Marketing to Engineers in a Digital World
Time to Read: 7m 14s
Engineers are the target audience for a large portion of industrial B2B companies. You write long-form website copy to meet their informational needs and spend countless hours writing technical papers and case studies to establish your credibility. Your company also probably spends a large portion of your marketing budget on printing catalogs, brochures, and other marketing materials to hand out at business meetings and trade shows. It’s true that for decades, printed materials were the primary source of information for engineers. But we now live in a world where the way people find and consume information continues to shift to a digital format. Over 3.8 million Google searches occur every minute, and more than 51% of smartphone users discover new companies or products while searching for information on their smartphone. It’s time to ramp up your digital marketing game if you want to keep and attract customers in today’s highly competitive online market.
The study verified much of what our digital marketers already knew: More and more people are accessing information online, whether it’s finding products and services or reading case studies and technical papers. Instead of turning to printed materials, engineers of all ages are seeking online sources they can access anywhere, and at any time.
Engineering Professionals Are Going Digital
Engineering.com recently conducted a study to see how today’s engineering professionals find information. They interviewed 1,540 engineers from around the globe, ranging in age from 25 and under to 65+, and across a wide range of industries.![pie graph for engineering industries](images/blog/engineering-survey-industries.png)
The Majority of Surveyed Engineers Consume Information Digitally
Engineers spend approximately 10 hours per week—about 25% of a typical 40-hour work week – accessing engineering information via computer, mobile device, or print. That’s a significant amount of time. Of the engineers surveyed:- 49% of content consumption occurs on a computer
- 25% occurs on a mobile phone
- 16% occurs by reading print
- 10% occurs on a tablet
![bar graph of content consumption by platform](images/blog/content-consumption-by-platform.png)
Half of Surveyed Engineering Professionals Read Information on Mobile Devices
Consumption of data using a mobile device increased from prior years. Not only that, but at least half of engineers across all age groups regularly access content on their phone. This data stresses the importance of having a mobile-friendly website that:- Is user-friendly, including site navigation that clearly shows people what you do and makes it easy to find the information they need quickly.
- Has a responsive design that looks good and functions well on any device, whether it’s a desktop computer or a mobile phone.
- Downloads media and written content quickly; over 30% of people leave websites that take more than 7 seconds to download.
![graphic depicting engineers mobile information consumption](images/blog/annual-mobile-device-consumption.png)
![graphic depicting mobile phone content consumption by age](images/blog/mobile-content-consumption-age.png)
Quality Online Content Matters to Decision Makers in Engineering Fields
Across the board, engineering professionals reported using search, digital publications, and email as the preferred methods of receiving content. The study also found that the quality of the content is important to engineers. 36% of engineers would request a proposal from a vendor based finding good, quality content on their site. When it comes to senior leadership and decision makers, that number increased to 41%.![two pie graphs depticting engineering decision makers](images/blog/RFP-thought-leadership-1024x431.png)