The economy may not be expanding as fast as many would like but that isn’t stopping industrial manufacturers from introducing a large number of new products this year. In fact, more than 93 percent of manufacturers plan to introduce new or improved products in 2010, according to a survey released today by Grant Marketing of Boston.

We Deliver Distribution News to Your Inbox Sign up below to receive MDM Update, your free weekly distribution news update by email.

According to Bob Grant, president of Grant Marketing, “With manufacturing companies experiencing the worst recession in years, we wanted to get a snapshot of how industrial marketers were promoting their products and services for the remainder of 2010. We were surprised to discover that 93.1 percent of respondents were planning to introduce new or improved products this year.”

According to the Grant Marketing survey, industrial marketers will promote new products and services through email marketing, Web sites, and press releases. While another study recently showed that showed that trade shows were one of the top 3 marketing tactics in 2010, 59 percent of respondents  (engineers and technical buyers) claim they did not attend a trade show last year.

Trends that may be replacing trade show attendance are online webinars of marketers presenting directly to engineers and buyers online and globally, podcasts that allow buyers to view important information as they need it, and also the increased usage of video, which allows the industrial marketer to show an in depth view of capabilities and products.

Survey respondent Brian Hakeem, marketing manager for material handling systems manufacturer Shepherd Casters, St. Joseph, MI, said: “We plan to introduce six new products by August for a total of eight to 12 by the end of the year. Among other tactics, we use e-mail blasts to announce new products to our customers, distributors, and opt-in purchased email lists.”ng ones.

That company is not alone. Another  manufacturer of power tools that asked not to be identified told MDM they will be introducing a number of new products this fall. Many of those are not only new products but refinements of existing ones.

Jack Keough is a contributing editor to Modern Distribution Management and the owner of Keough Business Communications. He can be reached at jack@mdm.com or by phone at 508-734-0029. Keough is the former editor of Industrial Distribution Magazine.