Marketing for Engineers

Marketing for Engineers! If that sounds a little bit unorthodox and unconventional, then you might want to continue reading this post and see why I strongly believe that practicing engineers as well as engineering students “MUST” develop their skills in marketing.

The Problem of Engineering Schools

What engineering schools don’t teach you!

I have spent more than 12 years in engineering schools around the globe. While this tenure has extremely been fruitful, I have missed some important pieces of personal and professional development: i.e. effectively communicating my thoughts, ideas, and skills to my managers (in the past), my peers, and customers (in my current role).

Engineering schools are designed to prepare students with excellent problem solving skills, however, communicating these valuable asset to others has never been an integral component of the school curriculum. In fact, many students graduate without even knowing the true value of the knowledge they have acquired during the school years.

As we move up in the hierarchy of education (grad school, PhD, Post-doctoral), the problem becomes even more significant. Personally, I know a handful of exceptionally talented engineers (often MSc, and PhDs), who fail to impress their customers and/or managers, simply because they have not invested in improving their written and verbal communication skills.

Warren Buffet, one of the best investors of all times, believes that:

If they just learn to communicate better both in writing and in person, they increase their value at least 50%.

Warren Buffet

The Problem of Being an Engineer

Are Engineers really Weird? Nerd? Arrogant? or Selfish ?

Perfect Solutions – Poor Presentation

Engineering is a very sensitive and delicate field to practice. Much like lawyers and physicians, engineers have access to client’s sensitive, and often confidential information. In a similar way, they are often busy working on complex problems. However, unlike lawyers, engineers (generally speaking) are not well trained in communication and presentation.

To put this into perspective, try to remember when was the last time you were really impressed by presentation made by an engineer without finding yourself overwhelmed, and/or bored. As a former scholar, and active member of engineering community in Ontario, Canada, I should admit that I have not been so lucky!

Competition – Keep the enemy at the gate

Recently, my request to present a lunch and learn at another consulting firm (much bigger than my company) was rejected. The reason? competing in a relatively similar domain. I didn’t understand the reason, and I tried to look into it from different angles:

• Where they worried about disclosing sensitive information? I was the disclosing party after all! They did not need to share any information in the first place.
• They could have learned what we do, so they could improve their practice (or identify our weaknesses)
• They could have evaluated a potential competitor.

Selfish or Arrogant

Perhaps you would be amazed to see these suggested keywords when you try to Google “Why are engineers …”. Well, we may feel we are not, but we can’t deny the fact that there are so many people who think different.

Marketing for Engineers

How Can Engineers Advantage from Better Marketing ?

There are engineers who would love their complex computer code, or model far better than reaching out to customers. While as a professional engineer, I appreciate the hard work of this group of engineers, I strongly believe marketing can add a new dimension to their practice.

Digital marketing has transformed the landscape of marketing in many areas. Engineering is no different. Traditionally, conferences and seminars were among the most popular events for engineers, where they could share and exchange their ideas. With all the travel restrictions as a result of Covid-19, establishing a robust digital marketing strategy and leveraging social media for broader outreach is more important than ever. It is a safe assumption to say that if you don’t have a digital footprint in today’s competitive market, you can find yourself in the verge of extinction.

Now, let’s see where one should start!

Define Your Marketing Objectives

As a project manager, or a business development professional, your marketing objectives might be one or several of the following:

• to win more customers,
• to build new opportunities,
• to create new revenue streams,
• to enhance customer relationship,
• launch new services or products,
• build brand awareness.

What Marketing Methods Should Engineers Use?

You might ask yourself where to begin? Traditional marketing techniques have long been used by engineering community. Examples are tradeshows, conferences, seminars, brochures, etc. Digital Marketing has changed (for good) the landscape of marketing. Today, each and every engineer can become a brand ambassador, or a social media influencer.

1. Strong Content Marketing

Engineers usually produce tons of technical reports, technical papers, presentations, and so on. However, this valuable content often remain unnoticed. It is important that engineering professionals share their knowledge and experience and share it with their piers, and network. A Blog (like mine) can be a nice starting point. You can make your free blog on WordPress, or Wix. An alternative can be LinkedIn Articles and Posts (like this one by myself).

1. Social Media

While social media might initially remind us of facebook, instagram and tiktok, the one that can help each and every engineer is LinkedIn. LinkedIn can help engineers expand their professional network, share content, receive feedback, and create opportunities.

Proper use of LinkedIn Marketing solutions can help engineers make a strong personal and professional brand, promote their products or services, and build relationships. Click on the link blow to learn more about the applications of LinkedIn for Engineers.

To be completed soon ! Check Again Soon 🙂