In more recent times, online shopping brings convenience, competitive prices, and quick delivery as well as larger and more in-depth catalogs. In the past, manufacturers have marketed their products through traditional printed catalogs, which showed the basics: photo, part numbers, dimensions, descriptions, pricing, and ordering information for every product. These catalogs would be referenced by engineers and product designers to find the components they needed, whether they were creating an innovative consumer product or industrial equipment.
However, this is fast becoming a thing of the past.
Today, engineers and designers prefer to download configurable 3D models of a product so that they can directly import it into their design.
CAD marketing involves the use of 3D CAD (computer-aided design) models and drawings of products and is primarily used by B2B suppliers to help designers, engineers, and buyers in the manufacturing, architecture, engineering, and construction industry, expedite their design processes with accuracy.
For manufacturers, a 3D CAD model provides opportunities for business growth. Every time a model is downloaded, it creates an opportunity for leads that can result in sales. Moreover, it allows manufacturers to decrease the cost of leads in ways that paper catalogs cannot.
CAD Models and Online Product Catalogs
Nowadays, B2B professionals want to quickly and easily search and select their products from laptops or mobile technology wherever they are. Digital catalogs make this a reality by offering engineers and designers all the details — including the CAD files, drawings, performance attributes, accessories, configurations, and prices — everything they need to make informed sourcing decisions.
CAD files are powerful marketing tools that tell your customers what kind of company they are working with. This gives you an edge not just with engineers but also offers your company more prominence with current and potential customers.
3D Models are Configurable
Product designers are now using 3D CAD models, rather than 2D graphics, to design their products. When a component is listed in a traditional paper catalog and has multiple configurations, but is only able to be shown in table format with a single image, it can be tricky to visualize the different configurations the component offers.
For engineers and designers, this can be very inconvenient since they want to see how a specific component configuration works within their design. With 3D CAD models, engineers can easily download all possible configurations of the same component into their design, instead of going through the hassle of looking through multiple catalogs.
3D CAD Models Generate Leads and Close Sales
With paper catalogs, manufacturers have no way of finding out what their prospects are doing with their catalog until they receive an order. Online 3D models, on the other hand, can be sent to buyers far and wide, offering manufactures the ability to see whenever their catalog is viewed or downloaded.
This drives more traffic and increases the prospect of sales. The biggest benefit of 3D models is that they specifically target the most likely customers and capture their information when the model is downloaded.
3D Models Offer Easy Access to Global Markets
With 3D CAD models, manufacturers can reach specific markets not just locally but worldwide. Since 3D CAD design data is universal, manufacturers will not encounter any obstacles when it comes to gaining visibility among potential new customers.
Because the 3D model itself becomes the focus of the designer or engineer’s work, the manufacturer’s brand remains the center of attention during a designer’s decision-making process. This leads to better brand awareness and often increased sales.
3D CAD Models Improve Accuracy
By providing a 3D model and making it available for download, manufacturers can ensure the design data their buyers use is accurate and updated. This leads to better quality and a lower risk of modeling errors that can damage sales and production.
3D CAD Models Have 80% Chance of Producing Sales
Studies have shown that when a designer downloads a 3D component model, their business will eventually buy the component about 80% of the time, often at a large volume, according to 3D Content Central.
The internet presents exciting e-commerce and sales opportunities for B2B industries through the creation of 3D CAD models. By adopting this technology, you can successfully transition from the more traditional ways of doing business and position your company ahead of your competitors.
3D CAD Models and Marketing Automation
Marketing automation and content management systems that work with your existing software is essential to manage sales leads, downloads and new customers. When a customer takes an action such as downloading a 3D CAD model from your website, tracking that download is essential to customer insights.
Rather than implementing a new marketing platform to handle, manage and manipulate this real-time data, a 3D product catalog enables manufacturers to directly link their existing marketing automation and CRM systems to the new catalog.
Connecting CAD downloads with an existing contact management system and marketing automation is a sales-enablement must have to assist sales and marketing teams better manage their contacts. Additionally, this helps the marketer create optimized campaigns and promotions for customers, resulting in a real-time self-sufficient cycle of data collection, customer insights and content management. These integrated systems driven by the 3D catalog lets manufacturers sell more products at a higher rate, increasing sales and offering customers a better online experience.
If you are interested in 3D CAD models, visit us at CDS Visual.
Back to Blog
