Skip to main content ↓

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:

To stay ahead of your competitors, you have to keep up with the latest in digital marketing and industrial marketing. Subscribe to Revenue Weekly and be one of the 200,000 marketers who get weekly marketing advice delivered to their inbox for free!

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:

  1. Around 623,000 manufacturing businesses currently exist in the U.S.
  2. In terms of revenue, the market size of the U.S. manufacturing industry is $6.42 trillion.
  3. The number of manufacturing employees in the U.S. is expected to reach 13.41 million in 2024.
  4. Manufacturing revenue is predicted to grow by 5.6% in 2024.
  5. Nearly half of all manufacturers are using the Internet of Things (IoT) to improve their processes.
  6. 83% of manufacturers say that smart factories will totally change the way they make products in the next five years.
  7. 49% of manufacturers name cybersecurity as a primary concern for the manufacturing industry in the next several years.
  8. 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:

  1. Hosting virtual events was the most popular replacement for trade shows during the pandemic among industrial marketers (60% of those surveyed).
  2. 85% of industrial marketers had a defined marketing strategy in 2022.
  3. 56% of B2B companies split their marketing between a third-party agency and an in-house team.
  4. 49% of industrial marketers reported receiving higher sales because of the pandemic.
  5. 1-3% of revenue is what industrial manufacturing companies spend on marketing.
  6. 98% of manufacturers are generating sales-qualified leads through digital marketing.
  7. 84% of industrial marketers surveyed deemed websites as an extremely important marketing channel to attract new customers.
  8. 70% of industrial marketers surveyed said that their companies have produced virtual events, webinars, and online courses.
  9. 48% of industrial companies don’t have specific goals for their company’s digital lead generation strategy.
  10. 6% of B2B organizations fully outsource their marketing to an agency.
  11. 33% of industrial marketers feel that lack of budget is their biggest hurdle to improving their company’s digital strategies.
  12. 7% is the average customer conversions of manufacturers online.
  13. 57% of industrial buyers make purchase decisions before they ever interact directly with a manufacturing company.

Industrial website and SEO statistics

The start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 increased the usage of industrial and manufacturer websites. As a result, more industrial marketers are sharpening their search engine optimization (SEO) strategies and monitoring their websites’ performance.

Check out these industrial marketing statistics related to website and SEO:

  1. 98% of industrial manufacturers have dedicated landing pages on their websites to convert visitors into leads.
  2. 79% of industrial marketers have an SEO strategy.
  3. 72% of industrial marketers use Google Analytics to track their website’s analytics.
  4. 12% was the growth of industrial and manufacturer website usage since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
  5. 68% of industrial marketers actively build inbound links as part of their SEO strategy.
  6. Industrial websites that feature quote and contact forms see an average conversion rate of 3%.
  7. 61% of industrial manufacturing marketers track their website visitors from source to sale.
  8. 61% of surveyed industrial marketers audit their websites monthly or more frequently.
  9. The quality of an industrial company’s website impacts the decision of 40% of industrial buyers.
  10. 39% of industrial marketers don’t know their website’s conversion rates.
  11. 38% of industrial manufacturing marketers are unsure of the number of site visitors converting into leads or customers.

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:

  1. LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube are the top social media platforms of choice among industrial marketers.
  2. 93% of industrial manufacturing marketers used LinkedIn as an organic social media platform. They also claim LinkedIn produced the best results.
  3. 82% of industrial manufacturers are on LinkedIn.
  4. Among industrial marketer-respondents who used paid content distribution channels, 77% used social media advertising and promoted posts.
  5. 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:

  1. 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%).
  2. 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%).
  3. 93% of industrial marketer-respondents use video on their websites.
  4. 88% of industrial manufacturing marketers claimed that they used content marketing to create brand awareness in the past year.
  5. 87% of industrial manufacturers blog every month, and many of them post once a week.
  6. 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.
  7. 73% of surveyed industrial marketers employ video in the sales process.
  8. 70% of industrial marketers surveyed conducted virtual events, webinars, or content courses in the past year.
  9. 70% of industrial marketers have three or more gated content offers on their websites.
  10. 67% of industrial marketers employed content marketing to build credibility or trust.
  11. 40% of B2B buyers don’t reach out to a salesperson until they’ve first consumed three to five pieces of content.
  12. 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.
  13. 53% of industrial marketers plan to have six or more gated content offers on their websites.
  14. The majority of industrial marketers surveyed (52%) said that videos produced the best results for their content marketing in the past year.
  15. 49% of surveyed industrial marketers produce a minimum of six to 10 videos per year.
  16. 70% of B2B marketers think that video content is one of the best things for driving leads to convert.
  17. 47% of industrial marketers post three or more blog posts per month.
  18. 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.
  19. 73% of B2B marketers say that webinars are the most effective strategy for generating high-quality leads.
  20. 16% of industrial marketers said that their organization doesn’t measure their content marketing efforts’ performance.
  21. 14% of industrial manufacturers don’t have gated content offers.

Industrial email marketing statistics

One of the most important marketing tactics for industrial marketers is email marketing. Email was the third most popular replacement for trade shows during the pandemic among industrial marketers (57% of respondents).

Check out these other industrial marketing statistics related to email marketing:

  1. 73% of industrial marketer-respondents said email is an extremely important marketing channel to attract new customers.
  2. 73% of industrial marketers segment email marketing lists to send different marketing messages to different persona segments.
  3. 61% of industrial marketers send out at least three newsletters per month.
  4. 42% of industrial marketers don’t know their email open rates.
  5. Over 26.8% is the average email open rate that industrial marketers are observing.
  6. 18% of industrial marketers say that their company’s best-performing marketing strategy is email marketing.

Industrial lead nurturing statistics

Lead nurturing campaigns can help companies — especially business-to-business (B2B) ones — move their prospects through the sales funnel and turn them into paying customers.

Among industrial marketers, nurturing leads is a crucial part of their overall marketing strategy because sales cycles are longer. Here are some industrial marketing statistics related to lead nurturing:

  1. 47% of industrial manufacturing marketers have less than three lead nurturing campaigns set up.
  2. 76% of industrial marketers are running lead nurturing campaigns.
  3. 11% of industrial marketers started their first-ever lead nurturing campaigns after 2020.

WebFX knows manufacturing.

“Working with WebFX, everything is very organized and strategic. We’re only a year into our partnership, and our expectations have definitely been met.”

— C.H. Reed, Industrial Solutions and Services

See the Testimonial arrow right
cta11 img

Implement your digital marketing strategy for industrial companies with WebFX

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 $6 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!

We Drive Results for Industrial Companies

  • 145+ experts in heavy equipment
  • You get a team dedicated to your success

Get a Proposal

dots background

author image

background shape

Explore our industrial case studies

Read our case studies for a more in-depth look at our results.

Sharretts Plating

60%

Increase in quote requests

York Saw & Knife

626%

Increase in Amazon sales YoY

Polymer Solutions International

126%

Increase in quote requests YoY

Your
Business

IS NEXT

Get a free proposal
today!

Solving key challenges for industrial companies

Our website isn’t driving enough traffic

When prospects look for industrial products online, your website needs to be one of the first results they see so you can maximize your web traffic. Make that goal a reality with WebFX.

Message being sent icon.

We’re not selling enough products

Reach your sales goals with custom digital marketing plans designed to optimize your website and campaigns to maximize your conversions and product sales.

Marketing icon with flame.

We’re struggling to retain customers

Our team specializes in helping your industrial company implement strategies that build long-term relationships with clients and foster brand loyalty so you can keep your clients coming back again and again.

Branch icon of a storefront.

Our marketing efforts aren’t providing a high return

Leverage the power of data to make smarter marketing decisions that drive a higher ROI for your company instead of relying on gut feelings with our data-driven marketing plans.

Target icon with archery arrow hitting target.
TO TOP