Increased demand for basic materials, supplies, and equipment across industries such as automotive, housing, and company development are propelling the manufacturing industry forward in the United States and internationally in 2018. While this windfall bodes well for the manufacturing industry, other indicators indicate that there is still potential for modernization and expansion.
According to the 2017 CMO Survey, manufacturers reported 7.9% of their sales were made online, which is lower than the average online earnings in other B2B industries. According to Forrester, Internet sales accounted for 11.5 percent of B2B revenues in 2018 and are expected to increase to 13.1 percent in four years. Similarly, most firms’ marketing budgets pale in compared to the industry average: 3.2 percent last year vs 11.3 percent across industries.
The disparity between manufacturing and other industries is good news for savvy business owners, as it signals room for impressive growth with simple changes. By prioritizing digital marketing spend in the coming years, manufacturing companies can benefit in the following ways:
1. Diversify and broaden their client base
Manufacturers who primarily rely on older types of marketing, such as trade journals and trade events, can reach a larger market by using targeted advertising and establishing a social presence.
2. Decrease overhead
While marketing overhead in manufacturing organizations is often modest, it can be reduced even more in terms of performance. For businesses in a variety of industries, digital marketing has reduced their return on investment (ROI).
3. Raise brand recognition & credibility
89% of B2B clients rely on the Internet to research companies in any industry, and numbers are similar for B2C prospects. An active and curated web presence goes a long way in building a manufacturer’s image and gaining trust from potential customers.
In order to take advantage of these potential wins, manufacturers may have to tread waters they have never entered before. Thankfully, Digital Marketing is conceptually simple, and a lot of research has already established best practices for the industry. Here are 5 digital strategies for manufacturing companies to drive business growth:
1. Invest in Website Development
A website is now possibly the most important component of any marketing campaign. Before a contract is struck or a purchase is completed, even a simple site without a lead capturing process or sales page will be consulted as a digital business card. As a result, updating out-of-date designs to meet industry requirements is a no-brainer.
Check up on the websites of business partners, and you will likely notice the following elements:
- Modern designs – Large corporations now use minimalist sites with dynamic components like interactive video and scrolling foregrounds as common practice. A smart web developer can include your brand’s style in fresh and intriguing ways that will pique prospects’ interest and keep them engaged.
- Ecommerce storefronts – While some manufacturers only promote through partnerships with other businesses, the majority sell directly to consumers. Simple solutions like Shopify make capturing online leads simple to set up and optimise.
- Lead forms – Lead information can be collected using simple forms on websites in exchange for incentives such as white papers, content, or even free consultations. This data can then be used to foster future commercial relationships.
- CTAs – A Call to Action (CTA) is a prominent portion of a website that encourages visitors to do a certain action, usually after reading an informative article. They might entice the reader to make a purchase, subscribe to an email list, or read more.
Integrating any of these characteristics into a website that lacks them can significantly increase its efficacy.
2. Use Digital Advertising
Traditional advertising is not completely dead yet. Manufacturers still use formal events like trade shows to good effect, and often spend on TV spots, magazines, and other traditional media forms.
But while they aren’t dead, these advertising options are quickly becoming less effective than their digital counterparts. Programmatic advertising allows a business to target customers in highly specific demographics – such as field of work, occupation, and area of interest – without knowing them in advance.
Digital advertising also takes a lot of different forms. You may be familiar with some:
• PPC Ads – PPC is a text-based ad that is popular on search engines and blogs. You can get a link and a description in front of a lot of people using PPC, and you only pay if they click. Google Adwords is a significant provider of this service, and it will display your PPC advertising on the Google search page as well as affiliate sites.
- Display Ads – Display advertisements are more visually appealing than their text-based cousins. A display ad, similar to an Internet billboard, displays an image or animation to affiliate sites. This kind, like its relative banner ads, is a little more expensive, but it leaves a longer lasting effect.
- Social Media Ads – Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit, for example, have two crucial features: a large user base and a wealth of information on their users. All of these websites allow you to advertise a post to a specific audience.
- Video Ads – Video adverts are prevalent on streaming services like YouTube, just like traditional commercials. Video advertising, unlike traditional commercials, can only be shown to those who are likely to become customers.
3. Video Production
Video is one of the most popular forms of content on the internet when it comes to advertisements. Simply creating and distributing this information on renowned websites might build interest in your brand and industry practices.
Factory, complicated machinery, big workspaces, hazardous materials, and cutting-edge research are all advantages of the manufacturing industry for film creators. Simply put, manufacturing is a fascinating line of labor that people love watching, as evidenced by series like Modern Marvels and footage of steel mills.
A video on the internet is a great way to show off what you do and why you’re the greatest at it. If establishing a presence on large streaming platforms appears to be too difficult, consider collaborating with an already-popular channel to distribute your video.
4. Thought Leadership
The underlying principle behind thought leadership is that new ideas stimulate debate, which propels a brand to the forefront of its industry. This is thought leadership at work when you see an insightful guest post from a CEO on Forbes, Gizmodo, or your favourite Medium publication.
Any successful business has a storey to tell. Along the process, it has encountered unique problems, such as criticism and technological challenges. The technique you employed to address these issues reflects corporate philosophy, and when combined with a strong thought leadership strategy, that philosophy becomes a path for others to follow.
Producing written content in the form of articles or interviews is one way to establish thought leadership. They should ideally be credited to your CEO or any other executive who represents your company to the public, and then marketed to significant Internet publications in your field of study – Medium is a wonderful way to locate platforms with a huge and high-profile readership.
Ideally, you’ll also post these pieces to your own website blog or social media profiles related to your company. For company presidents, LinkedIn Pulse is a popular platform for sharing material. Good content will improve your search engine rankings over time, drive traffic to your site, and earn you backlinks from other businesses who find what you’ve written interesting or valuable.
5. Lead Nurturing
Digital marketing, as previously stated, is an excellent approach to collect leads and email addresses. It’s also a terrific central center for staying in touch with existing leads and keeping your business at the top of their minds. You can close more transactions and bring on more prospects by creating a strong sales funnel and implementing targeted outreach solutions.
Email outreach is one of the oldest and most effective lead nurturing strategies in digital marketing, and it remains at the top for B2B organizations. With platforms like MailChimp, you can create dedicated nurturing programs that feed information, offers, and newsletters to your prospects over the course of weeks or months.
Lead nurturing has grown much smarter since the introduction of artificial intelligence. Automated marketing tools can track prospects, forecast responses, and send customized messages at the correct times. When used in conjunction with CRM software, this feature can assist your sales team in keeping track of discussions so they don’t lose track of a valuable customer.
Conclusion
In actuality, there are more than five methods for incorporating digital marketing into your manufacturing company. Some of them have been mentioned in passing throughout this essay, but mastering the fundamentals will provide you the firm foundation you need to modernize your organization and stay competitive.
It can be difficult to keep up with the digital world because it changes so frequently. As a result, it’s a smart idea for manufacturing companies to invest in industry-specific education to keep their employees up to date. A successful marketing strategy does not come in a one-size-fits-all package, but the greatest and most up-to-date information offers you the tools you need to create your own.
BotSprint is a full service Digital Marketing Company offering digital marketing services. BotSprint, help you tackle your goal in this crowded online market and help you to engage your brand in all online communities. Our team of experts and specialists work towards helping you to differentiate your brand from competitors and increase brand value. We provide end-to-end digital marketing services to our clients to meet their marketing goals and get maximum ROI on marketing spends. With the wide range of services we offer, we can cater to specific needs of clients. Create an online presence for your business which enables you to demonstrate your products or services and reach out to your target customers easily. Branding for your business starts here.
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