10 Industrial Marketing Myths vs Truths & Why Believing the Myths Can Hurt Your Business

There are a lot of myths and misconceptions about the way marketing works. Industrial manufacturers and job shops must challenge marketing myths and embrace effective marketing strategies in order to grow and remain competitive. Believing the myths can result in a misalignment between your target audience and your marketing efforts, wasting time, effort, and money.

What myths are we talking about? Here are ten of the most common marketing myths circling today and the truth behind each:

Myth: “If I market my company, I will have too much work.” Or “I am so busy that I cannot take on more work for at least six months.”

Truth: One big mistake and misconception many industrial manufacturers have is that marketing will give an immediate return. Your products and services aren’t a quick-sale commodity for which the general public is clamoring. When done right, industrial marketing is a slow and steady strategy that will bring in a steady flow of business opportunities that match your growth goals. Your marketing today will pay off for you later (6, 12, 18, or 24 months down the road), depending on your specific sales cycle.

Myth: “You don’t need to market your company if you’re already well-known.”

Truth: As the old saying goes “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.” Even if you are well-known in your industry, you must still market your company to stay top-of-mind with potential customers and attract new ones.

Myth: “Marketing is only for big companies.”

Truth: Marketing is for companies of all sizes. There are plenty of strategies and opportunities for small and medium-sized companies to effectively use marketing to reach their target audience and grow their business. Leaving marketing “only to large companies” will see only those large companies snapping up the customers.

Myth: “Marketing is expensive.”

Truth: Marketing doesn’t have to be expensive. There are many low-cost or even free marketing tools and strategies that you can use to promote your company. It is also good to keep in mind that some marketing materials such as blog articles, white papers, and case studies stay on your website after they are published and will continue to help boost your site’s SEO – which means that you pay once for the material’s creation and they will continue to bring you business far into the future. The same can be said for social media posts; once live on your social channels, they will stay visible online until they are taken down.

Myth: “Marketing is a waste of time.”

Truth: Marketing is never a waste of time. Marketing can help you to increase sales, grow your business, and reach your target audience. When the economy is in a downturn, consistent marketing can help you retain your current customers, maintain steady sales throughout, and help your company bounce back faster when market conditions improve. Proper industrial marketing can also help you diversify your customer base so if there is a downturn in one market sector you will be able to add business from another that is still going strong.

Myth: “Our reputation alone will bring in enough business.”

Truth: While a strong reputation is important, relying solely on word-of-mouth referrals may not be enough to sustain growth in our highly competitive world marketplace. History is full of companies that decided to rest on their reputation and “save money” by not doing any marketing and their competitors soon overtook them. Effective marketing will help to generate new qualified leads and consistently expand your existing customer base. Think of it like a presence at a tradeshow – you have a booth at the same show year after year, and suddenly you decide you no longer want to spend the money to be at that show. Customers and prospects stopping at your booth every year still expect to see you. When they don’t, they will assume the worst and move on to chatting with your competition.

Myth: “Our industry is too technical for effective marketing.”

Truth: Even in highly technical industries, effective marketing can help to simplify complex information and communicate the benefits of products and services to potential buyers. Not every buyer will be an engineer – buyers and upper management need to understand the value of your offerings too. Ensuring non-engineers understand your services and products can be vital to your company’s success. You must put out the right message, or hire an industry-specific marketing company specializing in industrial manufacturers to craft that message on your behalf.

Myth: “We don’t need to invest in digital marketing.”

Truth: In today’s digital age, a robust online presence is essential for businesses of all types, including industrial manufacturers and job shops. A well-designed website, social media presence, and search engine optimization can help to attract new leads and improve visibility. Your online presence is where today’s engineers and buyers do all of their pre-purchasing research, investigating different methods for their needs and evaluating prospective companies to engage with and potentially purchase from. The digital “footprint” your website and social media presences leave online is critical to attracting customers, particularly the younger generations. Without a robust digital presence, your customers will buy from someone else they found online.

Myth: “You can’t properly track marketing ROI.”

Truth: Measuring the Return On Investment (ROI) of marketing efforts is not only easy to do in today’s digital world, but it is also critical to ensure that resources are used effectively. Tracking metrics such as website traffic, lead generation, and conversion rates can help identify improvement areas and optimize marketing strategies. There are more tools than ever to track your marketing ROI in increasingly sophisticated ways, such as online behaviors, number of inquiries, who is reading your posts, incoming calls from your site or social pages, what companies are looking at your materials and more. These tools can go even deeper, triggering a notification to your sales team when certain behavior thresholds have been reached or when the prospect has viewed or downloaded a specific number of content pieces.

Myth: “Our customers aren’t on social media.”

Truth: While it may be true that some industrial customers are not active on social media, most actually are. Engineers are no different from non-engineers and they have favorite social platforms they frequent. It is critical to have your company on multiple social platforms to ensure you are where your customers and potential customers can find and engage with you. Start with the “heavy hitters” in industrial – LinkedIN and YouTUBE – and branch out from there. You will miss opportunities to engage with potential customers and build brand awareness if you neglect a social media presence. A solid social media presence also boosts your organic SEO.

Why are marketing myths like these harmful for industrial companies to believe?

Marketing myths can harm industrial companies, leading to misinformed strategies, wasted resources, and missed opportunities. For example, by adhering to marketing myths, job shops may overlook or underestimate emerging trends, new technologies, or changing customer preferences. They may fail to adapt their marketing strategies to capitalize on these opportunities, allowing competitors to gain an advantage in the market.

Believing myths can also foster complacency and resistance to change within an organization. Companies may become reluctant to explore new marketing channels, experiment with innovative tactics, or adapt to evolving customer needs. This can hinder their competitiveness and relevance in a dynamic marketplace.

How can you effectively take advantage of marketing for your industrial business?

The #1 job of all your marketing efforts is to position your company to be top of mind with your prospects and qualify them to be a good fit for your company so your salespeople have an easier time closing the sale. Hiring a professional marketing agency specializing in industrial marketing, like The Rico Group, is one of the best ways to ensure that your job shop stays up-to-date with marketing trends and technology, targets the correct customers, maintains a positive industry reputation, and stays ahead of the competition.

Proper marketing is vital to the success of all industrial companies, along with their product and service offerings. The marketing process also facilitates essential exchanges between the company and the customer. Though buyers today are more informed and sophisticated than they have been, the marketing capabilities that industrial marketers now possess must be up to the current market’s constantly-changing expectations.

All industrial – all the time!

With over 30 years of experience, The Rico Group specializes in helping industrial manufacturers and job shops grow their businesses and diversify their customer base. We are your bolt-on marketing department. Our solutions give you the full capabilities of an in-house marketing department at a fraction of what it would cost you to hire a full-time marketing crew. We know how engineers think and what they are looking for. We know your processes, equipment, and materials. We also know that you have very little time to take away from your production and getting your customer’s orders delivered.

Are you interested in seeing what your current digital marketing efforts are doing for your company? We offer a free comprehensive analysis of your company’s online marketing to give you insights into your digital footprint and how you can improve it. The report also comes with an in-depth competitor analysis and a free expert consultation to review the information with you and answer any questions you may have.

Also, please grab a free copy of our comprehensive digital marketing success guide to help you accelerate your job shop’s growth. The guide walks you through generating more qualified leads for your industrial manufacturing company.

Our industrial clients swear by our strategies – because they work.

Grow your manufacturing business with better marketing with The Rico Group.

www.thericogroup.com

 (805) 497-7401