Need a B2B persona for production managers in an industrial setting?
Lottie O'Donoghue
29 Jan 2024
Knowing your audience is the first step in constructing strong B2B marketing campaigns. You need to understand their motivations and pain points, but also how you can pragmatically reach them. This series of articles provides deep dives on the audiences we target most regularly here at Velo.In most manufacturing and industrial plants, customers with job titles like productionmanager, operations manageror plant managerare responsible for making decisions regarding production. These roles are often supported by specifiers: internal or external entities that provide technical specifications for products used in processes or within the products themselves.Who are specifiers?Specifiers play a crucial role in manufacturing — especially in the OEM market. Influencing specifiers to choose your technology or product within broader processes or products, like gas detection, robotics, sensors, valves or gears, can lead to a preference for your technology in a market. Specifications may be company-specific, covering multiple production lines across different sites, or market-level, establishing your technology as the defined standard for addressing specific issues within industrial processes.Who are production leads and what do they care about?For those responsible for production, concerns and pain points revolve around productivity, throughput, efficiency, organisation of production lines and compliance with regulations. The focus is on producing high-quality items with minimal errors while ensuring safety and efficiency to drive consistent cost savings. Simple, right?The appetite for risk varies within this audience, however there is an inherent interest in innovation, new product development and manufacturing techniques. This means that evolving initiatives, such as robotics, AI, machine learning, digitization, IoT and other technologies, are of interest.How to talk to themHowever, there is a reluctance to bet the farm on unproven initiatives. Case studies, relatable messaging and opportunities for site visits are essential components of a B2B marketer’s toolkit to engage production managers.You can’t argue with facts. Numbers and evidence demonstrating impact, such as increased productivity and reduced error rates, are crucial for B2B marketers to present a compelling case. Sustainability is increasingly important, requiring better choices throughout the manufacturing process to minimize the carbon footprint —both within and outside the factory.How to reach themReaching these roles involves various channels, but inbound marketing is deemed the most effective method for those actively seeking specific initiatives. Being found when they are looking and providing the right information for their use case is crucial. Specifiers seek technical details, while production managers look for measurable impact.Investing in reputation through trade media, event attendance, exhibitions and customer advocacy is vital for visibility. The market heavily relies on exhibitions — often sector-specific, focusing on aspects of the manufacturing process or market, such as health and safety expos or mining-focused events. Notable events include:
The B2B market operates on trust through personal relationships, making Account-Based Marketing (ABM) techniques particularly effective coupled with natural human interaction,such as events.Would you like to build out a persona, or a campaign to find and engage with these personas? We’d love to help. You can read more about our skills here
Lottie O'Donoghue
Head of Brand Strategy
A marketer through and through, before Velo, Lottie led the marketing function of a scale-up tech SaaS platform moving to the world of agencies to run Accenture’s ABM and marketing activity across EMEAR. Now, Lottie leads the agency’s teams for new business clients across brand strategy projects through to websites and campaign activation. She also owns Velo’s own marketing, too.
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