2017工业品营销趋势（英文版）_23页-1mb

2017 Trends in Industrial Marketing Summary

Core Content

This document presents the findings of the 2017 Industrial Marketing Trends Survey conducted by IEEE GlobalSpec Media Solutions. It outlines the current marketing strategies, challenges, and budget allocations of industrial marketers across various sectors, including manufacturing, distributors, and service providers. The survey highlights key trends in how industrial companies are approaching marketing in a digital and competitive landscape.

Main Points and Key Information

1. Marketing Goals and Challenges

• Customer acquisition remains the top marketing goal for 42% of respondents, a trend that has continued for six consecutive years.
• Demand generation is the second most popular goal.
• The top three challenges are:
  • Limited marketing resources (people, time, and money)
  • Generating high-quality leads for sales
  • Increased competition
• Other challenges include driving more customers to the company website, improving ROI, and increasing the effectiveness of content marketing.

2. Marketing Channels and Programs

• The top three marketing channels in 2017 are:
  • Email marketing using in-house lists
  • Trade shows
  • Social media
• Search engine optimization (SEO) and online directories/websites are also widely used.
• Content marketing is becoming more critical, with 58% increasing spending on it.
• Social media is primarily used for branding (65%) and content delivery (59%), rather than lead generation.
• Email marketing, search engine optimization, and content creation are seeing the most growth in spending.

3. Marketing Budgets

• 79% of companies are spending the same or more on marketing in 2017 compared to 2016.
• Marketing budgets have remained fairly steady since 2011.
• 39% of companies are increasing their online marketing budgets, while 45% have kept them unchanged.
• The most significant increases are in content creation, company website investment, SEO, and email marketing.

4. Marketing as a Profession

• 29% of marketers identify lead generation as the biggest challenge.
• 25% cite measuring ROI as the main issue.
• 70% of marketing departments have seen no change in headcount, while 22% are increasing staffing.
• Only 17% have a full-time employee dedicated to social media, indicating a need for more specialized roles.

5. Content Marketing

• 34% of marketers are just starting with content marketing, down from 39% in 2015.
• Only 12% can demonstrate how content marketing contributes to sales.
• 28% have a content strategy in place, and 34% repurpose content across different formats and channels.
• Content marketing is expected to be the second biggest area of emphasis for marketing teams over the next five years.

Conclusions

• Customer focus is central to marketing efforts, with customer acquisition and satisfaction being key performance indicators.
• Resource limitations are a persistent challenge, with marketers struggling to allocate limited budgets and staff effectively.
• Competition continues to be a major concern, especially with the rise of digital media.
• Content marketing is gaining importance, but many marketers are still in the early stages of implementation and lack clear metrics to show its impact.
• Channel diversity is a growing need, with marketers looking to expand their mix of push and pull marketing tactics to better engage with technical professionals.

Recommendations

1. Diversify Marketing Mix

• Industrial marketers should explore a wider range of channels and tactics to optimize their marketing strategy.
• A balanced mix of push/outbound and pull/inbound marketing is important, but more diversification is needed, especially in online channels.

2. Improve Content Marketing Strategy

• Develop a content marketing strategy with clear, measurable objectives.
• Focus on content that supports all stages of the industrial buying cycle.
• Create a content-publishing calendar and repurpose content for different formats and platforms to maximize reach and efficiency.

3. Solve Resource Challenges

• Seek a trusted media partner to help optimize marketing budgets and resources.
• This can allow internal teams to focus on other strategic initiatives while leveraging external expertise for better results.

About IEEE GlobalSpec Media Solutions

IEEE GlobalSpec Media Solutions provides trusted, expert engineering content and digital media solutions to help industrial companies connect with their target audience. It serves a community of over 9 million industry professionals and aims to deliver measurable and actionable marketing results through comprehensive digital strategies.