10 Things The Industrial Buying Influence Data Has Taught Us About Marketing to Manufacturers

1. Manufacturers buy when they need to, not when you want them to.

Nearly half of all manufacturing capital equipment purchases are driven by specific projects or customer requirements, not by budget calendars, promotional windows, or end-of-quarter pushes. This data point has grown consistently over the last four years. Marketing built around urgency, discounts, and time-limited offers is fighting the buyer's actual behavior. Marketing built around application relevance and problem-solving is working with it. 

2. Trade magazines are still the most trusted source in the room.

88% of manufacturing buyers rate industry magazines as "more credible and trusted" for product and process information. No other source comes close. This is not a generational artifact, it reflects how this audience makes high-stakes decisions and aligns with the tactile, practical nature of the engineering professional. In this age of AI, the editorial environment where your message appears is as important as the message itself.

3. The tradeshow comeback is real and the data suggests you’re not doing enough about it.

Tradeshows jumped to the #1 information source in 2025,  the highest of any year and the sharpest single-year gain in the entire dataset. Face-to-face events have been rated the #1 vendor influence factor at 91% since the survey began. No digital channel replicates what a buyer experiences watching your equipment run at full scale in person. The takeaway is not to suggest that you invest in more events or bigger displays but that you are more thoughtful about what you do to maximize the return on your event investment – pre-show marketing, onsite engagement, post-show nurturing are as essential as the display you build onsite.

4. Your customer is actually a small committee. 

Three people. That's been the typical manufacturing decision team for four consecutive years. While the final call typically rests with one person, a small committee of advisors is offering input and recommendations. Manufacturing marketers often say “our audience already knows us.” But, does the right person know you? If the decision maker doesn’t know you, do you have an advisor on your side who will bring your brand up for consideration? Your marketing should give advocates insightful takeaways, practical solutions, and successful use cases that they can share with the buying committee.

5. Research happens equally online and offline.

The 2025 IBI quantifies this directly: more than 55% of the entire purchase process is completed before a buyer contacts a vendor. Buying research is split equally between online and offline channels, with tradeshows, print, and peer conversations carrying as much weight as search and vendor websites. The buyer's journey is mostly determined before your sales conversation even begins. Suppliers who are findable during the research stage, with solutions-focused content on multiple channels,  will have a better chance to compete at the bottom of the sales funnel. 

6. By the time they call you, you’re one of two.

68% of buying teams evaluate a list of vendors that includes a combination of previous suppliers plus potential new suppliers identified through research. That list is ultimately narrowed down to a ‘short list’ of two potential suppliers. By the time your sales team gets the inquiry, the shortlist is already set. Most marketers think their sales funnel begins once a prospect becomes a lead, but what feeds the funnel is where the opportunity actually begins. Trade editorial placements, search visibility, tradeshow presence, and application-specific content are the inputs that determine who makes the final two. 

7. Effective video shows your product in action. 

Equipment demonstrations are the #1 type of video watched for work in every year measured, cited by 83–90% of buyers. Applications, demonstrations and how-to videos follow. Executive interviews, the most commonly produced format in B2B video, are watched by just 15–18% of this audience. The video strategy is clear: demonstrate performance first, explain process second, tell your brand story later.

8. Leads from your contact form are hot, move quick before the cool.

Completing a contact form is the only buyer action where the expectation and the desire to receive follow-up nearly align — 78% expect it, 73% want it. And 53% want that contact within 24 hours. Badge scans, white paper downloads, and webinar registrations do not carry the same urgency, these leads warrant nurturing, not immediate outreach.

9. The journey starts with AI, optimize your content for discovery.

Preference for AI Overviews in search returns jumped from 8% in 2024 to 26% in 2025, the largest single-year gain of any data point in four years of the IBI survey. Only 6% trust AI output directly, but 26% now begin their research there. AI is increasingly the front door to the industrial research journey, even for buyers who wouldn't call themselves AI users. The suppliers building authoritative, application-specific content now are positioning themselves to be discovered in AI output.

10. Advertising works when it’s the right environment.

92% of manufacturing buyers say active advertising makes them "more likely" to do business with a vendor. But the environment matters enormously. Tradeshow exhibits (55–69%), trade magazine ads (46–55%), and trade website ads (30–45%) build positive impressions consistently. Advertising in this market is not about reach, it's about borrowing the credibility of trusted environments. The highest-performing ad investment is the one placed where buyers already go and trust what they read.

Insights from the Industrial Buying Influence Survey.