As we enter 2023, marketers are wrapping up their budgets for 2023. In 2022, many marketing budgets had been cut or remained flat. In a recent study from Integrate and Demand Metric, they took a look at the broader marketing community positions on budgets and resources for 2023 as companies aim for growth.
In 2023, marketers are being more optimistic about their budgets with 33% saying their budget will be slightly higher than 2022. Still, only 1 in 4 expect their 2023 budgets to be lower than 2022 budgets, which is an improvement from the situation in 2022, when one-third said it was lower than in 2021.
This year, only 1 in 3 respondents say they have more resources overall to work with than they did last year. Despite that, half of respondents say that they are expected to achieve more this year than they did in 2021.
When looking at budgets for the future, companies are looking at what areas of investments they want to commit to and what will be the best bang for their buck.
It’s no surprise that 54% anticipate an increase in budget for content creation, strategy and digital with social media platforms and influencers continuing to rise.
On the other hand, 47% expect an increase in spending on marketing operations/technology, compared to 35% who envision a decrease in spending in this area. The 47% of respondents expect to increase their budget for demand generation.
The area of investment that the largest number of study participants (53%) plan to decrease spending is on account-based marketing (ABM).
Overall, a slim majority (52%) of B2B marketers are optimistic about their marketing team and its performance compared to a year ago, and most (56%) believe it likely that their marketing team will meet or exceed the goals set for it this year.
Over the past few years, several factors such as the pandemic, supply chain and inflation have affected businesses worldwide leading to companies to evaluate their budgets. Although the economy has been impacted, marketers still remain hopeful about 2023. With these impacts, it’s likely that marketers are used to the constant changes and are trying to push past them.
CLEVELAND – January 2023 – Sonnhalter, a communications firm marketing to the professional tradesman in the construction, industrial and MRO markets, announces Wright as one of its newest clients.
Founded in 1927, Wright manufactures a complete line of more than 4,000 professional-grade hand tools for the industrial, contractor and MRO markets. Headquartered in Barberton, Ohio, Wright forges tools that create maximum strength and are designed to provide superior performance.
“With Sonnhalter’s knowledge and expertise of the trades and working closely with our key verticals, we know we can leverage our innovative tools and increase our visibility in the industry,” said Tom Futey, president and co-owner, Wright.
Sonnhalter will be assisting Wright in developing and managing their marketing needs including, but not limited to, public relations and social media efforts, paid trade media programs, key messaging development and overall marcom strategy.
“Wright is one of the last U.S. hand tool manufacturers in the industry. They’re prideful of their history and expansive product offerings,” said Matt Sonnhalter, vision architect at Sonnhalter. “We are excited to be working with Wright again and to help them further its presence as an industry leader.”
About Sonnhalter
Established in 1976, Sonnhalter is the leading B2T marketing communications firm to companies that target professional tradesmen in construction, industrial and MRO markets. Sonnhalter is located in the historic Brownell Building in the heart of downtown Cleveland. Sonnhalter’s brand identity highlights its expertise in marketing to the professional tradesmen. Its tagline, “Not Afraid To Get Our Hands Dirty,” promotes the employees’ willingness to roll up their sleeves and dig deep into clients’ businesses, also, it refers to the market it targets: the tradesmen who work with – and dirty – their hands every day. Sonnhalter developed the acronym “B2T,” which stands for “business-to-tradesmen” to capture the essence of its specialty. For more information, visit the company website at Sonnhalter.com.
About Wright
Wright manufactures a complete line of more than 4,000 professional-grade hand tools for the industrial, contractor and MRO markets. For almost 100 years, the company has been innovating, engineering and forging tools that exceed industry expectations. Nearly all Wright-branded products are U.S. made and carry lifetime guarantees against defects in workmanship. For more information on Wright and its products, visit: www.wrighttool.com or call 800-321-2902.
Sonnhalter wins a gold award in “Trade Media Relations” category on behalf of Franklin Electric.
CLEVELAND – January 2023 – Sonnhalter, a communications firm marketing to the professional tradesman in the construction, industrial and MRO markets, received a gold award in the “Trade Media Relations” category at the 20th Annual Public Relations Society of America’s (PRSA) Cleveland Rocks Awards competition recognizing excellent communications programs and tactics.
Sonnhalter received the gold award in “Trade Media Relations” for Franklin Electric’s proactive media program that maximized its effort to increase knowledge of its products among end users, distributors and media.
Sonnhalter worked to develop a proactive, strategic media relations program to leverage the knowledge and expertise within Franklin Electric and take advantage of key opportunities to spread awareness about the company, its products and technologies, and its expert sources.
The Sonnhalter program included an editorial audit that identified and outlined potential editorial opportunities,
a consistent press release program, ongoing media pitches to place bylined feature articles, technical articles, and case histories, pitching Franklin Electric experts as sources for trade editors’ round-up articles covering industry trends, issues and products and arranging one-on-one media meetings at key trade shows
“We are honored to see our work get recognized by other public relations professionals around Cleveland,” said Matt Sonnhalter, Vision Architect at Sonnhalter. “We are proud to have a collaborative effort between Sonnhalter and Franklin Electric to expand their media relations program, and we couldn’t have done it without them.”
Annually, the PRSA-Cleveland Rocks Awards acknowledge Northeast Ohio’s outstanding communications programs, which incorporate research, planning, execution and evaluation. PRSA Cleveland Rocks Award winners demonstrate leadership in public relations and contribute to advancing the profession locally.
About Franklin Electric
Franklin Electric is a global leader in the production and marketing of systems and components for the movement of water and fuel. Recognized as a technical leader in its products and services, Franklin Electric serves customers around the world in residential, commercial, agricultural, industrial, municipal, and fueling applications. Franklin Electric is proud to be named in Newsweek’s lists of America’s Most Responsible Companies and Most Trusted Companies for 2022
About Sonnhalter
Established in 1976, Sonnhalter is the leading B2T marketing communications firm to companies that target professional tradesmen in construction, industrial and MRO markets. Sonnhalter is located in the historic Brownell Building in the heart of downtown Cleveland. Sonnhalter’s brand identity highlights its expertise in marketing to the professional tradesmen. Its tagline, “Not Afraid To Get Our Hands Dirty,” promotes the employees’ willingness to roll up their sleeves and dig deep into clients’ businesses, also, it refers to the market it targets: the tradesmen who work with – and dirty – their hands every day. Sonnhalter developed the acronym “B2T,” which stands for “business-to-tradesmen” to capture the essence of its specialty. For more information, visit the company website at Sonnhalter.com.
About PRSA
The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) is the world’s largest organization for public relations professionals with nearly 32,000 professional and student members, and more than 100 Chapters nationwide. Serving nearly 300 members, the PRSA Greater Cleveland Chapter brings together public relations, communications and marketing practitioners throughout Northeast Ohio. Among the Chapter’s most important activities and duties is coordinating networking events and activities, developing and hosting professional development activities for members, serving as a resource for public relations students and providing recognition of excellence and best practices in all facets of the field of public relations. www.prsacleveland.org
Season’s greetings, from the Sonnhalter team! We are grateful for another successful year, and we couldn’t have done it without our wonderful clients, business partners and friends like you. The Sonnhalter team will be taking some time off over the holidays from December 24th to January 2nd. We hope that you enjoy this holiday season and time with your family and friends! We’ll see you in 2023! Sonnhalter, your B2T partner – let’s build something together.
Certainly, you are aware that we are in the midst of a manufacturing skills gap. Currently within the industry, manufacturing jobs remain empty and companies are unable to find workers who have the knowledge.
Not to mention, the pandemic also contributed to manufacturing jobs vanishing, and now the manufacturing field will be set back decades from the loss.
Propel developed an article and a resource tool to give some insight into the issue and how we can solve it.
The top four causes of the manufacturing gap include:
The false job perception
Lack of technology skill sets
Retiring baby boomers
Blue collar work avoidance
When it comes to manufacturing, many people have varying perceptions of what it entails. With these perceptions, people have an idea of what a manufacturing job looks like, but it’s not always accurate. Perceptions of the job can lead to young people not wanting to work in the manufacturing field.
After the perception comes the lack of technology skills. In today’s job market, companies are wanting workers who have several skills to bring to the table. In most cases, workers who are already in the manufacturing field can’t afford to learn additional skills.
A lot of baby boomers are starting to retire, which leads to jobs being empty, and it doesn’t help that younger people don’t want to work in blue collar jobs. Today, there is a stigma surrounding blue collar jobs and most people view it as people who are less educated, however, that’s far from the truth.
Check out the complete article from Propel to learn more about the manufacturing gap and tools to help.
Does the industry affect SEO? This is a fundamental question to answer because it may seem like SEO is universal, no matter what your website is about. While that is correct to some extent, there are also substantial SEO differences from one industry to another. This is mainly because the essential ranking component of SEO is content. Since content will depend on the nature of your business, it becomes clear that industry does play an important role. With that in mind, we want to talk about SEO tips for industrial companies in 2022 and how they can help you reshape your business!
Define Your Targeted Audience
As a B2B company, your targeted audience is not the same as for B2C businesses. The entire business model is entirely different, and you need to consider that when doing SEO.
One of the best ways to approach this process is to try to imagine your perfect customer. Ask yourself, what would you like to see in a client?
This is a good starting point, but it is not the only step. Once you have outlined your ideal client, try to look at your business from a client’s perspective. What would you, as a client, want from an industrial company? Many businesses fail to present their offers properly, which is one of the top deal killers for B2B buyers.
Once you understand the needs of the business and the needs of the customer, you can develop a specific customer profile that you need to target with SEO.
How to Define the Right Keywords
The industrial industry has its own set of important keywords. Once you define your targeted audience, determining the keywords will be much easier because you already know what the clients want.
Although, there is a word of caution here. We need to explain the definition of “knowing what the client wants”. Your client may want a few different things when it comes to a B2B industrial business. That is why you will need to define a range of their interests.
Let us say you are selling some machinery. For example, your clients might want to:
purchase a machine;
inquire about the use of a machine;
differentiate various types of machines;
learn how to maintain machines;
find repair services;
maybe even resale machines;
This is your range of customer needs and the base for creating keywords. Each of these points may be a different targeted group of customers.
When it comes to actual keywords, you need to create both short-tail and long-tail keywords.
Short-tail keywords are very useful but also harder to come up with. This is mainly because other companies in the industry use the same keywords.
On the other hand, long-tail keywords that usually consist of three to five words are more precise. You can specifically formulate the way clients search for a specific product.
Furthermore, long-tail keywords can also include the location and specific intent of the client.
Here are some SEO tips for industrial companies when coming up with keywords:
An example of a short-tail keyword might be industrial machinery.
And an example of a long-tail keyword might be industrial machinery for sale Cleveland.
In the second example, you are clearly defining the product (industrial machines), the type of service (purchase), and the location (Cleveland).
Use Videos to Boost Your SEO Efforts
Search engine optimization is just one step in creating a perfect buyer’s journey. This is how a client will discover your business. Since we all know how important first impression is, you want to ensure that it impacts the customer.
One way to do this is through the power of video. It is no secret that people watch video instructions much more than read them. Furthermore, a video does not require 100% attention, meaning the user can listen to it while doing other stuff. Another huge benefit, especially for industrial companies, is that a video perfectly explains how machines work, the maintenance process, and so on.
You can improve the buyer’s journey and boost your SEO efforts by implementing videos. Google simply loves the use of videos. Just remember to include your keywords in the video titles.
Do Not Forget About Meta Descriptions
Metadata is a crucial element of SEO. When a user does a search query, they get a link to a page and a short description of that same page. That is a meta description. It is a brief summary of what users can expect when they click the link.
A meta description should be punctual, concise, and engaging. It should directly tell the customer what to expect. The best tip is to keep it short and sweet, so you inform your clients and, at the same time, intrigue them. The meta description should help them decide to click on the link.
Make Sure That Your Website is Technical Without Errors
Even though SEO and digital marketing play a crucial role in advertising, it is equally important that your website is up and running without any issues. Slow loading speed or 404 errors are the quickest way to lose clients.
Also, websites that load fast rank much higher on Google. That is because the backend code is written correctly, and all the elements are optimized to improve the loading speed.
You Must Have a Mobile Version of Your Website
This should go without saying, but you need a mobile website version. This is the first thing that Google checks, and mobile websites rank higher than desktop versions.
Furthermore, clients use smartphones more often and need a mobile version.
SEO Tips for Industrial Companies in 2022 Made Simple
And there you have it. There are many ways to improve your SEO efforts, but these SEO tips for industrial companies in 2022 will make your life easier. Understand that SEO is a process that requires constant audits and maintenance. With that in mind, take your time to do it the right way!
Stella Russel is an experienced blogger and copywriter. For the last six years, she’s been writing articles for various clients, mostly in the field of online business development, SEO and digital marketing. In her free time, she likes to travel and experience new cultures.
