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Grand Challenges Marketing to Engineers
CEOandCofounderTREWMarketing
Author,SmartMarketingforEngineers:AnInboundMarketingGuidetoReachingTechnicalAudiences
Engineering Grand Challenges
National Academy of Engineering www.engineeringchallenges.org
Materials Research
Transportation
To Do Their Jobs…To Innovate…To Solve…They Need
products they can use
services they can employ
Information they can trust
The optimist: the glass is half full. The pessimist: the glass is half empty.
The engineer: the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.“ ”
If You Remember Nothing Else:
Engineers Think Differently. So…
Our Marketing Must Be Different Too.
“The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.”
Charles Kettering Founder, Delco
Head of Research, Ford, 1920 - 1947
63%ofthebuyingprocessiscontrolledbyyourprospect–beforeasalespersonisengaged.
--DharmeshShah,HubSpotCo-Founder“ ”
The Engineer’s Buying Process is <Mostly> Online
Inthinkingaboutthispurchasedecisionprocessthroughtheresearch,considera;on,anddecisionstages,whatpercentageofthisprocessoccursonlinebeforecommunica;ngdirectlywiththevendor
company(e.g.,visitstotheirwebsite,emailcommunica;on,aCendingawebinar,etc)?
A combined 63 percent spend over 60% of the buying process online before talking to sales.
Less than 50 percent 11%
About 50 percent 26%
>60 percent 23%
>70 percent 21%
>80 percent 19%n=254
Smart Marketing for Engineers & Scientists Survey, TREW Marketing & The Linus Group, August 2016
……….
If You Remember a Second Thing: Marketing has changed.
To progress, we need to change how we market.
Annual Revenue
25%
7%
25%
43%
<$1M-$5M $5M-$10M $10M-$20M >$20MGenerating Awareness, Right Message
Defining the Customer, Generating Demand
Marketing Investment, Planning & ROI
Bandwidth, Internal Support
Biggest Marketing Challenges
About You
Marketing PlanDo you have a documented marketing plan?
n=28
29% 14% 7% 50%
Yesandwerou5nelymeasureprogress
Yes,butwedon’tmeasureprogress
Yes,buthavenothadbeenabletoputtheplanintoac5on(no5me,otherbusinesspriori5es,etc)
No,wedonothaveadocumentedplan
Your 2nd Biggest Challenge: Planning, ROI• Proving that $ spent on marketing will generate ROI
• Tracking ROI on Advertising Campaigns
• Data collection
• Deciding how much to spend on what
• Establishing a comprehensive plan with measurable outcomes and process to get there
• Knowing more about the most effective approaches for our industry or market
• Assessing whether we are getting results
• Determining the results of paid media/advertising
• Marketing a new technology
Marke&ngAc&onPlan
Marke&ng Planning
Workbook
6 Grand Challenges in Marketing to Engineers
#1 Let Them Find You
Definition: Outbound Marketing
Outbound marketing, a.k.a. “push” marketing, uses communication channels to interrupt prospective buyers with your message. This commonly done by placing ads, exhibiting at trade shows, sending direct mail/email, and purchasing lists to push your message out to communities where your target audience congregated.
Outbound MarketingAdvantages 1. Bursts of results 2. Quick time to outcomes 3. Pay for others to create
targeted communities (trade shows, magazine readership, lists, etc)
Disadvantages 1. Expensive: cost-per-lead
($150+) 2. Hard to measure 3. Leads stop when $$ stops 4. Still requires a strong
foundation (website, clear positioning, content)
5. Countless missed opportunities by not being present in search
Dominates!
How Do You Search For and Use Engineering Information?
Smart Marketing to Engineers Survey 2015, ENGINEERING.com and TREW Marketing
In thinking about high-quality work-related content you’ve viewed online in the last six months (such as white papers, web or blog pages, videos, etc), how did you find them?
n=506
Most Valued Content Sources
60%
47%
36%
22%
21%
19%
16%
14%
10%
9%
5%
27%
37%
43%
44%
42%
42%
42%
41%
35%
22%
13%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
Search engines
Supplier/vendor websites
Trade publications
Trade publication websites
Industry association websites
Trade publication e-newsletters
Industry association e-newsletters
Supplier/vendor e-newsletters
Independent e-newsletters
YouTube
Social media
Very valuable
Moderately valuable
Marketing to Engineers Survey 2014, CFE Media and TREW Marketing
n=874
How valuable are the following content sources when seeking information on the latest engineering technologies, trends, and products?
“#1 Most Important Marketing Investment You Can Make:
Your Website”
- - Rebecca Geier
WebsiteHow would you rate your company’s website overall?
n=28
11% 46% 32% 11%
Excellent Strong Fair Weak
Definition: Inbound MarketingInbound marketing refers to marketing activities that bring visitors in, rather than marketers having to go offline to get prospects' attention. Inbound marketing earns the attention of customers, makes the company easy to find, and draws customers to the website by producing interesting content.
Inbound MarketingAdvantages 1. You have control, not reliant
on 3rd parties to create communities you pay to tap into
2. Consistent, long-term results 3. Leads are highly correlated
to publishing high quality, optimized content
4. Affordable (cost-per-lead: <$100)
5. Easy to measure the entire funnel, even predictable
Disadvantages 1. Requires foundational
investment: web, positioning, content
2. Forces prioritization of positioning, messaging
3. Takes time to see results – lots of competition on Google
4. Forces marketing-to-sales SLA (when leads increase)
5. It will not work without a commitment to content
Engineers Are Relentless Researchers
92%
Industry data by Chitika Insights found that 92% of all traffic on Google occurs on the first page of search results.
Engineers Are Relentless Researchers
5% 28% 25% 15% 21% 6%
Pagedepth
1 2 3 4 5 to 10 More than 10
Marke&ngtoEngineersSurvey,March2014,CFEandTREWMarke&ngChi&ka,92%ofalltrafficonGoogleappearsonpage1(5%onpg2)
n=705
92%
5% 28% 25% 15% 21% 6%
PageDepth1 2 3 4 5to10 Morethan10
n=705
W O W !
#2 Prove Your Expertise
Distinctly Position & Message Your Company
pr0ve your expertise
attract positive personas
Be Credible
repel negative personas
Your #1 Biggest Challenge: Messaging• Our target audience doesn’t know about our product
• Expanding into non correlated markets
• Lack of brand awareness
• Knowing what to market about our products
• Explaining exactly what we offer due to the diversity of capabilities
• Market Research: identifying market size/needs new product marketing
• How to time message with new materials development
• Communicating the advantages of our products to people who don't think they need it
• Awareness (new products - new audience)
• Clarity of our brand and message
• We are the mom and Pop to the 800lb Gorilla
• Our target audience doesn’t know what to do with our product
• Marketing to a very diverse customer base
• Applications are not within a specific industry or type of business
• Expanding into non correlated markets
• Some of our products are only bought on price, so it is difficult to market our strengths to purchasing agents
• Advising customers on what they REALLY need vs what they want
• Having the ability to show new and engaging information on our news releases / white papers, etc.
• Integrating our messaging across a wide portfolio of products and services
• Conveying product benefits to key personnel
50 Words - Including Company Name
How NOT To Convince Your Customer You’re The Best
“Our company is a leading, customer-focused global provider of innovative solutions supported by cutting-edge innovations designed to empower organizations with different-in-kind sources of broad-based value creation at their most critical moments of need. And oh, by the way, we’re green.”
—The Challenger Customer
Silex Brand MessagingAt Silex Technology, our expertise is built on more than 40 years of hardware and software connectivity know-how and IP, custom design development experience, and manufacturing capabilities. With relentless attention to quality, exclusive access to Qualcomm Atheros expertise, and strategic partnerships with leading real-time operating system (RTOS) and semiconductor providers, we are the trusted leader in reliable Wi-Fi connectivity.
The Value of Differentiated
Messaging
Differentiated from your competition
Unique, memorable and
distinctive
Foundational for all of your segments
and marketing deliverables
Visionary and future-focused
#3 Quality REALLY Matters
Quality Really Matters
83%
58% 62% 48%
39% 28%
11% 15%
36% 32% 42% 43% 43%
34%
2% 5% 5% 9% 15% 22%
36%
0% 1% 1% 1% 2% 6% 17%
0% 1% 0% 0% 0% 1% 1%
It's technically accurate
It includes detailed diagrams and images
It's current It's easy to read It's professionally designed
Sources are well-cited
It includes quotes or testimonials from
users, vendors or industry
leaders
Contentquali,es
Highly important Moderately important Relatively unimportant Not important Don't know
Howimportant(helpful)toyouarethefollowingaspectsofcontent?
Marke&ngtoEngineersSurvey,March2014,CFEandTREWMarke&ng n=705
Diversity REALLY Matters
55%
37%
27%
25%
30%
28%
23%
26%
21%
11%
12%
9%
5%
32%
41%
47%
49%
42%
41%
40%
35%
38%
33%
31%
27%
17%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
Product information
White papers, best practices, etc.
Trade publication articles (print)
Trade publication articles (online)
Case studies, application stories
Webcasts/webinars
Product demo videos
How-to videos
e-Books, e-guides
Surveys, industry trend reports
Online communities, forums
Infographics
Blogs
Very valuable
Moderately valuable
How valuable are the following types of content when researching engineering technologies, products and services?
Marke&ngtoEngineersSurvey,March2014,CFEandTREWMarke&ng
n=705
Example Content Plan Mapped to Personas & the Funnel
Inbound & Content Marketing is Hard
ContentHow often do you publish content such as white papers, case studies, and webinars?
n=28
• Only 2 companies are publishing content monthly • Only 3 are publishing quarterly
7% 11% 25% 57%
Atleastmonthly Atleastquarterly Semi-annually Lesso:en
• Over 80% are publishing content twice a year or less often
Average Google Searches Per Day
http://www.statisticbrain.com/google-searches/
0
1,000,000,000
2,000,000,000
3,000,000,000
4,000,000,000
5,000,000,000
6,000,000,000
1998 2000 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Annual Number of Pages Indexed by Google
0
5,000,000,000,000
10,000,000,000,000
15,000,000,000,000
20,000,000,000,000
25,000,000,000,000
30,000,000,000,000
1998 2000 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
5.75 B
1.75 B
30 T
1 T
#4 Engineers Want to Hear From Engineers
What Sources Do You Trust Most?
4.51
4.32
3.90
3.71
3.06
2.16
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Engineeringexpertatavendorcompany
Industryanalyst
EditorialpieceinanindustryprintoronlinepublicaAon
Onlineormagazineeditor
SponsoredstoryinindustryprintoronlinepublicaAon
Anonymoussourceatavendorcompany
Rank your level of trust in content that is written or published by the following (1 is lowest level of trust, 6 is highest).
Smart Marketing to Engineers Survey 2015, ENGINEERING.com and TREW Marketing
n=501
4 Steps to Getting Your Engineers Writing
Match your Sme with a strong writer
Repurpose. repurpose. repurpose.
have a plan including optimization
https://www.trewmarketing.com/smartmarketingblog/turning-your-engineers-into-writers
Topic1 Optimize WhitePaper
Social Media&BlogAmplification
TechnicalBlog#1 Social Media&BlogAmplification
TechnicalBlog#2 Social Media&BlogAmplification
Webinar Social Media&BlogAmplification
CaseStudy
Video Social Media&BlogAmplification
Social Media&BlogAmplification
Infographic
Amplify, Repurpose and Repeat
Writing Phase. SME ~5 hours.
Repurposing Phase. SME ~5 hours.
4 Steps to Getting Your Engineers Writing
Match your Sme with a strong writer
Repurpose. repurpose. repurpose.
have a plan including optimization
Measure and reward successhttps://www.trewmarketing.com/smartmarketingblog/turning-your-engineers-into-writers
Content = Competitive Differentiation
Marke&ngtoEngineersSurvey,March2014,CFEandTREWMarke&ng
Nearly 75% Agree/Strongly Agree
19% 55% 21% 4%
Stronglyagree Agree Noopinion Disagree Stronglydisagree
“Youaremorelikelytodobusinesswithacompanythatregularlyproducesnewandcurrentcontent.”
n=705
Marketing InvestmentRank the following channels according to your current investment (largest (#1) to smallest (#6)):
n=28
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0
Mywebsite–upda8ngcontent,images,features,op8mizingcontent
Tradeshows
Adver8sing(online,print,paidsearch)
Content(casestudies,whitepapers,webinars,video,etc)
Emailmarke8ng(enewsleLers,segmentedemails)
PR(pitchingnewsorwri8ngcontributedar8clesforprint/online)
“#1 Most Important Marketing Investment You Can Make:
Your Website”
- - Rebecca Geier
Example of Inbound Success
13%Revenuefrominbound
marke3ng
80%Budgetspentonoutbound
marke3ng
82%Leadsfrominbound
0%Revenuefrominbound
marke3ng
80%Budgetspentoninbound
marke3ng
0%Leadsfrominbound2011
2016
Success Story:Outbound to Hybrid to Inbound
Overthelastseveralyears,we’veinvestedinourmarke6ngfounda6onandshi9edourinvestmentfromamostlyoutboundapproachwithaheavyfocusontradeshowstoamoreinboundapproachfocusedonwebandcontentmarke6ng.Asaresult,ourcompanyhasgrownover50percent,and,today,themajorityofourleadscomefromonlinesources.
–Ma%EurichPresident,WinemanTechnology
“”
Web Traffic Up 61% Since Going Inbound
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Experimented with outsourcing content to non-engineering specialists
16%
37% 30%
17%
WTI2012WebVisitsbySource
Direct
Organic
Paid
Referring
13%
47%
30%
10%
0% WTI2014WebVisitsbySource
Direct
Organic
Paid
Referring
SocialMedia
14%
55%
14%
16% 1%
WTI2015WebVisitsbySource
Direct
Organic
Paid
Referring
SocialMedia
22%
63%
2%
9% 2%
2%
WTI2016WebVisitsbySource
Direct
Organic
Paid
Referring
SocialMedia
emailmarketing
Long-Term ROIBlogs from 2012 and 2013 Driving Majority Traffic Years Later
Blog Topic Views
Top8WaystoDealwithNoiseinDataAcquisitionandTestSystems–December2013 72%
AvoidingRaceConditionswithLabVIEWProgramming–December2012 22%
3ReasonstoReuse,NotReplace,YourLegacyTestSystems–October2013 3%
Top3ConsiderationsforBuildingaVariableValveTestStand–February2014 2%
TheImportanceofCreatingDetailedRequirements–July2014 2%
#5 Prove You’re Low-Risk
The Chasm Contradiction
Technology Adoption Lifecycle from Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore
Case Study Tips• Ask for customer testimonial at time of contract
signing • Ask customers to join you at events/webinar
• Then translate into written case study
• Consider a good/better/best approach to “Create Your Herd”
Create A Herd
Best “Branded”
• Customer is named
• Includes customer quote & application images
Better “Branded Lite” • Customer is
named • No quote or
application images
Good “Unbranded”
• Customer is not included by name
• Short overview of challenge/solution
#6 Don’t Bother Them
Wait for the buying signs
A combined 63 percent spend over 60% of the buying process online before talking to sales.
Gather Intelligence
Without Interrupting
Nurture with Context,
Measure Along the Way
know when the time is right
Wait for the buying signs
A combined 63 percent spend over 60% of the buying process online before talking to sales.
Over 80% prefer to search on multiple vendors’ websites before talking to sales.
I want to talk to a sales person early in my research 15%*
I want to search online on multiple vendors’
websites and read available information about their
products and services first before talking to sales
83%
n=65
* A third choice “Other” garnered less than 2% from each respondent group.
Smart Marketing for Engineers & Scientists Survey, TREW Marketing & The Linus Group, August 2016
Ready to Talk to Sales
Q: When you are in the buying process for a significant purchase of a product or service for work, in moving through the research, consideration, and decision stage, which best describes your preference?
66% say they have 3-7 interactions with a vendor before communicating directly with them.
Smart Marketing for Engineers & Scientists Survey, TREW Marketing & The Linus Group, August 2016
Number of Pre-Sales Interactions
1-2 times 30%
3-4 times 50%
5-7 times 16%
8+ times 5% n=64
Q: In thinking about your purchase decision process for a significant product or service purchase for work, how many interactions do you typically have with the vendor before communicating directly with the company (e.g.,
visits to their website, email communication, visiting their trade show booth, attending a webinar, etc.)?
Score Leads Automate Alerts & Pass
to Sales
Marketing AutomationWhat marketing automation software do you use? (check all that apply)
n=27
15% 0% 4% 0% 70% 11%
ConstantContactorMailChimp(foremail) HubSpot Pardot Marketo Wedon'tusemarkeDngautomaDonsoFware Other(pleasespecify)
Multiple selections were allowed
CRMWhat CRM (customer relationship management) software do you use?
n=27
22% 0% 4% 0% 59% 15%
Salesforce Deltek Dynamics Excel HubSpot Wedon'tuseCRMsoFware Other(pleasespecify)
“Your Next Marketing Hire May Be Software”
- - Rebecca Geier
Right context
Right time
Wait for the buying signs
Stop Selling…Keep Helping“ ”
Marketing InvestmentWhat percentage of your company’s gross revenue is spent on marketing?
n=28
57% 25% 7% 4% 7%
0-2% 2-5% 5-8% 8-10% morethan10%
What percentage of your company’s gross revenue is spent on marketing?
Marketing Investment
n=28 • Smallest spending the most…but may not be the right channels• Largest companies spending the least percent on marketing
How Much Traffic and Leads Do I Need?
TREW Client Funnel Example
Traffic
Leads
MQL
SQLs
Opportunities
DesignWins
20,670Visits
2%
86SQLs
413Leads
132MQLs
32%Conversion
65%Conversion
20Opportunities24%Conversion
2DesignWins
10%Conversion
Lead GenerationHow well is your website performing in terms of lead generation?
n=28
0% 25% 25% 0% 50%
We’reexceedingourwebsiteleadgoals We’reontrackwithachievingourwebsiteleadgoals
We’reachievingslightlylessthanourwebleadgoals We’renotachievingourwebleadgoals
Wedon’thaveleadgoalsdefined
Remember…
If You Remember Nothing Else: Engineers Think Differently
The optimist: the glass is half full. The pessimist: the glass is half empty.
The engineer: the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.“ ”
If You Remember One Thing:
Engineers Think Differently. So…
Our Marketing Must Be Different Too.
……….
Get Found
Website
Content
If You Remember a Second Thing:
Marketing has changed.
To progress, we need to change
how we market.and sell
Grand Challenges of Marketing to Engineers 1. Let Them Find You
2. Prove Your Expertise
3. Quality REALLY matters
4. Engineers Want to Hear from Engineers
5. Prove You’re Low-Risk
6. Don’t Bother Them
Solve Your Grand Challenges
Study the Data Download TREW research studies
trewmarketing.com/resources
Read the Book
Book Signing
Attend Webinars and
Workshops
May 2017 Web Data-
Driven Design
Subject: Webinar Notice
Talk to TREW
Approach Services Pricing
Thank You (group photo time)!
CEOandCofounderTREWMarketing
Author,SmartMarketingforEngineers:AnInboundMarketingGuidetoReachingTechnicalAudiences