IndustrySelect’s Top Industrial B2B Sales & Marketing Stories of 2020
2020 was undoubtably one for the history books. The manufacturing world was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, from supply chain disruptions to labor shortages and widespread shutdowns.
Meanwhile, companies that do business with manufacturers struggled to adjust to this new business climate, shifting communication methods, motivating remote sales and marketing teams, and coming up with new solutions to serve this very important market.
In many ways, IndustrySelect’s most popular stories for 2020 reflected the efforts of sales, marketing and business development professionals to understand the struggles of their valuable manufacturing clients, improve communications and discover new opportunities amid this remarkable year.
IndustrySelect’s Top Industrial B2B Sales & Marketing Stories of 2020
1. Which Manufacturers Are Open for Business Amid Coronavirus?
When coronavirus swept across the U.S., many states shut down non-essential manufacturing. Manufacturers that deemed “critical,” however, were allowed to stay open. This led to the biggest industrial B2B question of the year: Which manufacturers were actually critical and therefore open for business? In late March, we set out to answer this question and this post turned out to be our most popular of the year. Critical infrastructure manufacturing falls within very specific categories outlined by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). In this post, we detailed all of the critical infrastructure categories by subsector to help our subscribers know which of their clients and prospects might still be open for business.
Read the full post: Which Manufacturers Are Open for Business Amid Coronavirus
2. New Manufacturing Companies Announced in June
U.S. manufacturers saw steep losses in the spring of 2020, with millions of jobs lost and industrial production hitting a low not seen since the Second World War. This left many sales, marketing and businesses development executives wondering just when the sector would recover and how. At MNI, we keep a close eye on new plant openings, expansions, acquisitions, closures and all of the key data on every industrial business in the U.S. and we were glad to report in June that new manufacturing companies were finally starting to open their doors to much social distanced fanfare. In our first “new plants” article since February, June’s roundup of new manufacturing plants was our second most popular story of the year.
Read the full post: New Manufacturing Plants Opening in June
3. New Manufacturing Companies Opening in July
In July of this year, manufacturing gained some serious momentum, with the sector posting its fastest expansion since 1980. New manufacturing plant announcements and expansions were part of this momentum, with new projects accelerating in the month of July.
Read the full post: New U.S. Manufacturing Companies Opening in July
4. Top Manufacturing Cities in the U.S.
At MNI, we keep comprehensive data on U.S. industrial companies, including valuable geographic data that allows IndustrySelect subscribers to narrow down lists of prospects by region, state, city – even zip code or congressional district. Having this detailed industrial B2B geographic data can be extremely useful for sales and marketing campaigns, so it’s no surprise that our Top 10 Manufacturing Cities in the U.S. was among our most popular this year. Based on data collected by MNI, our top 10 cities post contains some real surprises and provides a quick look at the manufacturing climate in each city.
Read the report: Top Manufacturing Cities in the U.S.
5. 78 Email Marketing Statistics for B2B Success
As coronavirus sent industrial sales and marketing professionals scrambling to retain contact with their most valuable clients and forge relationships with new prospects, email quickly rose in importance as a primary mode of communication. To help our subscribers maximize their B2B email marketing potential with IndustrySelect, we trawled the web for the most stunning statistics on email marketing, providing the most up-to-date insights on email marketing in 2020.
Read the full report: 78 Email Marketing Statistics for B2B Success
6. Top Conveyor Manufacturers in the U.S.
At MNI, we keep close track of specific parts and products made by each business in our database, which allows our IndustrySelect users to narrow down their lists of prospects to very specific subtypes. Each week, we feature a new industry on the IndustrySelect blog, based on the data we collect from companies in specific industries. Our most popular industry this year was not a surprise: conveyors. As more companies looked to automate in 2020 due to a pandemic fueled labor shortage, conveyor companies saw increased demand and those who supply and support them were especially interested in this industry.
Read the full story: Top Conveyor Manufacturers to Watch in 2020
7. As Coronavirus Reshapes U.S. Manufacturing, These are the Industries Reporting Growth
In addition to industrial B2B professionals wondering which manufacturers were open for business amid coronavirus, many also asked which industries were experiencing growth. Our post on the industrial sectors that were posting growth amid coronavirus was popular among those looking for industrial sales leads and seeking a deeper knowledge of the industry. This post took a look at medical equipment manufacturers, critical infrastructure manufacturers and explored some of the industries reporting growth to the Institute for Supply Management.
Read the full report: As Coronavirus Reshapes U.S. Manufacturing, These are the Industries Reporting Growth
8. Top States for Industrial Machinery Manufacturing
Many of our subscribers are interested in obtaining sales leads in the industrial machinery world. This powerful sector ranks among our largest industries, encompassing more than 45,000 companies across the U.S. When narrowing a list of industrial prospects by industry and geography, we thought it would be useful for our clients to know which geographic regions are home to the most companies in a given industry. In our eighth most popular story of the year, we explored the top U.S. states for industrial machinery manufacturers.
Read the full report: Which States Have the Most Industrial Machinery Manufacturers?
9. Four Steps to Effective Industrial B2B Prospecting Emails
At IndustrySelect, we’re proud to have the most accurate and powerful industrial data around, helping businesses get in direct touch with high value prospects in the industrial world. In 2020, email marketing was king, and we wanted to help our clients check all the boxes when it came to executing successful B2B email prospecting campaigns.
Read the full post: The 4 Pillars of Effective Industrial B2B Prospecting Emails
10. How to Respond When Prospects Say “I’ll Get Back to You”
We all heard a lot of this in 2020, with many businesses just not ready to make a decision or commitment. Not surprisingly, this pre-pandemic article became among our most popular articles in pandemic times. This popular article is Part Four of Five-Part Series “Common B2B Sales Objections and How to Address Them.”
Read the full post: How to Respond When Prospects Say “I’ll Get Back to You.”
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