Digital transformation in O&G marketing in general is referred to marketing and promoting companies products and services through digital media in order to generate business leads and meet new clients. In this article I will describe how O&G marketing and sales managers can benefit from digital marketing opportunities, how it fits within traditional marketing approaches, and finally introduce a platform dedicated to O&G online marketing.
Digital marketing as part of O&G digital transformation process enables marketing and sales managers to expand their vision to meet prospective customers out of their current marketing network. Despite the fact that oil and gas industry has been slow in adapting new technologies both in its procedures and marketing areas, recent advancements in Oil Filed Digitalization, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Cloud Computing have opened new doors to revise traditional E&P marketing methods as well. For this reason, some of digital marketing benefits are described in detail below.
Traditional marketing as opposed to digital marketing refers to regional/local marketing, where companies establish offices to support and conduct face-to-face meetings with prospective customers. This marketing approach requires a lot of investment, moving staff from overseas, dealing with local company registrations and man power regulations, etc. that are usually time intensive. Digital Marketing, on the other hand, is very time efficient in delivering conclusive results, can be performed remotely and best of all it works as complementary to traditional marketing methods. Digital marketing of E&P services and products generates valuable business leads that can be followed by traditional person-to-person meetings in order to land a new client and reduces client acquisition costs.
6 advantages of digital marketing that business managers can benefit from are described below.
⦁ Accurate Analytics
Digital marketing is closely tied with real-time Analytical Data, which is its major advantage over Off-line marketing. Analytical data often consist of the number of visitors, impressions, redirects, visitors’ geo-location, … of the marketing content, that can be analyzed and used to update and improve marketing plans and strategies. In addition, analytical data allows marketing managers to adapt innovative marketing approaches based on feedback from their audience in order to increase impressions and sales.
⦁ B2B Lead Generation
The majority of oil and gas industry businesses are of B2B type, thus marketing managers who are looking to expand their marketing cycle to new E&P markets in order to add new clients to their marketing portfolio can use digital marketing services. Good news is digital marketing provides metrics that can identify potential clients through some of its unique services such as Email Marketing. Monitoring and analyzing analytical data acquired while running Email Marketing campaign leads to identifying the most interested companies and professionals to the marketed services and products. The most prominent clients are identified through “email open” and “link click” rates.
⦁ Target Marketing
To market a niche product or service, the best approach is to target a particular audience, by running marketing campaign(s) only to those who are most likely to turn to clients. Therefore, filters can be applied based on visitors’ field of expertise and/or geo-location that not only make the marketing campaign more purposeful, but also reduce marketing expenses. For instance, publishing Banner Advertisement on a particular category of a marketing website (e.g., in Drilling, Geology or Geophysics sections) or use Email Marketing to target those who have shown interest to a particular service or product while registering to an email list.
⦁ Inexpensive and Measurable Marketing Media
Digital marketing as opposed to off-line marketing such as exhibiting at trade shows, conducting seminars and advertising in magazines is way less expensive and more efficient in measuring marketing success rate and generating new business leads. In addition, digital marketing reduces related marketing preparation time, energy and expense yet emerging hidden sales potential.
⦁ Reach New E&P Markets
The idea of digital marketing is to expand your reach to overseas regions and clients without having to travel there. Potential clients can be identified, contacted and even be presented without having a person-to-person meeting which is an ideal approach for medium to small size businesses and start-ups in the O&G industry. For example, your marketing strategy is to increase your market share in a particular region, whether you have an office there or not, it requires an extensive travel time and budget to present your services and products to new clients in different countries. This part can be easily managed through digital marketing to identify the most potential clients in the region prior to your visit there. This approach not only enhances your travel time, but also reduces travel expenses dramatically.
⦁ Digital Branding
Digital branding is a powerful way to establish brand recognition amongst online visitors and increases potential client’s engagement with company’s products and services. Therefore, branding as part of integrated digital marketing solution is an essential part of any business growth and success. Firstly, digital marketing increases the number of impressions to a targeted audience. Next, it increases the chance of remembering brand name, when searched services or products show up in search engines, and finally, it raises brand awareness and image to establish long-term customer loyalty and relationship.
As digitalization is shaping the future of E&P industry in many ways including marketing and promoting companies’ services and products online, therefore, adapting digital marketing as a complementary media to traditional marketing practices not only reduces advertising and branding expenses, but also provides valuable insights on choosing the most successful marketing strategy in order to boost sales.