Why You Need an Experimental Line in Your Marketing Budget

What are industrial marketers looking forward to in 2026? Brendon and Nihal link up with IMC: Live hosts Peyton and Allen to get into it.

Today, we’re getting a little zany. Since we’re approaching the end of Q4, we wanted to make an episode checking in with you about your budgets for the upcoming year. And what we specifically want to talk about is the role of an experimental line in your marketing budget - why it matters, and how you can use it. Let’s dig in.

Almost everyone's using generative AI, but not in the same ways. And why are the best use cases being gatekept by marketers in the know? Peyton and Allen lead a discussion with other Gorillas to go through the use cases and AI strategy most exciting for industrial marketers today.

Today, we’re talking with Director of Projects here at Gorilla 76, Alex Monroe. Alex has been reshaping the way we do work here at Gorilla from a project management viewpoint, and he has some ideas for industrial marketers broadly on what they can do to manage their workload and deliver results on time. Let’s dig in.

Most manufacturers don’t have a positioning problem. They have an implementation problem. In this episode of IMC Live, Gorilla 76’s Peyton Warren and Allen Fennewald sit down with Brendon Forrest to explore why messaging often falls flat inside manufacturing organizations — and how marketers can finally put their positioning to work. You’ll learn how to spot alignment gaps, build a feedback loop with sales, and turn a dusty one-pager into messaging that actually drives better conversations, better leads and better results. Whether you're updating your homepage, refining your sales deck or trying to get your internal team on the same page, this conversation is packed with practical steps you can use immediately. We cover: 🔸 The alignment gaps that break messaging (and how to fix them) 🔸 How to turn positioning into sales-ready tools (homepage copy, decks, one-sliders) 🔸 Practical ways to test messaging: website behavior, analytics & sales calls 🔸 Why internal marketing matters just as much as external marketing 🔸 Real stories from in-house marketers making positioning stick inside their orgs STAY CONNECTED 🎟 Industrial Marketing Summit — March 3–5, 2026 • Austin, Texas https://industrialmarketingsummit.com/ 💬 Join the Industrial Marketing Collective — a free community for marketers at manufacturing companies https://www.industrialmarketingcollective.com/ 🎧 Manufacturing Marketer Podcast https://www.gorilla76.com/the-manufacturing-marketer/ 🔗 Connect with Brendon Forrest on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendonforrest/ 🦍 Subscribe to Gorilla 76 on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn-g5UzBxZ7_CAknk5HJC_g NEXT IMC LIVE 🗓 December 4, 2025 — “How Gorilla 76 Uses and Thinks About Generative AI” Register here: https://www.gorilla76.com/industrial-marketing-live ABOUT IMC LIVE IMC Live is the interactive webinar series from the Industrial Marketing Collective — created for marketers at manufacturing companies. Each session is designed to help you connect with peers, sharpen your skills, and drive measurable results in your work.

We’ve brought Kelly Battaglini, back from her recent episode on product marketing to dig more into product launches. Connect with Kelly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kbattaglini/

How industrial marketers can use product marketing to drive real sales momentum. What does great product marketing look like inside a manufacturing organization? And how can small teams adopt enterprise-level tactics to drive results? In this episode, Gorilla 76’s Peyton Warren and Allen Fennewald sit down with Kelly Cicconi Battaglini — a 13-year product marketing leader at Phoenix Contact — to break it down. You’ll learn how to: - Influence sales, even when it feels out of reach - Align marketing and sales through incentives and collaboration - Energize your distributors and channel partners - Craft value propositions that stick - Launch (or relaunch) products that actually move the needle - Manage internal approvals and stakeholders without getting stuck - Adapt big-team strategies for small-team success Whether you’re launching a product, supporting sales or managing distributor relationships, this episode is packed with practical advice you can apply right away. RESOURCES 🎟 Industrial Marketing Summit — March 3–5, 2026 in Austin: https://industrialmarketingsummit.com/ 💬 Join the Industrial Marketing Collective: https://www.industrialmarketingcollective.com/ 🎧 More from the Manufacturing Marketer Podcast: https://www.gorilla76.com/the-manufacturing-marketer-podcast/ 🔗 Connect with Kelly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kbattaglini/ NEXT IMC LIVE 🗓 November 20, 2025 — “Yep. You have a positioning problem.” Save your seat: https://www.gorilla76.com/industrial-marketing-live ## TAGS industrial product marketing, manufacturing marketing, B2B product marketing, product launch strategy, distributor marketing, channel marketing, value proposition messaging, sales enablement for manufacturers, Phoenix Contact, Gorilla 76, Manufacturing Marketer Podcast, Kelly Cicconi Battaglini

Brendon Forrest, Allen Fennewald and Wes Temple from Gorilla 76 show you how to build marketing budgets leadership will approve. Learn to work backwards from revenue goals, calculate cost-per-lead and balance digital versus traditional spend. We'll cover: - Working backwards from revenue goals to determine actual budget needs - Calculating close rates, SQL conversion and cost-per-lead to justify spend - Balancing brand building with demand capture spend - Using digital-first budgeting to show what works - Avoiding mistakes like building budgets in silos and skipping experimentation funds - Tracking expenses throughout the year to strengthen future planning If you run marketing at a manufacturing company this conversation delivers methods for budget planning backed by real data you can defend. For industrial marketers, manufacturing marketing managers and B2B marketing leaders preparing for 2026.

Marketers are asked to build brand and drive results all at once. But doing both well starts with knowing how lead gen and demand gen really work, and how to use them together. Allen talks with Gorilla 76’s Aren Buresh and Peyton Warren about what’s changed in 2025, what still works, and how to tell if your brand is ready. You’ll leave with clear, actionable advice and a smarter way to think about your funnel.

We’ve brought back Josh Rozman from a recent IMC: Live episode on call attribution. And if you’ve listened to that show, you’re probably also aware that Josh’s company, Oberlin Filter, has a pretty cool mascot that Josh has spearheaded. We want to dig further in, and really get to know Josh as a marketer and see how his thinking on marketing intersects with our own.