Promising accurate, quality search results, the search engine has a unique structure that has done away completely with legacy category search. No more guessing under what category you may find the product or service you need. With this search engine the keywords and phrases you type are matched exactly with the keywords and phrases the seller members have used to “tag” their content. Accurate matches are made simply by delivering a list of suppliers whose tags match what you type. So if you are looking for ‘industrial cameras’ only the seller members who have used ‘industrial cameras’ as a tag will appear in the results.

But don’t worry if you can’t think of the exact term to search with. As you start typing in the search box, a list of tags used by member sellers that seem to match what you are looking for appear below. You can easily select one from the drop-down to generate a search result. You can even refine your search further by adding additional terms or selecting the state in which you need the supplier to offer service. There are built-in tools to help you do these things and they’re really easy to use.

Industrial Web Search has a few more features that make it stand out from the rest. First of all, the only way a seller can get listed in the engine is to become a member. The search engine is not pre-populated with unknown companies from the internet. Only companies with whom the search engine has a professional relationship can appear. This means both accurate and quality search results for sourcing professionals who no longer have to wade through pages and pages of irrelevant, low quality results looking for a potential candidate.

And it’s convenient too! Available on both a desktop/laptop or a web-enabled handheld device like your iPhone or Smartphone, this multi-platform search tool allows you to conduct a search wherever you need to, including while you’re standing on the plant floor staring at one of your machines that has broken down and needs a special part fast!

Whether you’re searching from your desktop at the office or your mobile phone on the job site, the search engine helps to put industrial and commercial sourcing professionals in contact with relevant suppliers. To that end, once you have completed your search and clicked on a link, it leads you to the Company Profile where you can learn enough to know whether you have found a good match and initiate contact right then and there from within the application.

With active one-click communications (you do have to have an ISP, email and VoIP service provider) you can send emails and place a call from your web-enabled device. So if you’re searching from your iPhone and you want to click to call, no problem. You’re all set to do that already. Depending on the level of seller membership, you can even send an RFQ from within the application.

The best thing to do is start using it!  Visit Industrial Web Search for Desktop/Laptop or Industrial Web Search for Mobile and see for yourself. Remember, the tool is still new and not pre-populated with random companies so it continues to expand with its growing membership.

Budget is always going to be a factor so decide exactly how much money you are able to allocate to mobile advertising and consider, at the outset, how much visibility and reach your options will give you. It is essential to track and analyze your campaigns if you are truly going to understand the return they provide. That means you have to know what you are tracking and effectively coordinate offline results, such as phone calls and sales force in the field, with online results (forms or online orders).

If you are new to mobile advertising get your feet wet with ‘no to low cost ‘options before graduating to the more expensive programs that really require you to manage your campaign and your budget closely. Sign up for a local business listing in Google and Bing to start with. They’re free. Check out Industrial Web Search for a more targeted approach that gives you visibility and reach exclusively to an industrial audience, whether their searching on their desktop/laptop or handheld mobile device, starting at under $500 inclusive per year (no click costs).

Many of the larger ad-serving services like the Quattro Wireless Network, Doublick DART, and AdMob appear to specialize in targeting consumers more than B2B. Adhesion by Crisp Wireless is the “first mobile ad placement technology for Smartphones.” Microsoft’s Search Marketing offers value but once again you must carefully manage your campaign to control costs. I also came across ExpediteSimplicity, which is a text-based SMS (you know, the same text messaging that your teenagers are addicted to!!) advertising platform. I have no experience with this company but would be curious how many industrial B2B marketers have had success with text ads sent this way. So let me know what you’ve experienced!!

According to the most recent report, “machinery” manufacturers report that the current economy has had a negative impact on capital sales, which seems to indicate plants are holding off buying new equipment and instead getting old machinery fixed or refurbished. This appears to be the case as the “fabricated metal products” industry reported first quarter orders are up as compared to prior two years.

The following industries reported growth in orders: Plastics & Rubber Products; Machinery; Paper Products; Computer & Electronic Products; Miscellaneous Manufacturing; Printing & Related Support Activities; Transportation Equipment; Fabricated Metal Products; Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components; and Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products.

As indicated by the statement made by the “transportation equipment” industry, orders are not across the board but depend on “division, plant and market served.” This is most likely true for many industries. In order to get leads into the pipeline and sales on the board, it is important to take a really close look at the current buying behaviors of your target groups. You will most likely have to create an entirely new profile for these groups if you expect to market and sell to them effectively.

I say it over and over again because it is true. When you want to learn something about the buyers and sourcing professionals you are targeting, ask them. Send out a survey. Write a personalized email. Uncover their pain and make sure you can offer a targeted, viable solution that not only eases their pain but helps them to grow too.

This is the time to be innovative in all aspects of how you serve your customers. Whether it’s a creative financing offer, lease offer, a new product, or special services, uncover what your existing and potential customers really need and let them know you understand exactly how to fulfill those needs without compromising quality.

Even at the basic membership level, designed to get targeted industrial and commercial buyers to contact relevant seller members, Industrial Web Search offers sellers the opportunity to control the way in which they reach out to their targeted buyer groups. Unlike legacy category search, which was modeled after print catalogs, Industrial Web Search does not allow its members to buy their way to the top of a given category, making the service effective and affordable for companies with limited marketing budgets. Instead seller members use tags, which are keywords and phrases they carefully select, to identify the products and services they represent.  This method ensures a more accurate match between buyer and seller because each one is able to clearly identify himself to the other through commonality of language. No more guessing and wading through pages of irrelevant results.

The enhanced and premium levels offer more content and presentation control to member sellers in the Company Profile area. Once a buyer-user has completed his search and clicks on a link to visit a company profile, he can further learn whether he has found a seller whom he wishes to contact. At the “Enhanced” membership level, some of the additional features include the option to attach an RFQ form and a photo gallery that holds up to four images. The “Premium Level” is almost like a micro-site, providing an integrated WYSIWYG html editor to control style, background, links, information for multiple locations, and even has an FTP link option to facilitate the download of large files containing project proposal information from interested buyers. The photo gallery at the “Premium Level” is also far more robust, allowing for multiple albums and images.

For those who are just interested in managing costs and having some control over their online marketing, the “Basic” membership level offers plenty. The Company Profile page at all membership levels includes a company profile summary, at least one link to the seller member’s website home page, downloadable vCard, active email and call links for one-click communications, integrated Google map, active link to their .tel domain, and even the ability to send the profile page to a colleague. Basic level memberships start at less than $400 for a full year’s membership. Great value for the money!!

Now more than ever companies need reassurance that they are making the right choice.  Controlled by their fears – fear of making a bad decision, fear of losing their job, fear of insufficient return on investment – buyers and sourcing professionals appear to be stuck between the ‘research’ and ‘consideration and comparison’ stages of the traditional industrial buying cycle.

As an industrial or commercial seller, if you want to be successful in your sale today, you must understand not just the practical needs of your targeted buyer groups but the inner workings of their psyche in order to learn how to effectively help them manage their fears. Your job becomes more complicated because now you have to play psychologist and determine what information they need in order to feel safe. To succeed, you must move your targeted audience from a feeling of “too much risk” to one of “manageable risk.”

So how do you do that? Ask them what’s holding up their decision. Let them know you understand their current challenges and you want to help them reach their goals successfully. Ask them to relate to you why they are apprehensive and how they imagine the outcome will be. You will most likely learn pretty quickly why they are stalling. Armed with this information either you can gather the information they need to help them feel safe or, depending on the nature of the response, abandon the sale for the time being.

The more you can learn about your client’s present state of mind, the greater your chances are of presenting him with the information he needs to be convinced that he is making the right decision by selecting to do business with you.