Industrial · Technical products · Supply and distribution
Digital marketing for technically complicated products and buying journeys.
Industrial digital marketing for suppliers, distributors, component and parts businesses, equipment companies and technical services, where the buyer is an engineer or a procurement team, the product has a specification sheet, and it is found by searching for exactly that.
- Specification led search
- Distributor and direct journeys
- Online and offline sales measured
What is different about industrial buyers
The buyer has read the datasheet before you know they exist.
An engineer specifying a component searches by standard, by rating, by dimension, by material, by the problem the part solves. Procurement searches for the part number and three suppliers to compare. Neither wants a brand story. They want the specification, the availability, the lead time, the alternatives and a person who can answer a technical question.
Industrial websites usually give them a brochure. Product ranges organised by internal division. PDFs that Google cannot read. A contact form that asks for a marketing budget. No indication of whether the thing is in stock, made to order, or sold through a distributor two counties away.
Arlieo does not claim decades of industrial agency case studies. It claims something more useful: experience of how technical products are found, evaluated and bought, and the digital work that follows from that. Search built around specifications, part numbers and applications. Product information that answers the engineer’s question on the page. Industrial eCommerce where standard products and parts can be ordered online, and procurement journeys where they cannot. Measurement that follows the sale through quotes and accounts rather than stopping at the form. Manufacturers with their own products to sell have a page of their own.
Where the work applies
Four kinds of industrial business.
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01
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eCommerce
Industrial suppliers and distributors
Large catalogues sold online and by account, part number demand, Shopping and search, trade pricing, phone and offline orders measured.
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02
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eCommerce
Components and parts
Products found by specification, standard, dimension and part number. Category and compatibility architecture, product data that lets an engineer specify from the page.
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03
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Lead generation
Equipment and plant
Capital equipment, construction and plant machinery, parts and service. Model searches, used equipment, hire and finance enquiries.
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04
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Lead generation
Technical services
Testing, calibration, maintenance, engineering services. Problem and compliance searches, decision stage content, enquiries tracked to pipeline.
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05
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Manufacturers
Make your own products?
Capabilities, applications, RFQs and distributor pipeline are a different job from supply and distribution. Manufacturers have their own page.
Brochure versus buyer
An industrial website as found, and as an engineer needs it.
How it runs
From specification to sale.
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01
Learn the products.
What they do, who specifies them, who buys them, how they are sold and stocked. Without this, nothing else is credible.
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02
Fix the measurement.
Quotes, technical enquiries, distributor handoffs and direct sales tracked and attributed.
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03
Map technical demand.
Specification, standard, application and problem searches, prioritised by the value of the enquiry.
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04
Build the information.
Product pages an engineer can specify from. Application pages a procurement team can compare with.
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05
Run search and report pipeline.
SEO and paid search managed to the demand, reported on opportunities and value.
Questions from industrial businesses.
Do you have industrial case studies?
Not many yet, and that is stated rather than hidden. Published case studies so far are website builds; eCommerce and lead generation case studies will follow as engagements mature. What Arlieo has now is direct experience of technical product marketing in machinery, agriculture and heavy industry, and a method built for products that need explaining. The audit is a low risk way to test whether that method fits your business.
We are the distributor. What can marketing do for us?
Own the part number, specification and application searches for the ranges you stock, make availability, pricing and lead time visible, and make ordering or quoting easy for a buyer who already knows what they want. Distributors that do this tend to become the default supplier for the products they carry.
Is eCommerce relevant to industrial products?
For consumables, components, parts and standard products, yes, often with trade pricing and account ordering. For engineered and capital products, the website’s job is the enquiry. Most industrial businesses have both and need both journeys.
How is a twelve month sale measured?
Enquiries tracked to source, outcomes recorded in the CRM, and reported against spend as they mature. Leading indicators are watched monthly; the judgement is made on pipeline and sales.
Marketing that speaks to the engineer.
Start with a conversation about what you supply, who specifies it and how it is bought.