Marketing changes every year. If you’re not adapting to the latest marketing trends, your manufacturing business will fall behind the competition and lose out on plenty of clients. So, is your marketing team keeping up with the latest industrial marketing and sales trends?
Digital marketing can help businesses in the industrial sector stay competitive in 2024 and in the years to come. Keep reading to learn more about the industrial marketing statistics in 2024, including:
- Industrial business statistics
- General industrial marketing statistics
- Industrial social media marketing statistics
- Industrial content marketing statistics
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Industrial business statistics
Before we dive into our industrial marketing stats, it’s worth assessing the status of the industrial industry as a whole. The things that affect other aspects of industrial companies can contribute to their marketing needs, so it’s worth looking at some industry-wide trends.
Here are a few industrial business stats to know:
- Around 623,000 manufacturing businesses currently exist in the U.S.
- In terms of revenue, the market size of the U.S. manufacturing industry is $6.42 trillion.
- The number of manufacturing employees in the U.S. is expected to reach 13.41 million in 2024.
- Manufacturing revenue is predicted to grow by 5.6% in 2024.
- Nearly half of all manufacturers are using the Internet of Things (IoT) to improve their processes.
- 83% of manufacturers say that smart factories will totally change the way they make products in the next five years.
- 49% of manufacturers name cybersecurity as a primary concern for the manufacturing industry in the next several years.
- Nearly 75% of manufacturers feel that talent acquisition is the biggest challenge they face in 2024.
General industrial marketing statistics
Digital marketing has helped industrial marketers reach new customers and generate sales-qualified leads. Here are some industrial digital marketing statistics that show this trend:
- 98% of manufacturers are generating sales-qualified leads through digital marketing.
- Hosting virtual events was the most popular replacement for trade shows during the pandemic among industrial marketers (60% of those surveyed).
- 56% of B2B companies split their marketing between a third-party agency and an in-house team.
- 49% of industrial marketers reported receiving higher sales because of the pandemic.
- 1–3% of revenue is what industrial manufacturing companies spend on marketing.
- 70% of industrial marketers surveyed said that their companies have produced virtual events, webinars, and online courses.
- 48% of industrial companies don’t have specific goals for their company’s digital lead generation strategy.
- 6% of B2B organizations fully outsource their marketing to an agency.
- 33% of industrial marketers feel that lack of budget is their biggest hurdle to improving their company’s digital strategies.
- 7% is the average customer conversions of manufacturers online.
- 57% of industrial buyers make purchase decisions before they ever interact directly with a manufacturing company.
- Industrial websites that feature quote and contact forms see an average conversion rate of 3%.
- 18% of industrial marketers say that their company’s best-performing marketing strategy is email marketing.
Industrial social media marketing statistics
Industrial marketers use organic and paid social media strategies.
In addition, they are planning to increase their social media efforts in the future. Here are some industrial marketing statistics that are related to social media:
- 93% of industrial manufacturing marketers use LinkedIn as an organic social media platform (and say that it performs the best).
- Among industrial marketer-respondents who used paid content distribution channels, 77% used social media advertising and promoted posts.
- Among the industrial marketer-respondents who used paid social media platforms, the majority chose Facebook (76%) and LinkedIn (62%). The respondents said LinkedIn produced the best results.
Industrial content marketing statistics
Many industrial marketers use content marketing to create brand awareness, educate their audience, and build credibility. They publish gated content to gather their prospects’ email addresses.
Check out these industrial marketing statistics that show content marketing is an important strategy among industrial companies:
- 88% of industrial manufacturing marketers claimed that they used content marketing to create brand awareness in the past year.
- According to content marketers surveyed, the top three challenges are creating valuable content instead of sales-oriented content (51%), overcoming traditional marketing and sales mindset (51%), and accessing subject matter experts to create content (50%).
- The top technologies industrial manufacturing organizations use to assist with content marketing are social media publishing and analytics (85%), analytics tools (78%), and email marketing software (75%).
- 75% of industrial marketers said that their organization measures their content marketing efforts’ performance. Among them, 26% said that they’re doing an excellent job.
- 70% of industrial marketers surveyed conducted virtual events, webinars, or content courses in the past year.
- 67% of industrial marketers employed content marketing to build credibility or trust.
- 40% of B2B buyers don’t reach out to a salesperson until they’ve first consumed three to five pieces of content.
- 60% of industrial marketers who have a content marketing strategy said that their approach is moderately or slightly different compared to its pre-pandemic strategy.
- The majority of industrial marketers surveyed (52%) said that videos produced the best results for their content marketing in the past year.
- 70% of B2B marketers think that video content is one of the best things for driving leads to convert.
- 25% of industrial marketers said their organization was extremely or very successful with content marketing in the last 12 months. The top contributing factor was the value their content provides.
- 73% of B2B marketers say that webinars are the most effective strategy for generating high-quality leads.
- 16% of industrial marketers said that their organization doesn’t measure their content marketing efforts’ performance.
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Inspired to get started with your revenue-driving digital marketing strategy for industrial manufacturing with these statistics? Considering teaming up with WebFX.
We’re a full-service digital marketing agency that has generated more than 24 million leads and $10 billion in revenue for our clients. We’ll be glad to deliver results for your industrial business, too.
Contact us online or call us at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist and get started with your digital marketing strategies!
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We Drive Results for Industrial Companies
- 500+ experts in the industrial sector
- You get a team dedicated to your success
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