Why are we always shocked when a quarter ends? You’d think we’d be used to it by now. Yet it always surprises us– especially because the end of the 2019 third quarter means that the year is very nearly over!
The beginning of Q4 means that budgeting season for 2020 is about to be in full swing. (And we’ve got a great asset we’re building to help you get the organizational buy-in you need in those meetings.) But it’s important not to charge ahead towards what we will be making without pausing occasionally to savor what we have made.
We had some extremely exciting guests and milestones during the 2019 third quarter!
JULY
Our first guest of the quarter was Zack Scriven of Zack Scriven Media.
Zack is a LinkedIn influencer who became a full-time content creator in 2018. Despite general skepticism about social media amongst industrial companies, LinkedIn is their top platform. We sat down to ask Zack about why B2B manufacturers need to build their social media influence. We also got some practical tips on how they can get started doing it.
Our second guest of the 2019 third quarter was Sonita Lontoh. She’s the Vice President of Global Marketing for HP’s 3D Printing & Digital Manufacturing division.
As Hewlett-Packard is largely known for computers, they’re breaking the mold somewhat by going into additive manufacturing. Sonita covered how manufacturers can build awareness in emerging technologies like 3D printing. Some of the best tactics industrial marketers can use is actually the testimony of their own excited customers.
The next week, IndustrialSage hit a huge milestone: our 2-year anniversary and 100th episode!!
We invited past guests and loyal followers to send in videos all about the value they’d gained from the show. It built a rich case study on how digital content builds brand awareness.
AUGUST
Our third interview of the 2019 third quarter was with Paul Konrath. He’s the Vice President of of CCS Dualsnap. (“CCS” being short for “Custom Control Sensors.”)
Paul’s company was responsible for creating several pressure sensors that have been used in historic spacecraft including the Apollo 11– and yet their lead generation started to suffer after the rise of the internet because younger generations cared more about their digital appearance. Paul spoke with us about some practical tips to build a lead-generating website for manufacturers.
We spent the second half of August reviewing some lessons that B2B industrial companies can learn from B2C companies.
For one thing, despite what many people may think, manufacturers can actually go viral, too. The trick is, they need to redefine viral based on the size of their actual market size. If your niche industry only has about 500 buyers on the entire planet, going viral for you might mean 200-300 interactions on LinkedIn, and not 2 million Instagram likes.
Then, with impeccable timing, Popeyes engaged Chick-fil-a in a wild Twitter war over chicken sandwiches.
We dug through the aftermath to see how it started, and unveiled that simple engagement between business competitors can produce an impressive amount of social media engagement amongst your audiences. That’s just one of many lessons B2B marketers can learn from B2C sensations like the recent Popeyes chicken sandwich debacle.
SEPTEMBER
Coincidentally (or was it?) we released an episode inspired by Chick-fil-a just one week after our episode inspired by Popeyes. A recent experience at Chick-fil-a reminded Danny that manufacturers should focus not just on digital marketing, but also on creating an amazing customer experience after the sale.
Our last guest episode of the 2019 third quarter was definitely a highlight of the summer: Mike Drapeau of SBI joined us to talk about almost everything under the sun.
From legacy CRM myths to practical tips to synchronize sales and marketing departments to smoothing out communication with end users, Mike had some incredible insights for marketers from almost any industry.
And now…it’s almost budget season.
With one last quarter of 2019 to go, your organization is probably starting to look to the future now. You’re probably getting ready for that nerve-racking meeting about your 2020 budget. If that’s the case, make sure you go in prepared.
IndustrialSage has one great asset you can use to prepare – soon to be two great assets! First off, we have a free 50-page report on Industrial Sales & Marketing Trends in 2019 that you can download, chock full of data and statistics about what other manufacturers were doing with their outreach this year.
Secondly, we’re currently conducting a survey of sales and marketing professionals in the industrial space in order to update our report for 2020! If you meet our 4 qualifications when taking the survey, we’ll also send you a $10 Amazon gift card when the new edition of the report comes out in mid-October!
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If there’s a particular topic that you’d like for us to talk about, or if you have a particular a challenge that you’d like us to take a crack at, send us an email. We’d be happy to answer them for you. If your topic gets picked for a future episode, you’ll win a free IndustrialSage t-shirt!
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