Engineering Copywriter Blog

Engineering is about solving problems efficiently and effectively. As a result, engineers tend to focus on what is most practical and useful to them for a given task. This is reflected in the way they process information. Capturing the interests of an engineering audience can be tough, but with the right marketing content strategy, you stand a much better chance of converting them into paying customers. Read on for practical tips on how to attract and retain engineering readers.

What is content marketing and why does it matter?

Content marketing as it’s often referred to, is a strategic marketing approach that focuses on generating and disseminating valuable, timely, and consistent content to engage and retain a target audience and steer gainful customer action. This type of strategy is used by leading brands, including Microsoft, P&G, and Cisco Systems, to provide valuable information and help prospective clients clarify issues.

Recent studies show that businesses are handling strategic content more earnestly and that 76% of the surveyed businesses have already made a calculated approach to content management. Similarly,research shows that 96% of those successful content marketers have built credibility and trust with the audience and that 76% have successfully nurtured subscribers and leads.

Marketing content is good for your business’s bottom line as well as for your customers. Here are three key reasons why content marketing is important:

• – Increase sales. Great content marketing drives the demand for products and services by creating subscribers who know, like, and trust your brand. This helps build up a following of loyal readers who may or may not be in direct need of your services at the moment. By applying the ‘rule of 7‘ principle, you will be able to successfully entice consumers into purchasing your product or availing of your services. This principle will help engineers remember your product as soon as they need it.
• – Leverage ROI. Content marketing leverages costs by utilizing the power of a dedicated audience to deliver better results. Instead of paying for multiple traditional sponsorships to endorse your product, you can get your return on investment (ROI) by engaging well with your current readers and followers. In turn, these customers will be your advertising machines and help you market your products through recommendations and word-of-mouth.
• – Produces loyal customers. Marketing of high-quality content has the effect of creating and retaining loyal customers. Crafting useful marketing messages and sharing consistent and helpful information will let engineers know that you are their technical partner, not just a vendor.

How can you create marketing content for an engineering audience?

1. Select the right topic.

Creating great marketing content starts with selecting the best topics to write about. Industrial marketers should invest the majority of their time in looking for the right topic that will engage engineers and not just in creating general content for the sake of it.

Industrial marketers can look for topics using free and paid online resources such as keyword searches, keyword planners, forums, social media, google trends, and other smart tools. These are useful tools that will help you scout out the keywords and phrases that engineers are searching on the web.

You can also come up with topics by speaking directly to your readers by asking them directly on your social media channels through a social media post. You can also create polls or email your subscribers to ask them what they want to read about.

Don’t overlook your sales teams. They are customer-facing, and listen to problems your sector is facing day in, day out and can surely help you come up with some topic ideas.

Another way to choose a topic is by using your analytics to tell you what’s working and what’s not. Check your top-performing posts and either re-create them or flesh them out by writing more related posts.

2. Choose the correct type of content.

Aside from selecting topics, as an industrial marketer, you should also look at the type of content that you want to produce. Here are the main ones:

• – Blogs. Blogs are not only online journals but also marketing channels. A business blog can be used as a marketing tactic. Blogging can help your business gain more online visibility and support business growth. Statistics show that businesses that blog get 126% higher lead growth than those that do not.
• – White papers. White papers are authoritative and in-depth reports that presents and solves a problem around a specific topic. Marketers often use white papers as a lead magnet. It helps build brand credibility and trust with readers. People who download white papers are often those who are already in the customer buying cycle.
• – Social media posts. Social media can be used for reaching out to your audience with regular posts. This type of content helps marketers expand their reach, boost brand awareness, and promote their products and services. Statistics show that 87% of marketers use social media as their most common delivery mechanism for content marketing. Aside from that, social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, and Snapchat, with their millions of daily users, are great sources of traffic.
• – Email newsletters. Email newsletters are email communications that are sent out to interested parties and subscribers. Marketers today use email newsletters to get content in front of their audience. Email marketing, when used correctly, is considered to be one of the most important and effective ways to connect and build relationships with customers.
• – Long-form content. Articles in excess of 2,000 words are generally considered long-form content.  Creating this type of content is great for SEO. It generates higher page views and more online visibility through social shares and links. Aside from that, it lends more authority and industry expertise to the brand. Examples are guides or e-books which present complex information in a simple and appealing manner.
• – Testimonials.  Testimonials are social evidence of a customer’s experience with your brand. Reviews are likely to resonate well with your target market. Statistics show that 92% of people trust peer recommendations and 70% will trust a stranger’s recommendation.
• – Case studies. Case studies in marketing are powerful tools to convert leads into customers. This marketing content technique allows you to tell the story of your brand and customer. It discusses how a brand’s specific service or product has benefited a customer.
• – Press releases. A press release is designed to be a communication tool for the company’s PR staff and the media. In marketing, however, press releases can be used as a tool to distribute content to the media and attract incoming links.
• – Videos. Video is not just an electronic medium; it has also become an important content communication method on nearly every platform. Marketers today implement video marketing strategies to appeal to and convert customers. Statistics show that 50% of consumers prefer video content, and a video on your landing page can increase conversion by 80%.
• – Podcasts. Podcasts are becoming one of the best ways to build a deep and rich relationship with your target audience. Recent statistics reveal that podcasting has shown consistent annual growth, with a reported 90 million monthly listeners. As such, marketers can increase their brand reach and help grow their audience using podcasting.

You can use your current and available platforms such as your company website and social media channels to publish your marketing content.

Pro Tip: Repurpose your content! For example, a 1200-word blog post could also be summarized in a shorter 600-word LinkedIn article. You could also create a short 2-minute video discussing the topic for a social media post.

3. Make it useful.

To capture an engineer’s interest, you have to make sure that the marketing content you produce is useful and provides vital information. It must offer them a solution to their problem, be informative, and command authority, all at the same time. Engineers can easily get bored if you add in unnecessary information that is either too trivial or just veers away from the topic.

Remember to place images throughout the post. Long explanations with no illustrations can be dull and drag the reader down. Pictures, graphs, and illustrations help engineers and other readers visualize what you are talking about.

As previously mentioned, you have to create marketing content that engineers will care about rather than just some random topic. That said, it should be relevant to their job roles and responsibilities. At the same time, you should avoid veering too far from your business’ own offerings.

Practical advice and technical specifics are far more valuable than merely providing your readers with a variety of products and services that they can buy. Blatant sales marketing consisting solely of products and services can be off-putting to potential subscribers.

You may choose to create ‘How to’ guides offering practical information, as well as providing more brief and direct-to-the-point technical content. These guides can be your presentation of technical data, or may come from current customer feedback on your product. In this way, the reader will simultaneously receive an authoritative and objective overview of your product as well as a clear view of what your company can offer them in the future.

Furthermore, your content should also be accessible, meaning it should not only be available online but should be presented in a way that enhances the user’s experience. This means that the data is intuitively laid out, has a hierarchical structure, has clearly labeled information, and includes meaningful titles and headlines. Application of the basic principles of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) will definitely serve you well in this regard.

Pro Tip: Speak to your current customers. Ask them what challenges they are facing, and what problems crop up in their day-to-day roles. You might be surprised how many content ideas you can derive from their responses!

4. Create credibility and authority

Creating credibility does not merely mean increasing domain authority. Rather, it’s critical that you truly know what you are writing about. Engineers who read your content will know if you do and will ascribe a level of trust and acceptance based on the information that you share. This critical marketing content credibility can be built by:

• Post often and regularly. Generate a schedule for adding new content and stick to it. Statistics show that posting regularly results in brands improving their relevance and driving more traffic to their site.
• Source your statistics from credible sources. Sourcing and citing statistics lend credibility to all your other content. External hyperlinks to high authority websites can also help your site’s SEO.
• Be consistent with the brand voice. A consistent tone of voice matters when communicating with your reader. It is your unique identity, and separates you from the competition.
• Provide high-quality content. Quality extends beyond understanding your source material. Your content should also be free of grammatical and spelling errors, and formatted in a professional manner. You must ensure that your acronyms, technical terms, and industry jargon are all correct.
• Incorporate Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). SMEs act as natural content amplifiers. A respected expert can give your business a huge credibility boost.
• Profile the product designers. Allowing readers to see the people behind the design and development process inspires an air of transparency and authenticity to everything the customer reads. The features of your products and services gain more life when employees are encouraged to participate in the discussion.
• Show results. Profile real customers that your business has helped. For example, you can ask for customer testimonials and add that to your content. Or try creating and presenting case studies. These can be used to show your product or service’s application and utility in various customer problems.
• Be the best answer. Offer a value proposition that no one else can. You can do this by understanding your audience, listening to what they say, and then creating content that meets the needs that they didn’t even know they had.

Pro Tip: When it comes to posting on a consistent basis, try creating a simple Google Sheet to help plan blog articles, for example, and collaborate on it with your team.

Attracting and retaining loyal engineering readers can be a challenge. By following the steps above, however, you can help your business attract loyal readers and eventually turn them into customers.