If I am targeting oil & gas companies, how much do I need to spend for each promotional mix?
An exhibition will surely cost you a fortune – considering the space, exhibition stand, manpower, collateral and gift items. Depending on your budget and goals, you can allocate 30 % – 40 % of your marketing budget to events. Exhibitions, conferences, trade shows and other events are still relevant, especially in renewables, utilities, oil & gas and construction industries. However, they are costly and prices vary between $ 500 – $ 1500 USD per sq. ft. If you want to meet your existing clients face-toface, or acquire new leads, or perhaps educate engineers about your oil & gas solutions, then this is a viable marcom plan. But if you are tight on budget and still want a face-toface engagement with an oil & gas audience, then you can opt for webinars. You can invite petroleum engineers, HSE professionals or maintenance managers and create a 30-minite presentation, plus 30 minutes of Q & A. Webinar in the oil & gas industry is a great tool to showcase your products, educate the audience, or explain your solutions to a niche audience at the comfort of their offices and homes. The difference between the cost of a webinar and a trade show / exhibition is huge. Again, depending on your goals and budget, you may use one of them or both.
Another 30 % – 40 % of the marketing budget can( or should) be allocated in transforming your marketing efforts into digital. The marketing migration plan to digital platform should be thoroughly thought of, and should give premium to security, effectivity and costefficiency. If you’ re still keeping those clients lists on excel, or maybe using those old CRM platforms that don’ t work because the fields are ineffective and they are cumbersome to populate, then it is time to switch to cloudbased CRM. I personally like Salesforce and integrate it with Marketo. They are very powerful, efficient and marketing-friendly tools that will allow you to acquire new clients, monitor reports, analyze data and engage with clients via newsletters, emails and social media.( I am not paid by Salesforce or Marketo, I just like their technology. They fit the oil & gas industry).
While you are working on your marketing cloud infrastructure, you can still move forward and invest on content, social media, blogs, website media section and online press releases. You need these marcom tools to amplify your key messaging and be seen online.