Michael Ference Fluid Power Marketing

 Well, this was a very different year for Fluid Power World as it was for everyone on the planet.  The pandemic changed everything to say the least. At Fluid Power World, we struggled through the year but we more than survived.  There were some cuts in advertising programs but there were also some new advertisers.  Many of the companies that manufacture fluid power components are essential businesses so they mostly stayed open all year. Companies still tried to improve their businesses this year and that did lead to some new advertising in our magazine and our digital network.  On that note, our websites continued to increase in traffic all year making them stronger than ever.  We continued to post great fluid power content and most of our web advertisers stayed the course. Our e-newsletters had a great year with inquiry totals actually increasing for our advertisers.  Again, I attribute the success of our e-newsletters to the great content posted by our editors.  We also launched a ne

 As a marketing professional representing Fluid Power World and WTWH Media, I have been advising my clients for years that our media, both print and digital, will deliver both brand awareness and sales lead generation.  Our e-newsletters have been performing well for our clients for the past 6 years and the results have actually improved. We offer our audience five monthly e-newsletters with our flagship being our Fluid Power World e-newsletter. Our other titles include Pneumatic Tips , Sealing & Contamination Control Tips , Hose Assembly Tips , and Mobile Hydraulic Tips .  Some of the same great content that appears on our websites is placed within these e-newsletters and sent to our audience of nearly 30,000 recipients.  Clicks on the ads to learn more about our advertisers' product offering are used as soft sales leads.  This is a very important piece of our lead generation program. If your company has sent us editorial content in the form of press releases, it is likely tha

 I hope that you have had a chance to visit all of our five websites: I am happy to report that our websites have been used by 80,000 people every month!  We are thrilled to provide this audience access to our advertisers.  Throughout 2020, our web traffic has remained very strong and, in fact, growing.  I attribute this to our excellent content posted by our Editor Mary Gannon and supplied by so many fluid power sources around the world/ If you have not visited our websites, I advise you to do so and take in our great content.  If your company supplies fluid power solutions in the form of components, sub-systems, and systems then I invite you to submit your stories for publication on our websites.  Please contact me with any questions.

Well, we completed our eleventh and final session in 2020 for our Virtual Series of the Fluid Power Technology Conference.  Dan Turner of GPM Controls presented an excellent session explaining Accumulators and their effectiveness in fluid power systems.  You can view this and all of our on demand sessions at this link . In July, we moved the FPTC to a virtual platform out of necessity, confident that we could provide our audience the same great content that has been available in person in previous years at our live Fluid Power Technology Conference.  Our virtual event was very successful because it featured great fluid power content and had very interested audiences. After a successful start to our Virtual Series, we are planning a continuation in 2021with the first session scheduled for January 19, 2021.  We will be announcing a schedule of events for the first half of 2021 and possibly for the second half also. Our full intention is to return to an in-person Fluid Power Technology Co

After the January issue of Design World that will feature the Leadership in Engineering section for all engineering disciplines including Fluid Power, we will kickoff the 2021 calendar year with our February issue of Fluid Power World.  Here is a preview: We will continue to review mobile and industrial applications for fluid power technology as well as component features.  If you are interested in advertising in 2021, please contact me at mference@wtwhmedia.com

Call it packaging or call it bundling, but putting together a multi-media approach to your 2021 marketing program will work best for all fluid power component marketers.  Building brand awareness and generating sales leads both remain important to our clients. That is why I recommend using print, digital, and virtual for now as important segments of your program. People still read magazines and your ad works a a reminder to our readers about your brand.  Leads are now mostly generated digitally and we can do that best with our e-newsletters, e-blasts, and more. Telling your story is best done with a presentation in our Virtual Series Fluid Power Technology Conference.  Please let me know if I can bundle a program that will work for your company in 2021.

On December 8, 2020 at 2:00 pm EST, Dan Turner, President at GPM Controls will present a Virtual Series session on accumulators.  GPM is a leader in accumulator manufacturing, providing piston, bladder, and diaphragm accumulators as well as a complete line of accessories to retail and wholesale distributors across the U.S. Dan will conduct a discussion on the size and types of accumulators and their applications along with information on accumulator safety.  You can register for free at this link .  I invite you to attend this every-other-Tuesday event for lots of great content about fluid power components and their applications. Our sessions take place virtually and last about 45 minutes followed by a question and answer session.  All of our presentations are available on-demand on our website .  Join us and Dan Turner for this session that promises to be both interesting and informative!

 You will find both on Fluid Power World  and the information is updated constantly. I invite you to visit our websites often for the latest information about components available to the marketplace and some application stories on how they are applied.  If you are a component manufacturer, please send us your products for review.

Here is a quick review of the marketing opportunities offered by Fluid Power World in 2021 Increasing Brand Awareness While Generating Sales Leads •   7 print magazine issues February, April, June, July, August, October, and December •  5 websites with over 120,000 page views per month Fluid Power World ,  Mobile Hydraulic Tips ,  Pneumatic Tips ,  Hose Assembly Tips , and  Sealing & Contamination Control Tips •  5 monthly e-newsletters – same titles as above with an audience of 27,000 • E-blasts, white papers, sponsored content, video, social media management. PPC management •  AI for Marketing with affinity based options available to pinpoint your specific target audience •  YouTube Video session sponsorships •   Fluid Power Technology Conference  – Virtual Series, every other Tuesday 1 hour presentation both live and on-demand for a year, Q&A session, hosted video, promotion through online, e-mail, print, and social media promotion

  Here is a link to our on-demand sessions from our Fluid Power Technology Conference Virtual Series link .  There you will find our latest session that was presented by and sponsored by Proportion-Air. The title of that session is Improving Your Process With Precision Electro-Pneumatic Control in Any Industry.  Ron Hibbler and Jeff Johnston did a very fine job of presenting that information our audience and now you can view that session on-demand for free. Engineers working on solutions for pneumatic applications have many options for compressed air and gas control, from simple mechanical valves to complex assemblies. Add finding a product to meet all the specifications, and the entire process is a challenge. For those who are ready for a product that works without the trial-and-error of a manual device or the uncertainty of off-the-shelf units, electro-pneumatic regulation could be the answer. We’ll discuss applications that require precision, accuracy and repeatability that electro-

We have a great issue planned for the last month of 2020.  Our December issue will feature the use of hydraulics in mobile equipment used for Snow and Ice Removal .  That could be a very timely topic as we approach winter.   Fluid power systems on this special segment of work trucks offers power and accuracy for keeping our roads clean in the winter. Next, we will take a look at the Power Gen industry.   Whether it is hydro electric, solar, wind, or other, fluid power plays a role in all power gen options to keep the world lit up.  Of course power is critical to all industry and to our everyday life in general. One of the biggest markets for pneumatics is Pneumatics in Automation.   With the application of IoT, AI, and Machine Learning, automation machinery improves on a regular basis to make industry more efficient. Our product focus components for December will by pneumatic grippers and hydraulic pumps .  Both are heavily used components in their respective systems and they are part

 One of many things that a magazine does for readers is to allow reading at your leisure.  That is just what I am recommending for our October issue of Fluid Power World. In this issue, our readers will find lots of content about the use of fluid power in both industrial and mobile applications.  That includes minimizing downtime in industrial machinery using phased upgrades on page 40.  It also includes high efficiency with hydraulics in electric machinery on page 44. Here is a link to the digital issue  however, I prefer the printed copy so that I can "read at my leisure" even when I am not connected.  If you would like to subscribe to our print edition, please visit our website .  There you can subscribe to our print issue as well as our five e-newsletters. You can also find our digital issue right on our website as well.  All of our article also appear in posts on our websites so we are making it as convenient as possible for readers to get the content they are seeking.

We have another great presentation scheduled for next week in our Fluid Power Technology Conference Virtual Series.  Our sponsor and presenter will be ProportionAir.  Our speakers will be Application Engineer Ron Hibbler and Business Development Manager Jeff Johnston. Engineers working on solutions for pneumatic applications have many options for compressed air and gas control, from simple mechanical valves to complex assemblies. Add finding a product to meet all the specifications, and the entire process is a challenge. For those who are ready for a product that works without the trial-and-error of a manual device or the uncertainty of off-the-shelf units, electro-pneumatic regulation could be the answer. Join  Ron Hibbler  and  Jeff Johnston  from Proportion Air on  Tuesday, October 27 at 2PM EST  to discuss applications that require precision, accuracy and repeatability that electro-pneumatic control can provide.  Click here to register for free.

During my selling career in fluid power, I have been blessed with many great customers who have very much helped me in my career.  There are hundreds, but I would like to mention a few in this post as the people who had the biggest impact on me. Early in my career, I had the honor of meeting and working with the late Lynne Parry of Apple Rubber Products in Lancaster, NY.  Lynne detected some shyness on my part in our first meeting and she promptly told me "Come on, let's go to lunch and talk." She took a personal interest in my career and wanted to share some of her enthusiasm and give me some ideas on how to be more open and engaging.   Lynne was known throughout the sealing industry as a passionate, engaging, professional, and all around wonderful person.  She was very customer oriented and actually taught people how to run trade show booths.  We became great friends and in fact, Lynne invited me to her home for dinner with her and her husband several times.  I loved Ly

 On Tuesday, October 13th, Ashley Busquets of FD-Groups America presented some very interesting information on fluid power system controls on our Fluid Power Technology Conference Virtual Series.  I invite you to view this and all of our past 8 sessions on-demand by clicking here . FD-Groups America offers to its customers a complete Model Based Design (MBD) approach. Following the design and verification of the satisfactory behavior of a machine, the MBD approach can be extended to the control system development.   Please take some time to review this informative presentation and feel free to reach out to Ashley with questions. Our next presentation will take place on October 27 and our sponsor and presenter is Proportion- Air. Improving Your Process with Precision Electro-Pneumatic Control in Any Industry Engineers working on solutions for pneumatic applications have many options for compressed air and gas control, from simple mechanical valves to complex assemblies. Add finding a pr

Since graduating from college, I have basically worked for three companies including CRC Press for one year, Penton for 36 plus years, and WTWH Media for almost 7 years.  Many of my coworkers have been like family to me because, over the years we shared so much.  You need these kinds of people in your life and I would like to acknowledge some of them in this segment. Even though it has been decades, one person in particular at CRC Press made quite an impression on me.  All I remember is that her name was Jan O and she ran the word processing department.  I observed and learned from her dedication to her career clearly understanding that your career is your livelihood.  I haven't spoken to her in over 40 years but Thank You Jan O! Paul Lange and Mike Weil were two of my very best friends during my years at Penton.  We worked together on the same staff and shared hours and hours of excellent times including daily lunches.  Everyone needs great work friends like Paul and Mike.  We wer

 On October 13, 2020 our Fluid Power Technology Conference Virtual Series will continue with a presentation from FD-Groups America who has been a regular participant in our live conference over the years. Our speaker will be Ashley Busquets of FD-Groups America, a company that offers its customers a complete Model Based Design approach.  Following the design and verification of the satisfactory behavior of a machine, the MBD approach can be extended to the control system development.  Applications on industrial cases including a hydrostatic transmission control, virtual intervention zones for a platform, and the latest endeavor of autonomous driving of agricultural machinery will be presented in this FPTC virtual session. We thank Ashley and FD-Groups America for sharing their expertise with our audience.  Registration for the event is free and you can follow this link to sign up.  This will be the seventh in our Virtual Series.  Following Ashley's presentation, we will host a que

I made it a point early in my selling career to get the advice of experts.  I found several authors and speakers who offered great advice to a professional salesperson/business person.  I learned a lot from Brian Tracy, Tom Hopkins, Zig Ziglar, Jim Collins, Tony D'Alexander, Marcus Buckingham, Shauna Shue, and many more. Brian Tracy has always been my number one virtual mentor as I have read and listened to many of his books and audio programs.  He shares great advice on selling, personal development, time management, leadership and more.  I own a set of CDs that I have listened to over and over while driving my car. I strongly recommend that you listen to and read the works of Brian as he offers great practical advice for all business people.  I actually had the privilege of meeting him at a seminar in Cleveland several years ago.  I consider him a virtual mentor. The other virtual mentor that I would like to mention is Jim Collins .  My interest in his work all started with what

Our Fluid Power Technology Conference Virtual Series has been very successful in the second half of 2020 with seven sessions taking place already and four more scheduled.  You can view our first seven sessions on demand by clicking here. We will be continuing our Virtual Series in January 2021 with sessions schedule for January 12 and 26, 2021.  We invite your company to share your solutions from our virtual stage and take questions from our audience.  Please contact me for more details at mference@wtwhmedia.com  

It takes a community to make a business professional, and I have been blessed in my journey with some wonderful coworkers, many who have been mentors.  I would like to recall and acknowledge a few in this segment. When I started at Hydraulics & Pneumatics in 1977, Ned Stull was the Executive Editor of the magazine.  I was 23 at the time and Ned was at least 20 years older and an Air Force Veteran and former pilot.  At first, I was not sure how to relate to Ned but I didn't need to worry about that because he made sure that he related to me.  Over the years, we were not only colleagues but dear friends.  Over the years, I accumulatively spent hours and hours speaking with Ned one-on-one about work and about life.  Ned taught me a lot!  I even picked up many of his sayings and use them to this day.  Ned was a mentor and a great friend! Another great friend, colleague, mentor, and coworker started at the same time that I did.  Dick Schneider and I worked together for over 25 years

Just as the old saying goes, It takes a village to raise a child, I contend that it takes a community to make a business professional.  Over the past 43 years, I have been blessed to have many great influences in my career as a business professional.  I would like to acknowledge some of my mentors and coworkers in that community that spans the whole 43 years.  I will mention some of them in the coming posts. First, I acknowledge the late Michael Nassif who hired me to work on Hydraulics & Pneumatics magazine in 1977.  Not only did he hire me but he took me under his wing immediately and looked after me for the next 8 years.  Mike saw the potential in me to be a successful sales rep for H&P and despite my resistance, he finally convinced me to give it a try in 1984 with a small sales territory. I know that I thanked Mike over the years for his confidence in me and his mentoring but I probably never thanked him enough.  He was the biggest influence in my career as sales rep, mark

 On Tuesday, September 29. 2020 our next session of our Fluid Power Technology Conference Virtual Series will take place with Jeremy Drury of IoT Diagnostics presenting. Here is a brief preview of his presentation Attend the FPTC virtual series session on  Tuesday, September 29th, 10AM EST  with  Jeremy Drury, President of IoT Diagnostics! Learn from IoT Diagnostics’ collective decades of experience in Fluid Power to go back to the basics and learn how linking the three fundamental pieces of any IoT journey can quickly realize the expectations we have for this technology. Then, explore applications across 3 critical pieces of fluid power, and how to use the IoT to monitor the health of the heart, blood, and muscle of our systems by looking at hydraulic pumps, lubrication, and power units. See why IoT can be as easy as 1 2 3. After Jeremy’s session, he will be meeting one-on-one with individuals interested in learning more about the solutions offered by IoT Diagnostics.  Once you regist

One feature of our Fluid Power Technology Conference Virtual Series is our Showcase.  It features videos from our sponsors showing their product solutions for many fluid power applications.  During one of our Virtual Series sessions, you will see four navigation buttons on the screen including Home, Stage, Q&A, and Showcase. By clicking on the Showcase, our audience members can access product and capabilities videos from our sponsors and these will remain online for the whole duration of our Virtual Series.  Our next session will take place on September 29, 2020 at 10:00 am EDT.  Our speaker is Jeremy Drury of IoT Diagnostics and he will be addressing the big problem of unplanned downtime and how it can be avoided. You can register for free by following this link .  This will be the seventh session in our Virtual Series and I  invite you attend the presentation by Jeremy and sign up for a one-on-one discussion with him after the session.  We will be sending out more information ab

In 2016, we at Fluid Power World magazine and digital media network created the Fluid Power Technology Conference.  Our intention was to give our advertisers the opportunity to tell their product and solution story to our audience.  It was never intended to compete with big trade shows, but just to give companies an opportunity to tell their story. It worked very well in 2016 through 2019.  In 2020, we have been forced to covert that event into a virtual series and that has worked very well also! Here is a link where you can view our first five sessions:   LINK   It has been successful because it gives our advertisers an opportunity to connect with customers and prospects through a multi-media package.  The event is presented live and on-demand through a platform called Hopin.  The 45-minute presentation is followed by a question and answer session. After the sessions, our audience has a chance to review the solutions offered by all of our sponsors in a special section that remains con

I would like to draw your attention to an article in the August issue of Fluid Power World starting on page 24.  Here is a link to our digital edition August Issue .  This is an article in a continuing series titled Hydraulic Symbology 205 by Josh Cosford.  This particle article discusses the symbols for pumps. These symbols have been essential in the design of fluid power systems for a long time and they remain that way today.  Regardless of the platform used to apply these symbols, they have been the foundation of systems design. You can find other chapters in this series in the pages of Fluid Power World and in our digital edition.

 We are happy to announce our next session of the Fluid Power Technology Conference Virtual Series  taking place next Tuesday and presented by DMIC. DMIC is located in Buffalo, NY and serves OEMs, System Designers, and MRO in a wide variety of applications including mobile and industrial industries.  Our speakers from DMIC will be Don Couchman,  Steve Dellos, and Gregg Panborn.  They will be sharing the many solutions provided to industry from DMIC. Here is a link  that you can follow to register for free for this session.  Each presentation lasts about 45 minutes in duration and is followed by a question and answer session.  We encourage our audience to formulate questions during the presentation and ask them during the Q&A where they can join live on screen. Our Virtual Series continues every other Tuesday ad 2:00 EDT/EST through the remainder of 2020 and will continue into 2021.  At some point, we will return to the live exhibition and conference stage.  You can also find all of

Being in the workforce for as long as I have, Labor Day has always been a special holiday to me.  It is a day where we step back and take a look at all of our efforts the during the previous year to make a living. Work is an honorable activity and I am blessed to have been engaged in making a living in the media industry for fluid power.  I have often considered myself as much a part of the fluid power industry as I have been part of the media business.  Even through our current troubled times, this remains a robust business and I thank all of my customers who have made my job possible.  I wish my customers a special Good Labor Day! To all who labor, no matter what profession you are in, Happy Labor Day!  Relax and enjoy because you have earned this day off!

Our Fluid Power Technology Conference Virtual Series continues today at 2:00 EDT and our presenter and sponsor will be Panolin America, Inc. and Brandon Richords CEO of Panolin will be our speaker' Where and when should you use environmentally acceptable fluids? In this session from Panolin, attendees will learn just what EALs (environmentally acceptable lubricants) are and the many types that are available in the marketplace. Brandon Richards will provide an overview of PANOLIN EALs, which are synthetic high-performance lubricants based on fully saturated esters. Learn about the benefits of these fluids over mineral-based lubricants, such as longevity and significantly less environmental impact. He will also cover the governmental regulations driving their development globally. Speaker: Brandon Richards , CEO of PANOLIN America, Inc. Sponsored by:   Here is a link for you to register , you still have time.  See you there!

 See our August issue of Fluid Power World magazine for all of these features.  Our cover story is on hydraulics in mining equipment.  Hydraulics make the equipment in Mining both safe and reliable.  Eliminating downtime and ensuring safe operations are to big benefits that hydraulics offer to the mining equipment industry. Follow this link  for our digital issue found on our Fluid Power World website .  You can read our issues anytime online and subscribe to our digital and print issues too.  This will give you a regular source of fluid power information provided by our contributors and editors.

 Our YouTube Live Video Training continues on Tuesday, August 25, 2020 with a new session presented by Carl Dyke of CD Industrial. Load Sensing Pumps will be the feature and our sponsor is Oilgear.  You can sign up for this free session at this link .  You can also access all of the previous YouTube Live sessions at this link. This is a great way to learn from an expert while sitting right at you own desk.  This doesn't replace face-to-face learning but it is the next best thing.  Check it out.

 All of our Fluid Power Technology Conference sessions will be posted for on-demand viewing.   Follow this link We will e adding to this content every other week giving our website some fantastic content for our audiences.  Please take a look and let us know what you think of it. This page will be an excellent new resource because it brings the expertise of our Fluid Power Technology Conference to our website.  Also, please join our next session on Septsmber 1, 2020 presented by Panolin Here is a link where you can register for free.

 Our next session of the Fluid Power Technology Conference Virtual Series continues on Tuesday, August 18, 2020 with an excellent presentation by Donna Ritson of DDR Communication. This session is sponsored by Bimba and our presenter, Donna, will share many insights about the food packaging and processing business.  She has presented at our Conference in the past and has been very well received by our audience.  We expect the same for the virtual session. Click here to register for free.

Sign up today for our free webinar on hydraulic hose assemblies.   Here is a link. Our sponsors are Tribute and Tompkins Industries.  Our presenter is Josh Cosford of Higginson Equipment who has presented several past webinars and has conducted sessions in our Fluid Power Technology Conference both in-person and virtual.  

The next print magazine issue of Fluid Power World is scheduled for October.  Here is the lineup of editorial features that we have planned: Mobile Application:  Construction Equipment Whether the application is roads or buildings, residential or commercial, fluid power plays a big role in construction. Metal working, forming, and bending Here is an update on this industrial application of fluid power systems.  Many machine tools are driven by fluid power technology. Pneumatics in Medical Applications This is a continually growing market because of the many innovations to improve service to people.  Because of this, the medical market continues to grow for fluid power sales. Product Focus:   Hydraulic Hose and Manifolds The closing date for reserving advertising space is September 30, 2020.  Please contact me if you would like to discuss this issue further. We have several other advertising options available too.

 Fluid Power World will offer our advertising clients many opportunities to increase their brand awareness while generating sales leads.  Our 2021 Media Guide is now available and you can request and download it from this link We have a great print publication that is also delivered digitally.  Our websites have great traffic and our lead generating options offer many ways to get sales leads from our audience. For events, we will continue to offer our Fluid Power Technology Conference Virtual Series and our YouTube Learning Channel.  Contact us for more information or let me know when we can schedule a Zoom Meeting to discuss 2021.

We have another new session to add to our on-demand Fluid Power Technology Conference Virtual Series. Click here to access this session and our previous two sessions. Also, please come back to our live sessions on August 18, 2020 where Donna Ritson of DDR Communications will present Trends and Advances in Food Packaging and Processing.  We hope to see you there.

At 2:00 EDT on Tuesday, August 4, 2020 we will offer our latest session in our Fluid Power Technology Conference Virtual Series. Right after the presentation, we will host a Question & Answer session with our speaker, Tom Wanke.  This is a great opportunity for our audience members to have their questions answered.  The process is simple.  Just join the session, turn on your camera and audio, and ask your follow up question. Join the conversation and be a part of our discussion of Pump and Motor Efficiencies.  Your questions are important, so join in!

We have had many challenges to the business world in 2020 with the pandemic, economic downturn, and violence.  It has been a difficult year to say the least. Many companies in the fluid power world provide components and related products that are essential to keep our world going.  In my conversations with many of our advertising customers, I have learned that they are all doing their best to keep things going.   Crops still need to be planted, fertilized, and harvested.  Food still needs to be distributed to the public through various means of transportation and material handling.  Roads and bridges are being repaired all over the country.  Buildings are still being build.  Trash is collected. Fluid power makes a significant contribution to the medical field through the use of pneumatics.  Products are manufactured in plants with the use of pneumatic systems.  Innovative products continue to roll out from fluid power companies with many more in the works. While the overall economic nu

Our second session of the Fluid Power Technology Conference Virtual Series is now available on-demand at this link   On July 21st, Josh Cosford presented a session titled From Complex to Simple:  Sizing and Selecting Fluid Power Seals .  The session was sponsored by Precision Associates Inc. All of our sessions will be presented live first and then recorded and presented on-demand free for our audience.  I invite you to check out this session and then register for our next presentation by Tom Wanke that will be titled Understanding Pump and Motor Efficiencies , presented on August 4, 2020 at 2:00 EDT. Our intention is to continue providing excellent fluid power content to our audience through virtual means for now and then return to live, in-person presentations at future dates.  Stay tuned for further information.