What is Industrial Lead Generation?
It is a comprehensive inbound marketing system designed to attract, engage, educate and convert your ideal industrial customer into an interested and qualified sales lead. Then, deliver that person’s contact information directly to your sales team or into your CRM for follow up actions.
Evolution of industrial lead generation.
The old ways of industrial lead generation have changed. Engineers and technical buyers do most of their research, evaluation and finally selecting a vendor very differently today than in the past. There are many stakeholders involved in the buying decision, some of whom may never visit your website and/or meet your sales people.
Lead Generation for Industrial Companies is a Process not a Campaign.
Many manufacturers and industrial companies talk about creating campaigns because they want to pump up their lead generation. That mode of thinking is outdated.
Buyers are looking for information online and interacting with sales people on their own terms. Your industrial lead generation needs to evolve to meet their needs. Otherwise you are going to struggle generating qualified leads that turn into sales opportunities.
How content marketing improves lead generation for industrial companies.
Manufacturers, distributors and engineering companies don’t want to become “publishers,” they want to sell more of their products and services. They want more selling and less helping. LMD Power Marketing specializes in Power, Energy, Oil and Gas industries and we understand the lead generation process is much more complex.
This is very important if you are trying to reach new markets and forge new relationships. Assuming you’ve done a good job of SEO, your content is available to your target audience whenever and wherever they are searching for information about what you sell. There are only so many trade shows, fishing trips and sporting events that are physically possible for you to attend. These traditional methods are far more expensive than content marketing.
Content marketing’s role in long and complex sales cycles.
It is not unusual for industrial sales cycles to last 8 to 12 months or longer. Traditionally, sales people picked up the phone to follow up or sent out emails that started with “Touching base” or “Circling back.” Those tactics no longer work.
Instead, let content marketing continue to nurture your leads and move them forward in a logical manner to their buy decision while making you look more like a valuable partner instead of a peddler of “solutions.”