Brand Publishing Targeting High-Level Engineers And Operators

There should be little doubt that the “game” has profoundly changed in terms of how to successfully market your solutions in the water and wastewater market.  Stakeholders have changed both in title and in number. 

Twenty years ago, you might have only needed to influence one person to affect the sale.  That individual was easily identified by their specific title making it a much easier process and clearer path to marketing success.

Now, the stakeholders could include a Consulting Engineer (perhaps multiple), General Manager, Plant Manager, Contractor, Board Member, Superintendent, and often times the dreaded Committee.

So, how do you present your solutions in a way that will appeal to the variety of decision makers involved in the purchasing process?  How do you communicate your knowledge and benefits to multiple people effectively? How do you describe your technology in a non-intimidating way to non-engineers while at the same time not appearing too elementary to the technical minds of your target audience?  Three words cover most of what’s to follow:  Content, Audience, and Source.

Step One: Connect content to issues your audience cares about. Engineers and operators tend to be collaborative and mission focused. You need to develop content that addresses their needs. Create content pieces that can act as discussion generators. Make the goal to generate discussion by creating relatable conversation pieces. 

Step Two: Create a variety of content for all the people involved in the purchasing cycle. It’s important to remember that a single piece of content is never all things to all people. To put it another way, one stakeholder might get involved at the beginning of the purchasing process, while another stakeholder connected to the exact same purchase may enter much further along.  Exploratory focused content, i.e. top of funnel content, should sound much different than content designed to influence a stakeholder who appears later in the process.  Ultimately however the process can only move as fast as the final person along the path.  An article around the common mistakes regarding filtration processes might be just as important, if not more so, than a case study on YOUR filtration technology.  The important thing to remember though is that BOTH are vital.

Step Three: A Trusted Source is your source.  Engineers and operators prefer to get their information from sources that are known in the industry. This of course is no secret.  What has appeared is an engagement chasm between those sources investing in reader-centric content and those still publishing heavily-promotional content.  Be smart with where you choose to present your content and allow your creative and relatable content to be seen by those who matter most.  Simply put, be where they are.