Industrial marketing

Industrial marketing is promoting goods and services to other companies rather than to individual customers. It aims to sell raw materials and components for production needs. The simplest format of industrial marketing is B2B marketing.

In the article, we explain why industrial marketing is important, describe its benefits and features, compare industrial and consumer marketing and provide ideas for industrial marketing strategies.

Why is industrial marketing important?

The main distinctive feature of industrial marketing is that customers are not individuals but businesses, and it changes the usual way of promoting goods and developing a marketing strategy. Below we explain why a special attitude to marketing in B2B is so important.

Industrial marketing is aimed at increasing sales of wholesale products and goods for industrial purposes. It helps companies that produce raw materials expand their businesses.

Industrial marketing covers two marketing aspects:

• The manufacturing business promotion: creating the image and developing the potential of the company, increasing the investment attractiveness and its boosting in the B2B market.
• Product promotion: strategic development of a product offer, building a marketing strategy, and pushing products forward on the market.

A well-defined industrial marketing strategy can help your business stand out from the competitors and grow the company faster. Read more about these and other benefits of industrial marketing in the next section.

Benefits of Industrial Marketing

According to the Hook Agency, 77% of industrial marketers have seen an increase in their conversion rate due to successful digital marketing campaigns. It is only one in the number of benefits of using product promotion. Discover more advantages of industrial marketing below:

• it contributes to the development of the whole company and the variety of its business areas;
• it provides long-term competitive advantages in the market;
• it increases the effectiveness of the work inside the company due to the following common goal.

As you can see, industrial marketing is a great way for companies working on the B2B market to promote their products. Discover more about its distinctive features in the next section.

Industrial Marketing Features

Industrial marketing is rather different from the other marketing branches. It requires a deep understanding of B2B market peculiarities and using special techniques to promote products successfully. Let’s take a look at its main features and differences.

Industrial marketing often involves large orders and long-term relationships between the companies. Goods go from manufacturing industries to consuming ones and finally reach individual customers. Consequently, the process of purchase is often long and complex.

When you are going to promote an industrial brand, take into account a few features.

• There are larger purchases volumes and fewer clients needed than in the B2C market.
• There is a higher buyer's risk because of the high cost of each purchase. Consequently, the process of making a decision is more complex and requires a longer purchase time.
• Products are more technically complex, and buyers are well versed in their features, so you need a deep understanding of the sphere to promote the goods.
• There is a closer relationship between the manufacturer and the customer than in B2C marketing. They can influence each other, so the selling company should reflect the demand changes immediately.

Besides the fact that industrial and consumer marketing use some common metrics, such as income, LTV, CAC, etc, they are rather different. Discover their distinctive features and peculiarities in the next section.

marketing">Industrial Marketing vs Consumer Marketing

The main peculiarity of industrial marketing is a huge number of products businesses buy in one purchase, while consumers often deal with only one or a few products. Continue reading to discover the distinctive features of each one in this section.

Needs of the customers. Clients in B2B marketing are highly-qualified in the sphere and can have certain technical requirements to the manufacturer. Consequently, businesses should work separately with every potential client and develop an industrial marketing strategy focused on the companies that already exist to cover all their specific needs. On the other hand, consumer marketing works without a niche-specific approach. It is oriented to mass-market needs, not on such specific ones.

The most important part of buying. Research is the most time-consuming part of sales cycles in industrial marketing. According to the Acquity Group State of B2B Procurement Study, 94% of B2B buyers research online before purchasing. There is a lot of money and people involved in each deal, so deep research before a purchase is required. In contrast, consumers in the B2C market make decisions faster and easier. There is no such deep research before a purchase, people can buy based on product positioning, packaging, attractive content, etc.

Relations between businesses and their clients. The consequence of the time-consuming research needed before a purchase is that companies do not want to repeat it again and again. They want to choose one product and buy it for years. Lead nurturing requires building trust with potential customers. If you save this trust, you will have an amazing lifetime value. LTV and brand loyalty are important in consumer marketing too, but their importance is not so significant.

Understanding the difference between industrial and consumer marketing will help you build an industrial marketing strategy to boost your company. Continue reading to discover its main points in the next section.

marketing_strategy">Industrial Marketing Strategy

A well-defined marketing strategy is a key to success. The process of its development is similar to the development of consumer marketing strategy, but it has a few peculiarities. We provide the most important steps for building a strong industrial marketing strategy.

Market analysis. First of all, you should study potential industrial buyers. Discover their specific needs, pains, and the ways their companies may develop. Determine what product will cover all their requirements. Secondly, study your competitors. Find out their strengths and weaknesses, define possible competitive advantages of your company, and the ways to highlight them in future content marketing.

Product positioning. Clients are highly qualified in the sphere, so correct positioning is the key to success in the competitive B2B market. It is vital to describe all the advantages and provide detailed information about your product in one click. You should care about the customer and do everything to build trusting relations.

Development of individual marketing strategies. It is what differentiates industrial marketing from consumer one. You should determine the main elements of marketing policy with every client separately. Consider product, service, and pricing policies, develop a communications strategy, and describe all the peculiarities of your future work.

Building trust. You should make your relations with clients long and productive. Care about customer satisfaction and focus on the changing needs of the clients. Develop your product to be the best in the market. Focus on long-term cooperation as the way to achieve your goals.

Congrats, now you know why industrial marketing is important, its benefits and features, and the difference between industrial and consumer marketing. Use this knowledge to develop an industrial marketing strategy and succeed in the market.