Traditional Industrial Marketing Mix Decisions Continue To Be Strangled by Traditional Mind-Set.
addition - June 10, 2009
History shows marketing decisions within the Industrial Marketing Sector follow a predictable path. The growth of such companies - typically not a function of either revolutionary product or service offerings nor technological advances - fosters an urge to seek AGENCY direction with the hope that predictive measurables in direct relation to said growth, will provide previously unknowable metric(s) about customer behavior. Rarer still is a company financially free to acquire an in-house "EXPERT" violently staticising and enumerating through volumes of data, more often equally as unsure of the sum as his employer. For the 'expert' on the spot, determining WHERE to collect which data is as hapless as WHAT TO DO with the forced conclusions reached. I've seen this about ten times since I've been doing SEO; often to nice people - often to real jerks.
OLMEI believes seeking a well founded knowledge of customer behavior, customer habits, demographic, buying patterns and triggers cumulatively help to shape a more refined sales and marketing program. The internet can be an awesome tool for capturing this kind of information.
For almost 7 years, Industrial Companies seeking a competitive advantage have been limited to Status Quo Internet offerings. Usually, from one company having previously established itself via a marketing channel with no Internet Marketing Background, much less an Industrial Internet Marketing framework, nor using independently verifiable statistical tools (data) measuring anything of substance in relation to metrics from which to make sound, future marketing decisions.
For over 7 years I personally have laughed at the offerings this company provides (say OFFSHORE DEVELOPMENT), while remaining dead-pan in NOT pointing out the hypocrisy from which it operates. It is only today - March 9th, 2009, that after listening in on a conference call with one of the AE's employed by this company (while having simultaneously tracked over a 5 month period the supposed visitors it sent to my client) THAT I CAN NO LONGER CONTAIN MYSELF. As a company, OLMEI routinely use multiple statistical programs in an attempt to error on the side of caution, and collect as much data as possible.
For the past 5 months - via 4 independent statistical analysis programs - OLMEI has been tracking this Industrial Internet Marketing 'Juggernaut' to accurately chart its' performance, relative to providing our customer with meaningful traffic. I won't go into gory details or names beyond the money spent. IMAGINE $300 a lead which didn't convert [X 30 - 40?]
When they called to ask for a renewal I decided saying something about this company - who shall remain nameless - is in EVERYONE's best interest.
Data, Data Analysis, Search Query, Query This, Query That; it's all about accurate, independent data.
So what about the data that this company provides which is so suspect?
It's hard to intellectualize the origin - the real GENESIS must lie in a bloated sense of self and perceived client idiocy, but I'm going to try to give an example.
There are FIVE boxes on my desk.
BOX ONE contains copies of invoices I've recently sent out - (10 in all)
BOX TWO contains letters I've collected for my vacationing neighbor over the past 30 days - (150 pieces total)
BOX THREE HAD 1050 jelly beans at the beginning of the month but, since I've been watching my daughter at work, it now contains (549)
BOX FOUR has the printed e-mail lead I received this month (1 total)
BOX FIVE shows the 500 businesses within this same Anemic Ecosystem that have BOOK-MARKED my website! (500)
NOW, as a client of this company I am told that If I add up all of the numbers in parenthesis (1210) this equates to my website traffic - referrals - OVERALL leads total for the previous month.
Actually, that is being kind to this particular Industrial Internet Marketing Company, as this would account for about 6 MONTHS worth of totals according to the method in which they add conversions.
On The Bright Side, my client has been informed that they've experienced an increase of 30% over 2007 numbers!
