Manufacturers, whether B2B or B2C, have an interesting role within the business world. Many of these companies are innovating and developing cutting edge solutions to modern problems. That’s hard work, made even harder by the fact that the individuals running these businesses have so many different hats to wear.
You have to keep things running smoothly. You have to keep your employees safe and happy. You have to manage partnerships and make plans. You also have to always be making an effort to grow. But… how?
That’s where digital marketing comes in. It’s connecting to the same customers in a new way. It’s taking the trust and loyalty you’ve built and giving it new platforms to develop on. Learning how to accomplish these goals is what we’ll be talking about in this post. Keep reading to learn how you can better grow your business with a proper digital marketing strategy for manufacturers.
Where do I start when it comes to marketing my manufacturing company?
I’ve been working as a manufacturing and industrial marketing consultant for over 14 years. Through that time, my manufacturing-focused digital marketing agency has helped successfully launch simple websites and online marketing for new manufacturing companies, and evolved the digital marketing of growing companies to support how they’ve evolved and where they’re going.
I tell manufacturing business owners to start by understanding that changing with the times doesn’t mean letting go of your tradition or identity. You know that old adage, “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it?” We prefer to say, “If it’s not broken, but there’s an opportunity to fix it so that it works better and makes my company more money, I should probably take that opportunity.”
You’ve already taken the right first step. You’re reading this post. Informing yourself of the basics and seeking out the latest trends is the first step. Once you’re comfortable in your knowledge base, you can start making plans and taking action.
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Why should I care about online and digital marketing for the manufacturing industry?
Due to the nature of the industry, most manufacturing company growth historically came from sales teams and positive word-of-mouth referrals. With such a competitive, fast-paced market, this isn’t always enough anymore.
Businesses and the people that advocate for them don’t have the time to sit down and give your lead sales guy a call. They want to be able to pull out their smartphones and immediately connect with you in some way. They want to be able to do this while on the train during their morning commute, or while eating cereal at the breakfast table. Maybe they’ll connect by reading content on one of your social media channels. Maybe by looking up the physical location of your office or the names of existing customers. Maybe they’ll check to see if you’ve helped any of their competitors, and they might be missing out.
Long story short: the reason manufacturing companies should care about online marketing is because, if you don’t, society at large won’t care about you. The world is filled with people who are connected to the web, both personally and professionally, and they want you to be connected too. If you’re not, they’ll easily be able to find another manufacturing company that is.
How do I make sure people find my business online?
Making sure people find your business online is a two-part process.
First, you need to know where they’re most commonly looking for you. Second, you need to make an effort to become as noticeable as possible in those spaces. The two spaces your manufacturing business is most likely to be found online are in search engine results or through social media. There are many ways to stand out in these spaces, but some of the most important ones include:
- Using relevant keyword phrases on all your online content to help draw in people searching for the product or services you provide
- Having an online presence that is mobile-friendly
- Carefully choosing 1-2 social media accounts and then using them so they feel warm and friendly instead of cold and distant
- Providing consistent information across all channels
- Collecting data and analyzing it to improve your marketing efforts, i.e. if you find that a lot of your online leads are coming through Facebook, you can increase your ad spend on that platform accordingly.
Get The Download, the ultimate online marketing guide for manufacturing businesses
The things we’ve covered in this post are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to growing your manufacturing business with digital marketing. There’s more to learn. A lot more. Luckily, it’s all as easy to access and understand as this blog post was AND it’s already been collected in a single place just for you.
The Download: Making Sense of Online Marketing for Manufacturing is an official playbook meant to guide you through the process of developing an actionable digital marketing plan for your manufacturing business. Give this informative, comprehensive guide a download today to see for yourself.
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