When you boil it down to its essentials, marketing is all about being in the right place with the right strategy and the right message. A recent study co-sponsored by ThomasNet and Google found that this maxim applies to industrial marketers as much as any others.

The Right Place

In order to be in the right place, you have to know where your buyers are. The Industrial Marketing survey recently co-sponsored by ThomasNet and Google found that nearly all industrial buyers go to the Internet to research product categories and to compare specific brands and products (98%). Here's where they tend to look:

• Specific company websites (85%)
• Search engines such as Google or Yahoo (83%)
• Industrial destination sites such as ThomasNet (71%)
• Trade or industrial association sites (52%)
• General online directories such as Yellow Pages (37%)

Are marketers putting themselves in the most productive venues for buyers to see them and learn about their products and services?

• While 4 out of 5 buyers go to search engines, only 54% of marketers advertise there
• More than 2 out of 3 buyers go to industrial destination sites, while just 56% of marketers advertise there
• On the other hand, trade shows are favored by more than two-thirds of marketers (69%); just 39% of buyers go to trade shows to learn about products and services

Industrial buyers do more than just look at these websites; they act upon the information they obtain online. At the very least, they continue information-gathering, whether it is about a particular supplier (81%), a specific product, brand, or service (91%), or comparing brands or products (79%).

More to the point, 86% say they have recommended or selected a new product or supplier after looking it up online. More than half of these buyers actually sent an RFQ to a distributor or supplier (56%) or sent a purchase order (59%) based on their online sourcing.

The Right Strategy

Industrial marketers have known for several years that a web presence is essential to building awareness, generating leads and sales. Two out of three have had websites for at least three years; nearly half have had websites for five years or more. Almost four out of five of these companies plan to redesign or update their sites in the next year (78%).

In fact, most industrial marketers reveal that their company websites are the focal points of their online marketing programs.

• More than half say that their websites account for a majority of the company's marketing budget (55%).
• Two out of three companies say they will be spending more on their websites next year (68%).
• Nearly half say that their websites are among the top sources of new business (43%), and almost two-thirds think that over the next year, the website will bring in even more business (62%).

What a lot of marketers miss, however, is the role that search engines and industrial destination sites play in driving traffic to a company's site. While it is true that most buyers will visit specific manufacturers' sites to learn more about them and their products (as noted above), four in ten buyers initiate the sourcing process at a search engine or an industrial destination site (40%).

The Right Message

When industrial buyers finally arrive at your site, are they finding what they need and expect? Our survey indicates that buyers expect a lot more information than suppliers provide on their websites. Here is what buyers say they expect compared to the information marketers report having:

WEBSITE INFORMATION	% OF BUYERS WHO EXPECT TO FIND IT ON SUPPLIERS' SITES	% OF MARKETERS WHO PROVIDE IT ON THEIR SITES
Product descriptions and specifications	79%	70%
Product pricing	74%	23%
Details on technical support	72%	38%
Product applications and uses	70%	53%
Locations or distributors in my city/region	67%	36%
Shipping information/costs	64%	17%
Online ordering capability	64%	32%
CAD drawings	58%	13%

Industrial marketers, then, must ask themselves three things to determine whether or not their Internet marketing programs are as good as they can be.

• Am I putting myself where buyers are looking?
• Do I have the right Internet marketing mix?
• Does my website provide the information buyers need?

The answers to these questions should then drive the objectives and tactics of your company's Internet marketing plan. And, getting the right mix and positioning will help you succeed in growing your business - both online and off.

If you would like to learn more about ThomasNet, please call 1.800.879.6757 or visit us at www.ThomasNet.com/GoodCustomers today.