Buyer behavior everywhere has shifted to become more digital-first and, in the industrial sector, this change is particularly dramatic. Legacy marketing efforts are out and modernizing your marketing enablement is in.
Industrial buyers aren’t flipping through catalogs or taking cold calls like they used to. They’re scrolling through search engine results, reading reviews and narrowing down options long before they ever talk to a salesperson. Even trade shows, once a primary lead generation channel, are treated differently than they were a decade ago.
That shift has huge implications for industrial marketing and sales teams alike. To stand out, you need more than brochures and booths. You need modern and effective marketing enablement: a process of equipping marketing and sales teams with the right tools, content and data to effectively engage prospects. And with that marketing enablement, a strategy that puts data, automation and buyer insights to work. Here’s how industrial B2B companies can transform traditional marketing strategy into a scalable, data-driven engine for growth.
No one wants to be pressured to buy right away. A buyer is a person, first and foremost, no matter their job title. Feeling empowered rather than sold to is a key distinction between marketing campaigns and sales enablement that works, and a strategy that falls flat.
What does that mean in practice? Decision-makers at industrial and manufacturing companies turn to Google, download spec sheets, watch product videos and consult peers to shape their shortlists. They’re typically not reaching out to a sales rep early on.
In fact, according to Gartner, today’s B2B buyers spend just 17% of their time meeting with vendors. That number drops to single digits per supplier when they’re evaluating multiple options.
This means you can’t wait for a sales conversation to make your pitch. Buyers expect on-demand content that helps them evaluate their options and make informed decisions long before they ever request a quote. Branding matters. Storytelling matters. A seamless, modern buying experience matters.
If you’re not meeting your audience where they are, you risk losing deals before you ever know an opportunity exists.
Legacy tactics like trade shows, print catalogs and cold outreach still hold value, but only when integrated into a larger strategy. On their own, they aren’t built for modern buyer behavior. They fall short when it comes to personalization, scalability and measurable ROI.
Trade shows are costly and infrequent. Print materials are static and outdated the moment your specs change. Cold calls are more likely to hit voicemail than spark conversation. And even when these tactics generate leads, they rarely offer insights into buyer intent or sales readiness.
The truth is, traditional marketing hits a wall. It lacks the data and agility needed to nurture leads, optimize touchpoints and deliver content that aligns with what your target audience actually cares about. If you can’t connect the dots between interest and intent, your sales teams will be left guessing. And guessing doesn’t close deals.
If your marketing and sales teams aren’t working from the same playbook, you’re flying blind. Platforms like HubSpot, marketing automation tools, and analytics software give you a clear view into buyer behavior so you can stop guessing and start delivering exactly what they need, when they need it. (As an accredited HubSpot Diamond Partner, Kuno can help you get there faster!).
With this data in hand, for instance, your team can personalize follow-up emails, dynamically update landing page content and refine marketing campaigns in real-time. Sales team reps can use these insights to prioritize outreach, tailor conversations and reduce time spent on leads that aren’t (yet) ready to convert.
Content marketing has to do more than attract eyeballs. It has to educate, validate and move highly technical buyers through a long sales cycle. That means tailoring your content creation process to distinct personas.
Procurement professionals who are looking for ROI and implementation timelines. Engineers who want detailed specs and diagrams. Executives who care most about risk mitigation and revenue growth. And so on.
Industrial buyers are smart and busy. The more precisely and efficiently your content meets their needs, the more effective any marketing enablement work will be. This can include, for instance:
Your goal should be to create content that speaks to each need with clarity, accuracy and context. One Kuno client, for instance, saw a 1,800% increase in quote requests after aligning technical content with persona-specific questions and behaviors.
When sales teams and marketing teams operate in silos, leads fall through the cracks, messaging gets disjointed and both sides end up frustrated.
But when you create a shared marketing and sales process (built on shared data, goals and tools), everything works better. How do you do this?
Start with defining clear lead scoring criteria. Use the same content management systems and CRM software. Share campaign performance data in weekly meetings. Sales should know what marketing is promoting and marketing should know which leads are converting.
As an example of what success can look like, Kuno helped one industrial client overhaul their sales enablement strategy by mapping their full buyer’s journey, then aligning CRM data between HubSpot and Salesforce. The result? Higher sales performance, better reporting and faster conversion of MQLs to SQLs.
In another case, integrating ZoomInfo with HubSpot brought in 50+ data points per contact, giving sales reps intel they needed to connect faster and with more relevance.
Enablement works best when it’s a team sport.
Modernizing marketing enablement really does require the right infrastructure. Not just the latest tech, but the people and processes to support it. Platforms like HubSpot, Pardot or Marketo help you scale your marketing enablement efforts with tools for lead nurturing, segmentation, scoring, campaign automation and more.
AI is also opening up new possibilities. From content generation to email subject line testing, AI tools are helping marketers and sales teams do more with less. We’re even seeing success with AI-powered role play and sales coaching tools. These give reps real-time practice and feedback without the pressure of a live call, improving sales outcomes over time.
But technology alone isn’t enough. To future-proof your marketing and sales strategy, you also need to:
The good news? You don’t have to do all of this alone. The right marketing partner can bring strategy, structure and momentum to your efforts. (Tip: Here’s what to look for in an industrial manufacturing marketing agency!)
At Kuno Creative, we partner with industrial brands to do more than just launch marketing campaigns. We help build scalable systems that drive real growth.
With decades of experience in B2B manufacturing and industrial marketing, we know how to support sales teams and marketing teams with the tools, strategy and content needed to succeed in a complex, technical environment.
We craft messaging and assets for every stage of the buyer’s journey, tailored for engineers, procurement teams, executives and other decision makers. From SEO-rich blog content to technical product sheets and ROI calculators, we help you educate and empower your audience. For example, we’ve helped:
When your audience is niche, the sales cycle is long and budgets are tight, every campaign needs to deliver. That’s why we don’t just implement technology and build systems, we help you use them. From training your internal teams on marketing automation software to setting up dashboards that track key performance indicators, we empower and guide your marketing and sales teams to act on data in real time.
Want to see it in action? We’ve teamed up with experts from HubSpot and StackAdapt to show you how. Don’t miss your chance to learn from the best about smarter ways to target, track and optimize your campaigns for better conversions. Join us on April 30, at 11 AM ET, for our webinar The Proven Path to Better B2B Leads and Conversions. Register now!
