How to Approach Industrial Marketing the Right Way

In this episode, we discuss the story and your brand, the strategy and your tactics, and your scorecard.

[00:01:00] Introduction: Joe Mills, Business Development Manager at Element Three

In his role, Joe Mills meets with everyone that starts working with Element Three, a marketing agency laser focused on industrial clients. He has experience with everything from local businesses that are trying to expand regionally, all the way to national brands that have a footprint throughout the United States beyond. He has a wide range of perspectives on the problems that people face when trying to scale industrial marketing.

[00:03:00] Industrial Branding - The Story

The story is really the brand. To benchmark how well your company is currently positioned with its branding, you should ask yourself the following questions:

Do you have a defined place in the marketplace?
Is your positioning clearly defined?
Do you have a noble why for why you are in existence?

As a main starting point, you want to look at where you have the least amount of definition about what's happening within the business. If you don't have a story to tell, pumping millions of dollars into marketing campaigns is going to fall flat.

To be successful, you need to build some foundational elements. The value inside of doing brand work is about building a story that makes you more significant as a business.

[00:15:50] Industrial Marketing - The Strategy

Think of a flow chart with your strategy on the far left and your tactics on the far right and in the middle, you've got audiences. The biggest mistake that people make is coming in with predefined tactics, but don't have a program to fit them into the strategy.

The first thing you need to do is understand your customer. You must understand what resonates with them and what their challenges are. You must know your audience before you get your message out in front of them.

If you don't have that defined, you're going to make mistakes and spend money on tactics you can't be sure are working.

[00:23:00] Industrial Marketing Metrics - The Scorecard

The scorecard is something you need to weave into your entire plan. So, you've got the story, you've got a strategy you're building through tactics, and now you need to define what you want to measure.

Until you align marketing activities to business objectives, understanding what marketing should have ownership of in their scorecard is difficult. The most normal things you see inside of a marketing scorecard are cost per lead, leads generated, marketing-generated revenue, and the weighted value of your pipeline.

Marketing should ...