The Bottom Line Up Front

Not everything needs to change. For marketers in the electronics industry, the pressure to constantly chase new tactics can obscure what actually drives measurable ROI. Despite the AI hype and digital transformation pressure, some traditional B2B marketing tactics continue to deliver for electronics companies. The trick is knowing which legacy approaches to keep, which to abandon, and what new capabilities to build.

We gathered insights from three industry veterans with experience spanning TI, DigiKey, Analog Devices, and dozens of other electronics brands. Here's their tactical playbook.

Part 1: Traditional Electronics Marketing Tactics Worth Keeping

1. Third-Party Industry Publications

Why it still works: Engineering audiences trust established technical publications for unbiased content and technical accuracy. Unlike platform-based advertising, publisher partnerships put your message in front of audiences already interested in your product category.

How to execute:

• Prioritize publications with verified circulations and editorial credibility
• Combine display advertising with content syndication for lead generation
• Look for publications that maintain clear separation between editorial and sponsored content

The data: According to Nick Walker, who runs a media planning agency serving the European electronics market, "When brands advertise in respected publications and sites, we see a lift in unaided brand recall studies versus companies that don't advertise."

Watch out for: The industry publication landscape is consolidating. Three European publishers closed last year due to declining advertiser support. Invest in the survivors—they'll have less competition for audience attention.

2. Trade Shows (With Modern Activation)

Why it still works: Despite predictions of their demise during the virtual-everything era, major electronics trade shows are hitting record attendance. Electronica draws 80,000 visitors. Embedded World hosts 32,000. These aren't declining—they're growing.

How to execute:

• Integrate real-time tracking and follow-up capabilities
• Use geolocation targeting to reach attendees before and during events
• Connect booth interactions directly to your CRM for sales follow-up
• Measure conversion from badge swipe to closed business, not just lead count

Pro tip from Tony Harris: "Understand the tracking, understand the conversion, and tie back to your sales team so they understand that the swipe you got at your booth turned into business."

The upgrade: Modern trade show success requires AI-powered tools for real-time attendee engagement and post-show nurturing. The booth visit is the beginning of the journey, not the end.

3. Bespoke Third-Party Email

Why it still works: Email through trusted publisher lists reaches verified engineering audiences with targeted messaging. Unlike programmatic display, email provides space for solution storytelling and technical detail.

How to execute:

• Target by account, interest, behavior, geography, and job function
• Lead with educational or downloadable content (not product pitches)
• Test aggressively—subject lines, send times, and content formats all impact performance
• Work with publishers who maintain clean, engaged lists

Regional insight from Shannon Sullivan: "Particularly in Europe, third-party bespoke email is still very effective, even with GDPR and privacy compliance issues. It gives you a lot of real estate. There's better opportunities for engagement. You can tell a good solution story in email that's hard to do in other tactics."

4. Print and Direct Mail (For ABM)

Why it still works: Physical mail cuts through digital noise. When targeted to high-value accounts, print collateral and direct mail achieve a cut-through that email cannot match—precisely because so few companies do it anymore.

How to execute:

• Reserve for account-based marketing programs targeting top-tier prospects
• Ensure tight targeting—mass direct mail is waste; surgical direct mail is differentiation
• Coordinate with digital touchpoints for multichannel impact
• Track response rates and downstream conversion, not just delivery

Reality check from Tony Harris: "Print does work if you use it as part of your account-based marketing strategy and really tighten up who you're targeting. Direct mail still works."

5. Content Syndication for Lead Generation

Why it still works: Content syndication through industry publishers allows precise targeting and predictable lead volume. You can literally buy as many relevant contacts as your budget allows.

How to execute:

• Develop gated assets that provide genuine technical value (not thinly veiled product brochures)
• Define targeting parameters tightly: job function, company size, geography, technology interest
• Establish lead scoring criteria before campaign launch
• Build nurture sequences that move leads toward sales-readiness

Key insight: Content syndication works best when paired with brand advertising. Walker notes that "when companies have been advertising to build brand awareness, lead generation campaigns tend to convert in higher numbers."

6. Forums and Engineering Communities

Why it still works: Engineers trust their peers more than any vendor. Forums and communities provide spaces where technical professionals share knowledge, solve problems, and form opinions about products and suppliers. For brands focused on marketing to engineers, these communities function as informal review boards.

How to execute:

• Monitor relevant communities (Reddit, All About Circuits, manufacturer forums) for brand mentions and technical discussions
• Participate authentically—answer questions, share expertise, never hard-sell
• Use community insights to inform content strategy and product development
• Consider community advertising where appropriate and clearly disclosed

Why it matters: According to the panel, engineers—especially those early in their careers—will take information from peers before any other source. Your brand reputation is being shaped in these communities whether you participate or not.

Platform callout: Reddit has emerged as a significant channel for engineering audiences. Tony Harris flagged it five years ago; it's now delivering. "You will find a lot of engineers there. You will hear a lot about your brand or your brand experience in places that you're not used to hearing about."

7. Brand Advertising (Consistency Over Intensity)

Why it still works: Forrester research confirms that B2B buyers form their consideration sets well before active purchasing begins. Brands present during the awareness phase make the shortlist; brands absent from that phase don't. This is a long-term electronics marketing strategy, not a campaign tactic.

How to execute:

• Maintain consistent presence in channels your audience trusts
• Resist the temptation to cut brand investment during downturns
• Measure aided and unaided awareness, not just direct response metrics
• Track brand preference over time through industry studies

The cost of disappearing: Walker has seen it repeatedly: "When a brand disappears from credible environments, engineers assume it's losing relevance and market share."

Part 2: New Electronics Marketing Tactics You Need to Add

8. YouTube (Not Optional Anymore)

Why it's essential: Video consumption among engineers has exploded, and YouTube is where they go. Technical tutorials, product demonstrations, application guides, and thought leadership content all perform on the platform.

How to execute:

• Start with how-to and educational content addressing real engineering challenges
• Optimize for search—YouTube is the second-largest search engine
• Keep videos focused and appropriately concise (though technical audiences will watch longer content if it's valuable)
• Build a consistent publishing cadence

Shannon Sullivan's take: "I'm going to keep YouTube. That might be new for some people to really invest there. It's just growing, growing, growing."

9. Reddit Engagement

Why it's essential: Reddit communities have become significant influence points for engineering audiences. Subreddits covering electronics, embedded systems, PCB design, and specific technology domains host active discussions that shape product perceptions.

How to execute:

• Identify relevant subreddits where your customers and prospects participate
• Monitor for brand mentions, competitive discussions, and technical questions
• Engage authentically (Reddit users detect and punish inauthentic participation)
• Consider Reddit advertising for targeted reach

Warning: Reddit requires genuine participation. Marketing-speak gets downvoted into oblivion. Technical accuracy and authentic helpfulness are the only currencies that matter.

10. Connected TV (CTV)

Why it's emerging: As streaming replaces traditional television, CTV advertising offers the targeting precision of digital with the impact of video. For B2B, it's still early—which means opportunity.

How to execute:

• Target by company, job function, or account list (yes, this is possible)
• Use CTV as part of account-based marketing programs
• Develop creative that works without sound (many CTV environments are sound-off by default)
• Measure lift in other channels, not just CTV-attributed conversions

Sullivan's recommendation for tactics she is doubling down on: "From an external standpoint, CTV and Reddit."

11. First-Party Data Activation

Why it's essential: Privacy regulations are tightening. Third-party cookies are dying. Your own customer and prospect data becomes your most valuable targeting asset.

How to execute:

• Audit your first-party data: What do you have? Where does it live? How current is it?
• Implement a Customer Data Platform (CDP) if you haven't already
• If building a CDP internally isn’t feasible due to budget, resources, or timeline, partner with an organization that already operates a mature CDP infrastructure (like EETech) to activate your data without the overhead of standing it up yourself
• Build nurture programs that move known contacts through the buying journey
• Use first-party data for lookalike targeting and suppression

Sullivan's internal priority: "From an internal standpoint, it's nurturing and activating your first-party data and getting as much value from that as possible."

Legal reality check: Sullivan warns that legal departments often slow CDP implementation due to data privacy concerns. Get legal aligned early—their involvement is necessary, but lack of data literacy in legal can create unnecessary obstacles.

12. Anonymized Intent Data

Why it's essential: Intent data reveals which companies are actively researching topics and products in your category—before they fill out a form or contact sales. This intelligence transforms outbound from cold calling to warm engagement.

How to execute:

• Partner with intent data providers who track research behavior across technical content sites
• Integrate intent signals into your marketing automation and CRM
• Prioritize outreach to accounts showing buying signals
• Use intent data to personalize messaging and content recommendations

Tony Harris is doubling down on this tactic: "Understanding anonymized data and anonymized intent is what I'm going to double down on because it'll tell you a whole lot. Who's coming through your campaigns, your website, any content, blogs, feeds—understand the intent data because that intent data gets you really close to the bottom of the funnel."

Part 3: The AI Execution Layer

Artificial intelligence isn't a tactic—it's an execution layer that makes other tactics more effective. Here's where the panel sees AI adding genuine value:

Efficiency gains:

• Automating repetitive tasks (report pulling, creative resizing, data formatting)
• Accelerating content production (first drafts, variations, translations)
• Faster trend identification in campaign data

Personalization at scale:

• Tailoring messages by persona, industry, and buying stage
• Dynamic content recommendations based on behavior
• Real-time optimization of channel mix

What AI can't do:

• Replace human oversight for technical accuracy
• Generate authentic thought leadership
• Build genuine community relationships

The authenticity imperative from Harris: "I believe that the end user can sense an AI motive fairly quickly. They're smart. They understand it. They get a sense. So you have to keep that reality of the human interaction woven into the tactic."

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The Tactical Summary

Successful B2B electronics marketing is less about chasing trends and more about disciplined execution.

Three things to protect:

1. Your presence in trusted industry publications
2. Your trade show investment (with upgraded measurement)
3. Your brand advertising consistency

Three things to build:

1. YouTube as a content distribution channel
2. First-party data infrastructure and activation
3. Intent data integration for sales prioritization

One thing to remember: The best tactics fail without strategic coherence. Every channel, every campaign, every piece of content should connect to your customer acquisition and retention goals—and you should be able to articulate that connection in financial terms your CFO understands. Our CFO likes to say “a goal without a plan is just a wish”. 

Tactical insights compiled from a panel discussion featuring Shannon Sullivan (Modop), Tony Harris (ThincB2B), and Nick Walker (NJW Media), moderated by Steve Cholas.

[WATCH THE FULL WEBINAR FOR DEEPER TACTICAL DISCUSSION →]

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