The oil & gas industry is highly competitive and fast-moving. The demand for these resources will expand over the next five years, and the International Energy Agency (IEA) says that the United States will meet the world’s growing appetite by 2023. The surging output from the U.S., along with the rising production in Brazil, Canada, and Norway is said to meet higher demand of the customers. As this industry is shifting in a whole new direction, most of the outsiders are trying to invest in this area to double their returns.
If you are one among those who is planning to grow the business in this area or attract new buyers, you have to invest in the right marketing strategy. So, pick the comprehensive digital marketing strategy for your venture that boosts the brand online, and helps in targeting the right people at the right time. To help you in this aspect, we have listed some of the well-tested marketing tips for oil & gas industries that produce the desired result with proper implementation.
1. Create Space Online
In today’s digital world, it is never so hard to bring any business online. You can easily create a well-designed website with videos and relevant contents that guides the readers towards the next step. Since social media has broad consent in almost every part of the globe, firms can use these platforms to connect and share the message to new and existing clients.
Plus, people in the oil & gas industry started realizing the importance of mobile apps for their growth. And, most of them are investing in this area to reach a large number of people. So, if you want all the ideal clients to access your site, you must make sure that its design is optimized for the devices of all size, and provides the information people are seeking.
Also, master to craft clear and a concise message across all the channels online consistently. This practice helps your prospects to find you quickly in the spaces of their interest.
2. Be Active Throughout
The oil & gas industry has seen some tough times in the past. But, that does not mean you have to be quiet during these low times. Although it may seem evident that marketing their brand in these downturns will reap no benefit, it is not entirely accurate to the point. There is still a business, and you can always try to attract potential prospects and new firms. So, have a constant online presence year round.
Businesses can utilize this time to revamp the brand, websites, and social media tactics. That is, you can consider this time to work along with marketing experts to craft new strategies and designs for the site. This program helps your industry to stand still and glazed throughout.
3. Build Strong Network
Networking is crucial in the oil & gas industry. As this industry is a people business and you need to have a reliable network. You can build this network within your precise field, or create a healthy system outside your sector. Also, it’s a good idea to connect with your competitors and nurture ties with them as it comes with many gains.
You can learn what others are doing to remain strong while facing similar industry issues. Businesses can also upsurge brand value quickly. The easiest way to build a network with industry colleagues is by attending events or joining industry associations, be it local or global. Also, certain vendors provide high-quality email database of oil & gas executives that lets you reach key decision makers from all over the globe. These simple tactics are adequate to boost the growth of your business in a shorter period.
4. Write Business Proposals
Most of the oil & gas industries neglect this strategy assuming that it works only for the hotel, telecom, or other related segments. But when executed properly, it works like a charm for oil & gas field too. So, start writing business proposals — highlight why they should consider you as their supplier or partner. Once you craft an appealing promotional message, send it to all your potential customers.
But always remember not to get discouraged when you don’t receive any reply from your prospects. The chances of failure are higher when the proposal is not attractive enough or not created well. So, give higher value to the message as well as its format while designing it.
5. Superior Content
Content marketing is a broad area. But, to put it in simple terms, we advise you to create premium content that is highly relevant and thoughtfully crafted to please the prospects as they go through it. Materials can either be in the form of blogs, articles, white papers, audiobooks, videos, or other formats. You can also choose to provide a downloadable option for a fee.
Besides, you can also use this tact to collect the necessary data from the readers while they download your content. These gated contents allow you to capture more information about who is visiting your site and generate significant leads for your firm. You can then use this valuable database for promotional activities or advertisements. But, before you ask site visitors to fill out a form, gain their trust by providing industry-specific high-quality contents.
6. Visual Appearance
Get into the visual marketing world and make your customers curious about your brand. Photos, videos, animations, and Infographic are some of the standard format oil & gas industries can adopt today. This format delivers a lot of information in a few minutes, and many customers prefer this format to know about a product than reading a long post. Similar to images, or animations, you can use Infographic to present complicated information in an easy-to-understand layout.
As the oil and gas industry often includes number-driven data, environmental concerns and controls, planning a visually pleasing format will help to promote the pretty dry material attractively.
7. Invest in SEO
As people search for tons of information using Google or Bing, you must try to put your website on the top every time. Search Engine Optimization helps you in this aspect by bringing high-quality traffic to your oil & gas website. So, as an owner of an oil and gas company, along with trying to put yourself as a leader in your business, you must also focus on optimizing your site’s SEO.
To do so, spend some time knowing the most likely keywords and long-tail search terms your prospects use when they wish to learn about similar products or services. Use these keywords to create contents such as blog posts, articles, or white papers. It helps you to bring those people to your site quickly. Also, focus on off-site SEO activities to inspire the buyers to explore your product further.
8. Smaller Target
Before reaching out to the audience in the global space, try to look within your region. You can find a lot of retailers who are always in demand for supplies. Businesses can cut a deal with them quickly and expand the client base. Also, most of the firms are in a hurry to grab as many customers as possible within a short time. If you are one among them, stop this practice right there. Sometimes in business, you need one curious customer to grow your brand value speedily. So, concentrate on pursuing one customer in the beginning.
If you are lucky to win that particular client, you can begin with impressing other audience by delivering the promises. You can even ask them to recommend your business to their friends and family in the industry.
9. Paid Advertisements
Oil & gas industries can opt for paid advertising strategies such as Pay-per-click (PPC) to reach out to a large number of interested prospects. Instead of investing in print advertising, try to use PPC campaigns. It presents your ads to the people who have searched for terms that are related to your firm. That is, an advertisement for an oil & gas company is not shown to someone who is searching for other products such as shoes or beauty tips. With PPC, you can determine which keywords and phrases will trigger ads.
This method lets you reach the right audience. And, also saves your budget as you pay only for the interested individuals who click your ad. With these type of relevant ads, you can direct the visitor to your landing page that leads them into the funnel easily.
10. Market through Tradeshows
Conferences and tradeshows still dominate the oil & gas industries. This old and faithful strategy is a great way to make new contacts, market your business, and thereby raise brand awareness. So, try implementing this tactic again with fresh, and creative marketing materials. Right from unique brochures to pleasing videos, you can try all of them to rejuvenate your trademark in the business space.
Always try to make your tradeshows or any events memorable for the customers who attend it. Stay humble and sincere to your brand message to stand out from the crowd while promoting your brand.
Wrapping Up
Oil & gas industry is a broad segment which is capable of gaining maximum returns when they successfully reach the target. But, at the same time, this industry has seen several failures, and also some companies struggle to survive for two or more years because of specific challenges. Proper implementation of marketing plans can help such firms in regaining lost confidence. So, never give up on your business goals when you fail to achieve it for the first time. Since you have made this far, you can easily attain the desired result if you try harder. Always remember it takes just one lead to set the ball rolling. So, uphold the principle of integrity and bounce back even if you lose the game.