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We help industrial companies capture qualified demand, earn buyer trust earlier, and convert attention into contract-ready pipeline. Our strategies support long, technical sales cycles and complex buying teams.
Industrial markets move fast, and companies lose opportunities when buyers can’t find or trust them online. Without a clear lead generation strategy, competitors win attention early and lock in contracts before sales ever enters the conversation.
This guide to industrial lead generation breaks down four proven techniques that attract better prospects, reduce friction in the buying journey, and accelerate revenue impact.
Lead generation is the process of finding, nurturing, and converting users who have expressed interest in your business.
For industrial companies, this process means driving results like RFQs, technical spec requests, or BOM inquiries. Your approach might look different depending on your specific industry, but every business needs to find leads to stay afloat.
Why use lead generation for industrial companies?
There are many notable benefits to creating a lead generation campaign, including:
Expanding your market: As you learn more about your target audience and who is interested in your services, you might learn about gaps in the market that you can fill. This gives you the chance to grow your business and keep reaching new leads.
Boosting visibility and awareness: Lead generation is more than just driving immediate RFQs — it’s about promoting your brand and company. You can use it to stand out amongst the competition in your industry.
Improving lead quality: With lead generation, you can focus only on qualified leads and avoid targeting people who don’t need your services. You can spend more time reaching those most likely to convert.
Generating more revenue: Above all, lead generation can help you generate more revenue and grow your bottom line!
Lead generation is an integral part of running a business. As an industrial company, you likely already have some form of outreach or lead generation, whether you realize it or not. However, setting up a designated lead generation campaign can give you better results.
4 lead generation techniques for industrial companies
98% of industrial companies succeed at driving SQLs through digital marketing. That means marketing strategies like the ones we’ll cover below are the best way to generate industrial leads.
If you’re ready to jump into generating leads, here are a few different strategies to try:
These are just a few popular lead generation strategies that companies in your industry use to generate new business. Let’s investigate each one below.
1. SEO
SEO is the process of making your website friendlier to search engines and users. With SEO, you can boost your rankings in the search engine results pages and improve your overall visibility online.
While SEO is popular across all industries, 59% of B2B marketers specifically think that SEO has the greatest impact on lead generation goals. Basically, if you want to generate RFQs or BOM inquiries, SEO is your bread and butter.
As you can see from that first bullet point, it’s highly important to target the right keywords so you can rank in relevant searches. That means aiming for keywords that are highly specific, such as highly technical keywords, or long-tail product and standards terms.
Additionally, it’s worth noting that you shouldn’t just optimize for Google search (although that’s essential). Industrial companies can also benefit from ranking highly in directories like Thomasnet and Engineering360.
2. PPC
PPC is a type of online advertising where you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. So if someone searches for an industrial company or service, this is what a PPC ad would look like:
This targeted visibility is what makes PPC a cornerstone of modern industrial advertising strategies focused on lead generation.
With PPC, your ad only shows up for people who are searching for your services. Google wants to give people the most relevant search, and that helps you increase your chances at converting users.
These ads are excellent for generating leads, and they go hand in hand with SEO. Plus, you only have to pay when someone clicks on the ad, so you can better control your budget and only target people interested in your services.
By the way: You can also run paid ads on social media platforms like LinkedIn, which can be really beneficial for broadening your audience. In fact, 77% of industrial advertisers use social media advertising.
3. Email marketing
Email marketing is a tried-and-true lead generation method. With email marketing, you can keep in touch and gather data on users who visit your website. You can also use emails periodically to keep them interested in your company and share news.
There are many types of emails, including:
Company newsletters
Promotions and sales
Updates and news
Touchpoint and transactional emails
One of the key perks of email marketing is establishing contact with leads. Usually, you can get people’s email addresses by offering them a discount or gated content. This opens the door for further communication and potential sales.
Argonomist & Arable Farmer, for example, was able to earn more conversions through strategic email marketing.
4. Content marketing
Content marketing is a type of marketing that focuses on sharing copy, images, videos, and other resources to engage with customers. Anything that you post or create can be considered content, and it is essential for connecting with leads and building awareness. You can maximize the reach of your content marketing piece by repurposing it for your social media, too.
Putting out technical content on your site is a great way to attract engineers and procurement teams. That content can appear in formats such as:
Case studies featuring specs, performance results, and ROI data
White papers that address highly technical engineering challenges
CAD files, spec sheets, and downloadable engineering resources
As an example, this industrial site has a whole resource tab filled with content and information for their visitors:
Videos are another great content format to take advantage of. In fact, 59% of industrial marketers identify video as the most effective content type.
About 91% of B2B marketers use content marketing to generate leads. That means even if you haven’t invested in content marketing, your competitors likely have. Creating content can help you show your brand’s personality and build a connection with your leads.
FAQs about lead generation for industrial companies
Here are the answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about industrial lead generation:
Industrial lead generation is the process that industrial companies use to generate new leads from among their target audience. Lead generation can feature a variety of digital marketing strategies, from SEO to email marketing.
Industrial companies can generate leads online by harnessing digital marketing strategies like:
SEO
PPC
Email marketing
Content marketing
Each of these strategies is built to attract new audiences and get them invested in your industrial products or services.
Generate qualified leads for your business with WebFX!
Now that you have some background on lead generation for industrial companies, it’s time to consider how you’ll implement the strategies we’ve covered. If you want help, look no further than WebFX — a professional digital marketing agency.
We have 29 years of experience helping industrial businesses find the best lead generation strategies. We know every business is unique, so we create custom plans based on your goals, budget, and market.
So far, we’ve generated 24,859,684 leads for our clients — and we will do the same for you. Check out our lead generation services to learn more, or contact us online to speak with a strategist today!
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