Over the last few years, a dramatic change in the research and sourcing behavior of engineering, technical and industrial professionals has led many suppliers to take a closer look at their marketing strategies.
With increasing pressure from executives to account for marketing expenditures, marketers are intent on obtaining measurable results from their marketing programs—targeted branding and exposure, qualified web traffic, and sales and marketing opportunities.
Many marketers faced a challenging economic environment that left them unable to increase marketing investments or even forced them to cut marketing spending. The important question during a downturn isn’t whether or not the economy will recover—it will; it always does. What’s important to ask is whether your company will be in position to surge as the economy grows. To a large degree, the level of your success will depend on your marketing efforts and capabilities—what you have done during the downturn and what you put in place now to win business during the recovery. You need to make strategic decisions about choosing new media, entering new markets, and positioning products.