A Golden Marketing Opportunity for Robotics and Autonomous Vehicle Companies
Naseef KPO
Founder & CEO, Skalegrow - B2B Marketing Agency | IIM Bangalore | Speaker | Mentor | Helping 20+ B2B Marketing Leaders & CEOs Do Marketing Right | Building India's Largest B2B Marketing Community | ?? Book a meeting now
The robotics and autonomous vehicle industries have traditionally relied on methods like events and field sales to grow. However, with major shifts in how buyers think and make purchase decisions, robotics and autonomous vehicle manufacturers need to turn to online marketing methods to build a predictable growth engine. Some of the key driving factors behind this change include:
This is the best time for robotics and autonomous vehicle companies to start investing in strategic marketing activities that are focused on digital channels. I discussed the importance of marketing for this industry and the various marketing channels businesses in this category can use in the following articles. I highly recommend you check them out.
But in this article, I wanted to discuss something more specific. While in general, there are many marketing channels and tactics that robotics and autonomous vehicle companies haven't explored, there is one that has been ignored by most - it is creating downloadable marketing assets like ebooks and whitepapers.
In this edition of the Elevate Your Marketing newsletter, I discuss why this can truly become a moat for modern-day robotics companies. We will also cover the step-by-step process of creating ebooks and whitepapers in addition to looking at a few sample topics you can pick for them.
Why creating ebooks and whitepapers can be a game-changer?
According to Roots Analysis , the robotics market size is projected to grow from $ 64.8 billion in 2024 to $ 375.82 billion by 2035, representing a CAGR of 17.33%, during the forecast period 2024-2035. This means that there is a massive opportunity for robotics companies to grow by leveraging favorable market conditions.
From a marketing standpoint, this means that robotics and autonomous vehicle manufacturers need to use all the possible weapons to grab a share of the multi billion dollar market. This is because, with fast growth comes an increase in competition. To stand out, businesses should do much more than 'simple marketing'. Creating ebooks, whitepapers, and guidebooks is a great way to establish yourself as a thought leader in the industry, thereby making your marketing engine stronger.
In addition to being seen as a thought leader, the following are the benefits of creating downloadable assets like these:
Step-by-step process of creating ebooks and whitepapers
There is often a thin line between ebooks and whitepapers. From an objective standpoint, both serve more or less the same purpose - educating your audience and establishing your expertise. Here is how I differentiate the two:
Ebooks are short 5 to 6-page documents that focus on how to do a specific task or discuss tips and best practices related to a topic. They can also answer specific questions or share a unique point of view. Whitepapers, on the other hand, are well-researched in-depth writing on a topic that contain market trends, studies, unique insights & opinions, etc. The length usually exceeds 10 pages and will require more time to read and comprehend.
Given their similarities, both types of marketing assets don't differ much when it comes to the process of creating them. Here are the steps involved:
Let us look at each of these steps in detail.
1. Topic research and planning
This involves conducting research to come up with topic ideas. For this, look at your competitors, popular blogs, and media websites in the robotics, autonomous vehicles, and UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) space. You can find them by googling using the right keyword combinations. You can also use a tool like Ahrefs or BuzzSumo to find the most popular content items in a niche.
For example, have a look at the screenshot I obtained in Ahrefs Content Explorer for the keyword 'warehouse robots'. The more specific your keyword, the higher your chances of finding the best results.
Once you find relevant websites, go check them out to see the different topics they are creating content around.
To make it easier for you, here are a few examples of websites that create content around robotics, autonomous vehicles, and drones:
2. Outline creation
This doesn't require any explanation. It's a good idea to start with an outline so that you can make the writing process more structured.
3. Primary and secondary research
Some ebook and whitepaper topics might require you to conduct interviews and focus group studies to collect insights directly from the most important stakeholders - customers. Secondary research is a must for most topics since an ebook or whitepaper needs to have unique perspectives that cannot be easily found elsewhere.
Also, many consume these content assets to save time on reading multiple sources to learn something. Your secondary research helps to consolidate all the relevant information and give it to your audience in an easily consumable format.
4. Writing the content
This is where your creative brain has to be put to work. At this stage, you convert all the information you collected during the research phase into words. Here are a few best practices you can follow when it comes to writing ebooks and whitepapers for the robotics industry:
Apart from these, make sure to include basic elements like contact information, an about the company section, a copyright statement, and author details.
Here is a whitepaper from Boston Dynamics, one of the leading names in the robotics industry now. Check it out for some inspiration for creating your ebooks and whitepapers.
5. Designing the PDF
This involves two steps:
A best practice is to keep design in mind right when you write the content. For instance, if you want to highlight an important statistic, put a placeholder for it in the content document so that the designer knows how it has to be represented. It will also give you better control over the final output, which is the PDF.
6. Keyword research for the landing page
If you are hosting the ebook or whitepaper on your website, you need a landing page. This means that you need to optimize the page for the right keywords to ensure it ranks on search engines. Ideally, you should consider SEO when you choose the topic. However, focusing too much on SEO at this stage might limit the breadth of the topics you come up with.
So take a balanced approach. If you are able to find SEO-relevant topics in the beginning itself, great. If not, factor in SEO when you create the landing page content.
7. Landing page content
I would recommend the landing page content to be a minimum of 150 words for both SEO and a briefing purposes. Don't hesitate to use more words in case you need to explain the key takeaways from the ebook or whitepaper better.
8. Thumbnail/featured image for the landing page
If your landing page design requires a thumbnail, include that in the process of creating the ebook or whitepaper. If the dimensions are the same, you can use the same image as the featured image. Or else, create a different one.
Sample topics for ebooks and whitepapers
The robotics and autonomous vehicle industry is vast. There is a wide variety of robots and vehicles you can build. Owing to this, the choice of the topic for your ebooks and whitepapers will entirely depend on what you are offering. However, ,here is a sample list of topics for both ebooks and whitepapers based on what the product is.
These are just samples and not an exhaustive list of all types of robots and autonomous vehicles. But these will get you to think in the right direction and help you come up with the right topics for your ebooks and whitepapers.
Final words
The beauty of marketing is that there is no 'one-size-fits-all' approach. There is no magical formula. Moreover, what worked for one business may not work for another. This is why experimentation is key. I would recommend starting by creating 2 ebooks and 1 whitepaper a quarter. This way, in a year, you would have enough to actively promote across multiple channels and campaigns. By then, you would also be able to figure out if your target audience is interested in your content.
If you have the budget, consider increasing the volume. This helps in two ways:
In essence, creating ebooks and whitepapers is a must-do for robotics and autonomous vehicle businesses. But do it at a pace that's comfortable for your business.
Looking to create great content and enhance the marketing efforts of your robotics and autonomous vehicle business?
Building a robot or autonomous vehicle is challenging. Focusing on the product is the most important aspect. This could mean that you don't have the time and resources internally to create content or manage marketing campaigns. This is where Skalegrow can help. Skalegrow is a marketing agency that specializes in helping robotics, autonomous vehicles, and embedded systems companies grow with marketing.
We can help you create thought leadership assets like ebooks and whitepapers in addition to supporting your SEO, video marketing, email marketing, graphic design, LinkedIn marketing, and performance marketing activities. We also help our customers with blogging, ABM, and other demand generation efforts.
Visit our website to learn more about what we bring to the table. You could also write to us at [email protected] .
More learning resources
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