“Our business is about building relationships and the internet can’t do that for us:”

“We serve a very traditional audience. They’re not interested in blog posts.”

“What we offer is a niche service. People don’t look for that kind of thing online.”

I can’t blame a sceptic of online content marketing if it’s never been part of their world. But I will point fingers at those who write it off before educating themselves on its power. The goal of this short article is to encourage the skeptic to reconsider if any of the above sentiments sound familiar.

Why online content matters

Smart B2B companies publish content online to increase their reach among a defined audience and to answer potential customers’ questions before (and better than) their competitors. The concept is very simple. Attract your audience through targeted content, qualify your business by making that content great and convert visitors to leads through smart calls-to-action.

Although content can’t build a relationship the way a handshake does, it will vastly increase the pool of hands available to shake. And when you get around to shaking those hands, that same content has already given you a big head start in qualifying your business.

Opportunity knocks and here’s the proof

What follows are ten examples of miscellaneous key phrases within industrial verticals like construction, manufacturing and distribution. The numbers that accompany them are the volume of Google searches that are performed every single month for those exact phrases, as evidenced by Google’s Keyword Tool.

Whether any of the below are relevant to your business or not, the point is this: Prospective customers are looking for you online. When you develop high-quality, keyword-targted, educational content that matches their Google searches, you create opportunity for business.

Foundation repair: 110,000 searches

Demolition contractors: 40,500 searches

Gear manufacturer: 33,100 searches

HVAC installation: 18,100 searches

Polyurethane coating: 22,000 searches

Asphalt supplier: 3,600 searches

Structural engineering companies: 6,600 searches

Excavation contractor: 8,100 searches

Construction equipment rental: 18,100 searches

Drilling services: 33,100 searches

We’re here to help

Gorilla 76 specializes in online marketing for industrial businesses. Our blog is designed as a resources for those kinds of companies. We’ve also written some guides and put on monthly webinars to help you learn more. See below.

I’m normally not a fan of the “top # reasons”, “# essential things” and “# keys to” type of posts. But, here I am, writing one myself. Maybe, because as a writer, it’s an easy way to write a disjointed piece with several key takeaways. Actually, that’s probably the exact reason.

Anyway, lately, we’ve had a few opportunities where a few common pitfalls that we see with companies seeking construction advertising agencies have emerged. Here is what we wish everyone we talked to knew and believed in. We certainly do.

Name a marketing lead

In a perfect world, you have a CMO. In a perfectly adequate world, you have a marketing lead. This doesn’t even have to be someone that is well-educated in marketing. Obviously, the more education the better, but the lead certainly doesn’t HAVE to be an MBA candidate. Instead, your marketing lead needs to be organized, responsive and trusted. If you have someone like that at your company, you’re set. It makes the marketing process so much easier, more effective, and certainly more efficient.

If you’ve already got this taken care of, check out Joe’s advice to the marketing guys of the industrial world.

With that said, don’t hire an entire marketing team

It’s a lot of money. Really. A lot. Think about all the different hires you’d have to make to represent an entire marketing team – a writer, a designer, a programmer, someone to manage all of their work, a PR person – the list goes and goes. So you build a team of 5 really well-groomed Wharton grads…great…now what? Who’s going to design everything you need? Who is going to make sure your content is balanced between brand voice and style and best SEO practices? Who’s going to fix the website when it’s acting up? If your answer is “my IT company”, you got problems.

Take your opportunities seriously. No one else is. Few others are, at least.

The bar is set low in industrial marketing. Take a look for yourself. Have you seen some of the websites? No, really. Have you? They’re atrocious. Yet you can bet these companies all enforce a dress code in their office and insist that their letterheads and business cards look nice. But website – who uses the internet anyway these days?

Now, not next year, but NOW, is your opportunity to blow everyone else away. Take each and every marketing opportunity seriously. And don’t stop at good design and good copy. Stop after you’ve left a pile of leads on your sales teams’ desk. And you’ve said “boom goes the dynamite” on your way out the do (pronounced “doe”)!

RFPs…

Don’t issue them. Please. For the love of marketing and hiring the right agency for your needs, don’t issue an RFP. It’s just not an effective way to go about the business. Issuing an RPF is like hiring someone after only seeing their resume. Joe has some more thoughts on this.

Make sure you’re measuring all that you’re doing or that your marketing team is

Finally, after years and years of marketing agencies being able to slide by without ever really giving hard proof of their worth and value, you can demand actual metrics on success. Are your marketing efforts paying off? This is a question you need to be asking. The smart marketers are. You’ll be left in the dust if you don’t. Check out this white paper we recently wrote about measuring ROI.

Mobile is growing. Build accordingly.

This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to build a second website. There are better solutions to this. Make sure your agency of choice understands and implements responsive design. This will ensure that your web experience is top notch for your users no matter their device.

What’s responsive design? Go to the bottom right corner of the TruQC site we built, clicking and dragging your mouse to the top left corner. You’ll notice that the layout changes as you make the screen closer to that of a tablet and eventually to that of a mobile phone.

You get what you pay f0r

Just something to always think about. And while you’re thinking about it, go back to that 2nd bullet point about hiring an entire marketing team. Time and time again, we see agencies that hire a whole gaggle of folks to handle their marketing. Figure the average salary is $40K, and there are, say, three employees, and they get benefits, for which we’ll factor in $10K a person. That’s $150K in marketing staffing. And there’s a very strong chance they’ll still have to go outside of your walls to hire the right talent for different jobs.

DON’T fall into this trap. For 5-10K a month, you can get exceptional work from true experts. Don’t be cheap. You’ll spend more in the long run.

Your website is a lead generating machine….nothing else is acceptable

Your website is not a brochure. It’s a living and breathing thing that can land leads for you and be the best salesman you ever hire. It needs to be chocked full of great content that interests and engages users. Take it serious. Got it?

Cut the print budget

We once argued it had its time and place. And I guess, it still does. But if I was an owner and was looking to up my construction advertising and industrial marketing, I’d cut my print construction advertising budget. Pure and simple. It’s just too expensive for what you get. For a four digit figure, you get, at most, a month’s worth of exposure. Often, just a week or less. And really, it’s not even a full week. It’s one impression with a viewer. That’s absurd. I promise you, putting your money on a smart online initiative will prove to be much more effective. And guess what, if not, you can switch. Because you can measure online. Remember? You can see what’s working and what’s not working. To all the print world personnel – we’re not hating. We still see lots and lots of value in online sponsored ads, newsletter access, etc. But your print publications. Not really our thing.

Download this white paper…

The folks at Caterpillar know a thing or two about the hard-hat-wearing lifestyle. They also know a thing or two about B2B social media strategy and industrial marketing.

Kevin Espinosa, social media manager at Caterpillar recently spoke at the Sheraton in Clayton, another quality event hosted by the Business Marketing Association of St. Louis. I was lucky enough to attend. Having recently come on board here at Gorilla76, I’ve been thinking a lot about maximizing the impact of social marketing in a B2B context.

Espinosa and Caterpillar jumped into the game before the playbook had been written up. While others were dismissing social media as a fad or something sketchy their kids were up to, they realized early on the power of social platforms in connecting buyers to sellers. After all, isn’t that what markets are all about?

Okay, so someone looking for a 150,000 lb dump truck probably doesn’t hop on Facebook right away to get one (although apparently it has happened). But that line of thinking dismisses one of the biggest opportunities a well-planned social media presence provides—establishing your company as an industry thought-leader. Filling info gaps with your hard-won expertise designates your company as a source worth keeping up with. Any armchair enthusiast can write a blog post about earth-movers, but only Cat knows what it takes to re-equip them for a winter trip across Antarctica.

Potential customers should already have you in mind when the right time in their buying cycle comes along, because you have been consistently providing them with innovative content. Lead-nurturing in its most classic form.

“People are sick of the advertising part,” Espinosa pointed out. And it’s true, whether it’s on the web or between the covers of a magazine; we’re so bombarded with advertisements that reading often feels like a hunt for actual content. What is far more persuasive (and a lot less expensive) is earning a retweet or repost from a respected industry source. Cat can blast the web and trade journals with ads for a new line of skid steer loaders, but if the unaffiliated @skidsteerloader showers it with 140 characters of praise, instant legitimacy.

Social media is just one tool in the B2B web marketing toolbox, but its usefulness in establishing your reputation can’t be underestimated.

We’ve worked with lots of B2B companies – some with a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), some without, some with a good one, some with a bad one. As an agency, we’ve not only observed, but also lived through a wealth of strategies and practices that have both worked and failed. From our experiences, these five bits of advice to the business-to-business CMO emerged.

1. Be your sales team’s best friend.

We can’t stress enough the importance of marketing and sales being in sync with one another. Yet at so many companies, they butt heads. When you as CMO fully understand the objectives of your sales team, your ability to generate qualified leads for them will improve dramatically. On the flip side, the sales team needs to respect the work marketing is putting in to bring these leads to the table. And they need to do something with those leads, tracking them in a CRM (customer relationship management) system like Salesforce throughout their buying process. The more you can facilitate a strong relationship between your two parties, the more effective you’ll both be.

2. Measure everything. Everything.

The overwhelming shift of B2B marketing to an online setting has made today’s marketing environment a land of measurable data. There are no subjective ratings or estimated ad impressions anymore. With tools like Google Analytics at our disposal, we instead have cold, hard numbers – always up-to-date, accurate and readily available to you. And that means measuring the ROI of every marketing effort is now possible. Define what marketing success means for your business – what actions a prospect might take that can be considered a win. These should include lead capture activities like newsletter subscriptions, case study downloads and consultation requests. Then learn how measure which marketing activities are contributing (and not contributing) to making those things happen.

3. Challenge your company’s marketing norm.

For years B2B marketing was about trade journal ads, trade shows and rounds of golf. Though still a part of the mix, the reality is that most people now start their research online. This article by Eloqua (a respected marketing voice) states that “78% of B2B buyers start their research with search.” In other words, more than 3/4 of your prospects are likely pretty far along in their research process before your sales team ever gets a chance to shake their hands at that trade show. As CMO, its your job to make sure your website has already started the sales process for you, educating prospects in the meantime. Shift your marketing mindset and challenge the traditional approach. Just because your company has done it in the past doesn’t mean its the right way to do it.

4. Start learning about marketing automation. Right now.

Marketing automation is the future of marketing. I’ll bet the farm on it. In short, it’s an software-based marketing system that involves nurturing leads from their first point of contact with your business to the point at which they become a customer. Marketing automation software platforms like Hubspot integrate business blogging, website calls-to-action, lead-capture forms and automated email to market to your prospects based on who they are as well as the actions they’ve taken on your website. The end result is highly targeted lead generation and nurturing that marries the marketing and sales processes. This is marketing intelligence at its finest, and right now presents the opportunity for you to be an innovator by embracing it.

5. Don’t go it alone.

Hire a good marketing agency. Yes, I’m biased – I co-own a marketing firm. But the truth is this: You as a CMO are one person. Your time and energy should not be spent making print ads in PowerPoint or adding pages to a website built in 1998. Your job is marketing strategy – and the result of your work should be qualified lead generation. That’s no small task and it needs your full attention. A good marketing agency will help you refine your strategy as well as execute it across multiple professional skill sets including writing, art direction / design, web development and project management. Those are more hats than one person can or should wear.

“Marketing’s job is to contribute to revenue generation, not be a cost center for superficial activities with no clear return on investment (ROI).”

– The B2B Social Media Book

It’s time to think about marketing differently

When you hire employees, purchase new equipment or send team members to professional development training, you make an investment. You spend the money because you expect a return on your investment – a reward for taking a measured risk. When you invest in marketing, your expectations should be no different.

Online marketing is a land of measurable data

When we say “measurable”, we mean analyzing how effective your marketing activities are at moving prospective customers into your sales funnel. This means attracting qualified prospects in Google searches, drawing them to your website, engaging them with exceptional, targeted content, capturing their contact information and tracking their engagement with your business until they become customers.

What we’re NOT talking about are website page views, Facebook likes, email opens or retweets. There’s no denying that these kinds of metrics paint a picture of brand awareness and that brand awareness is important. But it’s not part of the ROI formula, so we’ll save it for another discussion.

A simple math equation

ROI is a formula that demonstrates the dollar amount you earn as a percentage of the dollar amount you spend to get it. It looks like this:

Let’s put this in perspective

Let’s say you spend $100K on marketing this year and that investment results in new customers worth $300K over the course of their relationship with you. In this scenario, your ROI formula looks like this:

In other words, for every $1 you spent on marketing, you made $2 – a 200% return on investment.

So now what?

Now that you know how ROI is calculated, there are two big questions to answer:

1. How can I attribute those leads to my web-marketing investment?
2. How do I prove it to the boss man?

While this blog post touches the formula itself, we recently published a guide called Measuring Online Marketing ROI. We wrote the guide for business owners, CMOs, marketing managers and innovators at B2B companies who are more interested in building measurable marketing campaigns that turn dollars into more dollars than blowing marketing budgets on phone book ads and printed brochures.

If that sounds like you, give it a read-through. Click below to download the guide.

Lend your website your salesman shoes

What do you do after you shake hands with a new lead at a trade show? Or when someone calls you and expresses interest in your services? How about after a round of golf with a prospective customer? I’ll take a leap and guess you don’t say:

“Thanks for your interest – hope to see ya around!”

There is always a next step in mind, right?

It’s time for a mindset shift about your website’s job

Your business website is the online face of your company. It’s also an aspiring salesman, begging for the right tools and training. It wants to set up that next step with your visitors and prospects. But it needs your help first.

Train your website as you would a salesman. A website visitor has freely chosen to learn about your business by visiting your site as they would have a storefront. They’ve volunteered their time to engage with your company. Respond. Help them move to the next step in their research process.

Think about what you want a visitor to do next

Then ask.

• If you want them to call you about a consultation, ask.
• If you want them to join your mailing list, ask.
• If you want them to view a case study, ask.
• If you want them to download an expert white paper you’ve composed, ask.

Don’t ask and you shall not receive. It’s common sense.

Related articles

How business to business leads are born online

When it comes to web-marketing, it’s still important to “look nice”

Meet the greatest salesman you’ll ever hire

We don’t have a ton of clients and we don’t build a ton of websites. We’re not one of the biggest agencies in the country… or our state… or our city. We’re a small company in an industrial midwest market that has carved out a very specific niche: We work intensively with a select number of industrial businesses to develop premium websites and lead-generating marketing campaigns.

Despite our size and small client base, our services aren’t cheap and naturally we’re often asked why. That’s a fair question and we think it warrants a fair response.

The short answer is actually pretty simple. 99% of website design companies build online versions of your leave behind-brochure. We, on the other hand, build lead-generating machines.

When we’re invited to share our capabilities presentation with an industrial business, we always show a slide that explains the 2 purposes of business-to-business online marketing:

1. Generate qualified leads
2. Nurture those leads through their buying process

A business website is the online center of these two activities, and a website that is no more than a digital brochure simply will not accomplish them.

The graphics that follow compare the anatomy of the average $5K industrial website to the anatomy of an industrial website worth paying for. We also went ahead and broke down where where those dollars go in a website build priced at $25K+.

A $5K industrial website

A $25K industrial website

The Basics: Value: $5K

Search Google for “cheap website design” and you’ll find thousands of companies who can build a $5K website that explains your company’s services, lists your clients and projects, and talks about your history and philosophy. Don’t get us wrong – all of this stuff is very important. In fact, they’re all required in our opinion. But don’t let yourself be fooled either. Simply putting this information online will not win you new business.

1. Service pages

Each of your key services should be highlighted and profiled. Include images and well-written copy, and link to related projects from within the content of that page.

2. About your company

Focus not only on your philosophy, mission statement and history, but on your value proposition. What sets your business apart from your competitors?

3. Client list and project examples

It’s important to validate your business. Project pages and a list of clients can help with this, so we recommend including them. The real validation, however, will come through case studies and other thought-leading content for your industry (more on that to follow…)

Brand Professionalism: Value $5K+

While thousands of web design companies can deliver the above, the pool begins shrinking quickly when great design and writing come into play. A website build is NOT a task for the IT department. It’s a marketing task, and should be executed by marketing professionals with skill sets ranging from marketing strategy to design, copywriting and programming.

4. Mobile-friendly, great design

If you care about how your employees dress, how your office looks and what kind of impression you have on prospects you meet, why should the online face of your business not be given that same attention? And in today’s business world, as mobile phone and tablet usage continues growing, that online storefront needs to adapt accordingly.

5. Well-branded, search engine-friendly copy

The manner in which your business communicates with customers speaks volumes. You communicate with confidence and pride. So must your marketing tools. And in an online setting, there’s another important member of your audience that can’t be forgotten. His name is Google, and you need him to find you if your prospects are going to find you. Smart, balanced online copywriting accomplishes all of this.

Lead-Generating Ability: Value $15K+

The real answer to the question posed in the title of this blog post lies here. Great design and writing separates the good from the average, but conversion-focused web design that turns visitors into leads separates the great from the good. Your website can be your greatest salesman if you give it that opportunity.

6. Business blog

Blog posts about topics your audience craves will help them find you in search engines. Well-written blog posts will earn their attention and trust. But without a blog infrastructure engrained in your website, you’ll miss these opportunities.

7. Calls-to-action

What do you want you website visitor to do? Think about it. Should they call you about a free consultation? Should they sign-up for updates by newsletter? Should they download a case study you’ve built about a current customer? Unless you ask, you visitor won’t do it.

8. Lead capture pages and forms

Not everyone is ready to call you and hire you for a $50M or even a $50K job. Most website visitors are just researching (at least for the moment). When your calls-to-action direct visitors to lead capture pages (example: fill out this form to download our case study), you create opportunity collect contact information. And then you can nurture these leads through newsletters and other relevant content until they’re done researching and are finally ready to talk with you.

9. Premium downloadable content

Case studies about client successes and white papers showcasing industry expertise give your qualified website visitors a reason to provide their name and email address. You’re “selling” valuable content, and the price they pay is permission for you to add them to your marketing database.

10. Lead conversion tracking and website analytics

It’s great to know how many visitors your website is receiving and how much time they’re spending on various pages. But website analytics become a lot more useful when you start tracking how a new lead found you in the first place and which marketing spends are producing qualified leads. All smart website builds include systems to collect meaningful data and analyze how it affects your bottom line.

Convinced yet?

If you’re still not convinced that a website could be worth $25K+, we won’t blame you. But we would encourage you to at least shift your mindset on what purpose your site serves. Why invest at all if it’s to be nothing more than a brochure? The savviest, most progressive businesses are learning that lead generation in industrial B2B markets is changing quickly. Your website can be your greatest ally if you equip it with the right tools.

Related articles

Construction advertising in today’s business environment

Meet the greatest salesman you’ll ever hire

The Duck Hunter’s Guide to B2B Web-Marketing

Construction marketing through the long sales cycle

It’s been awhile since my last blog post (if I had a nickel for every time I said that!). A long while actually. I’ve just been busy. But this blog post was inspired by another project we’re doing at Gorilla so writing it, well, I couldn’t really come up with a good excuse not to write it.

For said project, I’ve been reviewing lots of company films. In reviewing these films, I stumbled across the below gem of a construction advertisement from The Korte Company and it reminded me that bar none, hands down, this is the best construction advertisement I’ve ever seen and has greatly inspired Gorilla’s work. I’d even argue it has indirectly influenced us to go down the path we have – that of specializing in construction advertising and B2B web-marketing.

Here’s the piece.

For what it’s worth – we didn’t do this piece. Not that you were assuming we did, but I just wanted to make it clear, as we handle all of The Korte Company’s current work (view case study). In fact, this project was done by Tom, Dick and Harry out of Chicago before we were ever even brought into the picture.

What makes this ad so great?

For one, it’s spot on. If you’ve met anyone from The Korte Company or have done any sort of business with them, this video captures their personality perfectly. They’re hard-working, not a bunch of suits, believe in the handshake and do the job right. Kudos to the creative team on this project – you wrote and directed a spot that felt as if you yourself worked at Korte. You created something ownable. That’s great advertising.

Second, it evokes emotion. If this point needs explanation, check your pulse. This piece makes me “believe in things again.” Makes me believe in a local company’s ability to go national. Makes me believe in the American dream and the idea that we can all leave our name on something big. After all, buildings affect all of us. A lot. But have you ever thought about the engineers and architects that crafted the masterpiece you call “the office” or “church” or “home?” Melodramatic? I say no. Watch the spot again. It’s that good.

With said emotion, comes the innate human need to share. And this spot makes me want to do just that. I remember the first time I saw this. I was an ad nerd. Still am actually (ask my friends). Immediately, I sent it to everyone I knew that would appreciate it. That’s because it evoked emotion in me. It’s because it had an element that I wanted again and again. It told a story I’d never grow tired of – still haven’t today, in fact. This construction advertisement had the components of viral advertising. I love that. Especially in unexpected places. But here’s a question – why is it unexpected? Why is the bar set so low in construction advertising and industrial marketing?

Finally, plain and simple, it’s beautiful. Flawless, really. Great copywriting is a disappearing trade. And I think we have the internet and mobile devices to thank for that. Yes, people are writing more than ever, but it’s all about “good enough” now. Not “perfection” like it used to be. I’m guilty. There’s no doubt. So it’s very apparent when a copywriter, who’s great at his craft, has had his hands on a piece. And this piece, well, such a writer has definitely penned.

How this all applies to construction advertising today

“Great” you’re probably thinking. “But how does this apply to me. I can’t afford a big budget piece like that. And really, what kind of ROI does such a piece deliver?”

To be honest, in today’s time and place in B2B marketing and construction advertising, and knowing the potential of web-marketing, I’d argue that it is tough to justify a large spend on a piece of construction advertising like this. After all, it’s no secret that budgets aren’t exactly fat in AEC marketing right now. And construction advertising like the above – it ain’t cheap. But the takeaway is this – take your marketing serious. Strive for perfection. Capture your brand in a way that others crave. Lose sleep over that eighth of an inch!

Whether a blog, online video series, or just a well-written website that is sales smart (lots of strategic calls-to-action), your online presence needs to do more than just be “cool”. It needs to deliver leads, nurturing and thought leadership. It needs to help you grow your business.

When a business hires a contractor, it’s not exactly like heading to the mall for a new pair of shoes. It’s a really big decision with a long sales cycle. And it’s a decision that often involves a lot of people, a lot of politics, a lot of money and therefore a lot of research.

New prospects come from many places – referrals, lists, trade show introductions, advertisements, Google searches. However they find you, they still need to qualify you. What’s your reputation? What similar work have you completed for other clients? Can you meet their budget requirements? So while a buyer of construction services researches, evaluates their options and narrows down their decision to a handful of potential contractors, what can you be doing to influence their buying decision?

You can qualify your business and educate your buyer with resources designed just for them. And there is no better avenue for this content marketing approach than your company’s website.

Help your prospect research

Whether they find you on your own or through referral, prospective customers in the research stage need to qualify your business. They want to learn about you and believe that you’re potentially a good fit before they go any further. Descriptive website pages about your services as well as articles (blog posts) that demonstrate your philosophy and expertise are the perfect formula to capture their interest for the first time.

Help your prospect evaluate

After you’ve earned their attention and have established some baseline trust in your ability to serve them, they’ll require more in-depth information to further qualify you. Case studies are a great solution – and by case studies, I don’t mean project profiles with a picture, square footage and job location. I mean descriptive overviews of your client’s problem, how you solved it and what results you delivered. Did you come in under budget? Ahead of time? What hurdles did you overcome along the way? And what did your client have to say about working with you? This is what evaluators want to learn. White papers and more technical, detailed blog posts will also help move you onto their short list.

Help your prospect make a buying decision

Sometimes it comes down to low bid. We get it. But our work with construction industry businesses (particularly those targeting the private sector) has shown us that something needs to set you apart. What can you offer that helps shift a buyer’s focus to you? If your business provides free consultations, site visits, audits or other conversation-starting services, it’s a no-brainer to represent these entry-point offers on your website. Detail them on pages equipped with lead-capure opportunities and ask your prospect to inquire.

Ideas for construction marketing content

The infographic below illustrates content ideas to offer your prospect along their journey to a buying decision.

Things have changed. In a competitive time where there are less jobs to bid on and more companies bidding, it’s no secret that the business development environment in building, construction and other industrial verticals is different now than in years past.

It’s time for construction advertising to follow suit

Traditionally, construction advertising has been a world of trade shows, printed ads, project sheets and leave-behind binders. I won’t discredit the value of these tactics (they certainly have their place), but the reality is that the world is evolving, becoming more digital and people are consuming information in new ways. The opportunities that come hand in hand with this shift are tremendous. As a marketing strategy firm that specializes in generating and nurturing leads for industrial, hard-hat-wearing businesses, we’ve experienced the power of this new era marketing approach first hand.

“My customers are not looking online for my services”

We’ve heard this statement time and again in the industrial space. And time and again we aggressively challenge it. Why? Take a look at the following data that I pulled today from Google’s Keyword Tool. This list displays the volume of actual Google searches in the United States (every month!) for the following key phrases.

• top general contractors: 1600 searches
• bank construction: 14,800 searches
• concrete repair: 60,500 searches
• roof repair contractors: 8100 searches
• electrical engineers: 60,500 searches

This is real data and these are just a few examples. Not only is there demand for construction and industrial services, but your audience is looking for information about these services online. I often pull up the following two stats because I think they’re so telling on the subject:

81% of B2B industrial sector buyers research online before making a purchasing decision.

– Global Spec study

96% of website visitors are not ready to buy.

– KISS Metrics study

So what does this mean for your advertising approach?

It means a few things. First, it’s time to start giving your audience – that 80% who is researching and that 96% that’s not ready to buy yet – information and answers to the questions they seek. When a protective customer’s search in Google for “concrete repair” pulls up 4 different pages from your website on the first page of search results, there’s a pretty darn good chance they’ll click through to your website rather than your competitor’s site.

Secondly, if the content they find on your website qualifies you as a potential partner, asks them to join your email list and encourages them to call you about a consultation when they’re ready to talk, you’ve built a machine for converting website visitors into qualified leads. In the meantime your competitors are busy printing out project sheets from Microsoft Word and mailing them to cold call prospects who probably don’t want to hear from them in the first place.

How to get started

Content is the foundation of today’s online marketing environment. Think about the questions you get from prospects and customers all the time. What do they want to know to help them make a buying decision? Get inside their brains. What qualifies you? And what’s different about what you do vs. your competitors? Then answer these questions on your website. This content can live in many forms:

• Articles about targeted, niche topics for your specific audience
• White papers that dig deeper into your philosophy and process
• Online tools that help them learn the value of your offering
• Case studies that outline problems you were hired to solve and the results you achieved
• Project portfolios showcasing the beauty and breadth of your accomplishments

These are the things your audience craves. Develop the content and they’ll find you. Develop GREAT content and they’ll trust you. Earn their trust and they’ll hire you.