6 Absurd Things forging & extrusion Industrial Leaders Tell About Marketing
Sometimes, forging & extrusion services and industrial leaders raise the craziest points when talking about industrial marketing. They raise concerns not only to people outside their organization but to their teams too who work alongside them for business growth.
In this blog post, I am breaking down the six crazy misconceptions about marketing that I have heard from industry leaders across the globe. Marketing perceptions are evolving at industrial companies; especially with regards to changing market conditions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, many industry leaders still believe and communicate these myths.
1. “Business is slow – we can’t invest in marketing.”
What is special in this, right? The point of marketing is to develop awareness, curate pipeline, and nurture opportunities for business to flourish. Marketing not only helps in building campaigns, and new client relationships, it also helps in generating content that adds value can also help keep your company top of mind with current clients.
Companies that invest in marketing do better than companies that don’t and it’s a fact. This fact amplifies in context with an economic downturn.
2. “We already have enough on our plates than we can handle.”
This statement is somewhat resounding like the industrial leader who uttered it isn’t willing to do the investment to grow his or her business. It is the opposite of what many people wish for their business. Which begs the question for anyone looking to expand their business: How can marketing stimulate growth?
To begin with, marketing can help with diversification, which ensures that your business will be secure even if one of your top clients dies.
Also, marketing provides an opportunity to replace current customers (potentially) with new and more profitable ones.
Lastly, every penny invested in marketing is a continued investment in developing the brand that prepares you when business cycles change as we have seen clearly throughout 2020.
3. “Marketing is extra intangible to invest in.”
Many industrial leaders have this view on marketing. While they see the tangible benefits of buying a piece of new capital equipment that increases their capacity and thus gives opportunities to generate more revenue, they say the results of marketing campaigns are intangible.
This is a valid point, but it shouldn’t be that way. Marketing can appear intangible if specific targets and key performance indicators are not described to track the performance of your marketing. An intentional marketing campaign for a China plastic CNC machining company can result in attributable results with the right level of strategic planning and control.
4. “Social media is not workable for us as our audience doesn’t use it.”
To this statement, it is better to understand how social media platforms work. The truth is, a lot of suppliers, workers, industrial buyers, and influencers use social media.
Furthermore, social media platforms are remarkably targeted and measurable. With the right content, these platforms can raise awareness and trust, establishing you as an industry thought leader. Optimizing social media can facilitate customer retention as well as team members now and in the future.
5. “Our buyers are not internet savvy.”
This might be the craziest thing you would ever hear from industry leaders. Today, everyone uses the Internet and that’s pretty much evident.
However, I will usher that this particular perception has started changing significantly now in 2021 as the COVID-19 pandemic caused trade shows to cancel and conventional in-person selling techniques to lessen in importance as they have become unfeasible logistically. Not only are more industrial buyers looking to source online, but their suppliers are expressing a desire to meet them there as well.
As a result, more and more industry leaders are acknowledging that, yes, the Internet is an important venue — perhaps even for marketing.
6. “We don’t need to market — everyone already knows us.”
Even if you run a premier brand in a niche industry like the forging & extrusion services industry with few competitors, wouldn’t you need to build the strongest brand? It will encourage customer loyalty by offering insights and thought leadership? So, do what you can for reinforcing your winning position and make sure you continue to occupy it perpetually.
However, in most cases, well-known brands have a few key competitors who are also well-known. In such cases, developing a strong brand following through the sharing of ideas, best practices, and value-added content can assist you in developing a highly differentiated position.
Reminding your customer that you understand their needs and are willing to share information to help them succeed will establish you as a valuable source of not only products and services, but also industry expertise and guidance.
Last Word
If you ever hear any industrial leader saying these things, ask them to reconsider by making these points. So, now you know what you need to do if you ever encounter these things yourself as an industrial marketer.