The Rise of OEM Manufacturing
Age of Mechanical production
In 18th century northern England, James Hargreaves sparked the beginning of the industrial revolution with the invention of the Spinning Jenny, which lead to advances in mechanical production processes.
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Age of Electricity
As we rapidly became more efficient with how we generated, stored and transferred energy, the industrial revolution went through yet more stages of growth and prosperity: Sensors, electricity, mass production and in-line assembly became the norm.
The Computer Age
After the war, the baby boomer generation grew up with electronics and automation and the OEM supply chain grew.
The Information Age
Nowadays we are entering the information age which will be defined by those that know how to collect, interrogate and act upon big data. At the heart of all of this data, the components which are in demand now more than ever before are…Sensors!
“Information is the oil of the 21st century, and analytics is the combustion engine” - Peter Sondergaard, Gartner
Whether you are measuring changes in temperature, gas composition, flow, liquid level, humidity, light, colour, pressure, voltage, current, vibration, the hall effect... Name an application and there will be an industry collecting terabytes of data every second of every day.
And it doesn’t just stop in measuring physical activity either, through cookies, algorithms and powerful analytical platforms, we can measure how people engage with content and use this behavioural data to predict what content they would like to see next.
OEM Marketing - The Buyer's Journey Along The Sales Funnel
We can apply this principle to OEM sensors news, content and product information. Around 57% of the buying process is completed before a customer even speaks to a salesperson, so the content you produce needs to capture the attention of the intended audience.
When creating a content marketing campaign, the sales funnel is a good tool to use to help determine the types of content to create and who to target this content towards.
This blog post will look specifically at how the sales funnel can be utilized for effective sensor marketing, using the example of drones with sensor technology for obstacle detection.
Top of the Funnel Content – The Awareness Stage
Top of the funnel content is used to appeal to anyone who has a general interest in the product or technology you are trying to market. For the drone example, this would be aimed at anyone who has an interest in drones but doesn’t have a working knowledge of them.
Content that falls into this section is easy to understand and often easily searchable and shareable. It is used to engage the audience and there is often little mention of the brand or product.
Thought leader interviews are a great example of top of the funnel content, such as this one from AZoSensors;
This is a successful piece of top of the funnel content as it provides an easy-to-understand overview of the subject area, while subtly creating awareness of the brand.
An effective tactic is to cast your net far and wide by ensuring that your TOFu content is optimised. Good examples of top of the funnel content include explainer videos, infographics and anything which generates intrigue and awareness.
Middle of the Funnel Content – The Consideration Stage
Once your OEM prospects and customers are engaging with your brand, target them with some more application-specific, middle of the funnel content and it is here you can identify potential leads.
Content that positions your brand as an expert provides reassurance to any potential customers that you are a brand they can trust. This is exactly what this insight from industry interview does by providing technical information about on-site wafer fab for MEMS production:
Again, like the top of the funnel content, this piece isn’t visibly trying to sell to customers, which can sometimes be a deterrent, it merely educates around more specific subject matter. Other pieces of middle of the funnel content include application notes and eBooks.
Bottom of the Funnel Content – The Decision Stage
Top and middle of the funnel content are used to nurture any potential leads and warm them up before they engage with content that is designed to sell a product or service.
The potential customer would have been enticed by the top-of-the-funnel content, and then furthered their knowledge about the product or technology with the middle-of-the-funnel content, so they should now have a full understanding of how your company can help them.
Typical bottom of the funnel content includes product videos, case studies, or product profiles like this flow meter from Sensirion.
A positive user experience is crucial at this stage because if the potential customer can’t find the information they are looking for they’ll go and find it somewhere else.
These types of content are commercially focused, with USPs, benefits and more information readily available as well as clear calls to action.
Choosing the appropriate channels for the different types of content you want to distribute is critical for a successful sensors marketing strategy. Social Media channels are great for TOFu content and generate brand awareness, whilst product profiles and application webinars are great examples of BOFu content.
Sensor Marketing Solutions from AZoNetwork
AZoNetwork has a range of solutions for a successful OEM sensor marketing strategy. We are experts in scientific content marketing, and we build campaigns with content that covers all stages of the funnel to generate awareness, leads and ultimately sales.
Contact us today to see how we can help with marketing your science to a B2B sensors audience.
Related Sensors Testimonials
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The AZoNetwork team is great to work with. Their determination to get you the best results possible is extra motivating for us as a company. I would certainly recommend them to a colleague.
Ruud Heijsman FLIR Systems
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The ability to interrogate your traffic and leads coming through AZoNetwork in AZoIntel is what sets the service apart - Not many sites tie in such quality analytics at the back end.
Lewis Coburn EKF Diagnostics
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Over the past 6 months our organic traffic has increased 17.51% compared to the same period last year and the number of contact form submissions we’ve seen has risen from 0 in that period to 23
Oliver Pust Delta Optical Thin Film
