When an industrial engineering company markets its services, and the skills, experience, and competencies of its employees to prospective client organizations it often makes two basic errors.
- The first is that their marketing material is weak (because they are scientists and engineers, not marketers)
- The second that they employ an outside marketing organization with little experience of the target market (because they are marketers and not scientists or engineers)
Industrial engineering has a lot to do with determining, designing and implementing cost-effective and production-efficient processes. Effective inbound marketing must determine the most effective and efficient ways to involve a potential client enough so they make the right decisions. Effective inbound marketing strategy exploits, among other concepts, what marketers call ‘Buyer Personas’.
Buyer Personas
The concept of Buyer Personas was first introduced into sales and marketing by an Australian psychologist named Allan Pease. The Huthwaite Research Group, headed by Dr. Neil Rackham then balanced Pease’s ‘psychology of personality’ with the actual behavior of how people in those target job functions actually make decisions. That brings us to today. Effective marketing focuses on two elements:-
- The job function of the individual, and the goals and challenges they face plus
- The likely thought processes of the person in that function, so the marketing material they encounter actually attracts, interests and persuades
The skilled marketer understands that effective marketing to industrial engineering companies must target the Buyer Personas which actually exist in that market.
The Science of Effective Inbound Marketing
The targeted buyer personas for the engineering market will likely be people for whom facts, proofs, processes, and test results matter. This is how they will assess the value of the material they read, see or hear. Once they have assessed it, they can draw their own conclusions. Adele Ravella, who founded the Buyer Persona Institute has said that effective inbound marketing must include five critical elements
- The priorities of the job function – plant manager, supply chain director, project manager, etc
- The success factors embedded within those priorities
- A recognition and understanding of the challenges and barriers the target persona is facing
- An appropriate ‘involvement journey’ from recognition to attraction through involvement to decision-making
- Appropriate decision points, so the decisions can and will be made
Conclusion
Inbound marketing must address the campaign issues in appropriately structured ways, They must be structured to ensure involvement and decision-making. They must also use subject-matter, words, and sentence constructions that reflect the preferred style of the reader or listener. It is only when marketing campaigns employ the science behind Personas for the engineering market that they will be cost-effective and process-efficient.
For more information on how to create a buyer persona for your business contact us at MediaWorks.
