By Brittany Gebben

As we wrap up 2019 (how can it be?), I thought it would be interesting to take a look into this past year’s SmartLeads™ trends.   Throughout the year we’ve served many wonderful clients and have seen trends in active industry sectors as well as within the company leads themselves, including company location.

Here are the Top 5 Requested SmartLeads™ Industries of 2019:

  1. Food & Beverage
  2. Advanced Manufacturing
  3. Energy
  4. Aerospace
  5. IT/Software

Overall, manufacturing or service is still a top request but we’re seeing more and more need for office users.  We’ve also seen an increasing trend in the following industries throughout the year: Cannabis, Data Centers, REITs, Electric Vehicle and Drone Manufacturers.

Taking a look into 2019, not only was our team busy creating customized lists of active companies within these (and more) industries, but another trend we’ve noticed on our end if the need for targeted trade show lists within these industries.  Have you ever been to an industry trade show and felt completely overwhelmed?  You know you want to go to build relationships, but where do you start?  Looking at this year’s trends, many of our clients have been requesting industry-specific trade show SmartLeads™ lists.  These lists consist of trade show exhibitors to a show they will be attending, featuring targeted, highly active companies so they can better focus their time at the show.  These lists have been among the top trend at Whittaker Associates SmartLeads™ in 2019.

As far as the company leads themselves, many of our clients may be seeking certain parameters (geography, size, and more) but overall, we’ve seen certain states come up again and again with active companies, most likely to move.  These states are California, Illinois and most of the Northeastern coastline.