Marketing for B2B, Wholesale & Manufacturing

B2B marketing looks wrong by consumer standards. Volumes are small, cycles are long, and a handful of enquiries a month can be an excellent result if each one is worth six figures over its life.

That means the reporting has to change too. Judging a B2B campaign on clicks or cost per lead alone will almost always lead to cutting the thing that was working.

How buyers in this sector actually search

Three different people type three different things. A page written for one of them will lose the other two, which is why a single "services" page rarely performs.

Stage	What they type, and where	What wins the click
Defining a requirement	Technical specifications, materials, tolerances, standards	Specification-level content and downloadable technical documents
Building a shortlist	" supplier canada", " manufacturer alberta"	Capability pages, certifications, capacity and lead times
Requesting a quote	Your name, capability match, references	An RFQ form that captures specification, volume and timeline

What usually goes wrong

Campaigns judged on consumer-style metrics that do not apply
Product and capability pages missing the specifications buyers search for
No distinction between end-customer and trade enquiries
Long decision cycles with no remarketing or follow-up in between
Sales and marketing measuring completely different things

What we do about it

Search campaigns built around specification and capability terms
Detailed product, capability and certification pages
Separate paths and messaging for trade and end-customer enquiries
Long-window remarketing matched to a real B2B cycle
Reporting on qualified enquiries and pipeline value, not clicks

Which channels do the work here

Not every channel earns its place in every sector. This is the order we would normally switch things on for b2b, wholesale & manufacturing.

01

Capability & specification pages

The core B2B asset. Written for the engineer, not the marketing department.

02

Google Search Ads

Captures specific process and material searches. Low volume, high value, tight match types.

03

Technical SEO & content

Compounds; owns the specification searches. Downloadable spec sheets, drawings and standards documents.

04

LinkedIn & trade presence

Reaches specifiers and procurement. Slow, relationship-led, complements search rather than replacing it.

What a year looks like in this sector

Budget spread evenly across twelve months is budget wasted in the quiet ones and rationed in the busy ones. This is the shape we plan around — yours will differ, and we will measure it rather than assume it.

Period	What demand does	What we do about it
January – March	Budget release and new project starts	Strong quoting quarter; capability content should be indexed before it
April – June	Project execution; steady quoting	Push case studies and capability expansion
July – August	Slower; decision-makers away	Best window to write technical content and rebuild capability pages
September – November	Year-end budget spend and next-year planning	Second major quoting window; advertise capability specifically

What we measure, and what good looks like

Ranges seen across Canadian local markets, offered so you have something to argue with. They are not promises, and your own numbers replace them the moment we have three months of data.

Metric	What a healthy figure looks like
Cost per qualified RFQ	$100–$600. High, but so are order values
RFQ-to-quote rate	Poor rates mean the site is attracting the wrong specification or volume
Quote-to-order rate	Where the marketing hand-off ends and sales begins
Average order value by source	Some channels bring one-offs, some bring supply agreements
Sales cycle length	Often 3–18 months. Attribution must survive that long or the channel looks worthless

What this usually costs

B2B volumes are low and values are high, so cost per enquiry looks alarming until you divide by order value. $1,500–$4,000 a month is common, and it should be spent on capability content and precise search terms rather than broad awareness.

The decisive asset is usually not advertising at all: it is capability documentation. Tolerances, materials, certifications, capacity, lead times, and the specifications you can and cannot meet. Engineers shortlist on that and nothing else.

A checklist you can work through without us

If you only do these six things and never call us, you will still be ahead of most of your competitors. That is not a sales tactic — it is what we would tell you on the phone anyway.

Capability pages with processes, materials and tolerances
Certifications and standards clearly listed
Capacity and typical lead times stated
Downloadable specification and technical documents
An RFQ form capturing specification, volume and timeline
Attribution that survives a long sales cycle

Questions we get asked about marketing b2b, wholesale & manufacturing

Our buyers are engineers. Does marketing even apply?

Yes, but differently. Engineers research heavily before contacting anyone. Marketing's job is to be findable and to answer specification questions completely, not to persuade.

What should be on a capability page?

Processes, materials, tolerances, capacity, certifications, typical lead times, and honest limits. Stating what you cannot do saves everyone time and builds more credibility than a claim of doing everything.

Are trade shows still worth it?

Often, but they work far better when the follow-up is systematic and the website supports the conversation. A show contact who looks you up and finds a thin site has been lost, not won.

How do we track an 18-month sales cycle?

With proper attribution set up from the start — first-touch stored at enquiry, carried into the CRM, and reported against closed orders. Retrofitting this after a year is close to impossible.

Should we publish pricing?

Rarely exact pricing, but publish minimum order quantities and typical price bands. Quoting jobs below your minimum is a pure cost.

Services that apply here

Every service below is available to any business in any sector — this list is not a package and nothing here is restricted to b2b, wholesale & manufacturing.

Tools we work in

The Stack Behind the Work

Nothing exotic, and nothing you cannot take with you. Accounts are created in your business name wherever the platform allows it, and you keep administrator access throughout — during the engagement and after it.

34platforms in regular use

6disciplines covered

100%accounts owned by you

0lock-in contracts on tooling

Search & analytics

6 platforms

01

Google Search Console
Google Analytics 4
Google Tag Manager
Looker Studio
Screaming Frog
Ahrefs / SEMrush

Advertising

6 platforms

02

Google Ads
Google Merchant Center
Meta Ads Manager
Meta Pixel & CAPI
Microsoft Advertising
Call tracking

Local & reputation

5 platforms

03

Google Business Profile
Apple Business Connect
Bing Places
Review request tools
Citation directories

Websites & commerce

6 platforms

04

WordPress
WooCommerce
Shopify
Static builds
Cloudflare
Managed hosting

Design & creative

6 platforms

05

Adobe Illustrator
Adobe InDesign
Adobe Photoshop
Figma
Canva (team templates)
Lightroom

Email & automation

5 platforms

06

Mailchimp
Klaviyo
Form handlers
Zapier / Make
CRM integrations

Platform names are listed for identification only, with neutral icons of our own drawing — no third-party logos are reproduced. All trademarks belong to their respective owners, and no endorsement or affiliation is implied.