Does marketing really work for B2B manufacturing industries?

Does marketing work for B2B? That feels like a stupid question, but nothing is working. I’ve never experienced failure, but I believe you might be the one facing these issues.

  • Your audience is not on social media
  • They avoid emails like you spam all the time
  • They don’t respond to ads at all
  • Events are expensive and don’t scale well

Unless you’re doing something really dramatic but even then, at most you’ll get likes and comments, not conversions.

B2B marketing for companies like these is incredibly challenging – worse if they are a mid-level organization with a controlled spend. No online courses or gurus teach you B2B marketing, especially for software products. It’s easier to market SaaS brands than actual B2B brands or Manufacturing/Industrial companies.

If you are into manufacturing products or industrial product companies and have a highly niche audience, you are left out of options. Right?
Exhibitions and a few random bulk email campaigns don’t work anymore. Doing social posts that are feature-driven and calling it social media marketing don’t work anymore.

In this blog, I am going to share a step-by-step guide on How you can successfully do B2B marketing especially if you are into:

  • Chemicals
  • Industrial Manufacturing
  • B2B services with ticket size of more than 1,00,000 INR
  • Capital equipment manufacturing
  • Automation products

SEO – The best organic channel for you

That said, I’ve found SEO to be one of our most powerful drivers. In fact, organic traffic is your best medium because the solution that you sell is 80% needs-based. Manufacturing product sales are based on problem-solving.

What Problem you are solving for the customer?

Write detailed content on the problem. Create videos, case studies, blogs, landing pages, and reports and optimize those for search engines.

If you do your content strategy right (like include guides, whitepapers, reports) and retarget them to the right audience + do face to face marketing activities like meetups or webinars, you can get more traction.

SEO is a good option – Focus on building the brand with your target audience so that more of them search for your brand name rather than the generic terms. Working with communities, influencers can also help. SEO works wonders in the long run if you know your audience’s pain points and speak directly to them through content.

As per Statista, 66% of B2B buyers turn to internet search results when exploring products they plan to buy, rather than relying on industry publications or relevant trade shows.

Engaging in relevant communities

A lot of traditional industries are overlooking the power of community and knowledge sharing.

”Sell value and Not products”

How?

Engaging in industry-relevant Reddit forums, Quora or niche groups can drive organic awareness.

A tool like Gummysearch for Reddit could help track and engage in relevant discussions without coming off as spammy, which is super crucial. I’ve seen brands pivot this way and gain valuable leads over time by fostering genuine conversations and echoing the community’s language and concerns.

Although you might be doing a few exhibitions as an Exhibitor. But you are missing out on visiting exhibition and conference events . With events, people make the classic mistake of setting up a booth and hoping they’ll get customers.

Nope.

Never works out that way. You got to build relationships, attend a few free events yourself, hand out business cards, and connect with industry leaders. I don’t know where you’re based but if you’re in the US or UK, there are dozens of these events that you can attend for free and just build your contact base from there. Look for areas you can use to connect offline and cut through the noise.

If you are exhibiting in a Tradeshow, I highlighted in the video about “What key factors you should consider before doing a Tradeshow?”

Talk to customers. Get on the phone and actually talk to your customers.

  • Why did they buy from you?
  • What made them decide?
  • Who else were they considering and why did you win?

Listen to their words. Use those words in your marketing and sales copy. ASK FOR REFERRALS!

Talk to sales. Your sales team is out in the world talking to customers daily. What are they seeing working? What are they hearing? How can you apply that to your updated marketing program?

Warm email sequences can work if they’re part of a bigger nurture campaign. I’ve had success with sequences that sell value up-front, such as case studies, whitepapers, or free resources. Just make sure you target those who have shown some interest already if it’s just by visiting your website cold emails perform so poorly without prior engagement.

I know you are doing brand campaigns and lead gen campaigns, but none of them is working for you. Welcome to the world of Ad Blindness. Ad blindness is real. The major problem with B2B and Industrial manufacturing companies is, there are few innovations happening across the sector. Innovations or new things take time. Use performance marketing with good content for strategic marketing and not splurge money just to validate the marketing budget.

  • Use website identification tool (6sense, Demandbase, Factors.ai).
  • Do Retargeting campaigns. Identify the ICP traits and segregate those.
  • Run targeted cold email campaigns with high-quality content.

Digital marketing works for B2B and traditional industries. But the approach has to be unique and subtle with high-quality content. If you crack this, marketing becomes fun and you have higher chances of Success.

Bad Inputs = Bad Outputs

If none of these tactics aren’t working for your business it means you have a fundamental problem with the positioning, offer, and value story for your ICP.

Hemant Bhoir
Hemant Bhoir

I am an experienced marketing professional with 5+ years of experience in Industrial/B2B manufacturing marketing. Currently working at Gansons. Along with a full-time role, I share my knowledge and consult B2B and Industrial manufacturing companies in digital marketing.
I feel there is a huge gap knowledge gap in terms of how the manufacturing and SME's are carrying out their marketing activities and how they should execute marketing as a revenue generation function.
I am also a Founder of Marketology - A consulting agency for Industrial manufacturing companies. With my experience in Industrial marketing and proven record in solving real-time digital marketing challenges with Industrial manufacturing companies.
I am here to offer practical solutions to the problems. I have worked with 30+ companies in my short career. I help SMEs and manufacturing companies scale and grow in digital marketing by the following ways:

1. Consulting and Guidance to Owners and high level management
2. One to One mentoring and training of Marketing staff
3. Digital Services

Marketology is an Industrial/B2B Manufacturing Marketing Agency that provides a focused service in Content Marketing, Sales Automation, Social Media Marketing, and Performance Marketing.