Curiosity: The Industrial Marketer’s Superweapon

Superweapon for industrial marketers? Curiosity.

Industrial marketing isn't for everyone. It requires a unique blend of
↳ Marketing expertise
↳ Business acumen
↳ Technical curiosity

To be an industrial marketer, you don't need to use the product. But you'd better be darn curious about the folks who do.

That's where fresh industrial marketers miss the boat.

A content marketing job, for example, is much different at a B2C brand when you're an owner and user of the product. "I have a passion for coffee" can get you a long way in creating content for a roaster. To paraphrase, "I'm not only a marketer, I'm a client!"

A special mindset is required to deliver great marketing for a product you don't personally use.

Curiosity becomes a superweapon:
↳ Who uses this thing and why?
↳ What are their pain points and problems?
↳ Whose solutions do they hate and love?

It's thrilling to immerse in your customers' daily reality, learning their jargon, opinions, and even humor. (When you laugh at their memes, you know you've gone deep enough!)

Weak industrial marketers wait for engineers or product managers to tell them what to say. Strong ones are following their curiosity, finding new ways to break through the noise.

And don't be intimidated as a non-expert. You can get right to learning: no time wasted shedding personal preconceptions for a product you never thought about before.

Industrial marketing - manufacturing, in particular - desperately needs great marketers.

Companies are dumping sellers and engineers into marketing because they can't find curious marketers willing to do the work to become experts. And there's a lot of bad marketing out there as a result.

It's not easy, but it is enormously rewarding.

So before you become an industrial marketer, ask: Am I curious enough?