Without doubt, 2014 was the year in which our industry really began to understand the value of effective content marketing.
Hearst’s ‘Design Engineer and Supplier Interface Study’ published in May 2014
Two independent studies have demonstrated that despite the growing popularity of graphic and video content, well-written technical articles are still the dominant requirement of electronics design engineers trying to figure out what products to use and how to apply them.
Hearst’s ‘Design Engineer and Supplier Interface Study’, published in May 2014, received responses from 2,300 engineers in North America. When asked ‘When you visit electronics engineers’ websites, which parts to you access most often?’, 64% said ‘articles’. The next highest score was for ‘data sheets’ at 61%.
UBM’s ‘Mind of the Engineer’ study from October 2014
In UBM’s ‘Mind of the Engineer’ study, published in October, the results were conclusive. In three related questions, engineers were asked which sources they rely on for product, technical and trends information. Averaging responses from the three questions, 63% selected ‘Technical articles: print or online’. The next highest rated source was ‘sales representatives’ at 27%.
By its very nature, all research has flaws but these studies, and numerous others, indicate an insatiable demand amongst electronics engineers for technical material, in writing, that helps them to do their jobs better.
Let’s be clear, altruism is not a good reason for an electronics business to create great content for its customers. There has to be a return on the investment. The return comes in providing valuable material that can be used to generate response to advertising, direct marketing and other ‘outbound’ marketing activities. It’s also evident in ‘inbound’ marketing, where Google algorithms demand that fresh, relevant content is posted to your web site frequently if you want to achieve good search engine rank.
In 2014, the Publitek team created over 500 technical articles and blog posts for clients. We also wrote over 60 of our own, landing 12 new clients as a result and giving Publitek’s SEO another boost; just enter ‘electronics content marketing’ into Google search to see how we do.
If you don’t work with us already but would like to reap the rewards of an effective content marketing strategy in 2015 please get in touch: [email protected].
