GlobalSpec

1. 2022 Industrial
Marketing Planning Kit
Your Guide to Crafting a Marketing Plan that
Targets Your Audience and Grows Your Business

2. 2
Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 3
Five Industrial Marketing Trends that will Matter in 2022............................4-5
A Six-Point Checklist for Success ......................................................................... 6
Is Your Marketing Mix Delivering Results?.......................................................... 7
How Do You Measure and Improve the Quality of Your Leads?.................... 8
The Trend Toward Multichannel Marketing....................................................9-10
The Cross Media Multiplier ...................................................................................12
How Do Your Media Choices Compare?............................................................13
Media Matrix .............................................................................................................14
Where Do You Allocate Marketing Dollars?.......................................................15
Measuring Return on Marketing Investment .....................................................16
Marketing ROMI and the Buy Cycle ....................................................................16
Five Questions to Ask Yourself.............................................................................17
GlobalSpec as Your Marketing Partner ..............................................................18
About GlobalSpec ...................................................................................................19
Five Guidelines for a Successful Social Media Strategy..................................11

3. 3
Introduction
GlobalSpec is pleased to provide you with this Marketing Planning Kit to help you evaluate the effectiveness of your
current marketing choices, calculate the value of existing marketing programs, understand today’s marketing
landscape, and plan more effective strategies for 2022. Our intent is to help you define and achieve your marketing
goals and objectives for the year ahead.
Using the information provided in the 2022 Industrial Marketing Planning Kit, you will be able to answer tough
questions every marketing professional faces:
• Are you prepared to get more out of your marketing investments, and to measure and account for marketing
decisions in today’s business environment?
• Do you have a balanced mix of media channels to maximize your reach and effectiveness?
• Are your marketing programs delivering highly qualified contacts and inquiries to your sales team?
• Are your brand and product and service lines broadly visible to an audience of engineering, technical and
industrial professionals?
• Are you keeping up with the most effective strategies in online marketing for the industrial sector today?

4. Five Industrial Marketing Trends that Will Matter in 2022
With a new year comes a fresh perspective and another chance to improve and optimize your marketing program. To plan appropriately for the year
ahead, check out some of the most significant trends GlobalSpec believes will affect B2B marketers in 2022, and consider how to best implement
them into your own strategy.
Trend #1:
Email marketing continues to evolve.
Email has been a cornerstone marketing tactic
for B2B marketers for over two decades. With
mobile phones and tablets, your audience can
connect with email almost anytime, anywhere.
And don’t forget that email marketing offers
easy to measure metrics like opens, clicks,
forwards and conversions.
That’s why email marketing remains a popular
choice for industrial marketers. According to
the most recent GlobalSpec Industrial
Marketing Trends survey, 60 percent of
industrial marketers rely on email marketing,
and 43 percent expect to spend more on email
marketing in the year ahead.
So what’s next for email? In 2022, we expect
to see more industrial marketers cut through
the clutter by delivering a highly personalized
email experience to their audience. From
connecting to recipients by name, to providing
email content based on their preferences and
behavior, we anticipate that marketers will
maximize their email marketing investments by
creating more sophisticated campaigns.
Trend #2:
Marketers will need to take greater
advantage of technology.
As online and email marketing in the industrial
space becomes more sophisticated, it’s
important to continually look for new ways to
produce greater results from your marketing
efforts.
Research from the GlobalSpec Industrial
Marketing Trends survey indicates that only 37
percent of industrial marketers are using
marketing automation software. In the year
ahead, we expect to see more B2B marketers
investing in platforms that can help segment
audiences more precisely and guide prospects
through the buy cycle, ensuring that you are
delivering the right messages to the right
audience at the right time.
Trend #3:
Measuring ROI is both a priority, and a
challenge.
Pressure continues to rise for industrial
marketers to demonstrate a measurable return
on their marketing spend. Budgets have gotten
tighter, and are often under more scrutiny
by executives. Additionally, the growth of digital
media channels means an increased ability to
measure marketing efforts – making
demonstrating ROI no longer the exception, but
the rule.
When industrial marketers were asked about
the single biggest challenge of their profession
as part of the GlobalSpec Industrial Marketing
Trends survey, the most common response was
measuring the ROI of their marketing efforts.
Going forward, we expect to see more
industrial marketers focus on improving their
ROI measurement efforts by going beyond lead
generation counts and examine their ability to
track all prospect engagement through the
sales cycle. Additionally, we anticipate an
increase in shared definitions of marketing
effectiveness across an organization, so
marketers have received collective buy-in on
the metrics that matter to the organization.
4

5. Trend #4:
Quality content will be more critical than ever.
As more content that helps B2B buyers build
internal business cases and justify purchasing
decisions is made available online, the demand
for relevant content continues to grow. It’s a
rapidly accelerating cycle that shows no signs
of leveling out. This trend makes it imperative
that industrial marketers continue to invest in
producing quality content.
According to the GlobalSpec Industrial
Marketing Trends survey, content marketing is
one of the top three channels currently being
utilized by industrial marketers. Furthermore,
respondents also indicated that content
creation and distribution will be a top area of
emphasis for marketing teams over the next five
years, though relatively few respondents have a
documented content strategy.
Now that more industrial marketers are
incorporating content into the marketing mix,
companies will now turn their focus to ensuring
their efforts are producing the desired results. In
2022, we anticipate that more industrial
marketers will begin to create content
marketing strategies based on achieving
specific, measurable objectives, and produce
content designed for specific stages of the
purchasing process.
Trend #5:
It’s time to combine the tried-and-true with
the new.
Despite the significant shift to online channels
by marketers in recent years, many traditional
channels remain part of the marketing mix.
For example, two-thirds of respondents from
the GlobalSpec Industrial Marketing Trends
survey indicated that they continue to invest in
tradeshows as part of their marketing plan,
although their overall spend remains steady.
And it makes sense – tradeshows offer visibility
in a market, an opportunity to meet prospective
buyers, and a chance to keep tabs on
competitors.
In 2022, we envision seeing traditional
marketing tactics like tradeshows woven more
tightly with online tactics to generate
a positive ROI. More industrial marketers will
rely on digital channels before, during and after
the show to gain momentum, increase
engagement, and build relationships.
What other marketing
trends do you see for 2022?
Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and
Twitter to let us know!
5
Five Industrial Marketing Trends that Will Matter in 2022
-Continued-

6. A Six-Point Checklist for Success:
Getting Started with Building Your 2022 Marketing Plan
1. Build marketing plans and justify
expenditures now. Don’t wait to hear that
funds are available for marketing. Proactively
plan your marketing efforts and gather evidence
to justify your expected expenditures. Make sure
you receive executive endorsement so you’re
ready to go as soon as possible. Otherwise, you
might fall behind your competitors.
2. Prioritize marketing investments. Seek
integrated marketing programs that use multiple
tactics to maximize your exposure and
opportunities for engagement, ensuring that you
are reaching your prospects and customers at
every stage of the buying cycle. Now is the time
to select marketing channels that will help you
build relationships with your target audience.
3. Explore new markets. Your products and
services may be a good fit for a new, untapped
sector. Manufacturers that can display their
products and services simultaneously across
multiple markets will have the best opportunity to
gain new customers. Ad networks, newsletter
advertising and webinars are effective ways to
target specific customers in new markets.
4. Update marketing materials and fine-tune
messaging. Make sure your marketing collateral
and website are up-to-date with current
messaging and the latest product versions. If you
choose to enter new markets, you may need to
revise some messaging and re-purpose existing
case studies, white papers and other materials.
Create an inventory of content assets and
determine what else is needed to move your
customers through the buy cycle. Do it now to
avoid long lead times.
5. Be mindful of measurement. Today, the most
effective marketing programs are ones that
demonstrate branding, awareness and
engagement opportunities for your company. You
can easily see what is working and focus
marketing dollars on the most successful
programs, which will help reduce waste while
increasing results.
6. Work with new media partners. Preparing
targeted marketing programs may be new to you.
You shouldn’t have to do it alone. This is a good
time to consult with an experienced media
partner that understands and has the attention of
the industrial audience you need to reach.
Discuss your marketing objectives and have
them show you an integrated, multi-channel
media plan that will help achieve your goals and
objectives.
6

7. Is Your Marketing Mix Delivering Results?
Over 90 percent of engineering, technical and industrial, professionals use the Internet to search for
products and services.
Use the matrix below to chart the engagement and branding capabilities (the ability to promote and
reinforce your company’s image or name) of the various media channels and tactics you are currently using,
and what you would like to add to the mix for 2022.
The vertical axis represents the quality of engagement opportunities, from low to high. The horizontal axis
shows how well each marketing channel promotes brand visibility, measured by exposure to engineering,
technical and industrial professionals you reach.
Channels
• Direct mail (house list)
• Direct mail (rented list)
• Display advertising (ad networks)
• Display advertising (individual sites)
• Email (house list)
• Email (rented list)
• Mobile marketing
• Native advertising
• Newsletters
• Online catalogs
• Online directories
• Print catalogs
• Printed trade publications
• SEM
• SEO
• Social media
• Trade shows
• Webinars
Questions to ask yourself:
•
•
•
Where do your current marketing
channels fit on this matrix?
What percentage of your marketing
budget goes to each channel?
How visible is your company to your
audience of technical professionals
searching for your products and services?
Low
Low High
High
Engagement
Opportunities
Branding
7

8. How Do You Measure and Improve the Quality of Your Leads?
The first step in measuring the quality of leads is to know what a high-quality customer looks like. This is called your Ideal Customer Profile. To find yours,
look at sales data and find commonalities in customers that have exhibited the behavior you’re looking to replicate. These are the prospects you should
focus on creating engagement opportunities with. Let’s take a look at the matrix below to get started.
Marketing Tip: Test & Automate
Test different content types and
targeting tactics to see what performs
best for your business. When you find
something that works, automate the
process to keep it consistent and
speedy. Timely follow-up can often
be the difference between closing an
opportunity or letting a lead go cold.
Questions to ask yourself:
• Do you have the information to
match leads to your ideal customer
profile?
• Where can you reach your ideal
customers to create additional lead
activity?
• What content should you be sharing
to create interest?
• Where are the bottlenecks in
creating qualified leads and passing
them to sales?
Customer Profile — Take a look
at the contact’s location,
industry, job title, company size,
and other available details, and
compare them to your ideal
customer profile. The closer the
match, the further to the right on
the X axis they should go. If
information is unavailable or not
a match, the lead should be
placed further to the left.
Lead Activity — When a
prospect engages with your
company by calling, submitting,
clicking, reading, or sharing
content you’ve created- that is a
lead activity. The more activities
a contact has, the more
interested they are in your
company, products and
services. You can increase the
amount of activity by pushing
content across multiple
channels to your target
audience, and nurturing
interested prospects with
marketing automation.
8

9. The Trend Toward Multichannel Marketing
When customers have many tools at their disposal, you need to broaden and deepen your reach to engage them in ways to match their
searching and sourcing preferences. Sixty-two percent of engineers said they would rather not speak to a salesperson until they are at least
50 percent through their buying process. Preferring to search independently and wait to contact vendors until after the research and needs
analysis stage. This means organizations must find other ways to get in front of their customers, and social media looks like a good start.
When engineers were asked about the value of different social media channels, 74-82 percent of engineers said that Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, Pintrest, and Reddit are all somewhat to very valuable. This is an important change when compared to 2019 and 2020 when
64-76 percent of engineers said the opposite and that those same social media channels were not valuable.
Under 50%
50-70%
Over 70%
In thinking about the entire buying process for significant
work purchases, from early research to the final purchase
decision, how much of the process happens online before
you choose to speak to someone at the company?
9
How valuable are the following social media channels when
seeking information on the latest engineering technologies,
industry trends, and products?
Professional community
networks
LinkedIn
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Pinterest
Reddit
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Not very valuable Somewhat valuable Very valuable
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Source: 2021 Smart Marketing for Engineers - GlobalSpec & TREW Marketing

10. The Trend Toward Multichannel Marketing
In this era of digital media, an influx of channels are commanding attention from engineers and the companies that market and sell industrial products
and services. Industrial marketers are spending time creating digital content, with 81 percent of marketers creating email newsletters and 79 percent
creating blog posts/short articles. In-person events saw a dramatic fall over the course of 2021, starting at 65 percent of marketers and falling to 38
percent. Based on research collected by GlobalSpec, we expect that falling trend to last while the boom of digital marketing keeps growing.
What content types are industrial marketers using?
10
Email newsletters
Blog posts/short articles
Videos (pre-produced)
Infographics
Case studies
Virtual Events / Webinars
In-person events
White papers
Print magazines
Digital magazines
eBooks / guides
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
81%
79%
79%
66%
65%
55%
38%
37%
35%
31%
30%
Source: Manufacturing Content Marketing - GlobalSpec

11. Five Guidelines for a Successful Social Media Strategy
Within the past few years, social media has seen an increased audience from the engineering industry. No longer can industrial and
manufacturing organizations pass by without working to gain leads through content and engagement on social media. Find success with
your social media marketing strategy by following the guidelines below.
11
1. Goals. Make sure your social media goals align with those that your organization has set. Common goals that every marketer should keep in mind would be to
increase brand awareness, increase community engagement, and grow the audience. Plan out the content schedule and align that with your social media. By
setting a plan with reachable goals, you will find it easier to reach the results you're looking for, and ultimately generate sales for your company.
2. Audience. Growing your social media audience is easier said than done. The different channels iare filled with opportunities to learn more about the audience
you want to target. This is done by spending time on the channel's platform to engage with your audience. You'll be able to learn about what bothers them,
giving you the key to getting their attention. There are a plethora of marketing tools to help you analyze who is engaging with your content and many of these
tools are built right into the platform. It is important to understand which social media channels your audience is using, different platforms attract different
demographics. For example, platforms like Instagram and Snapchat have a younger active audience (under 30), while Facebook and LinkedIn have a slightly
older active audience (30 and up). YouTube has the most diverse range, and according to research gathered by GlobalSpec, 30 percent of engineers view
YouTube as very valuable.
3. Engage. It’s important to note that engagement does not always lead to a new customer, but it can help generate leads. It's good to receieve engagement on
your posts, such as likes, comments, re-shares; but just because you built it doesn't mean they'll come. You need to go find your audience on each platform
and engage with them. Give them a reason to be interested in clicking on your profile. There are also a few standards you can stick to for increased
engagement, post several times a day, use eye-catching images, use concise and easily digestible language, and keep up with keywords and trends.
4. Content. Interesting content and making it valuable to your audience is the key to higher engagement. Social media moves fast. Your content should be
relevant, attractive, and easy to understand. The average person spends around two and a half hours a day consuming content on social media. Your
Facebook posts should not read like newsletters. It’s important to create content that stands out to users and makes them spend a few extra minutes
interacting with your posts.
5. Immediate. As established before, social media waits for no one. You can’t expect your audience to operate on your schedule, so it’s important to know the
best engagement times, or the time that users are more likely to see your content. Know that this can vary between platforms. Treat engagement on your
social media as the service industry. Make sure someone on your team is around to engage with users and answer any questions they may have. Users react
well to good customer service.

12. Have you felt the impact of media channels competing for an increase in your audience’s
attention? It’s time to take a new look at your existing marketing initiatives and determine what
needs to be added to the mix to maximize your results.
1. Choose the channels that your customers use. When researching a work-related
purchase, the top three channels for technical professionals are search engines, online
catalogs, and supplier websites. But in reality, your audience uses many other channels to
keep up with the latest product news, companies/brands, and technologies—all of which
influence their buying decisions. These channels consist of newsletters, industry sites, social
media, webinars, emails, in-person/virtual tradeshows, conferences, and industry
publications are all important information channels your customers may sources from.
2. Ensure your marketing mix includes both creative and directional advertising.
Creative advertising creates memorable awareness for your brand, helping your target
audience understand who you are and what you have to offer. Directional advertising is
where professionals turn to find a business like yours. They know exactly what they are
looking for and simply need to find the right supplier. By implementing both creative and
directional strategies, you will build awareness of your brand around all stages of the buying
cycle, allowing you to capture your target audience at the right time.
3. Deliver potential buyers the content they need. Sending out the right content is critical
to the buying process. According to research gathered by GlobalSpec and TREW Marketing
in the Smart Marketing for Engineers Survey, the majority of engineers interact with a
vendor's content three or four times before communicating directly with the company. Being
a provider of valuable, authoritative content positions your company as an expert in your
industry. This works toward building trust with your prospects, nurturing them before you sell
your products and services to drive revenue.
4. Reach out to experts for recommendations on multichannel, integrated solutions.
Your GlobalSpec account executive can offer guidance on selecting the right solution to
help you make the most of your efforts, and help you achieve your marketing goals.
The Cross Media Multiplier
With today's range of media platforms, it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to capture your target audience’s attention by using one single channel.
By diversifying your marketing spend across multiple channels, you can engage with your audience through multiple outlets to generate the results you
need. Expanding your media program will increase your brand exposure and place it front and center during the early stages of the buying cycle,
keeping you competitive by building awareness. This is known as the Cross Media Multiplier.
Taking the Next Step
Media
Plan
Content
Marketing
Product
Discovery
Display
Advertising
Newsletters
Custom
Emails
Webinars
Social
Media
Print
“Advertisers will achieve higher ROI
from investing in well-designed cross-
media campaigns than by relying
solely on search or any other single
method.” - Chuck Richard, VP & Lead Analyst,
Outsell, the 2X Cross Media
Advertising Multiplier Effect
12

13. Questions to ask yourself:
Media Channel — Are you continuing to use the same media channels year
after year, or are you allocating more of your budget to create a diverse,
multichannel marketing strategy? In a recent GlobalSpec survey, more than half
of technical professionals reported spending six or more hours a week on the
Internet, with 39 percent indicating they spend ten or more hours a week
online. No single resource is king for engineers. They utilize supplier websites,
search engines, white papers, webinars, tradeshows, and online catalogs in
their quest for information.
Reach — Sixty-eight percent of technical professionals use the Internet to
obtain product specifications, and to find components, equipment, services, and
suppliers. How many people are you reaching? Are they the right kind
of people (i.e., the engineering, technical, industrial, and manufacturing
communities)? Are you reaching them at the right time, when they are actively
looking for products and services?
Frequency — How often do you reach your target audience? A few times a
year or 24/7? Can your audience find you whenever they are interested in your
products and services?
Timing — Is your message reaching potential customers who are proactively
seeking products and services or individuals who are just browsing? In other
words: Do you hook them when they’re hungry?
Return — What kind of return, in terms of engagement opportunities, do you
get for the marketing dollars you spend?
Contacts and Inquiries — Do you receive contacts and inquiries in real
time with contact information for individuals? Do you know their specific
areas of interest? Or is the data you receive unqualified or stale?
Branding — How visible is your company and its products and services to the
engineering, technical, industrial, and manufacturing professionals who are
looking for them? Very noticeable or lost in the shuffle?
How Do Your Media Choices Compare?
You have many choices on where and how to spend your marketing dollars. The Media Matrix on page 14 can help you analyze the
effectiveness of your expenditures across various media channels.
Questions to ask media providers:
Reporting — Do you have access to comprehensive
reporting with key contact information including their area
of interest?
Timeliness — Are the engagement opportunities you
receive fresh, qualified, active — and are they delivered in
real time?
Reach and Frequency — Are you continuously exposed
to a growing target audience for your products and
services? Or is circulation and audience shrinking?
Media Plan — Will you receive a comprehensive media
plan that outlines channels, reach, frequency and cost?
Media Channels — Will your media plan incorporate
a multi-channel, cross-media strategy that targets the
channels our audience uses throughout their buy cycles?
13

14. Media Matrix
Media Channel Reach/Frequency Timing Advantages Disadvantages ROI Metrics
Quality Volume Timing
Brand
Exposure
Company Websites Low/Continuous
Active
searchers
Exposure
Branding
Good for existing cus-
tomers
Requires external marketing to drive
traffic and find new customers
High cost/resource commitment
Low for new cus-
tomers
High for existing
customers
Med Low-Med High High
Direct Mail (house
& rented lists)
Low/Varies
Passive
browsers
Personalized messaging
High cost
No broad coverage
Low response rates
Low quality of rented lists
Low for rented lists
Med for house lists
Low-Med Low-Med Low Low-Med
Email (house &
rented lists)
Med/Varies
Passive
browsers
Immediacy
Personalized messaging
Risk to reputation if considered spam
Lack of domain expertise
Low quality of rented lists from
non-specialized providers
Low for rented lists
Med for house lists
Low-Med Low-Med Med Low
Online Catalogs High/Continuous
Active
searchers
Exposure
Branding
Demand generation &
managemnet/reporting
Buyer timeliness
Online only High High Med-High High
High at
company
& product
level
Online DIrectories
Low-Med/Contin-
uous
Active
searchers
Drives traffic
Limited audience
Variable lead quality
Low Med Med Med Low
General Search
Engines
High/Continuous
Active
searchers
Drives traffic
Escalating costs
Keyword expertise required
May not deliver relevant traffic
Low-Med Low Varies Med Low
Newsletters Med/Varies
Passive
browsers
Active
searchers
Branding
Personalized messaging
Exposure
Reaches active and non-active
readers
High High Med-High Med-High Med-High
Print Catalogs Med/Varies
Active
searchers
Branding
Contacts and inquiries
Measurability
Quickly outdated
High production & mail costs
Steadily declining usage
Low Med-High Low Low High
Trade Shows Low/Yearly
Passive
browsers
Face to face communi-
cation
Branding
Quality of contacts and
inquiries
High cost
Low frequency
Declining attendance
Low new market reach
Low Med Low Low High
Webinars Med/Varies
Active
searchers
Branding
Thought leadership
Showcase products and
services
Limited audience High Med-High Med-High Med-High High
14

15. In the industrial sector, the percentage of
marketing dollars invested in various media
channels has been shifting significantly over
the past few years. As technical professionals
turn to the Internet first to find product and
service information, it’s no surprise that a
greater percentage of marketing program
dollars are being shifted to online marketing.
Where Do You Allocate Marketing Dollars?
Exercise
Use the worksheet on the right to input
the dollar amount and percentage of your
marketing budget you spend on each media
channel. Compare 2021 expenditures to
planned 2022 expenditures. Are you re-
allocating dollars to more effectively reach your
target audience of technical professionals?
Media Channel/ Marketing Tool 2021 Actual 2022 Planned
Blogs $ % $ %
Company websites $ % $ %
Content marketing $ % $ %
Data analytics $ % $ %
Direct mail using in-house lists $ % $ %
Direct mail using rented/purchased lists $ % $ %
Email marketing using in-house lists $ % $ %
Email marketing using rented/purchased lists $ % $ %
Industry publications $ % $ %
Internet banner advertising networks $ % $ %
Internet banner advertising on individual sites $ % $ %
Marketing automation $ % $ %
Mobile marketing $ % $ %
Online directories/websites $ % $ %
Online newsletter sponsorships/ads $ % $ %
Podcasts $ % $ %
Printed directories $ % $ %
Public relations $ % $ %
Search engine marketing (SEM) $ % $ %
Search engine optimization (SEO) $ % $ %
Social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube) $ % $ %
Telemarketing $ % $ %
Trade magazine advertising $ % $ %
Tradeshows $ %
Video $ % $ %
Webinars $ % $ %
Other (fill in here) $ % $ %
Total $ 100 % 100 %
% $
15

16. The newsletter ad, webinar, and
the video and product catalog
are all components of your
broader marketing plan, which
includes top of the funnel
activities like brand awareness
and thought leadership. They
exist as parts of an entire
ecosystem of campaigns and
customer touch points, and
they all contributed to this
engagement opportunity.
Measuring Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI)
Industrial marketers are under unprecedented pressure to demonstrate return on marketing investment (ROI) for their initiatives. Results from the
latest GlobalSpec Industrial Marketing Trends survey indicate that measuring the ROI of marketing efforts is the single biggest challenge that
industrial marketers face. This often leaves marketers dwelling on questions such as: How much did this email campaign contribute to the bottom
line? How much revenue did that banner ad produce? But these might not be the best questions to be asking. While it makes sense to consider
ROI when creating marketing plans and campaigns, it’s highly unlikely that any single campaign or tactic can be correlated on a one-to-one basis
with a sale, especially in industries with long and complex buy cycles. Yet many marketers will drop a marketing program that doesn’t have sales
associated with it. This may be a mistake, and it has the potential to lead to abandoning programs that are making effective contributions to your
overall marketing strategy.
Marketing ROMI and the Buy Cycle
The nature of your customers’ buying cycle can make it difficult to correlate sales to specific marketing channels. The industrial buy cycle is often
long and complex, involving multiple stages, from needs assessment to comparison and evaluation, to a final purchasing decision. In the vast
majority of cases, buyers will interact with your company’s content and brand many times and through multiple channels, often without contacting
you, before they make a purchasing decision. Here is an example of how a prospective buyer may interact with your content before actually
contacting your sales team.
Downloaded a White Paper Registered for a Webinar
to see a product demo
Watched a Video
featuring your product
manager
Searched Your Online Product Catalog Typed Your Company Name
into A Search Engine
to get your contact information
Began a Sales Conversation
(Finally)
16

17. Are You Ready for an Advanced Attribution Model?
Five Questions to Ask Yourself
Part of proving the return on investment for your marketing programs is finding the best way to track how much revenue credit each of your
initiatives should receive.
We have long warned industrial marketers to beware the last click model, in which 100% of the credit for a conversion is given to the last touch a
client made. This is because the average customer’s buy cycle includes many campaign touches that cumulatively add up to help achieve a sale.
In addition to last click, marketers may use a first click formula, or a wide variety of multi-touch models and even account-based attribution. When
deciding what’s best for your organization, consider the following five factors.
1. Which channels do you want to measure? Think about the number of channels you use. As your program becomes more sophisticated,
advanced attribution becomes more necessary.
2. How is your performance measured? Is your department judged on leads, opportunities, customer acquisition, revenue, or something
else?Oftentimes, the metrics vary even within the department. Take note of what each person in your team is responsible for. If you come away
with a lot of answers, this is a sign that advanced attribution may be the best way to keep track of all these metrics.
3. What’s your budget? Your marketing spend is important here for a few reasons. First, you want to make sure that you’re properly measuring
how your money is being spent. Your attribution model will affect how agile your program can be. Of course, attribution is all the more
important when there is more to measure and more to optimize.
4. How long is your sales cycle? A longer sales cycle often equates to your customers interacting with you via multiple touchpoints before a
decision is made. It’s important to know which touch points moved each prospect along in their journey, where most prospects find you, and
what is the ultimate touchpoint that prompts them to make a decision. Of course, it’s up to you to determine what each interaction is worth
when making your attribution model.
5. How’s your relationship with your sales team? The struggle to align sales and marketing is perhaps as old as the professions
themselves. Your attribution model can actually help in this struggle, as it unites both sales and marketing around the same goal of revenue.
Meet with key figures in the sales department to determine whether advanced attribution can be an asset to them, too.
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18. GlobalSpec as Your Marketing Partner
At GlobalSpec, we’re focused on helping manufacturers and service providers like you understand, reach and
engage with our targeted audience to grow your business. Here are three reasons why you should consider
making us your trusted marketing partner.
1. We have your audience.
GlobalSpec gives you the ability
to reach engineers and technical
professionals at all stages of the buy cycle.
We deliver a robust audience across our
platforms, which includes
Engineering360.com, Electronics360.com,
and Datasheets360.com. This allows us to
connect you with an expanded audience of
engineers and technical professionals that
meet the industry, job function, and interest
criteria that you’re looking for.
Engineers and technical professionals return
to us again and again to find the information
they need to do their jobs. When you
connect with our audience, they are actively
searching for information, not just passively
browsing. This audience is more engaged
and more likely to become a customer.
2. You gain valuable contact information—
providing you with the intelligence to
begin a relationship and gain a customer.
When you get a contact or inquiry from
GlobalSpec, you know who it is, what their
area of interest is, and more. This type of data
can guide your response and relationship with
a potential client, helping increase your
opportunity for gaining a new customer.
3. We will tailor a media solution for you—
one that will meet your needs and
complement your other marketing efforts.
With products ranging from product discovery
platforms, to newsletters, webinars, banner
advertisements, print, and custom content, we
can build a cross-media program that will help
you build awareness and demand, no matter
how broad or niche your desired reach. When
you work with GlobalSpec, you work with an
online marketing partner with experience and
expertise reaching your audience.
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19. About GlobalSpec
GlobalSpec is a provider of data-driven industrial marketing solutions designed to help
companies promote their products and grow their businesses.
Our audience of engineers and technical professionals relies on the GlobalSpec family of brands
– including Engineering360, Electronics360, and Datasheets360 – as trusted resources for
content, community, and engagement at all stages of the research, design and purchasing
process.
We deliver deep industry intelligence, customized marketing programs, and measurable
campaign performance.
For more information about GlobalSpec:
Visit: globalspec.com/advertising
Call: 800.261.2052
Email: sales@globalspec.com
201 Fuller Road, Suite 202
Albany, NY 12203-3621
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