Speaking the Language of Strategy

C-level executives are not primarily concerned with technical certifications or machinery specifications as they rely on their teams for those insights; they are focused on the long-term health and competitiveness of the business.

When evaluating vendors for large purchases, buyers’ top concerns are reliability, total cost of ownership (TCO), and robust support, according to the RH Blake 2025 Thought Leadership in Manufacturing Report. These key factors—reliability, TCO and comprehensive support—often outweigh the importance of general brand reputation.

For marketers, this means strategic messaging must effectively communicate the high-level business impact and value proposition of the offering:

• Return on Investment: How quickly and effectively will the solution pay for itself?
• Operational Efficiency: Will this solution mitigate operational inefficiencies and foundational infrastructure issues that trigger the need for major purchases, such as asset aging or technology obsolescence?
• Risk Mitigation: How reliable is the solution, and what kind of support is guaranteed over the long term?
• Competitive Advantage: How does this investment align with long-term business goals and position the company favorably in the market?

By emphasizing operational agility, lifecycle costs and robust support in marketing communications, marketers can demonstrate superior long-term value, even if the brand is not yet widely recognized.

Expertise and Thought Leadership: Building Executive Trust

Confidence is key to how buyers make decisions on who to work with. For B2B manufacturing, C-suite decision makers prioritize demonstrable technical and industry-specific expertise over general brand recognition or accolades.

Thought leadership provides an opportunity to cut through the noise and demonstrate that expertise. The best thought leadership content is valued by decision-makers because it offers expertise, guidance or a unique perspective. This high-quality content yields tangible results: 90% of decision-makers are more likely to consider buying from an organization that produces thought leadership, and 76% are more likely to pay a premium to work with such an organization. Furthermore, 84% of C-level decision-makers surveyed reported purchasing or starting work with an organization that produces thought leadership content.

To satisfy the high standards of the C-suite, your marketing content must be credible, offering deep technical insight, and showing distinction and differentiation. The most impactful content for these high-value purchases is highly human-centric. Buyers want to hear insights from real people, which is why LinkedIn posts from a person are often more successful than those from a brand.

Marketers must invest in content that showcases deep, specific expertise in their customers’ applications and industries. One of the most tangible ways to demonstrate this deep expertise is through specific stories and narratives, often told in the first person by Subject Matter Experts (SMEs).

Case Study Spotlight: Leveraging Deep Expertise in Content

For content to truly resonate with executives and technical buyers alike, it must be based on real-world experiences, case studies, and examples—a factor that 96% of C-suite executives rate as highly important.

These specific stories, narrated in first person by a Subject Matter Expert (SME), create an emotional connection and establish confidence that the vendor truly understands the operational nuances of the customer’s business. If done correctly, the specificity of these examples should make the customer feel, “Of course this company has experience; who else would know that a steel plant does this, or an oil gas refinery does that?”

As a marketer, cultivating this content involves interviewing your SMEs about recent customer visits or conversations, asking for extremely specific examples that help extract those unique insights and nuances.

Example of Expertise in Action: Automating Mining Challenges

Consider a manufacturing firm specializing in industrial automation for the mining industry. Instead of offering a generic blog post on “Automation Benefits,” a manufacturer could publish an article or eBook chapter written by a seasoned application engineer, titled: “Inside Modern Mine Automation: Lessons From the Field” .”

This piece would detail the specific implementation challenges faced in an underground operation, moving beyond generic promises to highlight nuances they faced, hurdles they overcame, and roadblocks they avoided. For example, the SME might describe how a planned automation solution for grinding processes needed modification due to unforeseen geological variance or how an established piece of technology, like a digital twin, was deployed to mitigate specific regulatory risks unique to that region.

By sharing specific examples of solutions implemented—the “plus 1s” of your differentiated technology or proprietary processes—the manufacturer validates their technical credibility. This depth of information, when presented by a named expert with a title and an easy way to connect (like a LinkedIn button), provides unique thought leadership that customers cannot find via a web search and positions the vendor as a trusted resource.

For the C-suite, this highly specific, deep-dive content demonstrates that the company is reliable, reduces implementation risk, and offers consultative, expert-driven support—all critical strategic concerns.

Paving the Path to Purchase with RH Blake

The B2B buying journey is complex, but success is achieved by adapting to these dynamics. Manufacturers must become a trusted resource, demonstrate deep expertise, and engage the full buying committee, including C-level executives, with tailored, strategic messaging.

RH Blake is a top Manufacturing Marketing agency that helps leading organizations in the manufacturing ecosystem build and execute marketing programs that drive preference and margin expansion. We are dedicated to equipping B2B manufacturing marketers with the clarity and confidence needed to succeed. We assist in developing sales enablement and content that showcases deep expertise in specific application areas and helps craft strategic messages for C-level executives, ensuring you effectively address their strategic priorities like reliability and total cost of ownership.

If this sounds like something you need, let’s talk.