Water And Wastewater Marketing In The Year Ahead
By Bill King
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. And I’m sure Edelman didn’t have the water and wastewater industry in mind as it compiled the list. However, it’s interesting to see how we in the water industry could apply these trends to the way we market our products and services moving forward. B2B brand publishing may differ from B2C in many ways but at the end of the day, both are united by a core truth … the need to unite an advertiser with an audience they wish to attract. Here are the six trends and my take on how to think of them in our industry:
Conversational Experiences
The adoption of messaging apps is fueling a chatbot revolution in the consumer world where it is becoming ever more efficient to “chat” to a robotic customer service rep when trying for example to understand your latest cable bill than getting a human being on the phone. This one seems a little further off in the world of water but there is plenty of artificial intelligence being built into water analysis apps and helpful “how to operate or maintain” assistance will continue to evolve.
Immersive Content
Edelman noted that virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality were important technological breakthroughs in 2016 and they anticipate brands to continue to experiment as immersive devices and software improve. Ovivo used a cellphone app at their WEFTEC 2015 exhibit to show attendees the inner workings of their equipment and in a world where the majority of assets are buried under ground, look for marketers to also devise ways to use VR in support of their products moving forward.
Influencer Marketing
I wrote about the rise of influencer marketing last week. Unlike the consumer space, we won’t see rock stars or movie icons promoting our sump pumps or turbo blowers but we do have the operators and engineers in our industry to advocate for our products. Optimizing a portfolio of testimonials and advocates for use in selling product will continue to evolve in 2017.
Blockchain
I hadn’t heard of Blockchain technology before and must admit, I’m not too sure I know much more about it now. You can learn more about the technology on Wikipedia but Edelman Digital anticipate it having a growing effect on how global trade is conducted moving forward. The implication here is that you as a manufacturer (specifically selling product to public municipalities) will need to be aware of this technology and understand how to utilize it in your proposals and pricing models.
B2B
Perhaps most relevant to the water and wastewater industry, Edelman predicts that the increasing pressure to demonstrate ROI on marketing spend will drive further adoption of account based marketing (ABM), marketing automation and advanced targeting. In many ways the water market has naturally been focused on ABM based on the geographic location and size of municipalities and the distributed sales model. Beyond basic awareness, B2B marketers are going to want to own the dialog with customers about their technology area which will increase the need for brand publishing. The marketing automation and advanced targeting platforms will all be adopted but it will be the quality and quantity of content marketing activities which will fuel the success of B2B manufacturers.
Sizzle Meets Steak
In King’s opinion, “There will be no shortage of steak and sizzle in 2017.” He suggests content has largely become a commodity for brands. To put it another way, there’s a large mass of bland, accurate but not particularly inspiring content available to operators and engineers in our market. In order to capture the audience’s attention, marketers will strive to dazzle this audience with reader-engaging content delivered through multiple media channels in seeking to separate themselves from the pack.
Marketing in the water industry has become increasingly tense over the past decade. There’s a growing need to continue to support what works today for the soon-to-retire baby boomer while also investing in the modern marketing practices that will attract the audience of tomorrow as millennials begin their journey into our industry. It’s going to take enlightened management to approve larger budgets and trust their marketers to succeed at both.