have compiled based on the work we’ve been doing at Acadia and what I learned at INBOUND17. The sales process does not have to be complicated, but it does need to be thorough and planned out.
1. Change your sales behavior. I heard lots of statistics at INBOUND17. For me, most notably:
If you'd asked me four months about my knowledge of industrial website design, I most likely wouldn't have had much to say. I had experience in B2C web design, and I thought that it would be similar, but I realized quickly that B2B websites were an entirely different breed. Here I've put together 8 tips I learned from designing Acadia's new website and what you can do to ensure that your project runs smoothly.
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Now that we've talked about the what, why and how of inbound marketing, it's time to learn the playbook, the many tools you can use to attract prospects to your company and convert them to customers. Following these steps and techniques, you'll get content in front of your prospects and nurture them to become your customers when they're ready to buy. In honor of my professional baseball-playing son, Sean, I'll use a baseball analogy of running the bases. With inbound, just like baseball, you need to know when to act and when to hold back. This playbook will help you know when to apply certain techniques to get the run.
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So, if you've been reading this series, you have an understanding of what inbound marketing is, and you maybe even understand why you need to ramp up your efforts to attract new buyers. In this post, I delve a little deeper into how to put this philosophy in action using marketing automation.
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In my last blog post, I focused on why inbound marketing is so necessary to attract new customers. In part two of this series, I focus on why inbound works and why manufacturing companies need to get in the game.
Why is Everyone Talking About Inbound Marketing?
Basically it comes down to this: Consumers buy differently today than they did even 10 years ago. Before the full adoption of the internet, buyers typically didn't have access to the amount of information they have at their fingertips today. Their journey from initial contact to sale was linear and predictable, and marketing strategies focused mainly on interruptive methods like cold calling, advertising and direct mail.
Today, it's a different story altogether. While the methods mentioned above are still viable and important, especially in the industrial space, today's buyers are well informed. The glut of information can be overwhelming, but by doing inbound marketing right and focusing on freely sharing information, your company will rise to the top of the search window. The buyer journey is no longer a straight line. It's fluid and random, and if a potential buyer doesn't see your company name often enough, it won't be "top of mind.".
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What IS Inbound Marketing Anyway?
Simply put, it's a way to attract customers with online content that addresses their specific needs and establishes your company as a trustworthy and credible one they want to do business with. Let's take a closer look, and start thinking about how to teach the concept to your organization.
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When was the last time you forgot your phone and didn't feel like a piece of you was missing? It's hard to remember, isn't it? Mine dates back to the early 2000's when I got my first cellphone. It was a Motorola flip phone with a handful of pre-made ring tones, a few games and a camera (barely). With this great, new mobile phone power came the great responsibility of remembering to bring it places.
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You’ve just read the dreaded words, “Your BLOG is due tomorrow.” Your reaction is, “What am I going to write? This could take me hours!”
Your next step might be to deploy one of the following tactics:
How important is the blog anyway? Who the heck reads them? Are they really necessary? I’ll answer those questions simply. Yes, everyone, and yes.
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