Often, when I did something that made no sense to my Father he would say, “Son, you don’t even know…what you don’t know.” I remember on a couple occasions saying those exact words to my Son. At Christmas, this year, I heard my Son say the same thing to my four year old Grandson.
So it is with industrial marketing. Industrial marketers are missing a significant opportunity because of an invisible skill set they are not even aware of.
Many industrial marketers don’t even know…what they don’t know!
Stay with me on this.
The industrial revolution in this country is not only responsible for the creation of great wealth and a thriving middle class but also the basic structure of our country’s education system. Almost by default our education system produced skills needed in our factories and offices that supported them.
Our education system molded itself into a hierarchy of skill sets that put math, science and language at the top of the heap…because that is what the industrial revolution required. After math, science and language came the humanities which included arts, music, physical education. These curriculums emphasized tons of rote memory activities that squandered the creativity of many of our talented children. The system stigmatized mistakes. As Sir Ken Robinson says, “We educated our children OUT of creativity.” in his very popular presentation, “How Schools Kill Creativity“
Then…along comes Google and tells industrial marketers they must now create content to remain visible in the search engine return page. Not only does the industrial marketer need to create content for continued ranking, but the content must be consumed by industrial buyers. The potential buyer must like it and find it helpful.
Think about it. Think of all the content you have consumed in your life. Whether for entertainment or for professional reasons, the content you enjoyed the most and found most valuable was content that was created, primarily, by our right-brained friends. This is the same right-brained group that was discouraged from participating in the industrial market because of an education system designed to reward the left-brain crowd.
This is an invisible skill set for most industrial marketers. Many industrial marketers don’t even know… what they don’t know.
I see great opportunity for industrial marketers to improve lead generation, top-of-mind awareness and brand recognition by using content marketing on the web. But I also see a lot of feet stuck in cement…industrial marketers scared to death of the creative process…a process that has the potential to attract prospects to a well-branded web site.
The great irony is, the industrial market is one of the most documented of all industries. Most industrial manufacturers and industrial suppliers have mountains of content filed away in banks of file cabinets.
It takes a unique individual that understands current market realities in the Age of Google. An invisible skill set at many industrial companies.
It takes a unique individual that can see all the content in a company’s file cabinet and say, “Let’s turn this stuff into content that can be helpful to our customers and prospects.” An invisible skill set.
As a web site is pulled up along with four competitors in an endless list of tabs in a current browser, it takes a unique individual to create a brand message that says, “We are the brand that offers the best solution over the competitors”. Truly, an invisible skill set.
Content marketing for manufacturers and content marketing for industrial suppliers is now required and cannot be an invisible skill set any longer for industrial marketing professionals.
To remain competitive in the Age of Google, industrial marketers must pull back the curtain and allow their creative friends to come out from stage-right to achieve success on the web.
Need more information about content marketing for your manufacturing business or your industrial supply business?
DOWNLOAD NOW our Beginner’s Guide to Industrial Content Marketing.
Or…you can speak to us right away about your online industrial marketing.
“By Tom Repp”
