Industrial Internet Marketer

Google Analytics or HubSpot for Industrial Marketers?

Tom Repp — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 20:01:38 +0000

I was asked several weeks ago to do a presentation for a well-known industrial supplier in western Michigan. At Market Pipeline, we had built an SEO-optimized website several years ago. The third-generation industrial supplier had received a generous amount of quality leads from their first online marketing effort. Our customer was happy with the ROI from their web marketing efforts. The website had paid for itself several times over.

When I received the call from our customer, he told me the leads had dried up and he wanted to know why. I said, I would be glad to come in and explain how Google has changed the way they ranked their company's website. Given our position of trust with this customer, it was easy for him to say, "Sure".

Tags: Content Marketing, hubspot, Inbound Marketing, industrial marketing strategy

[Book Review] David Meerman Scott Delivers a Blow to the Status Quo for Industrial Marketers

Tom Repp — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 16:41:18 +0000

Not news to anybody, but I recently became so fed up with Comcast's service (It truly is unbelievable how bad it is) I switched to another provider.

Comcast is the classic antithesis of David Meerman Scott's The New Rules of Sales & Service: How to Use Agile Selling, Real-Time Customer Engagement, Big Data, Content, and Storytelling to Grow Your Business. It appears to me Comcast is still defending the sales & service status quo and they are paying the price. Because I recently read Scott's book, I could not help but think about my recent, blood-pressure raising, Comcast experience.

For those of you that regularly read my blog you know I disdain the status quo and I am always looking for ways to shake up the status quo in industrial marketing. Many industrial marketers love to defend the status quo, much like Comcast.

Well...maybe not that bad.

When meeting with my customers I often get questions such as, "How in the heck can I keep up with all the changes in the web?"; "It seems like Google changes their algorithm daily. How can I keep up my PageRank?" Or..."How can I, confidently, adjust my marketing strategy to combat all the disruption?"

Currently your biggest enemy for success in industrial marketing is your attitude towards your own status quo.

Tags: Content Marketing, David Meerman Scott, industrial marketing strategy

How Can Your Industrial Marketing Strategy Keep Up with Google?

Tom Repp — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 18:41:26 +0000

I often get the question from my customers and prospects I work with, "How in the hell can my web marketing strategy keep up with all the disruptive things that Google is doing?"

My typical answer is, "Focus on your brand and content marketing...and don't worry about Google".

The typical response is a baffled facial expression.

Allow me to explain. Stay with me on this.

More than a year ago, I started to focus on Google's Authorship program. This program allows content to be ranked by the authority of the author. As a regular blogger, I felt it was important to understand how Google's Authorship program worked for me, as well as my clients.

Then in September Google pulled the plug on all the hard work, study and research I did to comply with Google's "wishes". Google cancelled their Authorship program.

Talk about an 800 lb. gorilla. Talk about pissed off.

Tags: Content Marketing, Inbound Marketing, industrial marketing strategy

Can Wix, Foursquare, etc. Satisfy Your Online Industrial Marketing Needs?

Tom Repp — Tue, 23 Sep 2014 15:45:38 +0000

I recently was ask by a prospect, "Why can't I just use Wix.com to create my own web site?".

I thought and replied, "Good question". If this prospect has that question, then it is safe to say that others are thinking the same. I also thought, "That would make a great blog post".

First, let us look under the hood of Wix.com and see what you get with a, "free", online content management system or web-builder.

With the help from my friend and E-business marketing major at the Haworth School of Business at WMU, Joe Williams, we address the subject of inexpensive content management systems as they apply to industrial marketing.

Tags: industrial marketing strategy, web development for industrial

Industrial Marketers…Learn Linkedin From the Experts for FREE

Tom Repp — Tue, 02 Sep 2014 13:15:24 +0000

I have been encouraging our industrial customers for more than two years to build a corporate Linkedin "Profile". I have encouraged them to embrace Linkedin as an efficient channel to industrial buyers...especially the younger ones.

The primary reason to use Linkedin is to "publish" your company's blog posts. You do have a corporate blog, don't you? As someone said recently, "A blog post is the fire, social media is the gasoline." David Meerman Scott in his best-selling book, The New Rules of Marketing & PR, says, "Social media sure beats traditional advertising to get the word out."

In an effort to get more marketers to leverage the industrial lead-generation-machine the web has given them, we are releasing Learning Linkedin from the Experts with help from our friends at HubSpot.

DOWNLOAD now, Learning Linkedin from the Experts

Tags: industrial lead generation, industrial marketing strategy

6 Screw-ups Industrial Marketers Make Using Marketing Automation

Tom Repp — Tue, 26 Aug 2014 19:54:18 +0000

# 1-NO PASSION:

As in any endeavor, it certainly helps to have passion if you are to succeed. So it is with marketing automation for industrial marketers.

Marketing automation is one those new shiny objects that attracts so many. Just the phrase, "marketing automation" sounds euphoric to a busy industrial marketer.

Almost without exception, most industrial business owners struggle with marketing in general. They all tell me so. So...when a new strategy includes "marketing automation", their entrepreneurial brain shifts into overdrive.

The panacea they think it could be...it is not.

Tags: Content Marketing, industrial marketing strategy, market automation

10 Useless Things to Cut from Your (Industrial) Marketing

Tom Repp — Fri, 15 Aug 2014 18:03:06 +0000

I guess according to Malcolm Gladwell's popular "10,000-hours rule" I am an expert at web-based industrial marketing. I have easily logged 10,000 hours of experience dating back to 1998...the early days of the web.

I have meet with hundreds of industrial business owners and marketers. At almost every turn, I felt like a burial lot salesman. In most cases, I was dealing with a skeptical crowd.

Industrial marketers continue to be skeptical of all the new marketing opportunities: SEO, responsive web site design, link baiting, digital press releases, content marketing, inbound marketing, micro sites, blogging, analytics, paid search, mobile apps, social media....whheeeww.

They are confused. I don't blame them.

Tags: Content Marketing, industrial marketing strategy

What is Keeping Industrial Marketers from Embracing Content Marketing?

Tom Repp — Thu, 14 Aug 2014 16:19:23 +0000

We recently started a content marketing campaign for a successful industrial manufacturing company. Before we started content marketing we all agreed their brand message needed to be pumped up. This manufacturer is in a competitive and commoditized niche and we all felt that a stronger, more memorable brand theme that could stand out would be a content multiplier.

We worked with a brand specialist and did some heavy duty industrial branding. We developed a brand theme that would be memorable and separate our customer from the "me-too" competitors. I required a brand theme that would not only separate our customer from the competition but also raise the bar internally. I wanted a brand theme that could raise the expectations of the employees and help them understand their company's uniqueness compared to their competitors.

I believe we succeeded. I would love to share the terrific brand theme we executed, but to protect the innocent it shall remain anonymous.

For our customer, we now had a memorable brand theme that had the potential to extend itself into plant floor, trade show booths, blog posts, videos, e-books, etc. We are ecstatic.

We were just about to deploy new content based on our brilliant new brand theme.

Then we were fired.

Tags: Content Marketing, Industrial branding, industrial marketing strategy

6 Misunderstandings Owners Have About SEO & Their Industrial Marketing Strategy

Tom Repp — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 12:43:26 +0000

Many times even the most astute business leader misses what is really going on right in front of her.

I was in a meeting last week with the President of a very successful B2B manufacturer. She is an engineer, but a very astute marketer as well. Three individuals from her sales & marketing team surrounded her.

SEO was the topic of conversation. All four gave their opinions on the best way to improve site traffic and the number of leads to their web site. Most of their suggestions were wrong. Not because they are stupid, just that the rules of the road have changed dramatically for SEO in the last few months. The ensuing conversations lead to this blog post.

"Let's do more SEO"

Tags: Industrial Internet Marketing, industrial marketing strategy

Grease Your Industrial Brand Using Content Marketing. Here's How.

Tom Repp — Fri, 25 Jul 2014 16:08:20 +0000

How does a Midwest OEM manufacturer generate $200,000 in sales, a 2300% ROI on marketing investment?

How does a New York manufacturing company become the, top-of-mind awareness champion, for their industry?

How does a little 'ol swimming pool company in Virginia become a national leader in sales of fiberglass swimming pools?

Content marketing...baby!