Smart Marketing for Engineers: An Inbound Marketing Guide to Reaching Technical Audiences by Rebecca Geier

Rebecca Geier was named by The Wall Street Journal editors among the Ten Most Innovative Entrepreneurs in America. She is the CEO and Co-Founder of TREW Marketing a full-service marketing agency uniquely serving engineering and scientific companies that target technical audiences.

Prior to co-founding TREW Marketing, Rebecca managed marketing programs at a variety of technology and marketing companies and was a member of the marketing leadership team at National Instruments for 14 years, rising to Director of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations with responsibility for global PR and internal, external, and leadership communications programs.

The Host’s Perspective:

The author is the co-founder of a marketing firm whose expertise is marketing products and services to engineers. And if you’ve ever worked with an engineer, you’ll know they are a different breed of cat. To illustrate, let’s consider this popular engineer joke:

The optimist says: “The glass is half full.”

The pessimist says: “The glass is half empty.”

The engineer says: “The glass is twice as big as it needs to be.”

The same logical, analytical thinking that makes them excellent as engineers also makes them very suspicious of marketing. As the author states on page 167 of the book, “Engineers are skeptical people who loathe marketers.”

So if you want to build trust with prospective customers who are engineers, you’ll want to carefully follow the advice – backed by research – that is presented in this book. But there’s lots more to the book than just how to approach building trust with engineers that will drive results.

The book masterfully explains how to approach modern marketing, particularly marketing products or services that are carefully researched prior to engaging with a vendor. Essentially, when you’re marketing to engineers, or anyone who begins a purchase by doing a Google search, you have to start by providing helpful, meaningful information in order to inform the customer’s purchase research and build trust.

Or as the Cofounder, President and CEO of National Instruments, Dr. James Truchard, said in the book’s foreword.

“With the explosion of the web, ever-changing search algorithms, community sites, blogs, and social media, there are so many more ways to get information about your company and your products, but getting noticed is harder than ever. It’s not about buying space today; it’s about earning it. It’s not about blasting out your message to hundreds of prospects; it’s about getting them to come to you.”

I’ve read hundreds of marketing and sales books and I particularly liked how this book explained certain concepts at the heart of modern marketing, particularly how the quality of the content you produce for your prospective customers is at the heart of all successful marketing and sales.

Additionally, the sections on business strategy, properly identifying your real buyers (many companies are marketing to the wrong people), and marketing automation software were presented in a clear, methodical way – heck, even though this is a book about marketing, an engineer would even trust the information presented in this book.

If you’re marketing and selling to engineers, or if you’re an engineer or an otherwise analytical thinker who has been thrust into a sales and marketing role and are trying to better understand the most effective approach to modern marketing, you’ll want to read Smart Marketing for Engineers.

Listen to the Interview:

Show Notes

Smart Marketing for Engineers by Rebecca Geier

Good To Great by Jim Collins 

Inbound Marketing, Revised and Updated: Attract, Engage, and Delight Customers Online by Brian Halligan and dharmesh Shah

Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman

Leadership by Rudolph Giuliani

Confessions of a Public Speaker by Scott Berkun

The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson

The Challenger Customer: Selling to the Hidden Influencer Who Can Multiply Your Results by Brent Adamson, Matthew Dixon, Pat Spenner, and Nick Toman

Rebecca Geier’s Website (Trewmarketing.com)

About Smart Marketing for Engineers (Trewmarketing.com)

Rebecca Geier in Ouray, Colorado ready to take on Imogene Pass:

Trew Co-founder Wendy Covey with her award-winning red drum:

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