B2B Marketing . Industrial B2B marketing Trends .

B2B Marketing . Industrial B2B marketing Trends .

The Internet has completely transformed the relationship between buyers and sellers in the business-to-business (B2B) world. Today, any company that markets and sells to engineering, technical, industrial and manufacturing professionals must have a robust and effective online marketing strategy — not just a company Web site.

Business professionals who once spent hours at work reading catalogs and magazines, researching in libraries and attending tradeshows now stay put at a desk and use the Internet to research products and vendors. The Internet is now the number-one resource for finding product information.

Marketers must evaluate their current investments and re-allocate budget to include online marketing strategies that will extend, enhance and outperform their traditional marketing programs. But with many online options to choose from, creating the right marketing mix to match your objectives can be a challenge.

How Do Your Customers and Prospects Use the Internet?

Engineers and other technical professionals almost universally have adopted the Internet for work-related purposes. Recent surveys show:

• 90% have used the Internet to find components and suppliers
• 85% go online to obtain product specifications
• 74% use the Internet to conduct research
• 68% use the Internet to search for technical application ideas
These statistics demonstrate that more and more of your customers and prospects are looking for you — and your competitors — on the Internet, and less and less are looking in magazines, catalogs, directories, and other conventional places. Printed directories are close to extinction. Readership of printed trade publications has been declining for years. Why? Online is the first place that engineering, technical and industrial professionals go TO FIND SOLUTIONS FOR THEIR PROBLEMS AND ISSUES..

The Internet has changed the behavior of your customers and prospects in other ways as well. Buyers demand and have come to expect 24/7 365 availability, complete and up-to-date product information and sophisticated search mechanisms that return meaningful results to their queries.

Pull marketing — where customers find you — has experienced tremendous growth as multiple dynamic online resources have largely replaced the static print catalog era. ( source . global specs report )