Bill King
Hi, I’m Bill King. I’m the general manager of Water Online and the co-founder of B2BrandWater.com. For most of my career I’ve worked in the advertorial world, helping companies position their written content in front of treatment plant operators, consulting engineers, industrial entities and municipal authorities. What I noticed was a distinct difference in results between those companies recirculating their traditional sales literature and those investing in creating compelling content that helped the reader more than pitched a product. Here are a collection of articles I've written on the subject:
ARTICLES BY BILL KING
How Senior Management Should Engage With The Marketing Department
<p>When was the last time you as a senior executive evaluated your Company’s marketing performance? I’m not talking about sales performance and hitting numbers. Let’s strip that out for now. I’m talking about how your Company markets itself.</p>
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Innovation Adoption Remains Top Of Mind For Vendors At First In-Person WEFTEC Since Pandemic
As the new WNBA champion Chicago Sky enjoyed their well-earned victory parade around the city of Chicago recently, another band of warriors masked up and ventured into the WEFTEC arena for the first time in person since 2019. Despite all the stops and starts in the run up to the Conference, the COVID-19 precautions in place restricting attendance to the vaccinated and the nail-biting decisions of many an exhibitor on whether to exhibit or not,...
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How To Make The Most Of Lockdown
Albert Einstein once said, “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” In conversation with many vendors in the water and wastewater markets over the last few weeks, it’s evident that many are struggling to know how to keep pedaling during this unprecedented time.
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Overcoming A Lack Of Product Differentiation – Lessons Learned From The Water Disinfection Market
For years, manufacturers in the water market have followed a similar marketing process to tell the world about their new products and services. In fact, I’d argue that this traditional marketing approach has been applied the world over across all industrial markets by manufacturers introducing new products.
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Tackling FOG With Content
If you are executing a content marketing strategy in the water and wastewater market, consider yourself an early adopter on the brink of something big. You might not feel like one, trying to support your Company’s sales of pumps, valves, meters, instruments or engineered treatment solutions by doubling down on content. And some people around the office might be wondering what on earth you’re up too. But then again, you’re in...
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Study Of Water And Wastewater Manufacturers’ Content Released
B2BrandWater just completed its annual study of content produced by water and wastewater manufacturers. The study reviewed the content production of 74 manufacturers, analyzing 6,484 pieces of content. It’s the only study we’re aware of that specifically analyzes the content being produced by equipment manufacturers for water and wastewater treatment and distribution audiences.
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What Can The Water Industry Learn From Airbnb’s Brand Publishing Efforts?
Like water bursting out of a ruptured main, brand publishing examples are springing up all over the place. The most recent example is Airbnb’s decision to launch a magazine. In analyzing why they did this, we found lots of reasons for water and wastewater marketers to assess their own audience-building efforts.
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Water And Wastewater Marketing In The Year Ahead
Kevin King, the global practice chair for Edelman Digital, recently discussed the Company’s annual marketing predictions for 2017 with Adweek. As with many of these “year-ahead” lists, it tends to focus on advertising to the consumer versus the business.
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Influencing Influencers
In the wider world of marketing, the use of social media influencers to promote product was one of the hottest advertising trends in 2016. It’s easy to understand why. Having a live human being (albeit a celebrity) tout your services personalizes the campaign and makes it more relatable.
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The Non-Trumpian Reality Of Water Infrastructure Under A New President
There’s an awful lot of conjecture right now about President-Elect Trump’s … well … everything really. In relation to the water industry, Bluefield Research recently summarized the impact of Trump’s American Energy and Infrastructure Act, in its report Trump Contract Clashes with Water Infrastructure Reality.
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Three Ways To Brag About Your Treatment Equipment Without Being A Narcissist
Many talented people find talking about their successes in a job interview difficult. Some of our best character traits, such as honesty and humility, make selling oneself feel awkward. In her recent article, “How to Brag about Yourself without Being Obnoxious,” Vanessa Van Edwards pondered the question: How do you toot your own horn without blowing it?
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How To Protect Your Marketing Job In The Water Industry
When I look around the marketing ranks of companies in the water and wastewater industry, it’s reassuring to see so many familiar faces that have been with their companies for years. Unlike many industries where turnover is very common in marketing departments, water and wastewater equipment companies tend to hold on to their marketers more than most.
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Brexit: Using A Global Event To Fuel Content Marketing Success
Recently I came across an article from WeiserMazars, the global tax and accounting advisory firm, entitled Brexit and It’s Potential Impact On US Multinationals. For those of you selling your water and wastewater equipment around the world, it’s a quick and informative read focusing on what happened, some tax implications, why it matters and what you should be doing about it now. The article is authored by the firm’s...
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Common Sense Marketing For Water And Wastewater Equipment Manufacturers
I wrote recently about the Holy Grail of Marketing and the age-old quest to tie each sale back to a lead. Since that post I’ve had a number of conversations with sales and marketing executives who are trying to find a footing in the ever-changing quicksand of digital marketing. What I want to write about today is what I would call “Common Sense Marketing” in the business-to-business (B2B) world of the water and wastewater...
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Building Trust As A Treatment Equipment Vendor
I recently read an article about building trust in the workplace. It focused on a couple of recent studies that found that one in three employees don’t trust their employer and that only 49% of employees trust their boss/team. It made me think about trust between vendors and end users in the water and wastewater industry. How much trust is there in our industry? How do you prove your company’s trustworthiness?
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Advertising Or Publishing? How Do You Define Your Water And Wastewater Industry Marketing Efforts?
Advertising water and wastewater equipment has traditionally involved two players. The advertiser wishing to expose their products and services to the industry and the publisher providing the publication and audience for the advertisement. But in recent years those lines have blurred significantly.
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The Water Industry’s Quest For The Holy Grail Of Marketing
Do you know what the “holy grail” of marketing performance is? The metaphorical chalice that would provide eternal happiness, youth and infinite profits for all business. Having been involved in digital marketing for twenty years now, I’ve seen a lot of marketers try unsuccessfully to find it.
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Stepping Away From The Plant To Rethink Your Marketing Strategy
If a printer can self-publish a magazine to provide content advice to its publishing customers, why couldn’t a manufacturer publish insight beyond its product line to the water and wastewater industry? Here are a few suggestions pulled from a magazine that recently landed on my desk and what it could mean for your company in the water and wastewater market.
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Effective Sales Development In The Water And Wastewater Industries
Successfully navigating the web of relationships that goes into selling product in the water and wastewater industry is an art form.
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