McDermott: Trends in Offshore Oil & Gas - GineersNow GineersNow Engineering Magazine Issue No. 021, McD | Page 19

Why use these online tools? Well, you might
have the best product, let’s say an “offshore
pump equipment”, but your marketing team
cannot properly communicate to the oil and
gas engineers. How would you think will they
find those pumps? Therefore, you need online
marketing tools to send those key messages to
the operations, maintenance, procurement and
oil & gas professionals.
The Right SEO for Oil & Gas
When creating a post, blog entry or article,
your content should match the search
keywords being used by your clients. The oil
& gas industry has the most complicated list
of products and equipment, so be sure that
you know specifically the keywords. The basic
foundation of any SEO is to understand how
your potential customers search a product on
Google. Understand first your target market,
then use a marketing SEO tool. Let’s say
you are an aerial access rental company and
targeting an oil & gas camp site, you may want
to include keywords, such as “boom lift rental
in Dubai for oil & gas engineers”. You have the
product + location + the industry target.
Furthermore, investigate the keywords being
used by your competitors in the energy
industry and use a marketing diagnostic
tool that will populate the word density, then
compare, and find out what are the most used
keywords from their website pages using
tools like SEMrush… wait a minute, this is too
detailed and technical… Just drill down on
your competitors’ keywords, then analyze the
most commonly used keyword. Your oil & gas
products or solutions should match what your
audience will use when searching Google.
After identifying the most used keywords, you
can now create compelling stories using the
language of your oil & gas clients.
Invest on marketing assets like images and
videos. Stories with visuals are the most
powerful way to educate your clients and
be seen online. Did you know that millennial
engineers and procurement specialists like
to watch videos and understand the product
specs before recommending a product to their
managers? A camera will only cost you $100 –
$500 USD, and your phones are also capable
of taking high resolution images/videos. Take
a photo/video of your operations, products,
transportation and activities. Two photos per
day is an ideal number of snaps. Next thing
you know you have 500+ pics, ready to be
posted on social media & blogs.
You should allocate around 20% – 30%
of your budget on your external digital
communications. Linkedin is best avenue for
brand building and lead generation. There’s a
gamut of oil & gas engineers, managers and
leaders who are frequently browsing on their
news feed. Twitter is the best medium for
spreading your latest news while Facebook
is your best medium to engage with your
stakeholders and employees.
I would only dedicate a small portion of the
budget on print magazines. I mean, seriously,
when was the last time you opened those print
magazines in your office reception area? Since
most of the oil and gas companies are located
in fast emerging and developed countries, I
presume they have a Wi-Fi connection and
reading updates from their mobile gadgets.
Next Steps
So, what are the next steps?
You might want to review your marketing plans,
research on what marketing tools you may use
to achieve your goals. Perhaps give me a call
[phone] and let’s talk cost-effective
real marketing in the oil & gas industry. I am
available right now and looking for my next big
challenge.
About the author:
Robert studied Strategic Marketing
Management at Harvard Business School and
is currently looking for his next big challenge.
He has 10+ years marketing experience in
the engineering, energy, technology and
construction industry in Middle East, Africa and
APAC region. If you want to hire a marketing
champion, he’s the Man.