Lead Generation for Engineering Firms

Proven marketing solutions to grow your firm profitably

Our Mission

There are not enough good technicians, fabricators, and skilled tradesmen to handle the amount of work out there, so our mission at Phoenix marketing is to help great companies find better work so that they can make higher profits and focus on what they do best!

Boost Your Engineering Firm's Revenue!

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What forms of marketing work best for Engineering Firms?​

  • While each engineering firm and the customers they serve is unique, there are a few marketing funnels that produce a solid ROI, regardless of company size and target market.
  • The first is email marketing, which allows you to precisely target potential customers with specific job titles who work at companies that fit your target customer profile. By sending them a slow sequence of carefully crafted emails that combine technical verbiage with marketing content, you can establish trust and credibility with bigger, better customers. Note that we’re NOT talking about spammy, generic emails that you get every day in your inbox. These emails are designed to target their pain points and explain how you can provide value. We’ve seen ROIs of 6:1 to 50:1 from email campaigns that we have implemented for our customers. For more detail, check out email marketing on our services page.
  • The second is paid google ads, which essentially enables potential customers who are searching on Google for the services you provide to find you, rather than your competitors. If you’ve tried Google ads and all you got was low value leads and spam, it’s because the person/company who managed your account was not a true professional. Google ads has so many powerful tools for focused targeting and ai-based optimization of lead quality. They are not intuitive and or easy to integrate, but they ensure that you’re getting quality leads. And if you can provide closed loop feedback to Google Ads through your CRM using GA4 and Tag Manager, you can get next level results. We’ve seen ROI's of 7:1 to 40:1 using Google Ads.
  • The third is establishing thought leadership, so that potential customers see you as “the expert” and you’re their first call when there’s a need. When it comes to credibility, customers don’t care about where you went to college or how many professional organizations you’re a member of. They mostly care about 3 things: whether you have specific expertise in their area of business, whether you can be a long-term partner and have the capacity to handle the number of jobs they need you to, and whether you have a history of getting jobs done right and in the time you said you would. This kind of credibility requires case studies, bios of your staff, testimonials, and technical content demonstrating your technical competency. Thought leadership can be demonstrated in a variety of ways. Writing whitepapers and articles can be an incredibly effective way of demonstrating your understanding of a certain topic or technology and communicating that to your potential customers. LinkedIn is a powerful platform for sharing articles and whitepapers with your followers and paid LinkedIn ads can get you exposure to thousands of target customers for a relatively low cost. Blogs are also a great way to put your technical prowess on display and it’s also great for SEO. LinkedIn is also a powerful tool to convey your company’s culture and what makes you unique to your followers.

At Phoenix Marketing, we work with our customers to create the technical content and distribute it to their target audience, whether through email, LinkedIn, or even paid ads.​

Don’t believe it works? Take a look at our process, customers, and results below, and if you’re still skeptical, ask us to connect you with one of our customers and they’ll be happy to talk about the results we’ve gotten them. 

THE MARKETING MACHINE THAT PRODUCES RESULTS THAT NO ONE ELSE CAN

Phoenix Marketing leverages a sophisticated suite of tools and expertise designed to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of your marketing efforts in the construction industry:

  • Advanced Targeting in Google Ads: Utilizing state-of-the-art targeting techniques, we ensure your ads reach the most relevant audience, increasing the likelihood of attracting leads who are actively seeking your specific services.
  • High Conversion Rate Landing Pages: We craft landing pages that are not just visually appealing but are optimized for conversion. Each page is designed with clear calls-to-action and content tailored specifically to engage and convert your target demographic.
  • Lead Vetting to Save You Time: Our rigorous lead vetting process ensures that only the most qualified leads are passed on to your sales team. This not only saves time but also increases the efficiency of your sales process by focusing efforts on leads that are more likely to convert.
  • CRM for Comprehensive Lead Tracking: We implement a custom CRM system that not only helps you organize and track your leads but also feeds back vital data to Google Ads. This integration allows for continuous refinement of your advertising strategies based on actual performance data, enhancing the overall effectiveness of your campaigns.

This strategic combination ensures that every element of your marketing campaign is synchronized to produce the best possible results, transforming potential leads into valuable customers

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SALES ADVICE TO MAXIMIZE THE VALUE OF YOUR LEADS

The effectiveness of your sales team, as measured by your conversion rate, is crucial to the ROI you will get from your lead generation initiatives. No matter how good your leads are, if you have a poor sales process, you’re throwing money down the drain. It’s not rocket science but it takes work and discipline to implement a repeatable sales process that effectively converts quality leads into new customers. If you want 50X+ returns on our lead generation services, check out the best practices below that we’ve learned over the years from our most successful customers.

  • Don’t Miss Calls: Missing a call from a prospect is a killer mistake. You miss the opportunity to speak with them when they are most interested in your service and, if you don’t answer, they’re going to call someone else who will. Then you’re wasting time calling them over and over until you can get a hold of them again. Decision makers in this industry are busy and aren’t the easiest people to get a hold of, especially if they don’t know you from Adam. Not to mention, many prospects call from a company line, so it’s sometimes impossible to get back in touch with the person who called.
  • Establish first Contact ASAP: When a prospect reaches out via form or email, aim to call the lead within 2 hours of their inquiry. This rapid response can set you apart from competitors and significantly increase your chances of securing the project. Don’t just email them! Call and build the personal relationship! I’ve seen so many customers get great leads and have a poor conversion rate because they won’t get on the phone with prospects. Build the relationship FIRST, then follow up by email to get drawings and project details.
  • Sell the Project BEFORE You Write A Proposal: Why would you spend your valuable time writing a proposal before know whether you have a decent shot at winning the project? Good Salespeople know that most projects are won on the phone after talking through scope and budget. If the customer has a Bugatti project and a Pinto budget, find that out in the first call and don’t waste your time bidding it! Otherwise, tell the prospect what your scope and ballpark cost is going to be, make sure they’re good with it, and then write them a proposal to seal the deal. This prevents you from wasting time on low value projects and keeps you from leaving money on the table because sometimes the prospect’s budget is bigger than you think…
  • Follow up Consistently: So many salespeople and business owners send 1-2 emails and then give up on a lead. Working with dozens of companies in the construction industry, we know how busy the decision makers are and how easy it is to miss an email or phone call or voicemail, especially from someone you don’t recognize. Multiple follow-ups through multiple channels is KEY! You’ve already spent the money to get that lead, so don’t let it die so easily….
    In addition to lead vetting, we offer additional services to help your sales team follow up on stagnant leads, whether through automated email sequences or phone calls. If we can help support your sales team, just reach out and let’s talk!
  • Avoid Being Just Another Bid: Don’t waste resources competing as the third bid. Find out whether the prospect owns the project or their just bidding to win it. And find out whether they already have a preferred partner and whether you have any shot at actually winning the bid. Sell your value as a partner, not just a number on a bid list.
  • Prompt Answers Build Trust: Always respond quickly to client questions. Why? Because most people don’t! Responsiveness builds trust, which greatly increases your chances of winning the project. If you don’t have the answer immediately, communicate that you are on it and will get back to them soon. Customers appreciate good communication and sometimes they’ll go with a higher bidder because they know the project will go smoother.
  • Ask About Future Projects: Let the prospect know that you’d like the opportunity to be a long term partner. Don’t just settle for the initial job. Ask about their business and what other types of work they sub-contract and how often. Showing interest in long-term partnership can make you a preferred partner rather than just another bid.
  • Regular Follow-Ups: Maintain contact with new prospects regularly, even if you didn’t win their business initially. Checking in monthly or quarterly keeps your company top-of-mind and can lead to future opportunities when the need arises. Maybe they needed a short turnaround on the first project and you couldn’t hit the deadline. Tell them you can’t help with this one but you’d like to bid on the next one. Or maybe they didn’t have the budget on this one, so ask them to reach out before the next job and include your cost in their bid. Build the relationship and the work will come.
 

Implementing the sales strategies we’ve discussed in recent posts will drastically increase your conversion rate, making your sales team more efficient, and increasing your bottom line by helping you acquire more new customers for a lower cost.

OUR LEAD GEN PACKAGES

Our lead generation plans are designed for fabrication shops and engineering firms with an annual revenue in the range of $1M to $50M. Using our proven process and industry best practices, we typically achieve ROIs between 20:1 and 120:1. The services below help our customers get the maximum return on their investment, while also saving them time and allowing them to focus on the things they do best!

Services Standard Scale Package Targeted Scale Package Marketing Machine Package
Google Ads Setup & Management
Landing Page Optimization
Lead Screening
CRM Hosting
Email Marketing
Lead Follow-Up
CRM Management
Loop Marketing
Social Media
Starting at: $2,975 / mo $5,225 / mo $9,125 / mo

If you don’t have $2,975 / mo, check out our advice for small fabrication shops below. 

If you have the budget, investing it in our lead generation program will result in a much higher ROI than other marketing initiatives (SEO, website updates, social media…). And you don’t have to take our word for it. Our customers will tell you the same and if you give us 3 months, we’ll prove it!

*Additional fees apply for ad spend over $3k and certain markets that may require advanced lead vetting capabilities

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Case Studies

LIMITING BELIEFS THAT BOTTLENECK REVENUE GROWTH

Google only produces trashy leads and tire-kickers

When done right, Google Ads can produce leads that generate 30, 50, and even 100x ROIs. The key is pairing a deep understanding of Google’s algorithms with a practical understanding of the fabrication industry. No other marketing agency has people on staff that understand fabrication, welding, and erection terminology, and that’s one of the reasons our solution is so effective.

We’ve Tried Marketing and It Doesn’t Work

We’ve proven that paid google ads and email marketing have the highest ROIs for fabrication shops. And if you’ve tried those tools and they didn’t work, it’s because you didn’t do it the way we do it. Most fabrication shops hire an internal marketing person who then hires a marketing agency to handle their SEO and lead gen activities. The problem is that the internal marketing person is rarely a technical expert in every area of marketing and the hired marketing agencies do not understand the fabrication market or the customers they’re marketing to.

Word of Mouth is the only way to get new business

Word of mouth is great and should be part of any growth strategy, but it’s not scalable and it doesn’t allow you to target the exact type of work you want. It takes time to get referrals and you’re limited by the number of people you know and how good their connections are. It’s a great way to grow when you’re just starting out, but it’s not the solution that gets you from $2M to $20M.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How Quickly Will We See Results?

You’ll know in the first 4 weeks that we know what we’re doing and we’re unlike any other marketing agency you’ve ever worked with. We believe in under–promising and over–delivering so we set reasonable expectations and then exceed them. We don’t promise results that we can’t deliver. 

Why Do I Need Phoenix To Vet Our Leads?

Our team vets every lead that we generate before we pass it to our customers. We set up a unique phone numbers for each customer so every time a lead calls in from one of our ads, they speak to someone on our team, who asks a specific set of questions to determine the project scope, timeline, and budget. Then that info is confirmed by an account manager and entered a custom CRM that we provide for each of our customers. And we do the same for leads that come in through landing pages or websites, so that our customers only see fully qualified leads. This ensures that the lead is contacted very quickly (because we all know that your chances of winning the job increase dramatically if you’re the first company they speak to).

Will I Only Get Low Value Leads?

We’ve used google ads to generate high value leads for over 150 applications for dozens of engineering firms, fab shops, and technology providers. Our Customers achieve great ROIs because we know how to target high value leads in these industries and it’s completely different than what would work for a non-technical, local service like an HVAC or roofing company. By optimizing your targeting, all your ad spend is used on the right audience, so you get more leads from qualified customers looking for the exact services you provide. If you don’t target correctly, you’ll waste your ad spend on random people clicking on your ad who are looking for someone else. 

Does Our Lead Generation Process Really Work?

We’ve used google ads to generate high value leads for over 150 applications for dozens of engineering firms, fab shops, and technology providers. Our Customers achieve great ROIs because we know how to target high value leads. We don’t do contracts and our customers stay because we produce results that no other marketing agency can.  

How Do I know We Will Get A ROI?

We treat every customer’s business like it’s our own and we work to get them the highest ROI possible. We’re not perfect, but we never accept failure and if we don’t hit our targets, we keep testing and iterating until we do. The vast majority of our customers have over 15:1 ROIs and many have ROIs exceeding 50:1. For the ones that don’t, we keep pushing until we get the results we promised. 

Do You Require Long Term Contracts?

We hate contracts. Our customers stay because we produce results that other marketing agencies can’t. We focus on getting you bigger, more profitable customers who are in your target markets. We constantly measure and tweak our process to make sure that you’re getting the highest ROI possible and if we aren’t providing an ROI for you, we won’t stop until we do. Our results and relentless pursuit of ROI keeps our customers loyal. 

Our process works, let us prove it!

Why Phoenix Marketing?

We’re NOT your typical marketing agency!

We are technical subject matter experts who, through trial and error, have designed and implemented high-ROI marketing processes that work for technical products and services.

WE'RE INDUSTRY EXPERTS WHO SPEAK YOUR LANGUAGE.

With technical backgrounds in engineering, industrial automation, fabrication, and construction, we understand your business and your
customers! Combining our industry knowledge with a deep understanding of technical
marketing is how we produce results that other agencies can’t.

WE FREE YOU UP FOCUS ON WHAT YOU DO BEST.

Because we understand your business,
we operate independently to minimize your time spent on marketing efforts. And every lead we deliver to you has been vetted by our team,
so that you aren’t wasting your time
on the phone with trashy leads that aren’t in your wheelhouse.

WE GET YOU CUSTOMERS, NOT CLICKS AND LEADS.

We don’t track vanity metrics! Any agency can get you clicks and leads. We focus on getting you bigger, more profitable customers who are in your target markets. We constantly measure and tweak our process to make sure that you’re getting the highest ROI possible and if we aren’t providing an ROI for you, we won’t stop until we do.

What Our Customers Say About Us

Ed Z.
EZE Group

They listened attentively to what we wanted to target and we were included in all the steps along the way.   Made it feel like we are one team with one goal in mind. The team has been super responsive to all our questions and proactive in making sure we get the best rate of return possible. They have been wonderful to work with.

Jarod Rouch
Elevated Steel

Phoenix Marketing has produced tremendous results in the past 9 months I’ve been collaborating with them. Their team is superbly helpful in generating and vetting quality leads that consistently develop into orders. I have found this group to very responsive to requests or input from us that is specific to our company and the industry we serve. They take a technical approach to identifying new clients for us, and the ROI has exceeded expectations. Based on their excellent performance, our company is increasing the marketing budget so Phoenix can manage our social media presence. They are very knowledgeable, easy to work with, and have become a critical part of our growth and overall success as an organization so I’m grateful for their partnership.

Calvin Bontrager
President/CEO

It's been for us a real relief factor. We've seen you guys (PTM) take the ball and run with it. We've seen results that we have not seen in the last 6 years just almost exponentially start happening...We mentioned contracts to you and you said "We don't do contracts. We do results." and that's a big deal to us, to have a results driven ecosystem.

Common Marketing Mistakes Made By Engineering Firms​

  • We Can Do It All! The #1 mistake we see firms make is coming off too general with their services. “We can handle just about anything” is not an inspiring statement on a website. In fact, it tells customers that you don’t have specific expertise in their area of business, which is absolutely key in gaining their trust. Ever heard that riches are in the niches? Well it’s as true in engineering as it is anywhere else. If you tell customers you’re good at everything, the only thing they hear is that you’ll take whatever work you can get.
  • A Better Website Will Get Me More Leads! A lot of owners believe that a fancier, edgier website will get them more leads from bigger customers. There is an hint of truth in that statement, but a better website only solves half the problem. The real challenge is how to get the RIGHT PEOPLE to go to the website and take the time to learn about your company.
  • Marketing Is A Waste of Money! Most business owners in this industry have had negative experiences with marketing firms who didn't understand their business and wasted their money, there is a common perception that marketing doesn't work. There are lots of marketing agencies out there who are very good at NOT getting results. We're not one of them...

Why Do Engineering Firms Need Marketing?

Good engineers are in short supply and market demand is higher than ever so in order to grow an engineering firm profitably, you must be in a constant state of adding new customers who value your expertise and pay you well for what you do best while passing off your bottom tier customers who may be better served by another firm. Over time, this increases your revenue and maximizes your profit per engineering hour.

Our team of engineers and marketing professionals are dedicated to providing tailored marketing solutions for engineering firms, helping them stand out in a competitive landscape and achieve remarkable growth. Finding and acquiring new, better customers for engineering firms requires a combination of technical know-how and practical marketing strategy.

In the sections below, we detail common challenges faced by engineering firms in their marketing efforts and offer practical advice to help them succeed in this challenging industry.

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Why Marketing for Engineering Firms Is Unique

  • Marketing for engineering firms demands a distinct approach due to the technical nature of the services provided and the personalities of the target customers. At Phoenix Marketing, we know that understanding your customer, articulating your services, differentiating from competitors, showcasing your expertise, and establishing credibility are fundamental to gaining clients' trust and winning new customers. Achieving this requires a fine balance between concise technical writing and compelling marketing content.
  • Companies who need engineering services want to know why your engineering firm is different from all the others that they’ve used in the past. The decision makers are usually technically savvy and inherently skeptical (much like engineers), so they won’t take much at face value. So, you must clearly articulate what services you provide, how you are different than other forms, what you’re best at, what value you can uniquely provide to their business, and credibility to back up your statements. That may sound straightforward, but combining the technical knowledge needed to correctly define your services and value with the marketing expertise needed to bring it all together with the right message, aesthetics, and overall strategy is no small feat.
  • It’s a fact that most engineers are very concise and straightforward in their technical writing which is great for reporting but not great for marketing. On the other hand, marketing professionals are typically creative and excel at expounding upon content and making it appealing and exciting. Marketing for engineering firms requires a unique combination of those 2 things and requires close collaboration between marketing and engineering staff.
  • Our parent company (Phoenix Engineering) struggled for many years to find the right strategy for driving that collaboration to create a thriving marketing machine for finding and converting new customers. Below are some things we learned on our journey of creating that marketing machine for ourselves and other engineering firms.

Marketing Advice for Small Engineering Firms

  • For smaller engineering companies, the first step in getting bigger, better customers is to create a website that establishes credibility. Most websites for small engineering firms that I’ve seen look like they were developed in the 90s and do a very poor job of communicating anything other than a bland list of services. That’s not going to inspire confidence. Engineering firms need a modern, well-structured website that conveyors your services, uniques, staff, projects, testimonials… If you don’t have the budget for a website, a single landing page describing your services, your uniques, your history, and some cool pictures, can also work in the short term to help get you some solid leads.
  • Once you have a solid website, you can start driving traffic to the website and the most cost-effective means of doing that are email marketing and paid google ads.
  • If you don't have the budget for that, find every GC, builder and manufacturing facility in your area and start making calls and knocking on doors. Trust us, they need engineers. Take pictures/screenshots of projects (when you can) and start building a marketing budget, so that when you're ready to scale, you've got the credibility and the cash to do so.

Marketing Advice for Mid-sized Engineering Firms

  • Mid-sized engineering firms should be focused on replacing their lower-tier, less profitable customers with bigger, better customers in their main verticals. To do this, they need to demonstrate more credibility and be reaching their target customers via multiple channels. LinkedIn, email marketing, blogs, whitepapers, articles, and Instagram are some of the platforms and tools we use to increase awareness and credibility to win over new customers.
  • Identifying your dream 100 customers and employing email marketing is a great way to establish initial communication with target customers, especially when combined with direct LinkedIn outreach and even other social media channels. As we say at Phoenix Marketing, we want to be so close to target customers that we show up in their kid’s birthday photos. Maybe a little creepy, but you get the point.
  • Google ads is still important for mid-sized engineering firms, but you have the luxury of focusing your keywords on only the specific work you want.
  • Mid-sized engineering firms should also be sure that their website demonstrates the credibility needed to acquire larger customers. If your website makes you look small and unorganized, you might do everything else right and still lose the opportunity.

READY TO GET STARTED?

First, you’ll jump on a discovery call with one of our industry specialists to talk about your business, what areas you specialize in, who your target customers are, and how we can help you best.

If you line up with the type of customer that we can help, we’ll come up with a plan to get you in front of the prospects who have a current, consistent need your services (trust me, there’s a LOT of them).

From there, one of two things will happen:

  1. You’ll love the plan and decide to go implement it on your own.
    If that’s the case, we’ll wish you the best of luck and ask you keep in touch and let us know how you’re doing.
  2. You’ll love the plan and ask to become a client of ours so we can personally help you execute, maximize, and profit from it ASAP.

And if that’s the case, we’ll knock it out of the park together… that’s a promise.

Worst case, you have a short phone call with an industry expert who’s helped scale dozens of companies just like yours (who happens to speak your language and love all the things you love).

Best case, we work together to increase your sales and profit exponentially.

Remember: We are engineers and industry professionals! We don’t over-promise and make unsubstantiated claims that we can’t deliver. Our confidence is based on data and years of experimentation in finding out all the marketing tactics that do and don’t work for this industry. 

Let us do for your business what has worked for ours and so many others!

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Sales Advice for Engineering Firms

  • No matter how many good leads you generate with your marketing efforts, if your sales team can’t convert, you’ve wasted those dollars. Salespeople for engineering firms are the face of your firm to the customer, so what they think of your salesperson is what they think of your firm (at least before the first project they do with you). If they’re slow to respond, don’t understand technical lingo, can’t explain your services, or aren’t confident and personable, your chances of winning the first job drop dramatically.
  • We’ve seen multiple sales models work. Some firms have non-technical salespeople and pair them with engineers on any technical discussions with customers. This makes it easier to hire salespeople, but results in more non-billable hours for engineers who are meeting with customers and need to support sales with proposals and technical questions. This can have a negative affect on the bottom line as well as engineering morale, as most engineers prefer to work within their skillset rather than talk with customers.
  • In many cases, the Owner, Principals, and P.E.s do all the sales. This can be effective because many engineers at higher levels have mastered sales. However, what happens in many cases is that operational requirements end up taking priority over sales responsibilities which results in unresponsiveness and poor communication with potential customers. This can be deadly to an engineering firm because not only will you not get new customers, you could lose the ones you have. As a firm grows, the leadership must pass of the daily sales responsibilities to a dedicated sales team. Technical leadership should still support sales in closing deals, but their time is more valuable working on/in the operation rather than working in sales.
  • Other firms have dedicated sales engineers who speak tech and also have the salesmanship to influence the customer. This is the most efficient model, but it’s difficult to find those sales engineer unicorns and they’re not cheap.
  • We hope the information above has given you a bit of insight into marketing solutions for your engineering firm. If we can help you in any way, don’t hesitate to reach out on our contact page!
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Proven Sales Tips For Engineering Firms!

If you want higher returns on your marketing and sales budget, implement these best practices that we’ve learned from our most successful customers.