Mission Design & Automation Marketing Director Sami Birch recently made an appearance on The Industrial Marketing Leaders Podcast, a show by True Focus Media, hosted by owner Jeff Long. The episode—”Using Maslow’s Hierarchy for Industrial Marketing Success—dives into topics such as the value of authentic content, embracing a people-first marketing strategy, and overcoming imposter syndrome when it comes to content creation.

 

A People-First Approach

“We work with people. While we’re dealing with highly technical content, and highly technical ‘hard stuff’ out on the floor, what we know to be true is we are people working with people,” Birch said.

While marketing content in the industrial space is often minimal or outdated in comparison to other industries’ fast adaptation of media trends, creating marketing that resonates with customers, potential employees, and partners can often feel like a difficult feat. People working in the field are overloaded with technical content, numbers, and whitepapers. So, Birch posed the question: What can you create that really speaks to somebody?

Her answer: “If you can create a sense of belonging, if you can build relationships and trust through your content, that will help feed the conversation.”

Backed up by the technical data, of course, she acknowledged.

Birch highlighted the importance of prioritizing a healthy culture and creating an environment where people want to be.

“Take care of your team, and they’ll take care of your customers,” she said.

 

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs & People-Focused Campaigns

Long and Birch also engaged in conversation surrounding Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, and how teams can use it as a framework for creating a positive internal culture among team members, as well as recognizing customer needs and how to address them.

 

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a theory created by Abraham Maslow in 1943, which categorizes the human needs in tiers. Starting at the bottom of the pyramid, Maslow’s theory addresses physiological needs necessary for survival first and works its way up to needs that allow someone to reach their full personal potential (Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs).

“If we’re creating a new marketing campaign and we have those hierarchy of needs at least in the back of our head, if not on paper somewhere, then that is a pretty beneficial structure to follow,” Long said.

Birch shared that a large part of Mission Design & Automation’s marketing strategy is meeting consumers where they’re at—when it comes to physical locations like presence at certain industry tradeshows, or catering content to specific social media platforms. What are the consumer’s needs, and how—and sometimes where—can we best meet them?

 

Overcoming Imposter Syndrome in Content Marketing

“We’re all our own worst critic,” Birch said. “It’s so hard to get out of your own way. I don’t think anyone is paying that much attention to you personally besides yourself.”

Birch emphasized the value in experimenting with company marketing as well as one’s personal brand. While it may be disappointing to post content that falls flat, it’s a low risk move that always provides something to be learned and room for improvement for future content.

 

Telling a Story with Marketing

The question of how to create personable content that resonates with customers when marketing in manufacturing, automation, or other industrial industries can be a tricky one to answer. At Mission, we strive to tell a story from the perspective of the engineers that worked on the project, regardless of their existing on-camera experience or persona.

“We don’t sell a product. Everything we do is different; they are varying-in-size systems that all do different things. Every challenge we encounter starts with a story,” Birch said.

Due to the uniqueness of every project on our shop floor, Mission’s marketing often starts with storytelling, and the technical details follow. Content that has been passed around and polished by a marketing team is great, but so is organic content that puts viewers right in the center of it: often on a noisy shop floor.

 

Industrial Marketing Advice for Young Professionals  

When asked for advice for younger professionals just getting started in industrial marketing, Birch said: “Talk to people. Listen to people. The most important thing you can do when you want a people-first approach is to build relationships with your team and your customers and build trust, which starts by doing it yourself.”

Watch the full podcast episode, “Using Maslow’s Hierarchy for Industrial Marketing Success with Sami Birch,” here.