On all counts, the Oil and Gas market is more volatile than most. Globally, prices fluctuate, regulations evolve, and supply and demand shift. Regionally, each market has unique dynamics, all dependent on macroeconomic variables like rising material cost and high interest rates, not to mention unique location-specific changes in supply and demand. Being a marketer in this arena demands a solid foundation on industry trends to make the smartest marketing decisions. However, most brands in Oil and Gas haven’t refreshed their marketing strategies in years… leaving an opportunity wide open for savvy digital marketers.
We've dug deep into the most recent industry data and our own two decades of experience to provide you with a how-to guide on how to take advantage of this exponentially growing (but digitally stagnant) market. Let's get right into it.
The oil and gas market is broken down into segments. If you haven’t yet, a good first step is to analyze each to find where your brand best fits in the flow. This allows for targeted marketing, laser-focused on which part (or parts) of the market you’re planning to win. Whether you and your team choose to focus on:
You’ll need a full understanding of each segment's needs and challenges to build the marketing strategies that place your brand in an optimal position and maximize your ROI. Each market has specific advantages and drawbacks.
Evaluate the potential ROI and align your marketing goals with the most promising markets. Choosing the target can make or break your marketing efforts. Trust us, taking the time to do the research will be the difference between a major win or a budget-crushing fail.
Always know who you’re selling to. In the oil and gas industry, this could mean large corporations, smaller service providers, or even local governments. Carefully identify these key players and tailor your marketing efforts to meet their specific needs. It’s your job to connect as deeply as possible with your target audience. Potential customers are looking for personal connections with the brands they buy from, currently an uncommon occurrence in this market. This opens a window for you to step in and step up.
Once you've identified your customers, the next step is to understand their behaviors. What drives their purchasing decisions? What are their pain points? What motivates them? What risks are they concerned about? Think about every step they’ll take on the buying journey, how they make decisions, and how you can meet their specific needs.
Once you’ve identified and worked to understand your audience, create a persona to represent your research. A clear, thought-out buyer persona will guide all your subsequent marketing efforts. Keep your persona in mind as you plan strategies and build campaigns. The more personalized and specific you are, the more likely your messaging will resonate with potential buyers. Here's an example Buyer Journey/Persona our team at 97th Floor recently created for General Kinematics.
Your brand identity is what sets you apart. Think it through – what makes you different from other businesses in the industry? What are your specialized offering points? Focus on what makes your company unique, whether it's innovative technology, exceptional service, or a strong commitment to sustainability. If you’re looking for a place to start, begin by collecting reviews or interviewing previous customers for their opinions on what you do best.
With your identity in mind, work to position your brand in a way that highlights these strengths to appeal to your target audience. Clear, consistent messaging across all marketing channels is key. To pinpoint what messaging resonates best, you can give A/B testing a shot. Most importantly, always look for new opportunities to demonstrate your value through every medium. Case studies, visual data representations, and customer reviews are common ways to do this.
The battle’s not won yet, sustaining your hard-earned digital clout isn’t an easy process. Building a strong brand reputation takes time and effort. Maintain transparency, deliver on promises, and engage with your audience consistently to keep your brand's reputation positive. This needs to be an integral part of your marketing efforts.
Supported by your clear brand identity and ideal customer targeting, it’s time to build out a digital marketing strategy. First, define clear, achievable marketing objectives. Whether it's increasing brand awareness, generating leads, or boosting sales, having specific goals helps measure success. Keep track of your goals and efforts to achieve them to celebrate success and identify opportunities for improvement.
A well-developed marketing strategy, especially in Oil and Gas, involves sub-strategies including:
Marketers across the field agree, almost every part of digital marketing revolves around a well-optimized website. It's no different in Oil and Gas, your website is your digital storefront – the place all potential customers will navigate to on their path toward a purchase. It needs to be user-friendly, informative, and most of all, optimized for search engines to attract organic traffic. Use tools like Google Analytics, Search Console, and HubSpot CRM to track visitor behavior and optimize performance. Learn more about SEO strategies here.
Social media platforms offer a space to connect with your audience, share industry insights, and showcase your company’s culture. Regular, engaging content helps build a loyal following. Depending on your business, goals, and strategies, social media may or may not be a place to focus your budget and time.
Quality content drives traffic and builds trust. Create valuable content that addresses your audience's pain points and positions your company as an industry thought leader. Publishing content also drives your SEO. Learn more on how to set up a consistent content strategy here.
Regularly analyze your marketing efforts to measure ROI. Use analytics tools to track performance and adjust strategies as needed for continuous improvement. Keep in mind that metrics like impressions and leads can be a great start, but the end-goal of marketing is to generate conversions. Successful marketers make money. If ROI is stagnant, the marketing strategy is too.
By targeting the right segments, fine-tuning your strategies, and focusing on persona-specific messaging, you can position your brand as a leader in this digitally stagnant market. In Oil and Gas, staying ahead requires a laser focus on your goals and your audience's needs. Find ways to set yourself apart and continuously refine your strategies. With a well-crafted digital marketing plan, you’re ready to take advantage of the market and win contracts like never before. Good luck!
Want to kickstart your marketing dreams? Check out our services.
Meta is the must-be space for advertising luxury home products. As a matter of fact, it’s basically the only place many luxury brands are putting their paid media dollars. A smattering of ad budget goes to display ads or YouTube, but well over 75% of luxury brands' advertising efforts happen on Meta: Facebook and Instagram.
We’ve pulled Meta ads from ten luxury home brands to see how they’re pairing copy and imagery to entice their buyers.
These ten brands’ ads all have something in common: the extremely deliberate use of adjectives. Oh, the adjectives. The stronger copy does more than describe, but really transports us somewhere. Or, some ads use more specificity by naming specific materials. Whatever it is, the employed descriptors pair with strong imagery to promise customers a certain elevated living space.
Use these ads and our analysis as inspiration for your own Meta ads; there’s lots to think about here.
Arhaus was founded in 1986 with a commitment to time-honored techniques while protecting Earth’s resources. Nearly all of their product photography, including the images in these ads, uses light and shadow to create dimension. The effect is that we can’t help but imagine what the rest of the room must look like – what must be causing those shadows – and it’s breathtaking.
The ad copy further transports us; it’s hard not to feel a warm breeze and hear the chatter of friends and neighbors.
With both imagery and copy, Arhaus’ Meta ads have us daydreaming about the possibilities a new outdoor set can introduce.
Maiden Home’s photography takes the opposite approach from Arhaus in displaying furniture against a neutral backdrop. Instead of staging the pieces as in a home, their elegance and beauty is presented uncluttered and unadorned, inviting audiences to carefully inspect the shapes and colors at play.
In these examples, the chairs are intriguing enough that standing alone is the only way to do them justice. The pieces make us curious, and the simplicity of the ad compels a click.
Instead of attaching their brand to one style, Castlery makes pieces “for every style and aesthetic.” Castlery proves their products’ versatility by featuring the homes of real buyers in their ads. By showing actual living rooms of delighted Castlery shoppers, the ads supply both social proof and styling inspiration for a wide range of homeowners and decorators.
Giorgetti’s ads feature rich colors and a mix of interesting materials. The spaces feel out of a biopic about a brilliant musician or a mysteriously wealthy young person. We’d love to know what the fabric and the walnut talk about; we’d love to pull those pieces right off the screen and into our front room. Girogetti’s photos and copy promise audiences a “unique and personal” experience, one that immediately feels natural and inviting.
Koket’s pieces are whimsical, enchanting, and inspired by nature. In this Meta ad, Koket highlights the similarities between Lana del Ray’s Met Gala gown and Koket’s side table. The two are remarkably alike! Whether their Met Gala-inspired Meta ad was a stroke of luck or a careful analysis of the evening’s attire, we’ll never know. Is there an audience match here? Do Koket shoppers love Lana? Not so sure. But perhaps Koket’s audience is abuzz about fashion, design, and what the A-listers wear. Not too much of a stretch, is it?
If you haven’t caught on yet, luxury furniture advertising seems to be all about using as many fancy adjectives as possible. I can’t say how all the cushiony language is taken by audiences; I’ve looked at so many of these ads now that I’ve started reading them to myself in a British accent. But, the words and images here promise what luxury furniture should provide: sophistication – in your home office, on your balcony, and everywhere else.
Mmmm, that ever-sought-for storytelling that marketers, photographers, and apparently Currey & Company customers are all after. By giving its audience a few examples of what these stories may be and referencing their globally-sourced products, Currey & Company promises eclectic and delightful pieces without all the tariffs and bubble wrapping that must accompany a purchase, without an online cart. The copy here brilliantly matches the unusual pieces shown in the photos, and we imagine most people are interested in a ceramic cow, truly. This ad would win my click, for sure.
Lulu and Georgia Meta ads sell furniture by instead offering free design support. Clever, ehh? Their Meta ads offer custom floor plans and mood boards made by Lulu and Georgia designers, which we’re confident will be full of Lulu and Georgia rugs, end tables, couches and decorations. The ad copy here could’ve gone a little farther to exaggerate the pain point here: trying to curate a beautiful space is a lot of work. Especially if you’re working off of a Pinterest board on which half of the links to that dreamy chandelier or pinstripe curtain set are missing or broken. Lulu and Georgia could ramp up the language around their unique selling point to strengthen these ads, but we applaud the strategy here.
Interior Define appeals to shoppers looking for just the right piece – the piece they can’t seem to find anywhere. It lives in their head, but not in any warehouses, and oh how they’ve looked. Now curators can become creator’s. Interior Define’s ads invite their audience to take the designer’s seat and build bespoke furniture, choosing from hundreds of materials, features and finishes. Surprisingly, the ads don’t focus on the boast of owning one-of-a-kind pieces. Instead, their advertisements offer help and a solution for shoppers who feel they’re never satisfied. Interior Define says, “Don’t settle.” Well, except into your custom couch, I suppose.
The Soho Houses are a collection of beautifully designed homes dotted across the globe as safe havens of inspiration for members-only creatives. Soho Home came to life when guests came begging to know where they could purchase the magnificent pieces curated for each unique House.
As a consequence of this opportunistic arrangement, Soho Home pieces seem bespoke and almost necessary for a creative and inspired space. Their pieces are automatically associated with exclusivity, travel, and arts. I’d mention the Soho Houses in every one of my Meta ads, too.
Did you catch all the adjectives? There are dozens, each carefully selected to elicit certain imagery and feelings for these brands' target audiences. Brands that deeply understand their brand and their customer will discover the unique combination of images, text and CTAs that will increase the bottom line.
At 97th Floor, our advertising specialists are committed to a thorough process of audience research and ad testing. We fine tune copy, creative and targeting until everything is just right and our clients are getting the maximum return on investment. Try us out. Then maybe you can do some furniture shopping of your own, huh?
