marketing strategy for manufacturing business

Why You Can’t Ignore Marketing for Manufacturers

Robin Henery

Let’s be honest. Some manufacturers have been marketing to downline businesses in the supply chain and the general public for decades. 

Fashion and lifestyle brands — the companies that design and make your favorite clothing, cars, and leisure enjoyments — have incorporated marketing strategy into business practices for years to develop cultural brands that drive sales.

But outside of certain niches, manufacturer marketing historically didn’t step into the public space. Lead generation was mostly the task of the sales department. 

Manufacturers created goods and services, trained inside and outside sales staff, and sent those professionals out to connect directly with potential customers at trade shows, in offices, and via tightly controlled advertising campaigns in industry publications.

Even a decade ago, this type of sales-only relationship with business partners worked. But in today’s competitive landscape, manufacturers are no longer off the hook for marketing. 

From content marketing to paid online advertising, manufacturers of all types and sizes are learning to connect with consumers and business customers in meaningful new ways.

Precision Marketing Group notes, “Manufacturers, both buying and selling, tend to stay within small circles of existing relationships.” 

Historically, it was about who you knew and who would refer you to someone else . To some extent, this can still be true today. But content marketing, social media, SEO , and a variety of other inbound marketing efforts change that story, making it possible to rise above the referral and grow your business in new ways.

Let’s look at what manufacturer marketing strategies and how to create your own.

Differences in Consumer and Manufacturer Marketing

Before you start creating a marketing plan , you need to understand the client. Are you marketing to businesses or consumers?

Or, like  MyWit , are you marketing to both? If so, you need a plan that covers both channels. MyWit makes it pretty clear in its menu where consumers should start (Buy) and where business partners should click (Resellers & Business).

If you’re selling both B2B and B2C, make sure to consider the differences between your audiences as you’re crafting your overall marketing strategy.

1. Manufacturing marketing.

Manufacturing marketing is B2B marketing . It can be more complex, and the sales cycle is longer than with B2C.

Target audience: Other businesses, including downline supply chain manufacturers, wholesalers , retailers, or business end-users, like restaurants or construction firms. You should know which industry you’re targeting, the size and type of companies that need or want your products, and who within those organizations can make purchasing decisions.

Customer needs: Business customers need quality products that fit within their processes and budgets. They need to be able to supply and serve their clients with peace of mind while also making a profit.

Drivers: Whether or not a business chooses your products depends on factors that include price, credit, and terms; what consumers think of your brand; how much support you provide via technical, marketing, and other resources; and whether you can get buy-in from all the right decision-makers.

Purchase process: Business procurement can be complicated. The process includes discovery and pricing comparisons, quotes, demos, and final purchase decisions. You may have to prove your worth to more than one level of decision-makers; typically, the bigger the purchase is, the more levels you have to impress.

People involved with the purchase: Managers, purchasing agents, executive decision-makers, accounting or finance teams, and other subject matter experts.

2. Consumer marketing.

B2C marketing is when you market directly to the consumer or end-user. 

Target audience : The demographics of your target audience depend on the product in question. You should know factors like age range, interests, geolocation, income bracket, career, and family status of your target consumers, to appropriately target marketing efforts.

Customer needs : The consumer wants to buy something that can help them solve a problem or make their life easier or more enjoyable. In some cases, they want a product for the message it sends or status it communicates, like with certain brands or luxury items.

Drivers : Factors that drive consumer purchasing decisions include price, quality, brand reputation, how likely they can see themselves using the item, customer experience, and referrals or reviews of others.

Purchase process : All consumer purchases follow a basic process that involves awareness, consideration, and decision making. The speed at which a consumer moves through the purchasing process depends in part on the complexity. The buying journey for buying a taco takes seconds or minutes. When shopping for a television or sofa, consumers could take days or weeks.

People involved with the purchase : In most cases, it’s just the consumer and a significant other or close family member. In larger purchases, lenders may also be involved.

Challenges in B2B Manufacturer Marketing

B2B marketers can face unique challenges that most B2C marketers don’t. The relationships within your organization — with sales, for instance — and outside of the manufacturing firm, like with vendors, supply chains , and clients, is complex. 

For example, according to data sourced by Hubspot, only around half of B2B marketers feel like they’re able to collaborate effectively with sales teams.

Check out some of these other challenges manufacturers might face in marketing.

1. Very specific needs.

Manufacturing marketers have particular needs, especially when compared with general consumer marketers.

For example, one of the biggest KPIs for consumer marketing is website traffic. If you can drive enough of the right people to a consumer ecommerce site , the thought is that you’ll make your sales numbers.

But manufacturers can’t just drive vast amounts of traffic to a well-built site and cross their fingers. 

You might not have huge amounts of traffic to leverage, depending on your business’ niche or vertical.

You also have to balance how much information you want to share on your public-facing website with how you want to manage relationships with your clients. In some cases, you might need to limit access to information about your goods to best support your business partners.

2. Long sales cycles.

Manufacturing often involves long sales cycles. A PPC ad campaign isn’t going to drive the same results in B2B marketing as it does in B2C marketing, where many people see almost immediate conversion results.

Instead, your marketing tactics might be more about brand awareness and lead generation. The leads are then handed over to the sales department for nurturing over weeks, months, or even years before deals close.

3. Complex products.

Manufacturing businesses that sell complex products aren’t likely to see great success in marketing direct online sales to B2B buyers. If your product costs $5,000 and has a variety of features to customize, someone’s unlikely to click on a “buy now” button and enter business credit card data, for example.

Determine how buyers interact with your products and what they need from you in the early stages of the buying journey. Spectrum Audio meets this need by using a customized quoting tool supported by B2B Ninja , allowing potential clients to request a custom quote based on their unique needs.

4. More people to convince.

B2C marketing can rely on some tried-and-true tactics, like leveraging micro-moments, to connect with consumers at just the right time to promote a purchase. Creating a sense of urgency to spark an impulse buy or sending cart abandonment emails are proven B2C marketing methods that can fall short in manufacturer marketing.

The reason many of these tactics don’t work as well — or at all — when you’re marketing to other businesses is that there are so many more stakeholders to convince. Business buying decisions in medium and large companies might include:

Someone in middle management becoming aware of the need.

That person then has to convince others that there is a need.

The original person may do some preliminary investigation to demonstrate that there are products to meet the need.

Executive decision-makers may appoint someone (or a committee of people) to continue with research.

The field is narrowed down and options are presented to leadership.

Leadership asks questions to dig into more details, and the field is further narrowed down via demos, quotes, and discussions.

Finally, a decision is made.

The challenge is that your marketing efforts have to continue to support your chance at making the sale throughout that entire process. ResMed proactively supports businesses throughout the buying journey with plenty of business and educational resources that can help convince and convert stakeholders.

Advantages to Using Marketing with Manufacturers

According to data shared by Chief Marketer, B2B marketers often have trouble getting prospects to engage or finding high-quality leads. That’s where a strong marketing strategy comes in.

1. More lead conversions.

According to Content Marketing Institute’s 2020 B2B Content Marketing Benchmark report , close to 70% of the most successful B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy. Only 16% of the least successful firms can say the same, and the lack of commitment to marketing clearly shows.

Other traits of successful B2B companies — they use KPIs to measure marketing success, nurture prospects, and prioritize educating the target audience over selling to them. 

2. Brand awareness.

Online marketing is a proven approach to building brand awareness, which improves customer loyalty and helps you convince multiple stakeholders that you’re the right company to work with. And B2B marketers know how important this is — they consistently list it as a top priority in surveys.

When you invest in social media marketing, great website content, PPC advertising, and SEO efforts, you invest in building your brand. Here are just a few returns you might get on that investment:

When someone realizes their company has a need, you’re the first manufacturer who comes to mind. Brand awareness puts you ahead of the competition right out of the gate.

As the need and relevant purchasing decisions are being discussed, business stakeholders throughout the organization recognize your company name. Again, this puts you ahead of competitors, because buyers (even business ones) are more likely to purchase from the brand they know .

Your client’s consumers might be aware of your brand and ask for your products. Or, your client can use your name in their marketing message because you have a good brand reputation, and that adds value to working with you.

3. Position your business as a thought leader.

Thought leadership positions you as a resource of whom the client can turn to for expert advice, helpful information, or training and education. It’s a requirement if you’re selling high-end or sophisticated goods, but content marketing that includes thought leadership is a good idea for any manufacturing company.

Case studies and white papers are two common digital marketing formats that lend well to thought leadership, especially since you can use them to create leads. Require someone to make an account and enter their email address to get a valuable white paper. You suddenly have leads interested enough in what you have to offer that they traded their contact information just to find out more.

But not all thought leadership needs to be behind a paywall. Blogs and social media are a great place to demonstrate your position in the industry by sharing your content or sharing someone else’s content and adding value with your own comments.

Restaurantware , a restaurant supplies manufacturer and distributor , does a great job creating authority on its blog. That lets potential buyers see that Restaurantware, and its products, really is the expert in the eco-friendly catering space that it claims to be.

4. Enhance customer loyalty.

The right type of marketing can enhance customer loyalty. First, all of the above benefits work toward creating a culture of trust with your brand. If consumers trust your name, so can businesses. If middle management can trust your company, executives are more likely too. Brand awareness helps drive that trust.

Once you capture and even convert a lead, though, the marketing job isn’t done. Engaging with the consumers on social media, sending well-planned and timed email newsletters, and offering promotions via online marketing are all ways you can increase the chances that clients will return for a future purchase.

7 Manufacturing Marketing Strategies

Now that you know why manufacturing marketing is important, how do you go about it? Start with these seven marketing strategies for manufacturing companies .

1. Publish written content.

You might have heard that content is king. It’s a saying that’s been around for years, and it still rings true for online marketers today. Your content — the information you publish on your site — is the main contributor to all of the following efforts:

Search engine optimization, which ensures you show up when potential clients search online.

Positions you as a manufacturer that can be trusted. Close to 50% of people read three to five pieces of content from a business before reaching out for more information or a quote.

It helps push people further down the funnel. A business contact in the awareness state may find something in your content to help convert them to the consideration state, for example.

Sites that use multiple forms of content can better increase sales. That’s because people engage with different types of content to varying degrees, and one person might want to read about your product while another wishes to view a video. 

Sometimes, you need to supply both to help educate the potential client, especially in the case of complex manufacturing products.

Consider including video content, whitepapers, case studies, blogs, infographics, and slide presentations on your site. Remember that you’re not the only one trying to convince someone to make a purchase; your contact at a business might be trying to convince stakeholders, and your content can be leveraged to create presentations that do the trick.

2. Email marketing.

As noted above, manufacturing marketing is often a long game. It’s easy for your message to get lost in the shuffle that occurs when potential clients review options, reevaluate priorities, and get caught up in managing daily operations. 

Email marketing newsletters let you capture interested leads so you can show up in their email inboxes periodically. It keeps you fresh in their minds.

Email is also a great tool for marketing automation. You can create drip campaigns to send a series of messages to prospective clients whenever they take a specific action. For example:

Someone downloads a whitepaper on a piece of restaurant equipment. They enter their email to do so.

You send them emails over a few weeks or months. Those emails might cover information, like how much the product can save them over time, how the equipment improves quality, and the potential for scaling kitchen operations.

Every email offers another touchpoint and another CTA letting the potential client know you’re available to provide a quote or additional information.

3. Employ SEO.

Even Google admits that the path to purchase can be long and varied . But a common factor is that many people start with an online search. Close to 90% of purchases start online , and most marketers believe SEO is one of the top five traffic drivers .

In short: If you’re not showing up in the search engines, you’re missing out on many potential leads.

4. Effective Google ads and PPC.

But SEO isn’t guaranteed. You can’t buy your way into the top organic page results in Google, and getting there takes a commitment to content, patience, and a little bit of luck. This is why many organizations also invest in Google and PPC ads.

Marketing campaigns that include paid efforts can get your manufacturing company on search results pages in minutes, but your ads have to be effective. That means doing the research to understand which keywords to target and understand how your buyer personas might search online.

5. Test your website.

Once you do have content and other functional elements on your site, test it. It doesn’t matter how awesome your content is if the site provides a poor user experience. If you can’t offer a seamless, easy-to-use site experience, people may doubt your ability to provide quality products and customer experience.

All links, buttons, and other functionality on your site work as planned. Check them on multiple devices and in different browsers.

The pages load quickly. If your pages take just one second more to load than they have to, you could lose 7% of conversions . And 40% of people will simply leave a site if it takes more than three seconds to load.

Ensure your site is mobile-friendly first because Google cares. Sites that don’t function on mobile might be buried or even delisted from SERPs. Second, because your potential clients might start their engagement on mobile. Whether someone is browsing from their own phone or doing research while traveling with a company mobile device, if your site isn’t ready, you’re not ready to make the sale.

6. Trade shows.

Note every B2B marketing effort should be online. Manufacturers may want to be present at trade shows and other industry events. Doing so increases brand awareness and demonstrates that you care about others in the industry.

Meeting prospects at a trade show is also good for the bottom line. Because you’re meeting a number of potential clients while also engaging in networking and education events, the cost per meeting can be as much as $100 less than when meeting prospects individually in their offices.

7. Integrate social media.

Social media is another place where you can increase brand awareness and customer loyalty. It also lets you connect with potential clients in an organic way — often where the prospect is already located online. While Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter can be powerful channels for B2B marketing, manufacturers may want to start with LinkedIn and maintain a strong presence there.

Thing to Consider: Manufacturer Marketing

Not every tip and strategy above is going to work for your business. Ask yourself the following questions to understand what options might be right for you.

1. Are you offering a commodity product, or a customized product or service?

Simpler commodity products can be sold online via ecommerce platforms . You can market them with efforts such as product descriptions, PPC ads, and blog posts to support SEO.

Customized products and services may require more hands-on efforts. Consider creating lead generation tools such as white papers, videos, and ebooks. Once prospects share their contact information, sales can reach out to ask how they can help.

2. Is your buyer an individual person or a committee of buying process influencers?

PPC ads, strong CTAs , well-written product pages, and engaging social media marketing are all good ways to connect with a single person. To sell to a committee, you’ll need in-depth marketing collateral and a way to manage the lead nurturing process.

3. How heavy is competition in your industrial sector niche?

How hard you have to work on SEO and other brand awareness efforts depends on how much noise there is in the industry. If only a few manufacturers make this type of equipment, you have a better chance at dominating search with great online content. If hundreds of businesses are competing with you, paid ad efforts might be required to show up on top of the competition when someone searches online.

Steps for Adopting Manufacturing Marketing Strategies

Marketing is sophisticated, and the more complex your business or products are, the harder it can be to know where to get started . Start with the following series of steps to adopt strong marketing practices in the manufacturing industry.

1. Set your goals.

Know what you’re trying to achieve. Marketing is full of metrics, including page traffic, click-throughs, and time spent on the page. If you haven’t decided on specific business goals, it can be easy to get caught up in working toward these marketing goals. And while click-through rates are important, they’re only necessary because they support your conversions and sales.

2. Build out your marketing team.

You need someone to keep track of all these efforts. You can pay an agency experienced in manufacturing marketing, but it’s still a good idea to have someone in-house who concentrates on digital marketing and holds freelancers or agencies accountable to your business goals.

3. Define your buyer persona.

Take time to define your target audience. Who is most likely to be interested in your products? What are their needs? Can they make decisions, or do they have to get decision-making approval from others? The more you know about the buyer persona, the better you can target your marketing efforts, which saves you time and money.

4. Select strategies that support the audience.

From social media to website content to shopping cart options, make sure all your marketing and customer service strategies support the audience you’ve defined. For example, Selininy uses bulk pricing to assist commercial buyers. Since the products are relatively simple, buyers can shop and buy directly online without other touchpoints, but they can also take advantage of discounts by buying more at one time.

5. Launch and test.

Never assume that your content marketing strategy or other efforts are all you can do. Marketing is about continuous improvement. Engage in A/B testing to check various elements in your marketing.

For example, do you get more responses on emails you send Tuesday mornings or Wednesday afternoons? If the answer is Wednesday, then run another test. Do you get more traction from a subject line that’s long or one that’s less than 30 characters?

By constantly testing, you can improve the ROI generated by your marketing.

Wrapping Up

In 1977, Harvard Business Review asked, “ Can Manufacturing and Marketing Coexist ?” More than 40 years later, the answer is clear. Not only can these two exist, but they must. If you’re not engaging in manufacturer marketing, you’re putting your business on the slow conveyer belt to irrelevance.

Robin Henery is the Affiliate Partnerships Manager at BigCommerce, where she manages the relationships and engagements with valuable affiliate partners who are helping to make ecommerce more learnable and accessible for merchants. Robin received a B.S. in Advertising from The University of Texas at Austin, and has specialized in digital marketing for the last 4 years. Outside of work, Robin enjoys creating art, listening to audiobooks, and being outdoors with her dogs and loved ones.

Marketing for Manufacturers: Everything You Need to Know

In today’s fast-paced business landscape, staying ahead in the manufacturing industry requires more than just exceptional products. A robust marketing strategy tailored to the unique needs of manufacturers has become an essential tool for growth and success.

This comprehensive guide will delve into manufacturing marketing, exploring its fundamental concepts, advantages, strategies, challenges, and steps for creating effective campaigns. Whether you’re a seasoned manufacturer looking to refine your marketing approach or a novice eager to establish your brand, this guide will equip you with the insights and strategies needed to navigate the intricate realm of manufacturing marketing.

Manufacturing Marketing: Bridging Innovation and Industry

At its core, manufacturing marketing encapsulates the specialized techniques and strategies tailored to the unique landscape of the manufacturing industry. It involves promoting products or services manufacturers provide to a target audience, including consumers, businesses, and distributors.

Unlike generic marketing approaches, manufacturing marketing is finely tuned to cater to the industry’s distinct challenges and customer base. This marketing branch focuses on positioning manufacturing companies as trusted industry leaders, cultivating brand loyalty, and optimizing the customer journey in a highly competitive market.

Differences in Consumer and Manufacturer Marketing

While marketing shares common principles, the strategies employed for consumer and manufacturer marketing vary significantly due to the target audience and business objectives.

Manufacturer Marketing

In manufacturer marketing, the focus is reaching out to other businesses, retailers, or distributors. The objective is to showcase the manufacturing company’s capabilities, quality, and efficiency.

The content emphasizes technical specifications, production processes, and supply chain expertise. Building strong B2B relationships and demonstrating how your products can fulfill industry demands are pivotal in manufacturer marketing.

Consumer Marketing

Consumer marketing, on the other hand, targets the end-users of manufactured products. It entails conveying the value, benefits, and unique features of products in a way that resonates with the consumers’ needs and aspirations.

Connecting emotionally and positioning the product as a solution to everyday challenges is at the heart of consumer marketing.

The nuances between these two marketing approaches lie in their target audience, messaging, and objectives. While manufacturer marketing aims to foster business relationships, consumer marketing seeks to resonate with individual buyers.

Advantages of Implementing Marketing in the Manufacturing Industry: Elevating Your Business

Incorporating marketing strategies into the manufacturing industry offers a range of advantages that can drive business growth and success.

More Than Production: Harnessing Lead Conversions

Incorporating marketing initiatives into manufacturing operations can significantly boost lead conversions. By analyzing consumer behavior and preferences, manufacturers can tailor their offerings to address specific needs.

Targeted marketing campaigns enable precise audience engagement, fostering a higher probability of converting prospects into customers. Manufacturers can create a compelling narrative that resonates with potential clients through well-crafted messaging and strategic content distribution, resulting in increased lead conversion rates.

From Obscurity to Prominence: Igniting Brand Awareness

Cultivating brand awareness is a pivotal aspect of modern business, and the manufacturing industry is no different. Effective marketing strategies enhance manufacturers’ visibility, making their products and services recognizable in a crowded market.

Manufacturers can showcase their unique value propositions through various platforms, including social media, content marketing, and influencer collaborations. This heightened brand visibility not only attracts new customers but also solidifies the trust and loyalty of existing ones.

Guiding the Discourse: Establishing Thought Leadership

Positioning your business as a thought leader in the fast-paced manufacturing landscape can be a powerful advantage. Incorporating marketing strategies emphasizing thought leadership helps manufacturers showcase their expertise, insights, and innovative approaches.

Manufacturers can earn the trust and respect of peers, customers, and stakeholders by sharing industry-relevant content, participating in discussions, and providing valuable information. This strategic positioning not only boosts credibility but also paves the way for collaborations and partnerships.

Beyond Transactions: Cultivating Customer Loyalty

Marketing in manufacturing isn’t solely about attracting new customers; it’s also about nurturing existing relationships. Manufacturers can forge stronger connections with their customer base through personalized marketing tactics.

Tailored communication, loyalty programs, and post-purchase engagement initiatives demonstrate a manufacturer’s commitment to customer satisfaction. This proactive approach to customer care fosters a sense of loyalty, encouraging repeat business and positive word-of-mouth referrals.

Manufacturing Marketing Strategies: Crafting a Winning Formula

Navigating the diverse landscape of manufacturing marketing requires a multifaceted approach. Here are some strategies tailored to the industry’s unique needs:

Crafting Compelling Content: The Heart of Manufacturing Marketing

Engaging content forms the cornerstone of any successful manufacturing marketing strategy. Businesses can showcase their expertise by creating informative and captivating articles, videos, and infographics while addressing their audience’s pain points. Quality content establishes credibility and positions a brand as an industry thought leader, fostering trust and loyalty.

Navigating the Social Sphere: Social Media Marketing in Manufacturing

Social media platforms provide an avenue for manufacturers to connect with their audience on a personal level. Manufacturers can humanize their brands and foster community through strategic content sharing, interaction, and storytelling. This approach enables direct engagement, builds brand awareness, and amplifies the reach of their products or services.

Our Graphic Design services create captivating designs tailored for social media, helping your business stand out, convey your brand message effectively, and drive engagement and conversions. Elevate your social media presence with eye-catching visuals that make a lasting impression on clients. Here’s what you get:

• Professional designers: Get matched with a seasoned designer based on your creative brief.
• Original work: All designs are made from scratch and you have full legal ownership.
• Scalability and flexibility: Easily scale up or down your services, with the flexibility to pause or cancel anytime.
• Team collaboration: Invite team members and clients to help you request and manage designs.

Unlocking Discoverability: The Art of Search Engine Optimization

In the digital age, appearing prominently in search engine results is crucial for manufacturers. Implementing effective search engine optimization (SEO) tactics ensures that those seeking relevant solutions easily discover your website and content. Manufacturers can increase organic traffic and enhance their online visibility by optimizing keywords, improving website structure, and crafting high-quality meta descriptions.

Precision in Advertising: Pay-Per-Click Strategies for Manufacturers

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising empowers manufacturers to place targeted ads in front of their ideal customers. With meticulous keyword selection, compelling ad copy, and strategic bid management, manufacturers can generate immediate visibility and direct traffic to their websites. This approach offers measurable results and high control over advertising budgets.

Forging Connections in Person: The Impact of Trade Shows

In a digital world, the value of face-to-face interactions remains unparalleled. Trade shows provide manufacturers with a platform to showcase their products, engage with industry peers, and connect with potential clients. Manufacturers can leave a lasting impression by designing captivating booth displays, offering immersive experiences, and building valuable relationships within their industry.

Empowering through Education: Crafting Educational Content

Educational content is a powerful tool to address customer pain points and position manufacturers as experts. Manufacturers can provide practical solutions and insights to their audience through informative blog posts, webinars, and tutorials. They establish themselves as trusted advisors by offering value-driven content, driving engagement, and building long-term relationships.

Direct Engagement: The Influence of Email Marketing in Manufacturing

Email marketing remains a potent strategy for manufacturers to nurture leads and stay connected with existing customers. Manufacturers can sustain engagement and encourage repeat business by delivering personalized content, exclusive offers, and updates. Well-crafted email campaigns tailored to different buyer stages can drive conversions and foster brand loyalty.

Local Impact, Global Reach: Leveraging Google My Business Profile

Google My Business is vital for manufacturers seeking local and global visibility. A well-optimized profile enhances search engine results, provides essential information at a glance, and encourages customer reviews. Manufacturers can use this platform to showcase their location, products, and customer feedback, bridging the gap between online discovery and real-world engagement.

Strategic Alliances for Success: Manufacturing Partnerships and Collaborations

Collaborative endeavors play a pivotal role in expanding a manufacturer’s market presence. Manufacturers can access new expertise, resources, and customer bases by forming partnerships with industry leaders or complementary businesses. These synergistic alliances bolster brand credibility and open doors to new opportunities, fostering mutual growth and innovation.

Precision Targeting: The Influence of Google Ads in Manufacturing

Google Ads offers manufacturers a targeted approach to reach potential customers actively searching for relevant solutions. With precise keyword targeting, compelling ad copy, and strategic bidding, manufacturers can secure prime ad placements on search engine results pages. This tactic ensures maximum visibility among a qualified audience, driving quality traffic to their website.

Seamless User Experience: Testing and Optimizing Your Manufacturing Website

A manufacturer’s website is a virtual storefront that must offer an intuitive and seamless experience. Regularly testing elements such as page load times, navigation, and user interface ensures optimal performance. By identifying and addressing potential friction points, manufacturers create a user-centric website that enhances engagement, encourages conversions, and reflects their commitment to quality.

Challenges in Manufacturer Marketing

While the benefits of manufacturing marketing are substantial, challenges abound.

Reaching the Right Audience: Precision in Targeting

One of the foremost challenges manufacturers confront is identifying and connecting with their target audience. In the vast market expanse, pinpointing the right demographics and potential customers can be daunting.

Solution : Employ data-driven insights and analytics to refine audience segmentation. Leveraging market research and advanced tools, manufacturers can develop a keen understanding of their ideal customers, enabling tailor-made strategies and personalized outreach.

Generating Leads: Filling the Pipeline

Generating a consistent stream of high-quality leads proves to be an ongoing battle. The manufacturing industry grapples with acquiring potential customers’ contact information and interest amidst the noise of the competitive market.

Solution : Implement inbound marketing strategies like content creation, SEO optimization, and social media engagement to attract organic leads. Collaborate with industry influencers and partners to tap into existing networks and expand reach.

Converting Leads into Customers: From Interest to Commitment

Converting generated leads into loyal customers presents a significant hurdle. Nurturing leads through the complex decision-making process, establishing trust, and addressing concerns demand strategic finesse.

Solution : Employ marketing automation to develop personalized lead-nurturing workflows. This ensures timely follow-ups, relevant content delivery, and addressing individual pain points, ultimately fostering a higher likelihood of conversion.

Creating Compelling Content: Forging Connections

Crafting content that resonates deeply with the audience is a common struggle. In a technical domain like manufacturing, producing content that is both informative and engaging poses a unique challenge.

Solution : Collaborate closely with industry experts and content creators to translate complex manufacturing concepts into accessible narratives. Utilize a variety of formats, such as videos, infographics, and case studies, to cater to different learning preferences.

Our Content writing service can help leverage your marketing efforts by providing engaging and compelling content that captures the attention of your target audience. Here’s what we offer:

• Skilled writers: Our team will hand-pick a talented writer specifically for your projects. They will be briefed on your requirements to deliver high-quality content.
• Timely delivery: With our efficient ordering system, we’ll ensure your content is delivered on time.
• Revisions: Our experts will review the writing. If revisions are needed, we will work with the writer to refine the content.
• On-going or on-demand content: Choose what suits your needs at any time.

Measuring Results: Metrics that Matter

Measuring the effectiveness of marketing initiatives in the manufacturing realm can be perplexing. Unlike e-commerce, tangible sales take time and effort, making it difficult to ascertain which strategies are truly impactful.

Solution : Develop a comprehensive set of key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with overarching business goals. Track metrics such as lead engagement, conversion rates, and long-term customer retention to gain a holistic perspective on campaign effectiveness.

Steps for Creating Manufacturing Marketing Strategies: Blueprint for Success

Crafting effective manufacturing marketing strategies involves a series of deliberate steps.

Setting Clear Goals: Paving the Path to Success

The cornerstone of any effective strategy is setting clear and measurable goals. Manufacturers must identify what they aim to achieve through their marketing efforts. Whether boosting brand awareness, increasing lead generation, or expanding market share, well-defined goals provide direction and purpose. Establishing these objectives not only guides decision-making but also ensures that the entire team is aligned toward a shared vision.

Building a Robust Marketing Team: Collaboration for Triumph

Success in manufacturing marketing heavily relies on assembling a capable and cohesive marketing team. Each member contributes a unique skill set, forming a powerhouse that executes strategies seamlessly. The diverse expertise, from creative content creation to data-driven analysis, strengthens the strategy’s foundation. By fostering collaboration and encouraging innovative thinking, manufacturers can harness the full potential of their marketing team.

Defining Your Buyer Persona: Illuminating the Ideal Customer

Understanding the target audience is pivotal. Manufacturers gain insights into customers’ needs, preferences, and pain points by creating detailed buyer personas. This deep understanding enables tailoring strategies that resonate personally, fostering more robust connections. A comprehensive buyer persona not only shapes content but also guides decisions on where and how to engage with potential customers.

Selecting Strategies Aligned with the Audience: Precision in Approach

With a clear understanding of the audience, manufacturers can now pinpoint strategies that align with their preferences and behaviors. Whether content marketing, social media campaigns, or influencer partnerships, the chosen strategies should resonate with the audience’s interests. This tailored approach maximizes the impact of marketing efforts, ensuring they resonate authentically and lead to better engagement.

Launching, Testing, and Refining: Continuous Improvement

The journey doesn’t stop at strategy creation. Launching campaigns and assessing their performance through rigorous testing is crucial. Manufacturers must be agile in analyzing data, identifying what’s working, and refining their strategies accordingly. This iterative process allows for continuous improvement and optimization, driving better results.

Reaching the Right Audience: Precision Targeting

Effectively reaching the desired audience involves leveraging both traditional and digital channels. Manufacturers can utilize market segmentation to ensure messages are tailored to specific customer groups. This approach enhances engagement and minimizes wastage by delivering content to those most likely to convert.

Creating a Strong Brand: Forging an Enduring Connection

A powerful brand identity is a catalyst for success. It’s more than just a logo; it’s the essence of what a manufacturer stands for. Consistency across all touchpoints, visual elements, messaging, or customer experience creates a solid and memorable brand that resonates with customers profoundly.

Developing a Comprehensive Marketing Plan: Roadmap to Execution

A well-crafted marketing plan consolidates all the strategies, tactics, and timelines into a comprehensive roadmap. This document serves as a guiding light for execution, ensuring everyone is on the same page. Manufacturers can efficiently allocate resources, track progress, and make informed adjustments with a structured plan.

Conclusion: Paving the Path Forward

In the bustling manufacturing realm, carving a distinctive identity through effective marketing is no longer a choice; it’s a necessity. The symbiotic relationship between manufacturing and marketing opens doors to innovation, growth, and customer satisfaction. By embracing the power of marketing, you position your manufacturing company on the path to sustainable success.

Remember, it’s not just about products; it’s about storytelling, value creation, and forging enduring connections. In a world defined by digital interactions, marketing for manufacturers is the beacon that guides your brand toward a brighter future.

Aug 29, 2023

I’m an online marketing professional with over 10 years of experience. I have a background in web development and SEO, which I leverage to provide high-quality content strategy and content creation for businesses.

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The Ultimate Guide to Crafting a Winning Manufacturing Marketing Strategy

In today’s digital landscape, a business’s survival depends increasingly on its ability to effectively navigate online marketing strategies. For manufacturing companies, this presents unique challenges and opportunities. All too often, we, at Cleartail Marketing , notice that manufacturers overlook the value of a robust digital marketing strategy.

So, you might be asking, “Why should I care about a manufacturing marketing strategy? and How can it benefit my manufacturing company?” That’s exactly what we’re here to unpack today.

Just like any other sector, manufacturing companies need to constantly diversify their client base, keep up with emerging technological innovation, and crucially, stay top-of-mind for potential customers in an increasingly crowded online space. Furthermore, the complexities and specificities of the manufacturing industry (longer sales cycles, B2B focus, often highly-specialised products) call for a well-thought-out and targeted approach. This is where manufacturing marketing strategy comes in.

Implementing a successful manufacturing marketing strategy can help ensure your business is reaching its target audience effectively, positioning your brand as a trusted manufacturer, and ultimately facilitating conversions and boosting sales.

Now let’s take a look at some key insights about manufacturing marketing:

• Content is king. Creating high-quality, engaging content is the main contributor to boosting search engine optimization (SEO), earning customer trust, and guiding potential clients through the sales funnel. Notably, about 50% of people read three to five pieces of content from a business before making contact.
• Email marketing offers a powerful way to stay in the minds of your potential clients, providing timely, relevant information and encouraging them towards making a purchase.
• Almost all purchases today begin with an online search. Ensuring your manufacturing company appears in search engines is crucial to attracting leads.
• It’s important to make full use of both organic and paid search strategies for maximum visibility.

Now that we’ve set the stage, let’s dive into the guide and start crafting a winning manufacturing marketing strategy that can transform your business’s online presence and marketing efforts.

Understanding the Unique Aspects of Manufacturing Marketing

Just like every industry has its own unique features and challenges, manufacturing marketing is no different. Understanding these unique aspects is the first step towards crafting a winning marketing strategy.

The Target Audience for Manufacturing Marketing

In manufacturing marketing, we are typically dealing with a business-to-business (B2B) audience. This means our target audience isn’t the general public, but other businesses, such as downline supply chain manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, or business end-users like restaurants or construction firms. This is a key difference from business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing, where the target audience is individual consumers.

Understanding the industry we’re targeting, the size and type of companies that need our product, and who within those organizations can make purchasing decisions, forms a crucial part of our marketing strategy.

The Nature of Products or Services in Manufacturing Marketing

Manufacturing companies often sell intricate products or services that require a significant investment from the buyer. This could range from industrial machinery to MES software . As a result, the buyer’s decision-making process is typically more involved than for consumer purchases.

This means that our marketing communications need to be well-crafted to provide the right information at each stage of the process. It’s also essential to educate potential customers about what we offer and how it can benefit them. This could involve creating educational content such as blog posts, infographics, or e-books.

The Longer Sales Cycle in Manufacturing Marketing

A key feature that sets manufacturing marketing apart from consumer marketing is the sales cycle. The sales cycle for manufacturing products or services is usually much longer than for consumer products. This demands a long-term view when planning our marketing activities. Instead of focusing on making a quick sale, we need to focus on building relationships and trust with potential customers.

Understanding these unique aspects of manufacturing marketing allows us to craft a marketing strategy tailored to our specific needs and goals. In the next sections, we’ll discuss how to define our marketing objectives, create a strong brand for our manufacturing business, and develop buyer personas for effective marketing.

Remember, a well-planned and executed manufacturing marketing strategy can revolutionize your manufacturing business and drive it towards success. So, let’s dive deeper and explore the components of a successful manufacturing marketing strategy.

Stay tuned for more insights and strategies in our Ultimate Guide to Crafting a Winning Manufacturing Marketing Strategy !

Key Components of a Successful Manufacturing Marketing Strategy

Crafting a winning manufacturing marketing strategy is like assembling a complex piece of machinery. Each component plays a crucial role and must work together for the system to function efficiently. In this section, we’ll delve into the core components of a successful manufacturing marketing strategy, from defining your marketing objectives to developing effective buyer personas.

Defining Marketing Objectives and Target Audiences

The foundation of any successful marketing strategy is a clear understanding of your objectives and target audience. What are you hoping to achieve? Whether it’s increasing brand awareness, generating qualified leads, or boosting sales of specific products, pinpointing your objectives is a vital first step.

As a manufacturing company, your target audience might be more specific and may require a more significant investment, such as other businesses in need of industrial machinery or MES software . Understanding your audience’s needs, motivations, and decision-making process is critical for tailoring your marketing efforts to resonate with them.

Creating a Strong Brand for Your Manufacturing Business

A strong, recognizable brand is the cornerstone of effective marketing. For manufacturers, this is particularly crucial as potential customers may not be familiar with your products or services. Your brand should reflect your company’s values, unique selling points, and the quality of your products or services.

Remember, your brand is more than just a logo or tagline – it’s the impression that customers get whenever they interact with your company. Make every effort to ensure that this impression is a positive one, from the quality of your customer service to the functionality of your website.

Developing Buyer Personas for Effective Marketing

Understanding your target audience is one thing, but can you put yourself in their shoes? That’s where buyer personas come in. A buyer persona is a detailed representation of your ideal customer, based on market research and real data about your existing customers.

Developing detailed buyer personas can help you better understand your customers and tailor your marketing efforts to their specific needs, behaviors, and concerns. This targeted approach can significantly improve the effectiveness of your marketing, making it easier to generate leads and convert them into customers.

The Role of the Marketing Mix in Manufacturing Marketing

The marketing mix—product, price, place, and promotion—plays a critical role in manufacturing marketing. This mix is a combination of factors that can be controlled by a company to influence consumers to purchase its products.

For manufacturers, the marketing mix will likely involve complex products or services, pricing strategies that reflect the significant investment required by the buyer, distribution channels that align with the buyer’s preferences, and promotional tactics that effectively communicate the value of the product or service.

By carefully considering each aspect of the marketing mix, you can ensure that your marketing strategy aligns with your target audience’s expectations and needs, ultimately leading to increased sales and customer loyalty.

Stay tuned as we delve deeper into the strategies to make your manufacturing marketing a success in our Ultimate Guide to Crafting a Winning Manufacturing Marketing Strategy . It’s time to revolutionize your manufacturing business with effective marketing strategies. Are you ready?

Top Strategies for Manufacturing Marketing

Success in manufacturing marketing is more than just having great products. It’s about using the right strategies to reach your target audience and convert leads into customers. Here at Cleartail Marketing, we have identified six key strategies that can help you achieve your goals and grow your manufacturing business.

The Power of Content Marketing in Manufacturing

Content is king, and this couldn’t be more true in manufacturing marketing. A robust content marketing strategy can position your company as a trusted manufacturer and help you show up when potential clients search online. As many as 50% of people read three to five pieces of content from a business before reaching out for more information or a quote.

Engaging content such as blog posts, whitepapers, case studies, videos, and infographics can help potential clients understand your products better and push them further down the sales funnel. Remember, your content is not just for your clients, but also for stakeholders who may use it to create presentations and make purchase decisions.

The Role of Trade Shows and Events in Manufacturing Marketing

Trade shows and events offer a unique opportunity to showcase your products, network with industry professionals, and generate high-quality leads. While participation in these events may require a significant investment, the potential return on investment makes them a worthwhile strategy for many manufacturers.

The Impact of Partnerships and Collaborations on Manufacturing Marketing

Partnerships and collaborations can expand your reach, bring new perspectives, and enhance your reputation in the industry. Whether it’s partnering with a complementary business for a joint marketing campaign or collaborating with influencers to increase your visibility, these strategies can provide significant benefits for your manufacturing business.

Utilizing Social Media Marketing for Manufacturing Businesses

Social media is no longer just for B2C companies. B2B manufacturers can also leverage social media to connect with their audience, share valuable content, and build relationships. Platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and even Facebook can be effective channels for promoting your products, sharing industry news, and engaging with your audience.

And with the help of marketing automation tools , you can schedule your posts in advance and consistently maintain a strong social media presence.

The Importance of Search Engine Optimization in Manufacturing Marketing

Did you know that nearly 90% of purchases start online ? This makes Search Engine Optimization (SEO) a critical strategy for manufacturing businesses. By optimizing your website and content for relevant keywords, you can improve your visibility in search engine results and attract more potential leads.

At Cleartail Marketing, we offer Search Engine Optimization services to help your manufacturing business stand out in the digital marketplace.

The Benefits of Pay-Per-Click Advertising for Manufacturing Companies

While SEO is a long-term strategy, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising can provide immediate results. By targeting specific keywords, your ads can appear on the top of search engine results, driving more traffic to your website. However, it’s crucial to research your buyer personas, target the right keywords, and create compelling ads to maximize the effectiveness of your PPC campaigns.

At Cleartail Marketing, we can help you develop a comprehensive manufacturing marketing strategy that includes content marketing, trade shows, partnerships, social media, SEO, and PPC advertising. We understand the unique aspects of manufacturing marketing and are committed to helping you overcome challenges and achieve your marketing objectives. Contact us today to learn more about how we can revolutionize your manufacturing business.

Overcoming Common Challenges in Manufacturing Marketing

Creating a successful manufacturing marketing strategy is not without its challenges. However, at Cleartail Marketing, we believe that obstacles are opportunities in disguise. Let’s dive into some of the common challenges faced in manufacturing marketing and how to overcome them.

Reaching the Right Audience in Manufacturing Marketing

In the digital age, it can seem like a Herculean task to reach the right audience amidst the cacophony of online content. It’s vital to understand who your potential customers are and what they’re looking for. We recommend creating detailed buyer personas and leveraging tools like our Marketing Automation to effectively reach your target audience with content that resonates with their needs and interests.

Generating Leads in Manufacturing Marketing

Generating high-quality leads is another common challenge manufacturers face. At Cleartail Marketing, we believe in quality over quantity. A smaller number of high-quality leads is more valuable than a large number of unqualified ones. We leverage various strategies like SEO, content marketing, and social media marketing to generate leads that are genuinely interested in your products or services.

Converting Leads into Customers in Manufacturing Marketing

Generating leads is one thing, but converting them into loyal customers is another. Our approach focuses on building relationships and providing value to potential customers. We use our marketing automation tool to nurture leads and guide them through the buyer’s journey, turning prospects into loyal customers.

Creating Compelling Content for Manufacturing Marketing

Creating engaging content that resonates with your audience can be a challenge, especially for manufacturers who may not have much experience in content creation. At Cleartail Marketing, we understand the power of compelling content and have a team of experts who excel in creating content that speaks directly to your audience’s needs and interests. Whether it’s blog posts, infographics, or e-books, we can help you craft content that educates, engages, and ultimately, converts.

Measuring Results in Manufacturing Marketing

Measuring the success of your marketing efforts can be daunting, especially with the myriad of factors that go into any given campaign. However, with our marketing automation tool, you can easily track your progress, measure your results, and see which tactics are working and which ones aren’t. This valuable data allows you to adjust your strategy accordingly, ensuring that your marketing efforts are constantly optimized for success.

Navigating these challenges can be overwhelming, but with the right partner, you can turn these obstacles into opportunities. At Cleartail Marketing, we’re here to help you revolutionize your manufacturing marketing strategy and overcome these common challenges. Contact us today to find out how we can help you craft a winning strategy that drives success for your manufacturing business.

Adapting Your Manufacturing Marketing Strategy for Success

Life is all about adaptation, and the same goes for your manufacturing marketing strategy. To stay ahead in this competitive manufacturing landscape, it’s vital to adapt and evolve your marketing strategies. Let’s delve into some key aspects that can help you adapt your manufacturing marketing strategy for success.

The Importance of Learning from Failures in Manufacturing Marketing

“It’s not about how many times you fall, but how many times you get back up.” This saying couldn’t be more applicable to marketing. In our experience at Cleartail Marketing, we find that failures often provide the most valuable lessons.

Rather than viewing a failed campaign as a setback, consider it a learning opportunity. Analyze what went wrong, identify the gaps, and use these insights to improve your future marketing initiatives. Remember, understanding where you went wrong is the first step in making things right.

The Role of A/B Testing in Manufacturing Marketing

The beauty of digital marketing lies in its measurability and adaptability. A/B testing, also known as split testing, is a powerful tool that allows you to compare two versions of a webpage, email, or ad to see which one performs better.

By systematically testing different elements of your marketing materials, from headlines to images to call-to-action buttons, you can gain insights into what resonates with your target audience. These insights can then inform your manufacturing marketing plan , helping you create more engaging and effective campaigns.

The Need for Long-Term Initiatives in Manufacturing Marketing

While quick wins are great, it’s the long-term initiatives that truly drive sustainable growth and success in manufacturing marketing. From SEO to content marketing to nurturing customer relationships, these strategies may take time to show results, but the outcomes are often worth the wait.

At Cleartail Marketing, we believe in crafting comprehensive marketing strategies for manufacturers that balance short-term gains with long-term growth objectives.

Finding Quick-Win Opportunities in Manufacturing Marketing

While long-term strategies are crucial, we shouldn’t overlook the value of quick-win opportunities. These are low-effort, high-impact actions that can deliver immediate results. For instance, optimizing your Google My Business listing or running a time-bound PPC campaign can provide a quick boost to your online visibility and lead generation efforts.

Our team at Cleartail Marketing is well-versed in identifying and capitalizing on these quick-win opportunities to kickstart your manufacturing marketing efforts.

The Need for Continuous Adaptation and Updates in Manufacturing Marketing

Lastly, but most importantly, stay adaptable. The digital landscape is ever-changing, with new technologies, platforms, and consumer behaviors emerging all the time. To stay competitive, it’s crucial to keep your finger on the pulse of these changes and adjust your marketing strategies accordingly.

At Cleartail Marketing, we’re committed to staying at the forefront of digital marketing trends and innovations, ensuring that our clients’ marketing strategies are always on point.

In conclusion, adapting your manufacturing marketing strategy for success involves learning from failures, leveraging A/B testing, focusing on long-term initiatives, seizing quick-win opportunities, and continuously updating your strategies.

Ready to take your manufacturing marketing strategy to the next level? Connect with us at Cleartail Marketing. We’re here to help you craft a winning strategy that propels your manufacturing business towards unprecedented success.

Conclusion: Crafting Your Winning Manufacturing Marketing Strategy

In the dynamic, competitive realm of manufacturing, the key to standing out lies in a robust, well-crafted marketing strategy. Leveraging our expert knowledge and the insights from this guide, you’re now equipped to create a strategy that truly resonates with your target audience, builds your brand, and drives growth for your manufacturing business.

As we’ve discussed, a successful manufacturing marketing strategy involves several critical components, including defining your marketing objectives and target audience, creating a strong brand, developing buyer personas, and effectively using your marketing mix. It also involves implementing top strategies such as content marketing, trade shows, partnerships, social media marketing, SEO, and PPC advertising.

Overcoming challenges like reaching the right audience, generating and converting leads, creating compelling content, and accurately measuring results is also crucial. Remember, the goal is not just to create a strategy but to continuously adapt and update it for sustainability and success.

At Cleartail Marketing, we understand the unique challenges and opportunities presented by manufacturing marketing. We have the expertise and tools to help you create a winning strategy that aligns with your business goals and delivers measurable results. Whether you’re looking to increase brand awareness, drive sales, boost customer loyalty, or all of the above, we’re here to support you on your journey to success.

Remember that marketing for manufacturing companies is a marathon, not a sprint. It requires patience, persistence, and a willingness to learn and adapt. As Thomas Edison once said, “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” So, don’t be afraid to experiment, test, and optimize your strategies. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to marketing, but with the right mindset and approach, you can craft a strategy that works for your manufacturing business.

So, are you ready to revolutionize your manufacturing business with a winning marketing strategy? We invite you to explore our Revolutionize Your Manufacturing Business with Effective Marketing Strategies topic cluster for more insights and resources. Also, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at Cleartail Marketing. We’re here to help you navigate the complex world of manufacturing marketing and drive real results for your business.

Here’s to your success in crafting your winning manufacturing marketing strategy!

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Seven Best Practices for Manufacturing Marketing Success

Apply our manufacturer-proven strategies to engage customers and grow sales.

No matter your manufacturing industry or type, if you’re a manufacturer, change-inducing factors like Industry 4.0 and long-term market and supply disruptions create unprecedented challenges, as well as unprecedented opportunities. From AI and intelligent automation to big data analytics and the Internet of Things (IoT), the same Industry 4.0 technologies that are changing manufacturing companies are also changing the buying experience and behaviors of your customers.

The challenge for manufacturing companies? If they can’t gain traction with today’s customers and how they make purchase decisions, they will lose out to those competitors who can.  The opportunity? By applying proven, best-practice manufacturing marketing strategies, you can find and engage this new-generation of customers and stay with them throughout each customer’s unique purchasing journey.

Manufacturing Customers Want a Real Connection with You and Your Products

With different teams and different levels of decision-makers of an organization weighing in and validating purchase decisions, the B2B nature of manufacturing marketing is traditionally different from its more B2C counterparts. But that is fast changing as Industry 4.0 is revolutionizing manufacturing orders with high levels of individualized customization, requiring a more consumer-like experience for buyers, including how to reach and engage them.

The different informed stakeholders and teams involved in the purchase decision are also looking for more personalized, consumer-like experiences. They want a long term, personal relationship with any potential manufacturing partner, one that’s built on information and trust. Manufacturer marketing strategies must prioritize the delivery of that kind of experience across online and traditional sales channels, to overcome specific challenges and meet specific innovation requirements for every stakeholder involved in purchase decisions.

In fact, those companies that remain primarily locked into traditional manufacturing marketing strategies have to adapt quickly to the new reality.

Ensure a consistent, personalized experience for every stakeholder in the purchase process.

Traditional Manufacturing Marketing Plays a Role But Is No Longer Enough

For decades, marketing for manufacturing companies generally revolved around three practices – trade show lead generation, cold calls, and networking or relationship-building events. While these traditional practices are still an important part of an effective manufacturer marketing strategy, none of these approaches tend to influence today’s highly informed, and often younger buyers. Their purchasing journey starts with detailed online research, where they gain a much broader understanding of the market landscape and what you and your competitors have to offer.

OEM manufactures understand these trends all too well. When it comes to making buying decisions, the customers of OEM manufacturers rely heavily on self-education. That’s why OEMs tend to make all of their information – the latest product documentation, pricing, design drawings, flow charts, testing and compliance reports, and more – available in a single, easy-to-navigate online catalog.

But having the most complete, detailed, timely, and easily-accessibly information repository is no longer enough – your digital catalog is only effective if the same detailed information is synchronized across every sales channel used by your prospective customers.

Our Seven Best Manufacturing Marketing Practices for Finding and Engaging Customers

At Elevation Marketing, we help all types and sizes of manufacturing companies develop and implement marketing strategies that adapt to this new reality. Each manufacturing marketing plan is uniquely tailored to the needs of each industrial company, so they can quickly establish manufacturing marketing best practices that make them more discoverable and engaging to customers both old and new:

Best Practice 1 : Assume Customers Will Discover You Before You Discover Them

Chances are that by the time you connect with your customers, they have already done extensive online research about you, which is why a robust, detailed inbound marketing operation is crucial in manufacturing. In contrast to phone, direct mail, and email campaigns in outbound marketing, inbound marketing delivers information and education that organically supports the purchasing journey of your customers.

Your inbound marketing strategies should stay fully aligned with every potential customer’s journey, from first identifying needs and researching solutions to making the final decision. At every stage of the purchase process, as customers look online for the specific information they need, your information and URL needs to top every search return so customers will choose you as their manufacturer of choice.

Getting there requires a manufacturer marketing strategy that goes beyond targeting the same online destinations where your prospects and your competitors tend to congregate. It also requires closely synchronizing your pay-per-click (PPC) spend with your search engine optimization (SEO) keyword and URL targets. For example, ensuring that your PPC copy includes the latest SEO keywords so you can test and validate their effectiveness, or using incoming SEO query data to inform and enrich your PPC copy.

Top every search return so customers will choose you as their manufacturer of choice. Source: Gartner®, “3 Tactics to Boost Your B2B SEO Strategy”, Rupal Bhandari, 17 February 2021. GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

Best Practice 2 : Engage Your Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) in Telling Your Story

A key feature of any company’s branding and marketing strategy is the story they want to tell their customers about themselves and their products. While that kind of storytelling can be fairly clear and simple among consumer companies – in the complex, technical, and B2B world of manufacturing – getting that story across to your target customers can be much more difficult.

The good news? Because manufacturing customers already understand their respective industries and stay on top of developments across internal and external channels, they are receptive to your story. That’s why it’s critical to support and encourage your SMEs to share their thought leadership and engineering expertise in posts, blogs, podcasts, webinars, etc.

We encourage manufacturing marketing strategies that use the thought leadership of their SMEs as the tip of the pyramid for all content marketing including social media outreach. That includes a content marketing strategy that amplifies the online presence of your SMEs and ensures that product information and value statements are in sync with the latest thought leadership.

Use the thought leadership of SMEs as the tip of the pyramid for all content marketing. Source: Forrester

Best Practice 3 : Market Across Business Roles Not Just to Top-Level Business Scenarios

Too often, manufacturer marketing strategies focus heavily on the ultimate decision-makers in a potential customer’s organization, usually C-level executives and procurement teams. While they ultimately must sign off on the purchase deal, a lot of upstream decision-making has already happened beforehand. These upstream decision-makers often have more intimate knowledge of you and your competition and are empowered to vet different manufacturers and recommend the right choice.

From your customer’s plant floor personnel to the executive team and everyone in between, your marketing strategy should connect with every business role that contributes to the decision-making process. Make sure your brand story connects in the particular language of each customer’s business role, drawing them in by acknowledging and addressing their unique challenges, and by having the timely, in-context technical and functional information they need to choose you.

Make sure your brand story connects in the particular language of each business role. Source: Gartner®, “Gartner Keynote: The New Imperative for B2B Sales and Marketing Leaders”, Jordan Bryan, 9 October 2018. GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

Best Practice 4 : Identify and Respond to Any Stories Adversely Impacting Business Reputation

What’s your reputation in the industry, good and bad? What’s the consensus among practitioners, thought leaders, and bloggers alike who are aware of your products, especially when it comes to your reputation for excellence in manufacturing execution and product quality? While effective and responsive reputation management solutions and tools can help you detect and respond quickly to negative postings, comments, etc. across social media platforms, you can only respond after the fact.

In today’s more volatile business environment, it’s never been more important for manufacturers to get proactive and predictive in addressing any negative impacts to business reputation. That may require leveraging advanced, AI-enabled analytics to identify any impacts much earlier, and before negative comments and posts begin to mushroom across the internet. In addition (and in reference to the previous best practice), your SMEs can also engage across digital channels to correct any negative stories and overcome any customer hesitancy that may arise as a result.

Get proactive and predictive in addressing any negative impacts to your business reputation. Source: Gartner®, “How to Conduct a Brand Reputation Audit for Your Business”, Rupal Bhandari, 11 March 2021. GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

Best Practice 5 : Demonstrate How You Can Benefit Your Customer’s Customer

Whether you are an OEM or an ODM manufacturer, many of your customers are consumer-focused industrial companies that are constantly trying to deliver better products and experiences to their own customers. Too often however, manufacturers do not sufficiently convey how their products and solutions can benefit the customers of their customers. That’s why it’s vital that as manufacturers, you are able to understand and show how your products and services improve the overall experience of your customer’s customer.

What are you offering to your customer’s end customer that no other manufacturer can offer? Where possible, make a correlation between your products and your buyer’s success with their own customers in terms of improved experiences, value, or even sustainability gains. Your marketing plans should include processes and data collection activities that assess the impact of your products (both good and bad) with regard to the customers of your customer. This can include KPI data, interviews, and survey results completed by your direct customers.

U.S. B2B ecommerce will reach $3 trillion by 2027. Source: Forrester

Best Practice 6 : Do Market Due Diligence Up Front and Avoid Wasting Marketing Spend

Manufacturers are inherent planners; they understand the need for detailed and integrated planning and provisioning as necessary precursors to execution excellence. However, that same due diligence is often lacking when manufacturers develop and execute a marketing strategy. Too often in fact, manufacturers gain a deeper understanding of their respective markets only after spending heavily on advertising campaigns that ultimately prove ineffective.

By conducting a well-researched and multidisciplinary study of your specific markets, customer segments, and competitors before a single advertising and marketing initiative is even planned, you avoid costly mistakes in your marketing spend.  Robust, up front marketing due diligence can provide manufacturers with more creative marketing ideas. Ideas that are based on a more intimate understanding of your specific customers, and that will make you stand out among competitors to bring in the most promising leads.

Conduct a well-researched and multidisciplinary self-assessment before engaging in any campaign spend. Source: Hubstaff

Best Practice 7 : Integrate Traditional and Digital Manufacturing Marketing Channels

In manufacturing, traditional marketing such as printed material, tradeshow booths, other physical collateral, etc. is still vital to connect with and transform potential customers into repeat customers. That’s because the manufacturing customer purchase journey doesn’t necessarily begin or end online. In-person interactions are often still crucial to connect, learn, and exchange detailed technical information, so trade show events, user groups, and one-on-one meetings all play a vital role.

For many manufacturers, the rapid expansion of digital marketing efforts has led to a growing disconnect with traditional marketing efforts, adding extra cost and complexity burdens. To bridge this divide, manufacturers need a marketing strategy that successfully integrates every possible sales channel online or in person. Keeping your traditional marketing channels in synch with your digital marketing channels is vital to ensure that content, messaging, and customer history is accurately shared across every channel.

That means adopting tools and services that ensure customers get a personalized, in-context experience as they engage with you across these different channels, so customers can gain confidence in your brand and your products over time. Integrating traditional and digital channels also improves overall business agility. For example, you can more easily optimize digital content creation to ensure that it can be quickly and cheaply converted into ready-to-use physical collateral for in-person events.

Very few companies have fully integrated their traditional and digital marketing channels. Source: SmartInsights

Team with Elevation Marketing:  Put Our Seven Manufacturing Marketing Best Practices to Work for You

We understand the role of marketing in the manufacturing industry and created some incredible business wins for our manufacturing clients. We go beyond marketing product benefits to win sales, applying our manufacturing best practices to:

• Build a marketing plan based on deep insight into what makes you stand out
• Integrate all digital and traditional marketing activities (social media, search marketing, account-based marketing, etc.) to create an omnichannel, rapid response manufacturing market operation
• Drive early success in your B2B marketing and advertising campaigns by leveraging our in-depth understanding of your operations and product lines, specific markets, and most promising buyers

Check out some of our manufacturing marketing success stories below:

H.D. Hudson Manufacturing Company

Elevation Marketing innovates product pipeline for industrial sprayer manufacturer

$75 million in incremental revenue

#1 position in the market

Get the case study .

Chicago Pneumatic

Elevation Marketing expands reach and brand recognition for industrial compressor manufacturer

22% immediate increase in sales

79% expansion worldwide (57 countries added)

Get the case study

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7 Ways To Increase Sales For Your Manufacturing Business This Year

Team Thomas September 10, 2021

Looking to increase your sales? Although successful, well-executed B2B marketing strategies take time to build and require ongoing, consistent effort, there are some things you can do today to help drive sales for your manufacturing company this year.

In combination with a long-term marketing strategy , these quick tips can go a long way in getting new leads and increasing sales for your manufacturing business.

Prioritize These Tips To Increase Manufacturing Sales

1. align your marketing and sales teams.

A study from Forrester found that 43% of CEOs believed that misalignment had cost them sales.

To improve your company's sales, your marketing and sales teams must be cohesive and collaborative. Take the time to foster relationships between these teams; this will help ensure your marketing team's efforts are actually helping the sales team close deals. Also, be sure to facilitate face-to-face time between teams and consider implementing tools that will help your staff work together and communicate more easily.

The goal behind bringing your marketing and sales teams together is to create complete transparency and a clear understanding of their goals and needs. One team can't work well without the other.

Get Started:

• Motivate Your Team By Asking "Why"
• How To Manage Differing Opinions In The Workplace
• [Free Template] Building A Business & Sales Plan For Your Manufacturing Company

2. Create A Company Profile On Thomasnet.com

Thousands of manufacturers and industrial companies have all increased leads, sales opportunities and revenues by advertising on Thomasnet.com — and that first sale starts with just a free company profile . Why does it work? The Thomas Network connects B2B buyers and engineers with 500K+ North American suppliers on the platform where more than 1.3 million B2B buyers do their job every day.

More B2B buyers are turning to business listing platforms to fulfill their sourcing needs and 93% of the Fortune 1000 has buyers using Thomasnet.com to source new suppliers.

Here's Tiodize 's experience with Thomasnet.com:

"We started our internet marketing with Thomasnet.com at the suggestion of our largest customer,   Boeing . They assured me that Thomasnet.com was where their engineers went first to find information on suppliers.

Our sales have gone up exponentially compared to our increases in our ad budget. Because we manufacture and sell specialty coatings and composites, we are always looking for ways to be in front of decision-makers when they need our products. Thomasnet.com is an efficient and effective way for us to do that and perfect for companies that do not have national sales forces. Thomasnet.com acts as our sales force."

Another manufacturing success story ( there are thousands across North America !):

Aero Industries is an Orlando, Florida metals distributor specializing in raw materials. This woman-owned small business has earned a reputation for being a sourcing expert – often going beyond its core offerings of metals to source and deliver plastics, rubbers, composites, and manufactured parts.

Once very reliant on serving NASA’s space shuttle program, Aero needed to reach a new audience when the shuttle program ended. Company president Nancy Simmons wanted to limit her reliance on aerospace/military customers, and branch out into medical, automotive, marine, and other industries.

“Thomas has allowed me to not only grow my company but help other companies too. Now we’re able to take our products and sell overseas. They all found me through Thomas,” said Nancy Simmons, CEO Aero Industries.

➡️ List Your Manufacturing Business For Free

Aero Industries' high-profile online presence attracted diverse, quality customers from around the globe, and today Aero serves various industries in North America, South America, the Caribbean, and China. 

"I wouldn’t have a business today if it weren’t for Thomas. They changed the playing field completely." — Aero Industries

3. Record A Video Of Your Facility

Videos supplement your traditional marketing efforts and increase your brand awareness. They are particularly effective for demonstrating unique processes or capabilities — a whopping 95% of a message is retained after watching a video versus reading text!

Through video marketing , potential customers can actually see your facility, manufacturing processes, and final products, all in just a few minutes or even seconds. 

💡  Thomas Fact:  Suppliers advertising with video content on Thomas increased engagement & requests for quote for their business by 32% - with some seeing increases as high as 70%!

Increase Your Sales With Video Advertising

Thomas offers video content production for FREE for OEMs, Distributors, and Service Companies With An Advertising Program

In fact, many businesses shoot videos with mobile phones; these videos can then be instantly uploaded to company social media accounts and Thomasnet.com company profiles. Videos are shared more often than any other type of post on social media and can serve as a highly effective tool for connecting with fellow industry professionals, getting users to spread the word about your company, and establishing yourself as a cutting-edge brand.

Need some more inspiration? Check out:

• [Examples] 17 engaging videos from manufacturers and industrial companies
• [Case Study] How a custom manufacturer grew 4x more revenue than their traditional sales method

4. Request An In-Market Buyer Report

When it comes to industrial marketing, a lot of manufacturers spend their time waiting — for visitors to come to their site, for visitors to convert into prospects, and for prospects to turn into buyers. Fortunately, there are some tools and resources you can use to speed things up. 

A free In-Market Buyer Report from Thomas can show you the exact company names and locations of companies looking for the products and services you offer right now. 

"As a small machine shop, it’s critical that every effort I do attracts the right kind of customers — those that I actually want to do business with. Partnering with Thomas does exactly that," said Richard Barnard, President of Eaglestone Technology, Inc.

With today's global shortages, the last thing you want to do is take a break. There are still customers looking for your services and there are still contracts to be won. If it's not you, someone will be calling on them. Be sure to position yourself as a business partner through thick and thin, ready to fulfill their requirements as soon as possible.

Learn More:  How To Sell Amid Global Shortages

5. See Who's Visiting Your Website

Even better, if you want to continuously identify the buyers that visit you online, track them throughout their buying journey, and engage them with more meaningful content and outreach calls, you can use our free Lead Intelligence tool — Thomas WebTrax .  

More than 11,000 manufacturers are already using Thomas WebTrax to get more leads and strengthen their sales conversations. It provides continuous data on buyers' names and companies browsing your products or services, making it easy for your marketing and sales teams to connect with them —  no matter how far along they are in the buying process.

"WebTrax lets us see what our target customers and target industries are looking at on our website so we can be prepared to answer their questions on those issues and even order advanced inventory," said Julia Mace, Marketing Leader at SUS America, Inc.

6. Send Regular Emails To Your Customers

According to  Forrester Research , companies that take the time to properly engage and nurture leads improve their  sales outreach  at a rate of 50% while spending 33% less.

Regular email communications keep your business top of mind to prospects and customers who are more likely to repeat business with you. Focusing on existing accounts can help you build better relationships and increase sales. Stay in touch regularly with email newsletters, welcome emails, and re-engagement emails — not just the basic transactional emails that confirm when someone completes a purchase or submits an RFI. When you've done something new, let them know!

Learn More:

• How Marketing & Sales Pros Can Grow Their Email Prospect List
• 9 Types Of Emails You Should Be Sending (And Why)

"A key thing about emails and sharing content is the ability to generate a lot of leads across various industries. We wanted to help educate our customers. Through eBooks, blogs, a revamped website — they actually drive our own knowledge out and customers appreciate the insight," said Jeff Collins, VP of Renown Electric .

7. Post Content On All Your Social Media Accounts

Companies often create social media accounts but rarely, if ever, update them after initial setup. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are the three main social media channels for businesses; if your company already has accounts, be sure to post frequent, relevant content tailored to each channel’s audience.

• Facebook can be a useful tool in showing the “people” side of your business, helping you engage with customers on a more personal level. Remember, even though you're marketing to businesses, there are still people behind those businesses — so don't forget to keep the human emotional element in your communication .
• With an exclusive business focus, LinkedIn allows you to network with other professionals in your industry, while also keeping you up-to-date on industry news and trends. See how Engineering Specialities, Inc . uses their LinkedIn to connect with prospects looking for critical material during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Learn More: The Difference Between Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter

Learn Other Ways Manufacturers Can Increase Sales

Are you a small manufacturing business owner that has one person wearing the same hat of marketing and sales? Looking for even more ways to redefine your B2B marketing strategy and grow your manufacturing business? Using digital channels is the single best way to grow your business today. According to  Pew Research  &  Merit , millennials are the largest generation in the U.S. workforce, with 73% involved in purchasing products or services for their companies — and they're doing so online.

The team at Thomas is here to help with custom solutions for every company's need and budget size. Our team is supported by degreed engineers just like you so we understand the complexities of your manufacturing business. We'll go through some growth options with you like:

• A lead generation solution specifically targeting the B2B buyers, engineers, and procurement agents in industries you want to do business with.
• An   email newsletter sponsorship   that gets read by the exact industries and job titles you want to do business with. One industrial adhesives manufacturer drove more than 73k impressions in one email newsletter send. 
• A   display ad on Thomasnet.com   search result pages where buyers are searching for your products or services.
• A company overview video on your Thomasnet.com profile that gets seen by more than a million B2B buyers sourcing industrial products and services. And industrial marketers who use video content grow revenue 49% faster than those who don't — see Industrial Video Production Examples for Custom Manufacturers and OEMs Here

Get in touch with our experts today to discuss strategies for your specific needs or if you need more convincing, check out our reviews page to hear directly from the manufacturers we've helped.

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The Best Marketing Strategies for Manufacturing Companies

08.07.2023 | Content Marketing and Strategy

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, staying ahead in the manufacturing business can seem like an uphill battle. But don’t worry, we’re here to guide you through the best marketing strategies for manufacturing companies.

These strategies have been carefully crafted with industry specifics in mind, offering a great opportunity to generate quality leads for your sales team.

Table of Contents

Understanding the Manufacturing Landscape

To fully grasp the efficacy of these strategies, it’s crucial to understand the unique features and challenges of the manufacturing sector.

Manufacturing is a highly competitive environment , where the race to increase productivity and reduce costs is incessant. Add to this the increasing demand for high-quality products and it’s clear why a robust marketing strategy is not just an add-on, but a necessity.

Why Digitalization Matters

Digitalization is not just a buzzword in the marketing world. It’s a relevant process that’s sweeping across all industry sectors, including manufacturing.

By utilizing digital technology as part of your marketing strategies, you can unlock new opportunities for your sales team.

The effort could be as simple as a well-designed website that showcases your products and services. Or, you could introduce a Customer Relationship Management ( CRM ) system to monitor and manage customer interactions. The possibilities are limitless when you embrace the digital side of the manufacturing industry.

The Power of Content Marketing

Content marketing is another tool that should be in every manufacturer’s marketing arsenal to connect with your target audience.

When you create content, the goal is to provide valuable, relevant information to your audience. By doing so, you not only establish authority in your industry but also foster a relationship of trust with potential customers.

Remember, your content should always resonate with the needs and interests of your target customer. Be it a blog post, case study, webinar, or how-to guide, the golden rule is to offer value first and foremost.

Additionally, you want to ensure that the content ranks in search engines so that potential prospects can find each piece of content throughout their buying journey. Producing high-ranking educational content can create brand awareness and support your lead generation efforts in a powerful way.

Social Media: Your New Best Friend

Social media marketing is no longer a strategy exclusive to B2C companies. Many B2B manufacturing businesses are now reaping the benefits of having a strong social media presence.

LinkedIn, for instance, is a great platform to engage with other professionals in the industry, while Facebook and Instagram can be used to showcase your products and behind-the-scenes operations.

The key to successful social media marketing is to create engagement and awareness. It’s not enough to simply post content; you need to interact with your audience.

Email Marketing: An Old but Gold Strategy

Many believe that email marketing is a relic of the past, but nothing could be further from the truth.

When done right, email marketing can offer one of the highest returns on investment (ROI) among all marketing strategies. Crafting personalized emails and automating email campaigns can dramatically increase customer engagement and conversion rates with both new prospects and existing customers.

Trade Shows and Networking

Even in this digital age, the power of face-to-face interactions cannot be overlooked.

B2B trade shows and networking events allow you to build relationships with potential customers and partners. It’s a chance to showcase your products, demonstrate your expertise, and learn about the latest trends and innovations in the industry.

Get Started Implementing the Best Marketing Strategies for Manufacturing Companies

We have highlighted a few of the many digital marketing strategies that manufacturing companies can leverage to generate quality leads for their sales team.

The key is to align your manufacturing marketing strategy with your business goals and continuously monitor and adjust it for optimal results. With the right strategies in place, there’s no limit to what your manufacturing business can achieve.

Working with a digital marketing agency such as Marketing Refresh can help you stay on track and generate a positive return on your marketing investment. We invite you to learn more about our proven process to support the needs of B2B manufacturing companies.

Reach out to our team when you’re ready to talk about marketing ideas for manufacturing companies. We can help identify a digital marketing program for your business that will produce results.

1. What is the importance of digital marketing in manufacturing?

Digital marketing plays a vital role in the manufacturing sector. It’s a tool that helps businesses convey their value proposition to potential customers, increasing brand visibility and customer reach. Moreover, effective marketing strategies can help manufacturers understand their market better, forge strong customer relationships, and ultimately drive sales and growth.

2. How can I choose the right marketing strategy for my manufacturing business?

Choosing the right marketing strategy largely depends on understanding your business, your target audience, and your goals.

Start by defining what you want to achieve: Is it brand awareness, more leads, or customer retention? Then, identify who your customers are and where they spend their time.

3. What role does digital marketing play in manufacturing?

Digital marketing plays a crucial role in modern manufacturing. With digital marketing strategies like social media marketing, SEO, email marketing, and content marketing, manufacturers can showcase their products, share their expertise, and build stronger relationships with customers.

4. Can small manufacturing companies also benefit from these marketing strategies?

Yes, the beauty of digital marketing strategies is that they can be tailored to fit any business size or budget. A focused approach to content marketing, SEO, and social media can help small and large manufacturing companies alike gain visibility and reach their growth targets.

Aaron Eaves

Aaron is the VP of Digital Marketing. He enjoys traveling, slapping the bass, and a good cup of coffee!

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Marketing for manufacturers — convert raw materials to products and leads to sales

When it comes to marketing, people generally fall into one of two groups. One group thinks it’s the best thing since sliced bread, and the other considers it something annoying that businesses spend too much time and money on. 

As with most things, the reality lies somewhere in between — putting marketing above product development is not a sustainable strategy that delivers a lot of repeat customers. But swapping your marketing strategy with a philosophy based on the old adage “build it and they will come” isn’t going to fill your stores with customers either. 

The truth is that marketing is an essential part of any business and integral to its success. And while you should definitely have a product or a service that provides value to your customers, just relying on word of mouth, especially in the start, isn’t going to cut it. 

This article will explore the world of marketing for manufacturing companies. We’ll take a look at the strategies, the challenges, the best practices, and more.

There’s a lot to go through, so without further ado, let’s dive in.

What is marketing for manufacturing?

Manufacturing marketing is the process of creating and executing a plan to promote and sell products to customers. The goal of manufacturing marketing is to generate sales and build brand awareness. 

There are many different aspects to consider when developing a manufacturing marketing plan, including target markets, product positioning, pricing, promotion, and distribution. A well-executed manufacturing marketing plan can help to increase sales, expand into new markets, and build brand recognition.

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The importance of marketing.

The marketing function in a manufacturing company is responsible for creating demand for the products that the company produces. Marketing plays a vital role in ensuring that the items a company offers are known and used by potential customers. Marketing also helps build customer relationships, which can result in repeat business.

Manufacturers can use many different channels for marketing their products, including advertising, public relations, direct marketing, and online marketing. It is important that they select the right mix of marketing activities to reach their target audiences effectively.

A well-planned and executed marketing campaign can help a manufacturing company to increase sales, grow its customer base, and enter new markets. To be successful, manufacturers need to understand their customers’ needs and wants and design their marketing activities accordingly.

In addition, manufacturers need to track the results of their marketing campaigns carefully so that they can make necessary adjustments to improve their effectiveness.

Differences between manufacturer and consumer marketing

There are some key ways in which marketing for manufacturers differs from marketing to consumers.

For one, the manufacturing sector is still mainly B2B (business-to-business), meaning that companies market their products and services to other businesses rather than to individual consumers.

In 2021, U.S. manufacturers saw a total of $4.104 trillion worth of digital B2B sales . And while direct-to-consumer (D2C) e-commerce sales have grown yearly, this segment still represents only a fraction of the B2B market, totaling 128.33 billion U.S. dollars in 2021 .

This distinction means that the target audience for manufacturing marketing is typically narrower than for consumer marketing, instead of trying to reach a mass market, manufacturers typically only need to focus on reaching a few key decision-makers within each potential customer company.

Another key difference between manufacturing marketing and consumer marketing is the nature of the products or services being marketed.

Manufacturing companies often sell complex products or services that require a significant investment on the buyer’s part, such as industrial machinery or MES software . As a result, the buyer’s decision-making process is typically more involved than for consumer purchases, and marketing communications need to be carefully crafted to provide the right information at each stage of the process.

Finally, the sales cycle for manufacturing products or services is usually much longer than for consumer products. This means that manufacturers need to take a long-term view when planning their marketing activities, focusing on building relationships and trust with potential customers rather than making a quick sale.

Common manufacturing marketing objectives

There are a number of different objectives that manufacturing companies might have for their marketing activities, depending on their specific needs and goals. Let’s take a look at some of them.

Increasing brand awareness among potential customers

One of the most important objectives of any marketing campaign is to increase brand awareness. For manufacturers, this is especially important, as potential customers may not be aware of their products or services. Creating a strong and recognizable brand can help potential customers remember your company when they are ready to make a purchase.

Generating leads for the sales team

One key goal of a marketing campaign is to generate leads that can be passed on to the sales team. This can be particularly challenging for manufacturers, as multiple decision-makers are often involved in the purchasing process. Creating targeted content and using effective lead-generation tactics can help you attract potential customers and get them interested in your products or services.

Educating potential customers about the products or services offered

Many potential customers may not be familiar with the products or services offered by manufacturers. As such, it is important to educate them about what you offer and how it can benefit them. Creating educational content such as blog posts, infographics, or e-books can help potential customers learn more about your company and what you have to offer.

Building relationships with potential customers

Building relationships with potential customers is another important goal of manufacturing marketing. By creating valuable content and engaging with potential customers on social media, you can create a relationship with them that can lead to sales down the line.

Increasing sales of specific products or services

Manufacturers may also want to focus on increasing sales of specific products or services. This can be done by creating targeted content and using marketing channels that reach potential customers who are interested in these products or services.

Encouraging customer loyalty and repeat purchases

In addition to increasing sales, manufacturers may also want to focus on encouraging customer loyalty and repeat purchases. This can be done by providing excellent customer service and creating loyalty programs that encourage customers to come back to your company for future purchases.

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Common manufacturing marketing strategies.

There are a number of different marketing strategies that manufacturing companies can use to achieve their objectives. Let’s take a look at some of them below.

Content marketing

One common marketing strategy for manufacturing companies is content marketing. By creating and distributing high-quality content, you can position your company as an expert in your industry and build trust with potential and existing customers.

This type of marketing can take many forms, such as blog posts, eBooks, infographics, case studies , videos, and more. It’s important to create content that is targeted at your ideal customer and provides value.

To be successful with content marketing, you need to have a plan. Decide what kinds of content you want to create and how often you wish to release it. Then, create an editorial calendar to help you stay on track.

In addition to creating your own content, you can also curate content from other sources. This can be a great way to supplement your content and give your audience various perspectives.

Trade shows and events

Trade shows and events are another great marketing strategy for manufacturers, mainly because the people attending these events are already interested in what you have to offer. So make sure to attend trade shows relevant to your industry and use them as an opportunity to network with potential and existing customers.

You can also use trade shows and events to showcase your latest products and services and to generate leads. Make sure to have a well-designed booth highlighting your brand, and make sure your staff is trained to engage with attendees properly.

Partnerships and collaborations

As a manufacturer, you can also partner with other companies or collaborate on projects to reach a larger audience and generate more exposure for your business.

This can be an effective way to build your brand and expand your customer base. It can also help you tap into new markets and access new resources and technologies.

When partnering with another company, choosing a partner complementary to your business is essential. For example, partnering with a company that sells electrical equipment would be a good fit if you manufacture electrical components .

It’s also important to have a clear understanding of the partnership arrangement before you get started. Make sure you know who will be responsible for what and how the partnership will benefit both companies.

Social media marketing

Social media marketing is another effective marketing strategy for manufacturers. Social media lets you connect with potential and existing customers and build relationships.

To succeed with social media marketing, choosing the right platform for your business is crucial. Depending on your industry, some platforms will be more effective than others. For example, LinkedIn is a great platform for B2B companies, while Instagram is better suited for B2C companies.

It’s also important to create quality content that is targeted at your audience. Post content that is interesting and informative, and be sure to include calls to action.

In addition to your own social media channels, you can also use paid social media advertising to reach a larger audience. This can greatly help you to boost brand awareness.

Search engine optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is another important marketing strategy for manufacturers. Optimizing your website and content for search engines can improve your visibility and attract more visitors to your site.

It’s crucial to understand how search engines work and what people are searching for to be successful with SEO. Once you know this, you can optimize your site accordingly. This includes things like choosing the right keywords, creating quality content, and building links.

SEO can be a complex topic, but plenty of resources are available to help you get started. There are also agencies that specialize in SEO and can help you create a successful strategy.

Pay-per-click advertising

The last one we’re going to touch upon is pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. PPC is another effective marketing strategy for manufacturers. With PPC, you can create ads and only pay when someone clicks on them. This makes it a cost-effective way to generate leads and boost brand awareness.

To succeed with PPC, choosing the right keywords and creating effective ads is important. You also need to bid on the right keywords and track your results so you can adjust your campaign as needed.

Manufacturing marketing best practices

As with everything, there are also tried and tested methods when it comes to marketing. Learning from the mistakes of others is usually quicker and cheaper than testing everything out yourself. Let’s have a look at some of the methods that have proven to work.

Defining marketing objectives and target audiences

The first step is to sit down and think about what you want to achieve with your marketing efforts. Are you looking to: 

• Increase brand awareness 
• Drive sales 
• Boost customer loyalty

Once you have a clear idea of your objectives, you can start thinking about who is your target audience. Trying to appeal to everyone is not only tricky, but it’s also not very effective. It’s much better to focus your efforts on a specific group of people who are more likely to be interested in what you have to offer.

Creating a strong brand

A strong brand is one of the company’s most important assets . It can help you attract new customers and keep existing ones loyal.

Many different elements go into creating a solid brand. Still, some of the most important ones are having a clear identity, consistency, and ensuring that your branding is visible across all touchpoints.

Creating buyer personas

Buyer personas are fictional characters that represent your ideal customers. These are detailed profiles of your ideal customers based on demographics, interests, motivations, and behaviors. 

Creating buyer personas can be extremely helpful when it comes to planning your marketing strategy, as they give you a better understanding of who you’re trying to reach and what kind of messaging is likely to resonate with them:

• Are they professionals looking for detail-heavy and informative content
• Are they a younger crowd looking for an entertaining read

Once you know the answers to these questions, you can start creating content tailored to their needs and preferences.

Developing a marketing mix

When you know your objectives and target audience, it’s time to start thinking about the different marketing channels you will use to reach them. This is known as your marketing mix.

You can choose from many different channels, but some of the most common ones are online advertising, PR, content marketing, and email marketing.

It’s important to remember that you don’t have to use all of these channels. It’s often better to focus on a few that are most relevant to your target audience.

Creating compelling content

Content is one of the most important elements of any marketing strategy. After all, without content, there would be nothing to post on your website or social media pages, no blog posts to read, and no eBooks or whitepapers to download.

Creating compelling content is not always easy, but it’s definitely worth the effort. Not only does good content help to build trust and credibility with your target audience, but it can also be extremely helpful in driving traffic to your website and generating leads.

Measuring results

Last but not least, it’s important to measure the results of your marketing efforts. This will help you understand what’s working and what’s not and give you valuable insights that you can use to improve your strategy moving forward.

There are many different ways to measure the success of your marketing campaigns, but some of the most common metrics include website traffic, leads generated, and sales converted. A lot of the information regarding sales will be available in your cloud manufacturing software , but to get an in-depth look, you may want to consider a specialized marketing performance tool.

Following these best practices can help you overcome common manufacturing marketing challenges and improve your chances of success

Common manufacturing marketing challenges

Now that we’ve gone over the best practices, let’s see some of the main challenges. You’ll notice a bit of overlap with the previous list, indicating that while certain things can be quite challenging, they are too useful to just ignore.

Reaching the right audience

One of the most common marketing challenges is reaching the target audience. In a world where consumers are bombarded with marketing messages from all directions, breaking through the noise and reaching your ideal customer can be difficult.

To effectively reach your target audience, you need to clearly understand who they are and what they’re looking for. Once you know this, you can develop a marketing strategy that will resonate with their needs and interests.

Generating leads

Another common challenge manufacturers face is generating leads. Even if you have a great product or service, unless you have people to sell it to, it won’t matter.

There are many ways to generate leads, but focusing on quality over quantity is important. It’s better to have a smaller number of high-quality leads than a large number of unqualified ones.

To generate leads, you can use a variety of marketing tactics, such as content marketing, search engine optimization, and social media marketing.

Converting leads into customers

Generating leads is one thing, but converting them into customers is another challenge entirely. You still need to close the deal even with a great product and strong marketing strategy.

There are many ways to convert leads into customers, but focusing on building relationships and providing value is crucial. If you can do this, you’ll be in a much better position to close the deal.

To market your product or service effectively, you need to create compelling content. This can be a challenge for many manufacturers, as they may not have much experience creating content.

To create compelling content, you need to understand what your audience is looking for and what will resonate with them. Once you know this, you can develop a content strategy to help you reach your goals.

If you’re having trouble creating compelling content, consider working with a content marketing agency or hiring a freelance writer.

Finally, one of the challenges manufacturers face is measuring the results of their marketing efforts. This can be difficult, as there are a lot of factors that go into any given marketing campaign.

To effectively measure your results, you need to set up a system that tracks your progress and allows you to see which tactics are working and which ones aren’t. Once you have this data, you can adjust your strategy accordingly.

If you’re unsure how to measure your results, consider working with a marketing agency or consultant. They will be able to help you set up a system and interpret your data.

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Be prepared and keep manufacturing.

Now that you have your fool-proof marketing strategy ready, it’s time to implement it. After you’ve done that and the word is out — you better get ready as the orders start pouring in. Seeing a huge uptick in demand is something most business owners dream about, but without a solid plan in place, the dream can turn into a nightmare.

To ensure you can keep up with the orders , you need to have manufacturing processes in place that can handle the increased demand. This includes having enough staff, raw materials , and space to meet your customers’ needs.

In addition, you will also need good enterprise manufacturing software to handle the increased complexity that comes with a larger volume of orders.

Katana equips you with a robust set of features to streamline your manufacturing operations and optimize your stock levels. With Katana, you gain a real-time overview of your inventory and production processes. What’s more, Katana integrates seamlessly with the most popular business tools, making sure your information is synced across all platforms.

Don’t let a marketing success go to waste because you can’t keep up with the demand. With Katana, you can be sure you’re always prepared for whatever comes your way.

• Manufacturing guide
• 1.1. Production vs manufacturing
• 1.2. Production scheduling software
• 1.3. Production tracking software
• 2.1. How to manufacture a product
• 2.2. Manufacturing best practices
• 2.3. A guide to creating a manufacturing business plan
• 2.4. Manufacturer e-commerce
• 2.5. Marketing for manufacturers
• 2.6. Manufacturing business processes
• 2.7. Food manufacturing
• 2.8. Small business manufacturing software
• 3.1. Job shop manufacturing
• 3.2. Production quality control checklist
• 4.1. Just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing
• 4.2. Tips to reduce manufacturing waste
• 4.3. Manufacturing KPIs
• 5. Light manufacturing
• 6. Advanced manufacturing
• 7. IoT in manufacturing
• 8.1. Manufacturing execution system (MES)
• 9.1. Manufacturing overhead formula
• 9.2. Manufacturing inventory software
• 10. Good manufacturing practices (GMP)
• 11.1. MRP in supply chain management
• 11.2. Best MRP software
• 12.1. Best ERP software for manufacturing
• Try Katana for free

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Smart Marketing Strategy for Manufacturing Companies

In today’s dynamic and cutthroat business environment, marketing is a key factor in any company’s performance – even for manufacturing companies. But even today, most manufacturing companies still go the traditional route to generate leads. While this is familiar and safe territory, it won’t do much for ROI and sales. And they’ll have to execute a foolproof manufacturing marketing strategy to survive in this competitive industry.

Therefore manufacturing companies need to understand the enormous potential of implementing smart marketing tactics. By adopting a smart marketing strategy for manufacturing companies , businesses can broaden their reach and interact with their target market.

Manufacturing companies have recognized the significance of embracing modern marketing methods. that invested in digital marketing noticed increased business success.

This blog aims to explore the many marketing strategy for manufacturing companies and the critical challenges faced by the industry. Stay with us as we explore the role of digital marketing in the manufacturing sector, and understand how smart B2B marketing strategies can change the landscape of the manufacturing industry.

Table of Contents

Overview of the Manufacturing Sector

Manufacturing involves transforming raw materials or components into finished products through various production methods. It accounts for approximately 24% of the USA’s GDP, producing

It involves intricate supply chains, production facilities, and skilled labor, contributing significantly to economic growth and employment opportunities.

Key Challenges Faced by Manufacturing Companies

Manufacturing companies face numerous difficulties impacting their marketing plans and overall business success. These challenges could include:

• Competition on a global scale: Due to the fierce rivalry between domestic and foreign competitors, manufacturers must effectively differentiate their products and position their brands.
• Rapid technological advancement: The manufacturing scene is changing due to evolving technology and automation, and businesses must adapt and adopt digital strategies to stay competitive.
• The complexity of the supply chain: There are difficulties in managing complicated supply chains with numerous stakeholders, suppliers, and logistics regarding efficiency, cost management, and timely delivery.
• Evolving consumer demands: Businesses must adapt a manufacturing marketing strategy in response to the changing demands of consumers, who now expect personalized experiences, quick responses, and transparency throughout the purchasing process.

Marketing in the Manufacturing Industry

A well-executed marketing strategy impacts every aspect of business, particularly pricing, product, and sales. Thus, it is critical to master if you want to:

• Acquire more clients
• Obtain additional top-notch leads
• Increase sales
• Enter new markets with your business.

Many manufacturing and industrial companies successfully incorporate several marketing components, such as email campaigns, social media presence, and an interactive website. However, to develop an effective smart marketing strategy for manufacturing companies , it is essential to gain a comprehensive understanding of the industry’s unique characteristics, challenges, and market dynamics. Accordingly, businesses can adopt smart digital marketing strategies unique to their brand.

The benefits of digital marketing know no bounds, and the following ways are how it’s advantageous for manufacturing companies:

• Increased brand awareness on numerous digital platforms, including websites, search engines, social media sites, and directories dedicated to a given industry.
• Targeting specific client categories based on demographics, interests, and behaviors is made possible by digital marketing.
• Digital marketing, as opposed to traditional marketing techniques, offers solutions like Search Engine Optimization (SEO), content marketing, and social media marketingthat are more affordable.
• Access to various data and analytics through digital marketing offers priceless insights into consumer behavior, campaign effectiveness, and market trends.

Key Digital Marketing Strategies for Manufacturers

Manufacturing companies can implement a smart manufacturing marketing strategy to reach their target audience and achieve their marketing goals effectively.

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Content Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising

Manufacturing firms can take advantage of the potential of the digital landscape by integrating these digital marketing strategies to amp up their marketing campaigns.

The following tactics can help manufacturers build brand recognition, engage their target market, and provide significant financial gains.

Target the Right Audience

• Identify buyer personas: Manufacturers should develop detailed buyer personas to understand their target audience’s characteristics, preferences, pain points, and buying behaviors. This helps tailor marketing efforts and messages to resonate with the intended audience.
• Conducting market research: Thorough market research enables manufacturers to gather insights into industry trends, competitive landscape, and customer needs. This information informs marketing strategies, product development, and positioning.

Optimize Your Website for Search Engines

• Keyword research and optimization: 82% of B2B purchase cycles begin with an online search. Choose appropriate terms and phrases that correspond to the search queries of your intended audience. Improve website content, meta tags, headings, and URLs to boost organic traffic and search engine ranks.
• On-page optimization strategies: Implement On-page SEO techniques by optimizing headings, page titles, meta descriptions, and image alt tags. Enhance user experience, ensure mobile responsiveness, and improve page loading speed to encourage interaction and sales.
• Technical SEO Considerations: Consider technical aspects such as website structure, XML sitemaps, and canonical tags. Optimize robots.txt files and fix broken links or errors to improve search engine visibility.

Creating Valuable Content

•      Blogs and thought leadership:  Create a blog to discuss manufacturing industry knowledge, trends, and professional viewpoints. Come up with interesting and educational material that speaks to audiences about the concerns of the manufacturing business; doing this will demonstrate your knowledge and establishes your brand as a thought leader.
•      Video marketing and tutorials:  Use videos to explain manufacturing product features, offer instructions, and interact with your audience. Videos are a powerful tool for engaging audiences and spreading complex information about the manufacturing sector in a simple and lucid way.
•      Case studies and success stories: Display concrete examples of how your services related to the manufacturing segments have aided clients in resolving issues and achieving success. By doing this, you can market your brand and create trust among the prospects, and they may get motivated to use your manufacturing products or services in the future.

Leverage Social Media Platforms

• Choose the right platforms: Choose social media platforms where your target audience is most active. Concentrate on networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and those unique to your sector to engage with your audience efficiently. for content distribution.
• Build a strong social media presence: By offering insightful material, interacting with your audience through comments and messages, and taking part in pertinent industry discussions, you can establish a constant brand presence. Create a sense of community and establish connections with future clients.
• Engage with the audience: Encourage conversation and interaction by answering questions, reacting to comments, and looking for feedback. Utilize social media tools like polls, contests, and live videos to boost interaction and improve brand perception.

Building an Email Marketing Strategy for Manufacturing Companies

• Grow your email list: Use lead-generation techniques, gated content, and website opt-ins. Moreover, acquiring an email list from a reliable email list provider can boost your email marketing efforts.Encourage sign-ups by providing worthwhile incentives, such as exclusive access to material or discounts.
• Craft effective email campaigns: Create tailored email campaigns with messaging specific to the receiver’s requirements and interests. Sending relevant content to particular audience segments will increase open rates and conversions.
• Personalization and segmentation techniques: Use client information to tailor emails based on demographics, previous purchases, or browsing habits. Create audience segments on your email list to offer content relevant to each group.

Using PPC Advertising for Manufacturing Companies

• Create targeted campaigns: Use services like Google Ads to create PPC campaigns and conduct keyword research. Paid ads boost brand awareness by 80%! To attract relevant traffic to your website, create attractive ad copy, select appropriate keywords, and enhance landing pages.
• Optimize landing pages and ad copy: Make ongoing changes to your ad copy to keep it interesting, pertinent, and aligned with the user’s search intent. Create smooth and persuasive user experiences on landing pages to increase conversions.
• Monitor and assess the success of your campaign: Use analytics tools to keep an eye on the effectiveness of your PPC advertising. To improve your campaigns and increase ROI, analyze KPIs like click-through rates, conversions, and cost per acquisition.

By implementing these smart marketing strategies, you can successfully traverse the digital environment, engage with your target audience, and promote corporate growth.

This manufacturing marketing strategy can be an integral part of boosting your marketing efforts, especially in the competitive manufacturing sector. Carefully strategize a marketing plan and witness campaign success in terms of audience engagement, conversions and boosted brand awareness and ROI.

• Moreover, you can experience significant company growth by optimizing your online presence and utilizing targeted approaches. To stay ahead of the competition, implement this foolproof marketing strategy for manufacturing companies.

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Marketing Plan for Manufacturing Company

Samuel Thimothy

Chief Growth Officer

Often, you’ll see manufacturing companies that have spent thousands of dollars on marketing but with poor results. 

And those companies may ask: is marketing worth all that investment? However, if you scratch deeper, you’ll find a common theme in these poor marketing performances.

Usually, these companies have a poor or no manufacturing marketing plan. They just throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.

Meanwhile, having an effective marketing plan is a foundation for successful marketing campaigns. What we’re saying is: create a marketing plan before you run campaigns. 

In this guide, you’ll know what a manufacturing marketing plan is all about. Furthermore, you’ll learn 7 steps to create an effective plan and have a template you can use.

What is a manufacturing marketing plan?

A manufacturing marketing plan is a document that contains vital details necessary to run successful marketing campaigns for a manufacturing company. These details include marketing goals, marketing strategy, buyer persona, key performance indicators, and more.

While you may have the urge to start running your campaigns immediately, creating a marketing plan is usually beneficial. First, this plan helps you foresee your campaigns for the next month, quarter, or year.

Of course, you can’t predict every future event accurately. Nonetheless, without a plan, you’ll waste so much time, money, and energy running inefficient campaigns. Instead, a marketing plan provides a sense of direction for your campaigns. 

Second, you can make better marketing decisions when you have a plan. Should you focus more on email marketing or social media? Should you attract manufacturing leads on LinkedIn or Facebook?

These and many more questions will come up while running marketing campaigns. When they come up, having a solid marketing plan makes your decision-making easier and better.

READ: Digital Marketing for Manufacturers

Another vital benefit of having a manufacturing marketing plan is that, ultimately, it can lead to better marketing results. How do you create a marketing plan for your manufacturing company? Here are 7 steps to follow to create a marketing plan for manufacturing company:

1. Define your manufacturing marketing goals

Even though two manufacturing companies may have similar products, they want different results. What results do you want as a result of marketing your products?

One of the first things that one needs to do while drafting marketing plan for manufacturing company is to define clear marketing goals. Of course, your goals can also depend on the duration of your marketing plan.

For instance, a marketing plan for a year will contain several types of goals. Meanwhile, a monthly plan will look different.

What are the common types of goals you can set for your manufacturing company? 

• Creating brand awareness
• Increasing website traffic
• Increasing website conversions
• Generating leads
• Acquiring customers
• Generating more sales

These are some goals you’ll find today. But setting a goal goes beyond just having a general aim.

Your goals have to be SMART. This means it has to be:

• Time-bound 

So, just saying you want to acquire leads is a poor way to set goals. For instance, if you want to acquire leads, your goals can be: acquire 1,000 leads in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Again, this goal has to be relevant to your business, and you should have the capability to achieve it. By setting specific and relevant goals, your marketing campaigns will have a focus.

Furthermore, these goals are a way to judge the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.

2. Create buyer personas for your manufacturing company

One prerequisite to running a successful marketing campaign is to know your target audience. When you know your target and what they need, you can craft more effective messages to convert them.

But beyond just ‘knowing’ your ideal customer, you need a documented profile about them. Then, you can always reference this profile before creating marketing campaigns.

A buyer persona is a document that contains vital details about your ideal customer. This helps you understand their needs and messages that are likely to resonate with them.

Some details to have in your buyer persona include:

• Pain points

RELATED: What Is Persona and How to Market to Multiple Personas

Since manufacturing products are B2B products, you’ll need to create a few buyer personas for a target account. This is because there are a few people involved in the decision to buy your product.

For instance, the product user and an executive will be involved in selecting a product. Naturally, they’re looking at different factors to make their decisions. 

For example, the product user may consider ease of use more while the executive may consider pricing more. You have to provide the relevant information to each party.

So, you can create as many buyer personas as you want. How do you get the information to include in your buyer persona? 

First, you can include the details of who you want your ideal customer to be. Second, you can look at your current customer base and check for common trends.

Here’s a detailed buyer persona example from Buffer:

Once you have your buyer personas, you can add them to your marketing plan for manufacturing company.

3. State your current marketing performance 

If you want to improve your marketing results, then you have to know your current performance. This current performance will be your baseline for future marketing campaigns.

Say you want to create a marketing plan for the next quarter, you have to consider your performance for the ending quarter. In most cases, the metrics you consider will depend on the goals you want to set for the new quarter. For example, if you want to acquire more leads and customers, what’s your performance in the previous period?

Once you have these numbers, you can state them in your marketing plan. Then, you can state the percentage increase you want to achieve in the next period.

4. Outline marketing campaign tasks and timeline

In your manufacturing marketing plan, this is probably the most crucial aspect. Anybody viewing your plan will likely dwell on this aspect. 

What pieces of information should be present here?

Marketing strategies

While there are many marketing strategies, you don’t have to employ all of them in your marketing campaigns. All you have to do is use strategies to help you reach your ideal buyers effectively.

Whatever strategy you want to use, it’s vital to document them here. According to a CoSchedule survey, marketers with a documented strategy are 313% more likely to report success .

Some common marketing strategies you can use for your marketing campaigns are:

• Content marketing
• Social media marketing
• Search engine optimization 
• Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing
• Email marketing

Sure, you don’t have to use all these strategies to promote your manufacturing products. First, you have to consider the best strategy to reach your ideal audience.

RELATED:  Definitive Guide to Marketing Your Manufacturing Company

If you want to create a thorough marketing plan, you can create a plan for each strategy. What goals do you have for email marketing? What email campaigns will you run during this period?

Apart from your marketing strategy, you need to state the channels you want to use. For instance, not every social media channel is suitable to promote your manufacturing company. 

You may find LinkedIn and Twitter more effective than Pinterest and Instagram. Here’s a LinkedIn post of a product featuring Huawei’s technology:

Likewise, you can execute content marketing across different channels. This can be through your blog posts, guest posts, and promoted posts on industry websites. 

See General Electric’s blog:

Ultimately, your marketing strategy should be detailed enough to explain the approach to your campaigns.

Marketing tasks

For every marketing strategy, there are tasks to be executed. Some common tasks for marketing strategies include:

• Content marketing: creating content for blog posts, product pages, landing pages, and more.
• Social media marketing: creating social media copy, images, videos, and publishing schedule.
• Search engine optimization: optimizing posts for target keywords, improving your page structure, building backlinks, email outreach for backlinks, and more.
• PPC marketing: creating ad copy, images, and ad landing pages.
• Email marketing: creating email copy, designing emails, building email sequences, and more.

After specifying these tasks, you have to state the timeline to perform them. This includes daily, weekly, and monthly tasks.

5. Perform competitive research

No matter how refined your marketing strategy may be, you can still learn one or two things from your competitors. You’ll find competitors that execute their overall marketing strategies better than you do. In some cases, some competitors execute particular strategies better.

Whatever the case, you need to consider high-performing competitors in your marketing plan. From your research, list high-performing competitors.

Then, you have to state their key performance indicators (KPIs) as compared to yours. After that, you can analyze their marketing strategy.

In most cases, you’ll have to perform reverse analysis since your competitors won’t display their strategy openly. Therefore, you have to watch the actions they take and predict their strategy from those actions.

CHECK THIS TOO: Best Digital Marketing Strategies for Manufacturers

6. Define your marketing budget

Every marketing department has lofty ideas they want to execute. But most of them have to shelf those ideas because of their budget. 

In fact, one of the great benefits of creating a marketing plan is that you can cut your campaigns according to your budget. You can make a cost forecast and leave space for miscellaneous spending.

In your marketing plan, you should specify your overall marketing budget. Then, you have to state possible marketing costs over the period in consideration. 

These costs include:

• Cost of marketing tools
• Cost of services
• Employee hours
• Overhead costs

Here’s a marketing budget template from Smart Insights:

Beyond this, you can also split your budget across different marketing channels. By defining your budget and allocating it effectively, you can create a feasible marketing plan.

7. Define the process to track performance

This is the bitter truth: not all marketing campaigns produce intended results. But how do you know whether you’ve succeeded or failed in achieving your goals?

Your marketing plan needs to include the process to track your performance. While setting your goals and stating your marketing strategy, your key performance indicators (KPIs) become obvious.

Here, you can state the metrics to measure those KPIs. To do this effectively, you’ll need the right tools. 

Again, the tools you need depend on the marketing strategies you want to execute. Usually, most tools you use to run your marketing campaigns will provide analytics.

For example, email marketing software will provide the metrics you need from your email campaigns. For your website, Google Analytics is a tool that will provide most of the metrics you need.

In this section, you can state all the tools you need and the metrics you’ll measure on them. Beyond that, you need to indicate how often you’ll track these KPIs. 

Manufacturing marketing plan template

Creating your manufacturing marketing plan from scratch can be a lot of work.  Here is a blueprint by OneIMS that will achieve your revenue milestones and marketing goals. Download now. 

Launching marketing campaigns without a plan is one of the fastest ways to failure. That’s why your manufacturing marketing plan is one of the first steps to take for successful campaigns.

In this guide, we’ve provided tips that will help you create an effective marketing plan. In addition to that, you can download our template and edit it to your unique business needs.

Do you need help creating your manufacturing marketing plan? You can reach out to us!

• Manufacturing Marketing Plan
• manufacturing marketing plan template

Written By Samuel Thimothy

As the Chief Growth Officer, I provide leadership, direction and resource stewardship to the organization’s sales and marketing function. I also collaborate with our digital marketing strategy team in developing and executing growth marketing campaigns for our loyal clients.

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OneIMS has Been Instrumental in Growing our Market Share

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Digital marketing for Manufacturing companies

Are you looking for an effective lead generating, b2b marketing strategy to grow your business.

Our full-service Atlanta digital marketing strategists can help generate more business from your manufacturing website.

If the U.S. economy is a pie, American manufacturers account for a pretty large slice—as much as 11.39 percent, according to the National Association of Manufacturers. There were approximately 12.8 million manufacturing employees in the U.S. in 2018, which equated to roughly 8.51 percent of the workforce.

Simply put, manufacturing is BIG business in the U.S. and the competition to stand out from your competitors is fierce. Increasingly, what separates the winners from the losers in the manufacturing sector is which companies have embraced new technology to optimize their processes—and which haven’t.

Manufacturers who embrace technological innovation not only have an opportunity to boost efficiency and profits, but they also have a leg-up when it comes to marketing and advertising.

While there’s certainly still a place for trade shows and face-to-face promotion , increasingly B2B and B2C marketers are turning to digital marketing to establish their online brand and break into new markets that hold the key to long-term longevity.

At Brown Bag Marketing, we’ve partnered with several manufacturing companies and honed our skills in how to generate maximum ROI and growth by leveraging online assets like company websites. Founded in 2002, we are a full-service Atlanta digital marketing agency specializing in end-to-end online marketing services, solutions and most importantly, RESULTS for leaders in the manufacturing industry.

We pride ourselves on being a sensible, no-nonsense partner for companies that are serious about growing their businesses and expanding their market share.

For nearly 20 years, we’ve delivered successful, measurable results for clients here in Atlanta and organizations nationwide. Our industrial marketing specialists can help your company grow and thrive. But don’t just take our word for it. We have the experience to prove it .

With us, your company’s success is in the bag!

OUR manufacturing clients are important to us

Brown Bag Marketing is a sensible, no-nonsense partner that helps you embrace technological innovation to enhance your digital marketing efforts for maximum ROI and growth.

A One-stop-Shop for all of your manufacturing marketing needs

Our full-service approach points you in the right direction, from who you are to what you do to how you talk about it.

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• Web & App Development

• Sales Enablement

• Digital Marketing

• Brand Development

• Marketing Strategy

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Explore our strategy

REBRANDING A STATE-OF-THE-ART BEVERAGE MANUFACTURER

Arcadia Beverage enlisted our help in rebranding the company. They wanted to abandon its image as a family-owned business and, instead, promote their brand as the state-of-the-art beverage manufacturer it truly is. From brand messaging strategy and identity to a new website and tradeshow graphics, we helped them share their story with the world.

We skillfully delivered the following services:

End-to-end solutions for a global manufacturer

What began as a one-time project bloomed into a full-service partnership. We are proud to support Flex ‘s content marketing , creative campaigns and digital marketing efforts. The global manufacturing leader looks to us for strategic direction in cloud and communications, brand, manufacturing, healthcare and supply chain thought leadership content.

We also helped Flex showcase their end-to-end IoT solution—from device manufacturing (in this case, the smallest wearable available on the market, which was embedded in jewelry) through the IoT platform—by building a custom dashboard for CES , the biggest consumer electronics show of the year.

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B2b Manufacturing Marketing facts and statistics

Blog posts/short articles are the highest performing for building B2B brand awareness, while email newsletters are highest for nurturing leads.

Most B2B marketers use content marketing successfully to achieve top-of-funnel goals. Fewer report using it successfully on activities that deepen relationships.

Regardless of their organization’s size, B2B marketers say half the content they produce is created for audiences in the early stages of the customer journey (top of the funnel).

• https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/2020_B2B_Research_Final.pdf
• https://www.forrester.com/report/The+Forrester+Wave+LeadToRevenue+Management+Platform+Vendors+Q4+2016/-/E-RES134661

Do you have a documented manufacturing marketing strategy?

In today’s world, lead generation starts with your website. If your site isn’t responsive and packed full of informative content that leads the prospect through your entire funnel, then you’re basically handing buyers and partners over to your competitors on a silver plate. Your online presence is your best shot to prove that your company is professional, effective and successful. Documenting your marketing strategy is key to understanding your goals and target audience, as well as measuring the results of your efforts to maximize ROI. At Brown Bag, our experts can develop a custom documented digital marketing strategy to help you generate more business from your websites through the following tactics:

• Defining your target audience (persona)
• Responsible mobile design
• Results-driven paid advertising and remarketing
• High-quality, customer-focused content
• Optimized social media targeting
• Customized and automated email marketing campaigns
• Search engine optimization (SEO) best practices
• Lead tracking and analytics

Why manufacturers choose Brown Bag Marketing

At Brown Bag Marketing, we first take the time to get to know your business's unique needs, goals and budget. This approach is one of the reasons why we’re one of the top Atlanta digital marketing agencies for manufacturing companies. Here are some other reasons why manufacturers near and far choose us for end-to-end digital marketing advice, services and solutions:

• We’re cost-effective. Cost shouldn’t be your only priority when it comes to hiring the best digital marketing agency, but it may be an important factor on a strained budget. At Brown Bag, rest assured that you’ll get a higher return on your investment compared to hiring a top-dollar marketing agency. We regularly deliver services that go above and beyond what our clients pay for.
• We’re accessible. No matter the project, there’s always going to be issues and concerns that will pop up that must be addressed quickly. In these instances, it’s important to have a partner you can easily and effectively communicate with to discuss solutions. At Brown Bag, you’ll never have a problem getting a hold of us — we’re right by your side from start to finish.
• We’re flexible. Corporate marketing firms often have rigid structures and systems that make them unable (or unwilling) to adapt to their client’s individual needs. As a boutique agency, agility and adaptability are qualities that come second nature for us! We customize every marketing strategy for each client because we don’t believe in cookie-cutter approaches.
• We’re creative. The corporate grind is great for making executives rich, but this system tends to squash employee diversity, creativity and idea generation. At Brown Bag, we give everyone a voice and encourage creativity at all levels. We excel at coming up with inventive and outside-of-the-box solutions to the biggest challenges.
• We’re driven. As a boutique digital marketing agency, we’re more dedicated and passionate about achieving success for each and every one of our clients by putting all we’ve got into their success. We won’t stop until we’ve delivered high-quality work that we’re proud of and you’re ecstatic about.
• We’re enthusiastic. Investing in digital marketing for your business is a big decision and it’s important to partner with an expert whose eagerness to get down to business matches yours. We guarantee that we’ll match your enthusiasm…and then some. We’re passionate to work with you!
• We’re experts. Our diverse team is widely skilled and trained in a broad range of digital marketing methods. This expertise allows us to target niche audiences and topics that large agencies simply don’t have experience in.
• We care. We are deeply invested and committed to each of our clients. Unlike large marketing agencies that juggle many different projects poorly, we focus our full attention on just a handful of businesses that we believe in and build a long-term relationship with. At Brown Bag Marketing, you’re not just another number or account. Your personal success matters to us!

Awards and Recognition

We have heart and hustle, and have the gold stars to prove it!  Whether accepting accolades for marketing campaigns or being a great place to work, Brown Bag is no stranger to the limelight.

Our team of “baggers,” as we call them, come to our Atlanta internet marketing agency from all walks of life and professional backgrounds. We are an exceptionally talented, hardworking and seriously curious bunch of folks — and we want to get to know you and your business needs. We invite you to get to know us too!

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When was the last time you saw a marketing campaign that made you stop and pay attention?

Many businesses simply don’t get digital marketing right because it’s a complex mix of art and science. The best content, web design and marketing strategies draw from deep wells of artistic creativity, imagination and innovation. But at the same time, the importance of a dedicated and scientific approach when it comes to SEO, email outreach, and social media cannot be understated.

If you’re looking to hire the best local marketing firm in your area, then look no further. Brown Bag Marketing is a full-service digital marketing agency offering custom online advertising and marketing solutions for small, mid-sized, and large businesses. When it comes to digital and social media marketing, content, design and development, we’ve got mad skills. And we’re a one-stop-shop!

Based in Atlanta, Brown Bag Marketing provides a comprehensive “bag” of digital marketing, SEO and web design services, including:

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While we are fully equipped to provide effective solutions for all types of businesses, our past industry experience helps us bring added expertise and knowledge to the table. Industries we’ve worked with include manufacturing, financial services, financial services, pharma and healthcare, animal health and technology. 

What’s the Brown Bag difference?

Unlike other internet marketing agencies, we believe that when it comes to a successful digital marketing strategy, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. We develop individualized marketing plans for each client — whether they’re a Fortune 500 company or a small mom-and-pop shop. By combining our eclectic mix of technical SEO wizardry, branding expertise and marketing know-how, we’ve delivered powerful results for companies of all sizes — from AT&T and SAP, to global nonprofits, national hospitals and local small businesses .

In today’s economy, a digital marketing strategy is the best way to turn your business website into an effective and efficient marketing channel that takes your company to the next level. There are many different approaches you can take, and choosing the right path for your business isn’t always easy. Our experts have the experience, knowledge and tools to help you avoid common pitfalls and grow revenue quickly. Let us create a custom marketing strategy for you to support your company’s mission and deliver the results you’re looking for sooner.

Elizabeth Roos

Account manager.

What’s in my bag?

“My bag is filled with a pen of every of color, three different snack options, a small multi-use tool kit, a game of travel Yahtzee, and … oh wait … I had to take that out because my bag was over the weight limit! Needless to say, I’m ready for anything life throws at me.”

No two days look alike for Elizabeth. She wears many hats to support the client services team, and rumor has it, she can switch them out using only her mind, just like Eleven from Stranger Things. She honed her mental powers at Washington and Lee University with a bachelor’s in art history. Prior to Brown Bag, she worked as an intern for Camp Twin Lakes, a local non-profit, and Tribe Inc., an internal communications agency.

When Elizabeth’s not running around our Buckhead office, you can find her hitting the pavement for half marathons, hiking, hanging out with friends and family, or checking out the latest exhibit at the High Museum.

Laurie Michaels

“Family photos, assorted lists (with 6 kids, there are lists of lists), and depending on the day, the family pup, Lotto.”

During Laurie’s career, she’s worked in virtually every operational capacity, from strategy to execution to marketing to training. She can plan, she can evaluate, she can write things, she can manage things and she can sell things. She’s taken what she’s experienced and used it to synthesize comprehensive insights into how operations work well: that means equipping people, establishing processes, and driving results.

Basically, Laurie is a can-do gal with a lot of heart. She looks at Brown Bag’s goals and applies her talents to making sure we have what we need to reach them. Call that role what you will: Driven Leader, Level-Headed Project Manager, Committed Quartermaster, or One-Woman-Optimization Machine. We’re just thankful she looks out for us and our clients.

So, really: how can she help you?

Lindsey Lynes

Svp, strategic accounts.

“All the (cool) mom things, a quick laugh, an old school calculator, a professional book or two, and a stubborn refusal to fail.”

The only thing larger than Lindsey’s role at Brown Bag is the size of her heart. Coupling her enthusiasm with her deep concern for the people around her, she is a driving force that keeps Brown Bag moving successfully forward. As our VP of Strategic Accounts, Lindsey leads brand and business strategy for a portfolio of clients, as well as a team of marketing professionals. Aligning her client’s goals with the roadmap to get them there, she is focused on developing the right people and the appropriate solutions to ensure long-term success. Ever evolving and multi-dimensional, Lindsey leveraged her technical and business acumen to lead Vetlocity, a loyalty-based rebates and rewards start-up, and her passion for growing talent as the VP of People and Culture, before heading up her current team. With Brown Bag since the beginning, Lindsey combines her experience across marketing, HR, operations, and finance to bring the right mix of creative solutions to meet an organization’s needs.

When she isn’t guiding her clients or the next generation of professionals, Lindsey stays busy leading her two young children in many of the same things—positivity, showing up, and leading with grit and grace. Lindsey was born and raised in Georgia, but now enjoys calling coastal Connecticut home. She holds a BS in Marketing and Sales and a Certificate in Business Leadership from The University of Georgia and is SHRM certified.

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Kids in Crisis, a non-profit organization in which trained Crisis Counselors help children and families cope with unsafe situations, family conflicts, substance abuse, mental health issues, school problems.

Jerry Lewis

Svp, creative.

“A competitive nature is in my bag. I’m a very involved, hands-on kind of guy who would rather be an active participant than sit on the sidelines and watch. This is evident at my job. And it’s the experience I’ve gained by working with great people for many years.”

Working on multiple projects while being in several places at once may seem impossible, but not for Jerry Lewis. Although he’s never admitted to having been cloned, how else do you explain his ability to successfully lead a creative department, attend countless meetings, field thousands of emails, teach design classes and coach about a dozen different sports? Okay, we’re not sure how he does it either, we’re just glad he does. During his tenure as a Creative Director, Jerry has worked on big name clients like Pfizer, Allergan, Bridgestone Sports, Precept, Carvel Ice Cream, E-Z-GO, and Piccadilly Cafeteria to name a few. He has also received ShowSouth, Addys, CTAM Awards and has had his work featured in Communication Arts and PRINT.

One glance into Jerry’s office is all it takes to realize he’s a huge Gator fan, which makes sense considering he graduated from the University of Florida (which also helps explain his love of jean shorts and tank tops. Just kidding, he would never wear a tank top.) Jerry is also an esteemed graduate of the Portfolio Center where, as mentioned before, he teaches design. Outside of work, he is a devoted husband and dad as well as an amazing golfer.

Izzy Barrett

Senior account executive.

“A notebook, chocolate covered espresso beans, a book of jokes and the NY Times Best Seller magazine.”

If you’re looking for fierce enthusiasm with full attention to detail, you need Izzy. And with phrases like, “that’s Izztastic ” or “let’s Izzify it” floating around the office, it’s clear she’s made a positive impression on all of us. As an Account Executive, Izzy’s skillset is golden. Day-to-day, she facilitates successful initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and delivery for her clients. She’s always open to a new challenge or helping her colleagues with a complex project. Izzy is sharp, eager to succeed and a compulsive over-deliverer. Prior to taking on her current role as Account Executive, Izzy led the sales team for an animal health start-up.

Outside of the office, Izzy enjoys staying active and playing in sports leagues, traveling and spending time with family.

Kelly Campbell

Account director.

“My journal of quotes and ideas, a book, a snack, and some lip gloss because I like to do everything with an extra bit of style and sass.”

Witty, intelligent, and up for any challenge, Kelly brings her enthusiasm to everything she does. Whether she’s planning her next trip or preparing for a new business pitch, she keeps her passion for helping people at the top of her list. Prior to business development, Kelly lead talent acquisition and still drops in the talent office from time to time. Before Brown Bag, Kelly was an Executive Recruiter for The Intersect Group. She graduated with a degree in Intercultural Studies of Business and French from Wofford College where she was also a member of the women’s soccer team.

Outside of work, Kelly enjoys spending time outdoors, adding stamps to her passport, reading, writing, and dancing—and she’s always up for a new adventure!

Senior Designer

“Sticky notes, colored markers and miniature succulents to inspire creativity.”

Jen’s love for color and creativity is apparent in every project she touches. We say, ‘shine on, wild woman!’ And after you experience Jen’s inquisitive and vibrant personality, we’re confident that you’ll feel the same. Jen is a Senior Designer on our creative team. She digests requirements and deliverables in a snap, likely due to her experience with creative agencies and teaching at the Creative Circus. Jen attended the University of Georgia and received her Bachelor’s in English and Women’s Studies, as well as the Creative Circus where she studied Graphic Design.

Outside of work, Jen likes to play tennis, watch anime and hone her amateur gardening skills.

Jessica Gorman

“Creativity, a giddy passion for beautifully written prose and a pack of gum for fresh breath.”

Jessica makes her role as an Account Supervisor look easy. She’s a creative thinker, team player and always up for a new challenge. Before becoming a Bagger, Jessica was a writer and on-camera personality for NASCAR. She graduated from the University of Alabama where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Public Relations.

Outside of work, Jessica enjoys traveling, taking Pilates classes, cheering on the Alabama Crimson Tide, curling up with a good book or trying a new local restaurant.

Kirsten Humphreys

Senior front end developer.

“A hard working, positive attitude with the uncanny ability to take whatever is thrown my way.”

A resourceful and astute problem solver, Kirsten has never met a challenge she couldn’t handle. As our Software Developer, Kirsten is responsible for front-end development and QA testing. No matter the task, if Kirsten’s on the job, it’s as good as done. Kirsten previously worked at Marc Jacobs and graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design.

Outside of work, Kirsten enjoys searching for her next favorite restaurant, exploring new cities and spending time with her nieces and nephews.

Associate Creative Director

“A trove of random references, movie quotes and impressions.”

As Associate Creative Director, Dave translates the strategic goals of each client and transforms them into thoughtful, clever and effective creative. Prior to joining Brown Bag, he worked on projects for well-known brand identities such as King of Pops, Clemson University, and notable spirit, beverage and industry clients. Dave also conceived and directed custom video content for Cox Automotive’s NASCAR driver teams and created award winning corporate design for Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta.

Outside of work, Dave enjoys traveling with his lovely wife, visiting coastlines, single malts, playing with his dogs, listening to vinyl records and seeing live music.

Brandon Levoy

Director, digital marketing.

“My phone, wallet, a protein bar – and probably a dog toy or two.”

As a Senior Account Supervisor, Brandon strives to hone his talents at the intersection of thoughtful strategy and creative solutions. The combination makes him a skilled client partner -and one of our favorite players at company game nights. He is a designer and strategist at heart, with client experience across several industries, including campaigns for Publix, The Home Depot, Michael Kors, Whole Foods and Disney.

There’s no question about it – this guy is sharp. Brandon was Valedictorian of his high school before going on to graduate top of his class from the University of Florida. Outside of work, Brandon enjoys working out, eating healthy, drinking margaritas and hanging out with his fiancé and two golden pups!

Tricia Peters

Senior account director.

“A planner to stay organized, coffee for unlimited energy, a positive attitude and a sense of humor to keep things light.”

As Director of Strategic Accounts, Tricia (“TP”) manages projects with a cool, calm demeanor. Her determination to help others shines in her projects and random needs around the office. And her resilience is commendable. Not only has Tricia been in the Brown Bag family more than 12 years, she’s held several different positions during her tenure. But that’s not because she’s indecisive – she’s a quick learner and eager to bridge the gap whenever necessary. Simply put, Tricia is a dream come true for our team and clients.

Tricia enjoys traveling, spending time with family and friends, pushing herself at boot camp, spending time outdoors and cheering on her favorite football team, the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Brandon Sisia

“I like to travel light and only stock up on the essentials. A MacBook computer, pair of headphones, a water bottle and my love of all things design.”

A young creative with an old-soul, Brandon comes to Brown Bag all the way from New York City where he attended Fordham University and graduated with a BA in Visual Arts. As a Junior Designer, he will be developing engaging design solutions while collaborating with our awesome team of creative Baggers.

Outside of business hours, you can find Brandon listening to various genres of music, learning to fish, or shooting hoops.

Rob Williams

Lead front end engineer.

‘Everything . . . it’s a big bag!’

Although he describes his role as that of an Interactive Henchman, Rob is an affable curmudgeon whose role at Brown Bag is continuously expanding because he not only meets every challenge, he crushes them like an SEC team playing in the national championship. Before Brown Bag, Rob worked for Internet Gaming Inc., where he did UI design for online gaming. He also worked for Virtual Magic where he specialized in Web and Flash development. Rob has a degree from AIA in 3D Modeling and Animation and a degree from SPSU in Game Design and Development.

Outside of Brown Bag, Rob is into volleyball, old cars, and collecting lawn trolls.

Randall Wunder-smith

Senior copywriter.

“Empathy, honesty, a yearning for transformative truth and a sense of humor. Also: a terawatt-powered BS detector, which I self-apply regularly. Every creative needs one.”

Does Randall work at Brown Bag? Well, yes. But it’s more than that. Randall writes at Brown Bag. There’s a big difference – as big as the ideas he uses to propel our clients into brighter, more compelling stories for their businesses. And don’t let his penchant for wit and deadpan fool you. Randall’s a deep guy, ready to pour himself into understanding a client’s industry and build authentic connections with their customers, all with the right selection of the right words. It all started when he completed his BA and MA in English from Auburn University. He’s also got years under his belt as a retail grocery worker, even more time spent in college-level faculty development and a fair amount of freelance canoodling in web design.

When Randall’s not translating great ideas into impeccable copy, he’s got no shortage of hobbies and interests, including, but not limited to: tabletop gaming, speculative fiction, miniature painting, miscellaneous nerd culture, beer, etymology, Icelandic sagas, the intersection of secular humanism and mystical thinking, and relationships worth investing in. And cats. Lots of cats.

Hunter Abell

Front-end developer.

“A board game to break the ice, a book with a great story, some tickets to an Atlanta United game, and an adventurous, can-do attitude.”

A hard worker with a real propensity for Google-Fu. Hunter excels at problem solving and meeting challenges head-on. He has never met a challenge he couldn’t tackle. As a Front-end developer, Hunter is in charge of building badass websites to meet all your needs. He is passionate about creating fun and memorable pages. Hunter has previously worked for Laneway Education in Sydney, Australia and graduated from Berry College with two degrees: Creative Technologies and Business Management.

Outside of work Hunter loves all things hiking, biking, ultimate frisbee, board games, bourbon, and finding new adventures wherever he goes.

Aimee Simmons

Project manager.

“Color notecards/pens for jotting down creative solutions, sunglasses to see a new perspective, and a funny take on life.”  

As a Project Manager for Digital, she builds strategic puzzle pieces into BIG picture realities. She has 8 years of experience as a marketing project manager. With her sharp eye for detail and creative problem-solving skills, Aimee manages numerous integrated deliverables for a variety of digital marketing strategies, initiatives, and communications for our clients. She also brings extensive experience working with non-profit organizations and development teams. 

Aimee is an Atlanta native. Outside of the office, she enjoys exploring historical sites with her hubby, attending Broadway plays at the Fox Theatre, taking her shichon pup on sniff ‘n strolls, writing, and mentoring younger women. 

Hollie Rivers

“Chapstick, a notebook, PILOT pens, dog treats (you never know when you’ll meet a new friend), and also a snack.”

Hardworking, clever, and a creative problem solver at heart, Hollie is known best for ultimately being of help in any way she can. With 5+ years of experience in creating and implementing effective marketing strategies and campaigns for Atlanta-based nonprofit organizations, and developing relationships, she is skilled in all facets of marketing, and always actively looking to learn more to help better serve clients. 

When not in the office, you can find Hollie hiking with her dog Kylo, storytelling at a local farmer’s market, caring for foster kittens, or grabbing a drink outside on a rooftop somewhere.

Maddie Rosenbaum

Graphic designer.

“My bag is a black duffle, and over the weight limit. Filled with an outfit for every occasion and a planned color coded itinerary… My OCD travels with me everywhere.” 

Maddie’s role at Brown Bag Marketing is to create and produce content to be posted online, increase traffic to clients’ social media and appeal to target audiences. Creating posts, pages, and applications to attract consumers. Coworkers describe her as “the one with the color coded calendar” or “large iced coffee in hand”. After attending Mississippi State University, she moved to Atlanta to pursue her Graphic Design career.

Outside of work she usually is taking a nap, binge watching another season of Real Housewives, or cheering on her bulldogs with a cowbell in hand. 

Victoria Petrosky

“X-acto knife, quarters for the nearest pinball machine, and chicken red curry… doesn’t matter the time of day, I will devour it.”

Victoria’s goal at Brown Bag is to unveil new and surprising design solutions through hard work and happy accidents. She is a go-getter who loves doing creative deep dives. She takes critiques and runs with them, all while being her goofy and wildly supportive self. Victoria graduated from Emerson College where she received a bachelor’s in Theater Studies. She then went on to attend the Creative Circus with a focus in Graphic Design.

When Victoria is not designing, you can catch her in North Georgia hiking or relaxing at a winery. 

Ellen Regan

Account coordinator.

“A book, coffee at all hours of the day, and pop-culture knowledge that no one asked for.”

As a Social Media Specialist, Ellen is all things social strategy. She coordinates our organic social accounts and is always thinking of creative ways to implement forward-thinking strategies. An Auburn University graduate, she studied Public Relations and Marketing and is constantly trying to further her knowledge! 

Outside of work, Ellen enjoys trying a new restaurant (specifically Italian), watching tv shows that will probably get cancelled, or grabbing a drink with a friend.

Ally Nastasi

Digital marketing analyst.

“Purple pens (because why use black?), emergency candy, and a deck of playing cards.”

As a digital marketing analyst, Ally is powered by consumer research and data analytics. She uses audience insights, site analytics, and more to win new clients and support digital strategy for existing clients. Ally is a proud graduate of the Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business where she earned a B.S in Business Administration and a minor in Engineering and Technology.  If she could have a superpower, she would be mermaid who can control water and hold her breath like a fish –Think H2O meets Katara from “Avatar, the Last Air Bender!” 

Outside of work, Ally is likely watching reruns of Survivor, playing Settlers of Catan with friends, or seeking out the best ice cream places in Atlanta (or even making her own)!

Director, Social Media

“Gratitude journal, gum, calculator to determine result rates, and my phone loaded with social apps!”  

Since the days of AOL chat rooms and MySpace, Ashley’s fascination for the sense of community built through social media drives her passion for social strategy and engagement. That said, Ashley wants to help your brand nurture and grow your social community with support of insights and analytics that informs content strategy.

Long before Brown Bag, Ashley studied Television Production at The University of Florida and is a proud Gator grad, never missing a football game. She started her career at The Weather Channel which ignited her now passion for weather (tornado chasing is on her bucket list) and social media marketing as she Tweeted weather updates throughout her shift.

When Ashley’s not on social for her clients she’s engaging with her personal followers and probably sipping on a glass of red wine with a reality show on in the background.

Dan Michaels, CEO

“A laser focus on showing how Brown Bag Marketing can radically improve the future for our clients. And, if I’m honest, a bunch of really cool costumes that I picked up at Party City.”

Probably 50 percent of Baggers know Dan as the guy who went full Grinch for Halloween (his favorite holiday); the other half sees him in his everyday costume, Mr. Enthusiasm.

He’s here to make people’s work develop to its full potential, as fast as he can make that happen. He’s all about helping others grow. Not surprisingly, Dan doesn’t talk much about himself. He wants to talk about whomever he’s talking with. Hey, you could be next.

And if so, you should know he’ll bring unparalleled sales acumen to the conversation. Hold up: that doesn’t mean schmaltz. Turns out they don’t teach that at Emory’s Goizueta Business School, where Dan earned his MBA. Instead, whether he’s talking with a designer, a client, or a prospect, he’s always hunting for a way to take what they do and make it great. You will not find a more energetic, innovative cheerleader for your business’s success.

Put simply, the guy’s a human accelerator. Just don’t ask him to present to your Board on Halloween, unless they’re into gorilla suits.

Turning Point, a non-profit organization that improves the quality of life for women with breast cancer by providing, promoting and advocating specialized and evidence-based rehabilitation.

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Inbound marketing for manufacturers: Benefits, strategy & tips!

Key takeaways.

• Inbound marketing for manufacturers utilizes the best digital marketing practices to attract, engage, and convert leads into customers.
• The top three inbound marketing channels for manufacturers are content marketing, social media, and search engine optimization.
• 94% of B2B buyers research your product online before purchasing, indicating the need for an online presence for manufacturing businesses.
• You need to create content for each buyer's journey to maximize your engagement, boosting conversions.

The 2022  manufacturing marketing report  by Brandpoint stated that most sales-worthy leads come from inbound channels. 

As per the survey, the top three were  content marketing (70%), social media (64%), and search engine optimization (62%).  

As 94% of B2B customers research online before purchasing, you must build a solid online presence and implement effective inbound marketing strategies.

Powerful inbound marketing strategies for manufacturers can: 

• Increase brand visibility and awareness 
• Generate sales-ready leads  
• Enhance customer engagement and relationship building 

All of this unlimitedly results in boosting conversion rates and revenue growth. 

So, ready to ignite your success? 

This blog is your ultimate guide to boosting your business with an inbound approach.  

Let’s get started! 

What is inbound marketing for manufacturers? 

How is inbound marketing beneficial for manufacturing companies, inbound marketing methodology for manufacturers, step 1: define your target audience , step 2: develop your buyer personas   , step 3: map your buyers’ journeys , step 4: develop a buyer-centric content strategy , step 5: optimize your website  , step 6: define your potential channels and build an engaging online presence  , step 7: measure your results  , 7 best inbound marketing tips for manufacturers that you must execute, final thoughts   , frequently asked questions .

Inbound marketing for manufacturers is a strategic approach aiming to drive potential customers via various marketing practices like content, social media, paid advertising, etc.

Inbound marketing is a powerful strategy for manufacturers. Here are some stats to prove the same:

Inbound marketing for manufacturing stats

• Manufacturer website usage has  risen by 12%  since the beginning of COVID-19. 
• B2B buying behavior is changing as 94% of customers decide based on comparing and reviewing the products online. 
• Iron Paper stated that about  85% of manufacturing marketers  are currently leveraging content marketing. Of that 15% of nonusers, 53% said they plan to initiate a content marketing effort within 12 months.  
• 62% of surveyed marketers  stated that SEO/search algorithms are essential content marketing-related areas.
• Upon surveying 150 manufacturers, 59% of them stated boosting their social media marketing actions.

Inbound marketing is what manufacturers need now to drive potential web traffic and boost lead generation. Let’s see how. 

1. Favors the evolving manufacturer buyer behavior 

As per the  Deloitte report , the B2B sales is changing.

Here’s the visual journey to better understand.   

The manufacturing buying process is evolving. As mentioned, 94% of B2B buyers research online before purchasing.

However, your marketing initiatives can majorly influence it. So, you must try top inbound marketing strategies and witness the ROI yourself. 

Inbound manufacturer marketing strategies adapt to the evolving preferences of modern buyers. Plus, it aligns with their research-driven and digitally connected purchasing behavior. 

By providing educational content tailored to manufacturing challenges, an inbound marketing strategy can help you attract and nurture buyers throughout their decision-making process.

2. A cost-effective strategy to bring better ROI 

Leveraging digital channels to reach a targeted audience at a fraction of the cost eliminates costly traditional marketing methods like print media.

You can efficiently deliver long-term results without excessive expenditures by focusing on organic inbound marketing practices like content creation, search engine optimization (SEO), and social media.

3. Enhances your online visibility

Inbound marketing utilizes SEO that improves online visibility and ensures your website shows up to potential searchers.

Also, by implementing a website and content optimization, manufacturers attract organic traffic from potential buyers actively searching for their products or services.

4. Drives more MQLs with the targeted content

Content aligning with your prospect’s goals and challenges helps you drive relevant traffic and increase lead generation .

5. Data-driven marketing approach resulting in informed decisions

Inbound marketing is a data-driven approach and thus uses analytics tools to identify target audience preferences and pain points, track customer behavior, etc.

By leveraging these data-driven insights, you can optimize your manufacturer’s marketing strategies and deliver more personalized experiences.

6. Boost your brand experiences and conversions

Inbound marketing focuses on aligning marketing, sales, and service efforts to boost conversion opportunities.

For example, when a lead engages with content, their information is automatically shared with the sales team for personalized follow-up.

This seamless alignment improves coordination, enabling teams to deliver a unified customer experience.  

Inbound marketing methodology comprises four steps enabling you to turn your target prospects into paying customers. Look at the below to better understand:

1. Attract 

You need to create high-value and relevant content to capture the attention and engagement of your target audience. 

Thus, this will help you turn your web visitors into leads using lead generation tools like Web Forms or Live Chat. 

For instance, you can offer an industry-specific insightful report as a downloadable resource to generate leads. 

Implement SEO tactics to improve your website visibility on search engines to attract prospects actively searching for solutions you might find a good fit.  

2. Engage 

You must nurture those leads through personalized content, email campaigns , and social media interactions.  

Also, sharing high-value content can establish you as a trusted brand in your domain. 

3. Close 

You need to make efforts to convert these leads into paying customers. 

It can be achieved with a combined effort of the marketing and sales team, such as knowledge delivered through landing pages, product-specific landing pages, videos, and sales communication. 

4. Delight 

Once you get the deal, you should continue providing a great customer experience with content and customer support that aligns with their business growth. 

Moreover, such efforts also foster customer loyalty, build relationships, and encourage referrals. 

Inbound marketing strategy for manufacturing businesses: 7 Simple steps

I’d say, “If you don’t know who you are selling to, who will you sell it to?” 

So, it’s essential to know who your target audience is. 

Begin answering the following question to identify:

• What industry or sector might find your product helpful?
• Who can benefit from your manufactured product?
• What challenges can your product be a good solution to?
• What can be the possible pain points of your target audience?

Asking these questions will help you to focus clearly on whom your company will serve and why your product is needed. 

Some other easy ways to identify your target audience are:

• Leverage social media tools to get insights to understand the demographics and interests.
• Analyze your website visitor behavior to understand your audience better.
• Study your ideal competitors’ marketing actions to identify overlapping target audiences.

Moreover, if you’ve initiated some sales, you can conduct simple surveys to gather direct feedback from your existing customers. This will help you understand what problems your product has solved.

Once you’ve identified your potential target audience to serve, you define your buyer persona.

A buyer persona is a fictional description of your ideal buyers. It is quite a practical approach to understanding your prospects’ buying intent.

Moreover, it helps tailor your marketing to meet their needs and preferences.

To define your buyer persona, you must consider including information like:

• Demographic details  (Age, gender, location, occupation, and income) 
• Psychographic information  (Personality, values, lifestyle, etc.)
• Goals and values  (Define their aspirations and what matters to them)
• Pain points  (Define their possible challenges and problems)
• Behavior and preferences  (Define their buying behavior and online habits based on analysis)

Here is an example that can give you a clear picture of the buyer persona:

Moreover, to make your buyer persona more effective, you can create a narrative by giving a name and a brief story. Plus, include what can drive or persuade them to become your customers.

Now, based on persona, you can build in-depth content resources to attract and engage them and help them move down the marketing funnel.

You can enhance your marketing efforts by mapping your buyers’ journey . In general, when speaking the inbound marketing, the journey includes three stages:

• Awareness stage: Prospects are experiencing some kind of business challenges and looking for possible solutions.

For instance, suppose your potential customers face the issue of high energy costs and inefficient processes in their metal fabrication operations and are searching for solutions.

So, you can watch an explainer video titled “Reduce Energy Costs and Improve Efficiency in Metal Fabrication.” Here, you can highlight the eminent challenges and how to solve them.

Leverage the video by sharing it on social media to attract more traffic.

• Consideration stage: Based on their exploring all the possible solutions to their problems. 

Here, you can create an insightful video titled “Top 5 Energy-Saving Technologies for Metal Fabrication” and include your product to let your prospects consider you a solution.

Segment a list of such prospects and target them with a personalized email campaign carrying your video link.

• Decision stage: Finalizing the ideal solution based on the value and price offered.

To showcase your prospects to persuade them to buy from you, conduct a live webinar titled “Maximizing ROI with [Your Company Name] Advanced Equipment.”

Demonstrate your product value with creative videos, establish trust with testimonials from satisfied customers, and show case studies to explain how you’ve solved problems.

The inbound marketing role here is to build relevant content for each stage of the buying journey that can bring better engagement, more conversions, and customer loyalty.

Win high value deals with account-based marketing!

Segment high value accounts and build personalized campaigns to get the conversion easily.

If you’re just stepping into content creation, skip the part and go straight to strategy discussion.

However, if you’ve implemented any content marketing, begin by analyzing your existing content or auditing your content.

This will give you better insights into identifying the content that can be repurposed and improved.  

A content audit includes an analysis of all the content on your website.

An effective content audit helps to:  

• Identify top-performing/under-performing content 
• Identify content gaps 
• Identify overlapping or duplicate content 
• Identify content requirements  
• Identify keywords for content 

Almost  41% of manufacturers  claim to have a content strategy.  

Having a content strategy means focusing on using content (audio, visual, written) to build a long-term relationship with clients by attracting, engaging, and delighting them.  

Inbound marketing puts the content in a centralized position. But, if you don’t know how to categorize or place your content in a hierarchy, you will be delivering your content heedlessly.

You can categorize your content into three levels based on the buyer’s journey.

• Top of the funnel: This type of content is created to bring awareness of your product and touch customers’ pain points.  
• Middle of the funnel: This type of content provides the information or solution to the prospects searching for it.  
• Bottom of the funnel: This type of content aims to turn the client in to buy from you.  

The below image will give you  top manufacturing marketing content ideas  for each stage of your buyer journey: 

You must keep these points in your mind while creating the content:

• What is your prospect searching?
• How can your content be the answer to their searches?
• What is the persona of the reader for a particular content?
• How can you pitch your product naturally?

Also, in inbound marketing, you should prioritize your customer over the product. Understanding your customers will provide customer satisfaction, turning them in to buy from you.

Read the full blog :  Content marketing for manufacturers: Strategy, ideas, & tips!

With  94% of B2B buyers  searching online for products, updating your website from time to time becomes necessary.

Optimization will help you rank high; the higher your website’s rank, the more traffic you will get.

The aim of website optimization in inbound marketing is to: 

• Drive more traffic to your website 
• Increase conversion rate  
• Increase revenue  

Here is an example of how an up-to-date manufacturing website must look like: 

If you know what it will bring, you must know how to optimize your website. 

Here are a few pointers to do so:

• Discover and include targeted keywords in your content that you want your website to rank on. 
• Create friendly URLs using simple words, and they must include your keyword. 
• Create high-quality, SEO-optimized content that carries value for readers and can quickly get a ranking on SERPs.
• Invest in various link-building activities to boost your website visibility on Google or Bing.
• Optimize your website loading times for a faster user experience. 
• Use catchy and relevant CTAs to guide prospects to take necessary actions. 
• Optimize your manufacturing website for mobile devices.
• Implement HTTPS encryption for data security that contributes to building website credibility. 

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There are mainly three categories that include all your marketing channels:

Owned media channels : These are owned by you to engage your prospects. 

Paid media channels : These included paid forms of marketing to drive potential customers for conversions.

Earned media channels : Third parties promote your brand based on your good work.

Get the example of each in the below image:

Let’s discuss some of the potential inbound marketing channels for manufacturing businesses:

• Email marketing  

Over  81% of businesses  rely on email marketing to grow their business.

You must invest in email marketing for a manufacturing business as it offers the best return on investment, boosts engagement, and  generates sales-worthy leads .

It is an efficient and affordable marketing channel to nurture leads and drive conversions.

• Social media platforms

Social media can be a great hook for your manufacturing business to establish yourself in the inbound market.

Social media marketing is beneficial for manufacturers as it boosts brand awareness, drives more website traffic, and help in building a long-term relationship with customers.

The top 3 social media channels for B2B manufacturing business are:

Also, you can leverage social media by repurposing your valuable content to drive more engagement and traffic.

• Paid advertising  

Paid advertising in inbound marketing for manufacturers is an advertising approach. You can run various types of ads, such as:

• Pay per click advertising
• Display ads
• Social media ads

Click here to read  Lead Generation Ads: What, Why, and How with examples .

Well, if you are working for something and don’t know whether it is working for you, how will you identify your success?

So, you must focus on measuring the results of your inbound marketing strategy.

Analytics help you to identify where you can step in and ace well. Also, inbound marketing analytics can identify what works for you and does not.

Here are the top metrics to consider for measuring your inbound marketing efforts:

Website traffic:  Measure the total number of website visitors to your manufacturing website. This metric expresses your online presence and brand visibility.

Organic search traffic:  Measure the number of visitors who find your website through search engines. A healthy organic search traffic signifies effective SEO and content optimization.

Content performance:  To improve, assess your content performance based on views, shares, and engagement.

Leads generated:  Track the number of leads acquired through forms, downloads, web chat integration, newsletter, or webinar sign-ups.

The quality of the generated leads shows the effectiveness of your content and lead-generation efforts.

Conversion rate:  Calculate the percentage of your web visitors turning into leads or customers. A higher conversion rate signifies effective engagement and persuasive content.

Customer acquisition cost (CAC):  Determine the cost of acquiring a new customer . This metric helps evaluate the efficiency of your marketing spending.

Customer lifetime value (CLV):  Assess the total revenue generated from a customer over their lifetime. A higher CLV indicates strong customer loyalty and satisfaction.

Email open and click rates:  Track your email metrics like open rates CTRs to measure email campaign effectiveness.

Return on investment (ROI):  This reveals the relation between marketing efforts and the cost invested. Go for inbound channels that require minimal investment and drive the best outcomes.

Social media engagement:  Evaluate likes, shares, comments, and click-throughs on your social media posts. Strong social media engagement indicates brand awareness and audience interaction.

There are dedicated tools that can help you analyze these metrics, such as Google Analytics, CRM, social media, and email marketing platforms.

Also, regularly analyzing these metrics can get various insights to achieve your inbound marketing success.

1. Implement lead generation strategies 

Offer valuable content or resources in exchange for contact information. This could include e-books, industry reports, case studies, or webinars.

Create high-converting landing pages  and web forms to capture leads. Nurture them through targeted campaigns. Invest in account-based marketing to target high value accounts .

2. Leverage SEO for lead generation

Optimize your website and content for your search engines. Focus on relevant keywords, meta tags, and meta descriptions.

Build high-quality backlinks from reputable websites. Regularly monitor and analyze your website and content to optimize for better.

Read more : How to use SEO for lead generation? [ 8 Winning strategies]

3. Leverage social media to the fullest

Build a good social media presence on platforms where your target prospects are active.

Share valuable content like industry insights, customer success stories, etc. to build trust and increase brand awareness.

Be consistent and engage with your audience by promptly responding to comments, questions, and messages.

The secret to a winning social media strategy is consistent with your posting and engagement.

4. Utilize video marketing to demonstrate your product value

Video content gets high engagement and drives potential customers by explaining the product value effectively.

So, create videos showcasing your products, demonstrating their functionality, or providing tutorials.

Leverage your educational videos on other social channels to drive more customers.

5. Foster customer reviews and testimonials 

Encourage your delighted customers to leave reviews and testimonials about your products and services.

Positive reviews can build trust and credibility, influencing potential customers’ decision-making.

Display these reviews prominently on your website and share them on social media.

6. Implement marketing automation 

Your marketing team must leverage the power of marketing automation to speed up engagement and conversions.

Marketing automation tools are powerful to streamline and personalize your communication with potential customers.

Set up automated email workflows that deliver targeted content based on the lead’s actions or interests. Moreover, it helps nurture leads and move them through the sales funnel. 

Maximize your marketing game with automation!

Build personalized drip campaigns that drive conversions. Also, track your campaigns to optimize for better.

7. Present exceptional brand experience

This can be achieved with the right use of technology and marketing efforts.

You need to create content that provides solutions, optimize the website for the best user experience, and nurture it with personalized campaigns.

Moreover, provide exceptional customer support, making them your happy customers. Also, a fantastic customer experience can lead to repeat business and referrals.

Inbound marketing is swiping off traditional marketing methods.

It is a powerful and modern approach to marketing for manufacturing businesses to reach massive audiences in no time.

It aligns with your current buyers’ behavior and has the potential to generate sales-ready leads for your sales team.

Moreover, you can empower your sales process with smart inbound marketing strategies as they drive high-value leads for your manufacturing company.

Inbound marketing is a data-driven approach that includes creating valuable content, SEO, social media engagement, etc., to attract your target prospects and build relationships.

Manufacturers promote their products offline (participating in industry events or trade shows) and online (website, content, and all digital marketing practices).

Top challenges in inbound marketing for manufacturing industries include: 

• Product technical complexity. 
• Lengthy sales cycles. 
• Limited content resources. 
• Targeting the right audience. 
• Demonstrating differentiation. 
• Measuring ROI. 

Yes, inbound marketing works greatly for every B2B business, including manufacturing companies.

The top digital marketing strategies for manufacturing companies to attract and generate leads are: 

• Content marketing: Create relevant and engaging content like blog posts, videos, and whitepapers. 
• Search engine optimization: Optimize website content to rank higher in SERPs. 
• Email marketing: Target with personalized emails to nurture leads and boost relationships. 
• Social media marketing: Share content and engage on potential B2B social platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. 
• PPC advertising: Run targeted ads strategically. 

Sonali Negi

Sonali is a writer born out of her utmost passion for writing. She is working with a passionate team of content creators at Salesmate. She enjoys learning about new ideas in marketing and sales. She is an optimistic girl and endeavors to bring the best out of every situation. In her free time, she loves to introspect and observe people.

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Best Marketing Strategies for Manufacturing Companies

When it comes to marketing for manufacturing companies, there is no 'one size fits all' approach. Every manufacturing business is different, and digital marketing  needs to be tailored to the specific target markets, and more specifically, the target personas within those markets.

B2B manufacturing marketing strategy targets a unique audience. However, this audience may or may not be ready to make purchasing decisions at the moment we first make contact.

So which strategies should manufacturing marketers try?

Digital Marketing Strategies for Manufacturers

A digital marketing strategy that works for one manufacturer may or may not translate to a different industry, despite apparent similarities. For this reason, manufacturer marketing plans should be unique and include a detailed digital marketing plan that outlines a clear path to success.

Keep in mind that getting from the planning stage to the success stage takes trial and error. You'll leave a few failed strategies along the road.

Yet, B2B manufacturers can see tremendous success from digital marketing efforts. Throughout the years, WebStrategies has worked with a wide variety of manufacturing businesses. Along the way, we've had our fair share of both successes and failures.

For now, though, we'll focus on the success stories. See how we've created content marketing strategies for B2B manufacturing websites and implemented digital advertising tactics to increase sales leads and generate revenue for our clients.

Manufacturing Marketing Success Stories

Ppc: google advertising success for a silicon wafer manufacturer.

A client of ours who sells silicon wafers asked us to test out a few advertising campaigns on Google Paid Search platforms. In the first 90 days, the client spent approximately $2,200. They acquired 17 qualified leads—one of which had a six-figure potential! 

If your manufacturing business is looking for a few quick digital marketing wins, we suggest a Google Paid Search campaign. This strategy is especially powerful if a decent number of people are searching for keywords related to the products you manufacture. 

(It also helps to have your ad campaign managed by experienced advertising veterans.)

Content Marketing: Blogging Success for a Brewery Manufacturer

Google Paid Search generally takes effect quickly however, content marketing strategies take a little more time to implement. But the time is worth it.

In a little over two years, we roughly quadrupled the amount of organic traffic coming into a brewery manufacturer's website.

Here's how we did it:

• Expanded some existing content pages
• Created a few pieces of new content
• Blogged about industry topics
• Incorporated keywords that people use to find products related to this manufacturer's business

Here’s a look at that traffic increase from Google Analytics:

The key to this traffic increase was creating content more targeted to this brewery manufacturer's potential customers. Improving existing content to better appeal to this manufacturer's target market also contributed to the success of this marketing strategy.

As noted, content marketing strategies can be particularly effective in increasing organic traffic. However, the results can take a bit longer to see than some other digital marketing initiatives.

Content Marketing Impact for Another Manufacturer:

CRO: Conversation Rate Optimization Success for a Brewery Manufacturer

For this same brewery manufacturer, we also implemented a strategy to optimize conversions on their website. Previously, the company did not have a means for customers to contact it through the website. Aside from a listed phone number, customers couldn't easily get in touch with the company.

To increase conversions on the site, we set up three different types of contact forms (including the floating "Get Info" call to action (CTA) shown here). We also set up dynamic call tracking to identify the source of phone leads.

The number of form submissions and calls increased, with a sizable portion of these calls and form submissions being qualified sales leads.

With more prospective customers to contact, the addition of forms and call tracking has transformed this organization's entire business.

Manufacturing SEO: Searched Keywords Added on Equipment Manufacturer Product Pages

In 2014, one of our seasoned marketing managers undertook an initiative to overhaul the website product pages for one of our manufacturing clients. John diligently added product pages that were missing. He also edited the content on those product pages so it matched up with the keywords people actually search. 

An SEO play like this is typically a long-term initiative. Luckily, the client was patient, and the desired results paid off for them in a very big way.

Over time, this client went from getting about 500 organic visits a month to over 3,000. That's six times the organic traffic they were seeing before making these simple changes. 

These SEO efforts have translated to many organically generated leads. They've also helped to close business opportunities that the equipment manufacturer would otherwise never have had.

Website Rebuild: Updating a Site for a Custom Mining Conveyor Equipment Manufacturer

This last success story includes a complete overhaul of a client's proprietary platform website with a more modern appearance and functionality. Our focus  was to make everything on their site more accessible. To accomplish this, we did the following: 

• Made the site compatible with mobile devices
• Created an extensive keyword and content strategy to attract prospects through search
• Improved lead tracking capabilities on the website with contact forms and call tracking 

After this complete website overhaul, organic traffic to this equipment manufacturer's site increased by 376% within twelve months.

With more strategic lead tracking initiatives—and a more targeted Google advertising campaign—this manufacturer received 116 quality contact forms. This increase in quality lead generation led to $2.9 million in business for the company. That was a significant increase compared to less than $1 million in the previous year.

Digital Marketing Agency for Manufacturers

There isn't a silver bullet to marketing for manufacturers but a combination of digital efforts applied consistently, and tweaking as you go will yield results. Over the years, we have found that content marketing does yield long-term results but requires an investment in content creation.

As described by our CEO, Chris Leone, in our manufacturing webinar, Building Your Content Calendar from A to Z , if you are going to do one (digital marketing) thing, it should be content marketing.

The real secret to success is learning from your failures, A/B testing along the way, and sticking to long-term initiatives. As you've seen from some of our clients, certain strategies like content creation don't always get results right out of the gate. 

However, consistent work on these long-term initiatives can be powerful. If you're also looking for quick-win opportunities, Google Paid Search and other advertising platforms can serve as great sources for increasing qualified leads.

If you'd like to learn how our agency can help your manufacturing business navigate the tumultuous road of digital marketing, contact us today.

You can also check out our resource library of Manufacturing Marketing Strategies for more successful marketing approaches for manufacturers.

You may also be interested in this manufacturing marketing article:

Best Digital Marketing Tactics for Manufacturers

Note: This article was originally posted on March 17, 2020, and has been updated with more current manufacturing marketing examples.

Topics Content marketing , B2B Marketing , Manufacturing Marketing

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B2B Manufacturing Marketing Strategy: How to Stand Out

Adam Smartschan Partner & Chief Strategy Officer December 22, 2021 9 minute read

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In a world where everyone is competing to become the best, how will you stand out? In the manufacturing industry, the competition is especially fierce because products and services can be rather similar to each other. Having something unique and valuable makes it easier to come up with a sound B2B manufacturing marketing strategy.

Product differentiation and B2B manufacturing marketing go hand in hand. When you can identify your strengths, your weaknesses and what makes you unique, it will be easier to market your company. 

Let’s start this journey by understanding what makes you unique first. This will make it easier for us to think of how to market manufacturing companies .

What is Product Differentiation?

Product differentiation is a marketing strategy that aims to make a company’s products and services distinguishable from its competitors. As an established manufacturing company, how are you any different from startups that are entering the market? Or your traditional competition?

To figure this out, a company needs to identify its unique qualities and differentiators. In other words, what do you do that nobody else does? And how do you do things differently than the competition?

The goal of product differentiation is to create a competitive advantage over its competitors. The more value and uniqueness you bring to the table, the more attractive your offers are. It goes way beyond just having the best products and services. Who you are as a company and what you do greatly impact product differentiation. 

Types of Product Differentiation

These are the three types of product differentiation. It’s important to get acquainted with both so that you can play to your strengths and weaknesses in appealing to your market. In most cases, a customer’s choice in a purchase is a mix of two.

Vertical Differentiation

Vertical differentiation is when customers rank products based on measurable factors like price or quality. Despite these factors being objective and measurable, the choice still lies with the client. 

For example, a client could want a manufacturing company that can produce cheap materials with relatively OK quality. Another client may have a bigger budget, so they prefer better quality over cheap price. 

Horizontal Differentiation

Horizontal differentiation, on the other hand, is when customers choose products based on their personal preferences. It focuses more on subjective taste than objective factors.

For example, a client prefers blue over red. It has nothing to do with the price or quality. It’s purely based on the subjective preference of the client.

Mixed Differentiation

Mixed differentiation is a combination of the two previously discussed differentiations. The client takes into consideration objective factors like price, quality, and features and also considers their personal preference. 

Most purchases belong to this category. Clients usually have a lot of factors to consider so when marketing for a manufacturing company, flexibility and variety is always attractive. 

Want more Altitude? Subscribe to our Monday Marketing Tips for actionable B2B marketing information in your inbox every week.

Benefits of B2B Product Differentiation

Given that product differentiation sounds great, is it really worth it? Is going through all the trouble of building a company that stood out worth all the trouble? Wouldn’t it be easier if you were just a good company that offered good products and services?

Brand Awareness

The more unique and valuable your products and services are, the more people will talk about you. The things that make you stand out will help get your name out in the market. This creates a buzz in your market and gets your brand back in the spotlight for discussion. 

Introducing new and innovative products and services will also help you grow your market. New people will discover your brand and will see how much value you can bring them.

Achieve a Higher Price Point

When you offer products that are unique and bring a lot of value, clients won’t complain if it’s a bit expensive. Buyers often perceive uniqueness as something worth paying extra for. 

As a B2B manufacturing company, increasing prices may be a challenge because your market is already used to what you charge. Presenting what makes your new products and services unique will help your transition to higher prices more easily.

Promote Brand Loyalty

When a product becomes truly distinct, it’s hard to find a substitute. This is where functionality, quality and value come in. Having these things in your products will help your customers stay loyal to you and only you.

Since you already have an existing market, product differentiation will make it impossible for them to replace you. Nothing beats quality products and services that have withstood the test of time.  

Marketing for Manufacturing Companies: The Bottom Line

Marketing for a B2B manufacturing company can pose quite a challenge because the industry doesn’t exactly practice “marketing” in the traditional sense. In the manufacturing industry, businesses usually get clients through referrals and connections. 

This is because the process of choosing a manufacturer or OEM can be quite tedious. There are tons of decision-making bodies that need to approve of the manufacturer before actually buying from them. 

But don’t worry because it’s still possible to market your manufacturing company. It only takes the right strategies to make it effective.

Manufacturing Marketing Terms

Before diving into the nitty-gritty of the challenges in creating a B2B manufacturing marketing strategy, let’s get to know a few terms first. You will be encountering these terms a lot during the article so let’s start with them so you won’t get confused. 

B2B stands for “business-to-business.” These are the companies that provide products or services to other businesses. They can be companies where supplies come from or companies that put together the supplies. In our case today it’s a mix of both. These are companies that manufacture products. 

B2C stands for “business-to-consumer.” This is the kind of business that sells directly to the consumer or the customer.

B2B2C stands for “business-to-business-to-consumer.”  This is often a distributor or OEM – a company that makes a product, then sells it to another company that ultimately sells it to the end-user.

Challenges in Creating a B2B Manufacturing Marketing Strategy

Compared to B2C companies, B2B companies have very different needs when it comes to marketing. Here are a few things that can become a bit complicated when marketing for a B2B manufacturer. 

Buyers are Looking for Something Very Specific

When companies are looking for a manufacturer, they’re usually looking for something very specific. They’re very strict with the processes, the budget, the materials used, and all needed certifications. 

Because of this, marketing for a manufacturing company can be quite tricky. Some specifications should be concealed to avoid being copied by competitors. On the other hand, you should also be able to share enough information to cover the needs of the clients. 

It has to be the right blend of being informational enough without giving away company secrets. 

Large Investment

B2B manufacturers typically sell at high price points. And if they don’t, they’re usually selling in bulk – millions of pieces at a few cents apiece. That’s a challenge from a marketing perspective – the buyer needs to realize the value of their investment.

More People Involved in the Decision Making Process

When you’re marketing for B2C companies, the customers are the only decision-makers. It’s easier because you only need to convince one person that the product is worth buying.

But when you’re marketing for B2B manufacturers, things get a little more complicated.  

The market that manufacturing companies are targeting usually involves a lot of decision-makers. You’ll first encounter the employee who is tasked to look for a supplier. Then you’ll meet that employee’s manager. Then the department head, then potentially a committee, and finally, the decision-making body. 

In all these steps, you’ll be conducting meetings, discussions, demos, and quotations. 

This is normal when it comes to manufacturing companies because your clients would want to make sure that they’re getting the best deal possible. This is why at the very start, you’ll need to make sure that your marketing strategy can affect all of the decision-making bodies.

Long Sales Cycles

There are a lot of B2C marketing strategies that revolve around creating a sense of urgency. For example, sales are a great way to drive up sales. It incentivizes people to buy because of the low prices and the limited time offer. As a response, customers feel the urge to purchase these products and services despite not having the need for them. 

When it comes to B2B manufacturing marketing strategy, creating a sense of urgency won’t necessarily work. 

As previously mentioned, marketing manufacturing companies tend to be a long process because of multiple decision-making bodies. This also means that the whole sales cycle can be quite extensive. They’ll need time to decide and maximize their resources.

This is why when it comes to creating a B2B manufacturing marketing strategy, you’ll be considering different factors compared to B2C. 

6 Strategies to Market a Manufacturing Company

We’ve discussed what product differentiation is, its benefits, and the challenges of making a B2B manufacturing marketing strategy. It’s important to understand these things to fully appreciate the challenge of marketing for established manufacturing companies. Now, here are the strategies you can use to market a B2B manufacturing company. 

Invest more in SEO

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. To make the very long story short, it’s the process of improving your website to increase its visibility in search engine result pages. So if your customers will look for your products or services online, your website should be the one on top. 

SEO helps you establish a presence online. It makes it easier for possible customers and clients to find your manufacturing company.

According to Statista, as of April 2021, search engines are the No. 1 source where buyers search for products. Statista also shows that 81% of buyers research online before making big purchases. 

In other words, you’ll be losing out on a lot of potential customers if you don’t invest in SEO.

Optimize Your Website

Prioritizing content is important because it’s what brings people in. But if your readers or audience can’t access the content, they’ll immediately leave no matter how good your content is. 

According to Think with Google, if a page load time goes from 1 second to 3 seconds, the probability of bounce increases 32% . If your website loads too long, you will lose traffic and gain a high bounce rate. Put those 2 things together and Google will lower your SERP ranking. This will then result in your website ranking lower on search engine result pages.

You should also constantly check if your links are working. It can be frustrating for your website visitors when they click on a link and it doesn’t work. It can also affect your SEO ranking if your internal links are not working. Finally, make sure that your website is mobile-friendly. According to Statista, as of 2020, there are 4.28 billion unique mobile internet users . This makes up over 90% of the global internet population. If you don’t optimize your website for mobile visitors, you’ll be missing out on the biggest chunk of internet users.

But wait, you say: “We’re a B2B company! Most of our traffic comes from desktops!” And you’d be right. Problem is, Google indexes largely based on the mobile version of pages . Even if a human almost never sees your mobile site, you need it to be good.

Optimize Google Ads and PPC

SEO is a long-term investment. It’ll take a while for you to see the results. This is why most companies couple SEO with Google Ads and PPC. 

PPC ads stand for pay-per-click ads. Like Google Ads, they are paid online advertisements that appear with relevant searches. They’re the ads that you see on top of what you’re searching for in search engine result pages. If you want to get noticed right away, PPC ads are a great solution.

With PPC ads , you only pay when a user clicks on your ad to visit your site. You can tweak these ads anytime so that they target a specific group of people. For example, you want to target a specific group of people based on their interests, age, and geographical location. You can set all these when you’re working with PPC ads. 

PPC ads are also measurable and trackable. You’ll be able to see the statistics that matter to your manufacturing company like impressions, clicks, and conversions. 

These stats are readily available so you can see which ads are working well and which ones are not. From there, you’ll be able to identify what is performing well and what isn’t. From here, you can tweak the ads that don’t perform that well or learn from them moving forward.  

Be Diligent with Email Marketing

As discussed earlier, it’s natural for a B2B marketing strategy to take a while to get moving. In this setting, email marketing becomes one of the best tactics that you can use. 

Email marketing focuses on sending out emails or newsletters to promote the products and services of your manufacturing company.

Through this channel, your newsletter subscribers will be updated with your latest items, promotions, and developments. You can also become valuable by sending in news about the industry or content that can bring a lot of value to your readers.

It helps with lead generation , brand awareness, engagement, and relationship building.

It’s a very good B2B manufacturing marketing strategy because it periodically reminds your customers that you exist and you can help them. It can also be automated so it can be taken care of without too much effort. 

Focus on Content Creation

As a manufacturing company, one might think that blogging won’t bring much value to the company. But on the contrary, a blog can be one of the best ways to market your company.

Content is still the reigning king when it comes to marketing for any kind of business. Releasing content that is reliable, credible, helpful, and valuable will help people find their way to your website. 

When people are looking for articles, news, or general information about the industry you’re in, they can turn to your content. This becomes the first contact with a potential new customer. It can then continue to become a relationship once they keep coming back for more content. At some point, when you’ve finally gained their trust, they’ll reach out to you for more details.

Creating high-quality content will also position you as an industry authority. It establishes that you know what you’re doing and is an expert in the processes that you’re dealing with. This will help you gain the trust of your audience. It also makes you desirable to work with because you know the inner workings of your industry well. 

When you’re creating content, you should think about multiple ways on how you can deliver that content. Some of your audience will prefer to learn more through written articles while others would prefer to learn through a video. 

For example, if you’re talking about a complicated procedure in your manufacturing process, a video may be better than a detailed article. But if you’re discussing statistics of new studies in your industry, an infographic may be a better form of content. 

You should be able to find the right form of delivery to effectively communicate your content is important. It’s not just about producing content but it’s also about making sure that your content is digestible. Aside from that, being able to deliver your content in multiple forms widens your reach. 

It also becomes extra important if you manufacture very complex products. You’ll need to create content that will describe in detail what you can offer so that potential customers can better understand them. 

Maximize Social Media

It’s important to make sure that your brand and your content are displayed in places where people socialize. Think of it as setting up a display in front of your shop so the people who pass by can see what you’re offering. This is why it’s important that you include social media in your B2B manufacturing marketing strategy. 

Social media has become the center of socialization and interaction. This was further magnified when the COVID 19 pandemic happened and everyone was forced to stay inside. This resulted in more people inhabiting the online space.

At the same time, social media platforms have also evolved to accommodate businesses. These platforms now have features that allow businesses to connect with their target market.

As a manufacturing company, it’s best that you take advantage of this to create connections with your potential customers. It’s the perfect avenue for you to show them who you are, what you can do, and what value you can bring them. 

For example, posting high-quality content on LinkedIn will help you establish your credibility in the industry. It shows people that you’re an expert in your field and knows what you’re doing. As you get connected with more people who are in the same industry, you’re widening your reach and start establishing relationships. 

It may not pay off quickly, but leaving a good impression on these people may pay off one day. When the time comes that they’re ready to make a purchase or finally have the need, they already know who to contact.

tl;dr: Manufacturing Marketing Strategies

Marketing for established manufacturing companies can be really challenging. Some of the challenges that you may encounter during the process of making a marketing strategy include the following:

• Buyers are looking for specific solutions
• Investments are large
• The decision-making process is complex
• The sales cycle can be long

In other words, this isn’t B2C. That said, you can tailor an effective B2B manufacturing marketing strategy if you pay attention to key points like:

• Website optimization
• Google Ads & PPC
• Email marketing
• Content creation
• Smart use of social media

Beyond that, product differentiation can give you the edge you need to create a striking marketing campaign for your established manufacturing company. It’s something every company should be investing in to be able to stand out in a saturated market.

• Adam Smartschan linkedin profile

Adam Smartschan Adam Smartschan heads Altitude's strategic marketing and branding efforts. An award-winning writer and editor by trade in a former life, he now specializes in data analytics, search engine optimization, digital advertising strategy, conversion rate optimization and technical integrations. He holds numerous industry certifications and is a frequent speaker on topics around B2B marketing strategy and SEO. Adam graduated from Northeastern University in Boston in 2007. He grew up in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, just miles down the road from Altitude's headquarters in Emmaus, Pennsylvania.

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Small Business Trends

How to start a manufacturing business.

The manufacturing section takes materials and makes valuable products that can fuel national prosperity. This is one sector that’s responsible for employment and technological advancement.

The manufacturing sector makes goods and shapes economies while providing employment.  It’s also responsible for technological evolution. If you’re an entrepreneur, this section of the economy beckons you to innovation and prosperity.

The Manufacturing Industry Today

Manufacturing covers many different sectors, technologies and processes. It involves several different activities, from quality control to production, engineering and design.

The industry involves different processes, including fabrication, assembly, and machining. Products include small-scale items up to large machinery.

The manufacturing sector is complex and involves intricate processes, quality control standards, the integration of advanced technologies, plus complicated supply chains.

Small Business Deals

Manufacturing business ideas: from small scale to big ventures.

Here are a few manufacturing ideas for entrepreneurs that you can scale up or down.

Small-scale manufacturing ideas include custom handcrafted goods like cosmetics, soaps, and handmade jewelry or accessories. Specialty food items are included, like gourmet chocolates and confectionery.

• 3D printing services that make customized merchandise like keychains are small in scale. Incorporating CAD tools in your business, especially in areas like 3D printing and custom furniture manufacturing, can significantly enhance product design and quality.
•  Some woodworking/carpentry, like custom furniture, gets included here too.

Medium-scale manufacturing ideas include electronic components and specialized electronic modules. Eco-friendly cleaning products and specialized chemicals for niche industries like agriculture are added to this category.

• Large-scale manufacturing includes the mass production of specific auto parts.
•  Advanced technology production, like semiconductors and automation equipment, are other large-scale options.

Entrepreneurs can tweak these ideas and others to suit the resources and demands available.

Starting a Manufacturing Business: Step by Step

Read on for a list of steps to assemble a manufacturing business.

Market Research and Identifying the Right Manufacturing Niche

Engaging directly with potential customers and or industry experts through focus groups and surveys can help you here.

Crafting a Comprehensive Business Plan

You want a business plan that focuses on financial forecasting and adds a good market analysis with clear objectives. The best way to accomplish those goals and add in strategic planning is through a SWOT analysis (  Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats). While drafting your plan, it’s helpful to reference resources on how to write a business plan , which can provide a structured approach to outlining your manufacturing business’s goals and strategies.

Considering the Manufacturing Process for Your Chosen Product

Your chosen products will need you to source materials and machinery and assemble product timelines. Collaborating with suppliers can help you get the raw materials you’ll need. You can explore financing options for new and used equipment for the machinery.

A good tip for mapping out detailed production timelines is to break the entire process into smaller manageable chunks. Utilizing manufacturing software can streamline the production process, enhancing efficiency and productivity for your manufacturing business. Understanding digital fabrication benefits can significantly enhance your manufacturing business’s supply chain efficiency and product quality.

Location and Infrastructure for Your Own Manufacturing Business

The best location for your manufacturing business can be found by thoroughly analyzing the target markets, proximity to suppliers and transportation infrastructure. That way, you’ll find the best site for operational costs, supplier efficiency, and logistics. You should also consider access to workforce availability.

Establishing a Business Model

One of these models is the road map for operations. It details how a company makes and distributes products and guides decision-making

Acquiring Necessary Licenses and Certifications

Make sure you look into the necessary permits, licenses and certifications.

•  A manufacturing company should need a general business license from the local authorities.
• You might need some industry-specific certifications like ISO.
•  Don’t forget to consider environmental permits that comply with emissions and waste disposal.

Setting Up Finances and Funding

Startups need to consider their financing options. Several possibilities include small business loans from the SBA specifically designed to supply working capital and buy equipment. Some smaller manufacturing operations can use personal credit cards and savings. That’s called bootstrapping.

Managing cash flow and setting up an excellent financial system means implementing inventory management systems and buying the right accounting software.

Hiring and Training

Hiring skilled workers and training them provides for product quality and operational efficiency. It’s essential to offer both onboarding and continuous skill development programs.

Mastering Supply Chain Management and Systems

An inefficient supply chain system directly impacts product quality, customer satisfaction and competitiveness. An optimized supply chain minimizes inventory costs and improves product quality. One way to achieve this goal is to adopt Just- in-Time Inventory management. Building solid relationships with suppliers helps, too.

Marketing Manufacturing Businesses

To address the unique manufacturing business challenges , effective marketing strategies are crucial for standing out in a competitive market. A startup can build its brand and attract customers by forming partnerships with complementary suppliers and businesses. Continuous innovation is another way to be successful. A profitable manufacturing business also leverages online marketing, including social media and a user-friendly website.

Navigating Challenges in the Manufacturing Industry

Staying abreast of how the gig economy can help manufacturing businesses adapt to changing workforce needs can be a strategic advantage in overcoming industry challenges. Common challenges faced by startups include:

Market Competition

A strong brand identity helps you to stay ahead of the competition. Small businesses should conduct market research to identify opportunities and gaps in the industry.

Financial Challenges

Money is always an issue for any manufacturing startup. Research specific small business loans and grants and even consider crowdfunding platforms.

Managing Supply Chain Disruptions

Diversifying suppliers mitigates risks and ensures a constant flow of materials.

Staying Updated with Technological Advancements

Investing in new technologies and innovations will help you to stay competitive. For example, manufacturing startups should consider Robotics and automation to improve efficiency and enhance productivity.

Environmental Considerations and Sustainability

Consumers are demanding more echo-free products and sustainable manufacturing. Aligning with these expectations enhances brand loyalty and reputation. Global standards on emissions and waste management are getting stricter. Embracing sustainable manufacturing reduces energy consumption and minimizes waste.

FAQs: How to Start a Manufacturing Business

For those looking into specialized manufacturing fields, learning about how to start a concrete business, how to start a woodworking business, and how to start a welding business can offer additional insights.

What’s the minimum capital needed to start a manufacturing business?

There’s a range of tens of thousands to millions of dollars. Some of the critical expenses include machinery and equipment and the lease or purchase of a space. Labour costs and regulatory and licensing fees are included.

How profitable is manufacturing?

Manufacturing businesses can make excellent money, but they must factor in the industry sector, the market demand, innovation, and effective management strategies.

What is the best manufacturing business to start?

Some manufacturing sectors that show promising growth include the Food and Beverage industry. Healthcare products are also profitable since they produce personal protective equipment and medical devices. Manufacturing IoT devices and other electronics is also a big money-maker.

Are there any government grants for starting a manufacturing business?

Although these can vary by state, the United States has several options, including Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Programs. As the name suggests, these provide grants for research and development.

The Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) offers grants, training and assistance to small to medium-sized manufacturers to boost operations and their competitiveness.

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Marketing and Sales Strategy: Use it to Build Productivity at Your Small Business In a startup world where every move counts, strong synergy between sales and marketing is a cornerstone of productivity and success. It’s not just about aligning two distinct departments; it’s...

By John Boitnott • Nov 21, 2023

This story originally appeared on Calendar

In a startup world where every move counts , strong synergy between sales and marketing is a cornerstone of productivity and success. It’s not just about aligning two distinct departments; it’s about crafting a growth strategy that thrives on their seamless collaboration. That might sound like common sense, but the reality is that many small businesses drop the ball on marketing and sales strategy and overlook a vital connection.

Picture marketing as the mastermind behind your customer acquisition strategies and sales as the frontline warriors who bring in the revenue. When these two forces work in unison, you can unlock a world of opportunities. Bridging this gap isn’t just a good idea—it’s a game-changer. The big question is how to do it well.

Marketing and Sales Strategy Examples: A Key Growth Driver

Motivating sales and marketing to coordinate efforts is a secret sauce that can elevate success to new heights. Sam Levy, Senior Vice President of Growth and Operations at NetSuite, advocates aligning these two functions.

“For most organizations, it sits in silos, and there’s only tentacles that touch,” he says. “For us — it’s molded together. Everything marketing does, the field knows everything. What the field knows, marketing knows.”

The idea is that marketing can serve as a compass that points you toward potential customers. It provides the targeted lists, the messaging, and the campaigns. Now, think of your sales team as the navigators—armed with these resources, they chart the course and set out to acquire and grow customers. This alignment accomplishes a productive, synchronized approach where every effort, every penny spent, and every result achieved are closely connected.

Playbooks: A Strategy For Successful Alignment

One of the key strategies is developing “playbooks” that outline a step-by-step guide for identifying, pursuing, and converting leads into loyal customers. Playbooks can serve as the foundation of a company’s go-to-market efforts . The approach ensures sales and marketing understand each other’s roles, communicate effectively, and share responsibility for the company’s growth. The outcome? Better insights, stronger more productive campaigns, and a more compelling return on investment.

“Our playbook might be identifying a targeted list of accounts,” Levy says. “Marketing provides the targeted list of accounts, sales provides pursuits, marketing will provide the messaging, and sales will make the effort. And the outcome then is metrics.”

Metrics should show whether what you’ve been doing is successful. Teams can learn whether they’ve been spending enough or not enough. They can see if they got a return on investment or did not.

Smaller businesses can create their own version of playbooks, perhaps more streamlined and nimble. Start with a focused list of prospective clients, leveraging specific marketing tactics to cultivate leads. The difference? Small teams can craft marketing and sales strategies with greater flexibility, adjusting on the fly based on real-time feedback.

Harness the Power of Cohorts

NetSuite uses something called “cohorts” to boost customer acquisition and overall growth. Cohorts are groups of young hires who join as business development reps. Over 12 to 18 months, they’re coached and trained, learning how the business works. Then, they become the driving force for marketing, sales, and pre-sales as they “graduate.”

Even without the capacity for hundreds of new hires, small enterprises can apply the cohort concept on a smaller scale to spark growth. Cohorts let you bring in fresh, enthusiastic minds who, with the right mentorship , can quickly integrate into your business’s culture and goals. Letting a small group of team members embark on an intensive learning journey like this can result in dedicated, efficient sales and marketing teams that adapt and grow together.

Mentorship and Sponsorship: Nurturing Talent

Mentorship has long been hailed as a powerful way to improve both personal and professional effectiveness. But many people haven’t heard of sponsorship. You can use both to unite marketing and sales strategy — as well as support a healthy growing organization.

Mentorship involves guiding and teaching , whereas sponsorship is about actively endorsing and enabling career development of specific team members. It’s a crucial combination in a thriving small business, ensuring every team member feels guided and empowered to contribute their best.

Sponsorship is a kind of proactive counterpart to mentorship. A sponsor advocates for individuals within the organization, helping them seize new opportunities.

“So, for instance, I have worked with an individual in a different department, perhaps in finance,” Levy explains. “They don’t work for me, but as a new opportunity comes within the company and I’ve seen their skillset and work habits, I would then sponsor them for opportunities that come up in the organization. So sponsorship goes beyond teaching and is actually almost enabling you to do more, providing a platform to do more.”

In your small business, sponsorship might have an even more immediate impact. The close-knit environment allows for closer relationships and better visibility, making it easier for mentorships to develop and for sponsors to spot talent and create pathways for growth. Look for ways to encourage experienced employees to guide newcomers and actively endorse those ready for career progression.

Marketing and Sales Strategy: Walking a Path of Growth Together

In the fast-evolving landscape of modern business, the symbiotic relationship between sales and marketing is a powerful growth catalyst. As you’ve seen, successful businesses harness this synergy to drive their success. Whether you’re a small business owner or an aspiring entrepreneur, you can apply these strategies to your venture. Align your sales and marketing strategy, cultivate a culture of collaboration, and remember the invaluable impact of mentorship and sponsorship.

The path to growth is paved with your team’s ability to work in harmony , driven by a shared purpose and the right strategies. By adopting these principles, you’ll not only supercharge your business but also create an environment where talent thrives, productivity rises, and success follows.

Featured Image Credit: Fauxels; Pexels; Thank you!

The post Marketing and Sales Strategy: Use it to Build Productivity at Your Small Business appeared first on Calendar .

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How to Create a B2B Manufacturing Marketing Strategy in 5 Steps

When 27% of your audience is online during their buying journey, you need to promote your products online. After all, the goal of any B2B company is to communicate its products to other businesses. This is so that they can connect with them and turn other companies into customers.

Manufacturing marketing has become an essential component of B2B manufacturing companies. It helps manufacturers build relationships, increase sales, and achieve growth by promoting their products and services.

But how do you go about creating an effective B2B manufacturing marketing strategy? You can either hire a manufacturing marketing company or design the plan yourself. This article lists five essential steps to creating a marketing plan that is sure to succeed.

Hiring a Manufacturing Marketing Agency

The projected revenue for the industry this year is $ 8.18 trillion , as compared to last year’s $7.94 trillion. This means the market is becoming more competitive. So it’s important to create not just a marketing plan but an effective one.

But starting and running a manufacturing business is already time-consuming enough. How, then, can you develop and implement a marketing strategy while maintaining your business?

That’s where marketing agencies for manufacturing companies come in. These agencies specialize in helping manufacturers expand their brands and customer bases. Working with a manufacturing marketing agency lets you work with a team of marketing experts. Their main priority is to establish long-term and short-term success for your company.

But should you immediately ask for help from manufacturing marketing agencies? Before you can hire one, make sure you’re experiencing the following signs:

1.   You Don’t Know Where to Start

Manufacturers aren’t often the experts in the marketing field. It can be overwhelming to design a successful marketing plan. If that’s your case, you’ll likely find yourself lost in your marketing journey. When this happens, it’s time to hire a manufacturing marketing agency to position your business for success.

2.   Your Team Is Busy

Manufacturing companies sometimes find themselves lacking the time and resources for marketing. Because of this, you can consider partnering with a manufacturing marketing agency. They will help your team focus on other facets of your company while also optimizing future marketing initiatives.

3.   You Need an Outsider’s Point of View

Customer behaviors are evolving, and so should your marketing plan as well. Manufacturers using old tricks like trade shows won’t see much success in their marketing efforts. Instead, diversify your plan with fresh ideas from a manufacturing marketing agency. With such innovative ideas, you can attract and convert new leads.

Creating Your Own B2B Manufacturing Marketing Plan

You also have the option of creating your own strategy, but marketing your products is easier said than done. It’s not just about posting on social media or publishing content on your website. You don’t market your services blindly. If you want your marketing efforts to succeed, you need a plan.

While each plan is different for every B2B business, the steps to create one are pretty much the same. Follow the steps below to develop a manufacturing marketing plan that fits your business needs. You can also hire a manufacturing marketing agency to help with these steps.

1.   Understand Your Target Audience

Before you start creating a marketing plan, you first need to know who you’re marketing to. Researching your target market is one of the cornerstones of a successful marketing strategy. Without a clear picture of your target audience, you’re setting up your strategy for failure. That’s why you need to develop a comprehensive buyer persona.

Developing a B2B Manufacturing Buyer Persona

Buyer personas are like stereotypes of the types of people interested in your products. Their profiles include everything about your ideal customers, such as their relevant habits. By understanding your buyer personas, you can put all your time and effort into pursuing qualified leads.

To develop the right buyer persona for your manufacturing company, you need to get the following reports:

• Your target company’s information
• Their demographic data
• Their content consumption
• Their purchase and visit behavior
• Their cohort behavior

This step has to go well before you proceed to the next one. But coming up with an accurate description of your buyer persona can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. That’s why companies get help from marketing agencies for manufacturers.

These agencies gather and analyze data from your target audience through market research and surveys. They, then, use this information to create detailed profiles. These serve as your guide to developing an effective strategy that reaches and resonates with these people.

2.   Set Your Goals

Every plan has a goal, and so should your manufacturing marketing plan. Your goals are what sets the direction of your marketing initiatives. They affect the kind of content you publish and on which marketing platform you share it. Having both short- and long-term goals lets you work backward to know how to get your business where you want it to go.

Are you trying to generate leads or promote a new product? Do you want to establish your brand or scale your business? Whatever your reason, your marketing goals will fall into one of these three categories:

• To inform : You’re more likely to inform when you’re about to release a new product or service. Then, your marketing plan should be about adding value and connecting with your target market.
• To persuade : This is about convincing your market that your company is better than your competitors.
• To remind : Reminding means showcasing why your existing market loves and is loyal to you. You can promote your quality service or offer discounts on your products.

Establishing SMART Goals

Your marketing goals depend on what your company needs and are different from those of other manufacturers. But you need to make sure that your goals are SMART.

Establishing specific and measurable goals lets you assess the strengths and weaknesses of your strategy. The keywords here are “specific” and “measurable.” This means using accurate data to establish a timeframe and criteria for measurement. You can’t just set a deadline for one goal without knowing definite facts about your company.

For example, what are your manufacturing company’s financial capabilities? Can your sales team achieve a 30% sales revenue increase within a specific timeframe? Do you have the right tools to make your marketing goals happen?

Working with a manufacturing marketing agency helps you gather all relevant data for your goals. They develop a deeper understanding of your products and services, as well as gain insights into your market and competition. You’ll also be working with experts who know how to measure your goals.

3.   Determine your Brand Message and Positioning

Your branding message outlines who you are and what you do as a B2B manufacturing company. It’s the foundation of all your marketing efforts and puts you at the top of your field.

Your brand messaging should be consistent while also considering your buyer personas. It should take into account what each persona needs while maintaining a clear sense of your brand.

Speak Your Customers’ Language

Whether you’re new to business or not, you need a great messaging strategy. It’s the language you use to communicate with both existing and new customers. And as time changes, so, too, does the language that your target market uses.

For example, millennial B2B buyers are more involved in the decision-making process of buying goods. Their searches are mostly for generic terms instead of looking up specific brands. Speaking the language of your customers will give you a greater marketing advantage.

4.   Learn The Different Marketing Strategies For Manufacturers

At this point, you know who and why you’re marketing your products. You also have an idea of what language to use for your specific market. Now it’s time to determine the “ what ” of your strategy.

To do this, you need to consider all the marketing strategies you can use to meet your goals. Your marketing strategy as a B2B manufacturer likely includes basic marketing techniques. This means developing a website and using email marketing.

This is also the right time to venture a bit beyond your comfort zone and use some of these strategies as well.

Remember that you can use one or a combination of these strategies. Working with a manufacturing marketing agency gives you expert insights into these strategies. You can find agencies that offer specialized services and some that provide multiple services. That means they can help you with web development as well as content and video marketing.

5.   Choose The Right Channels To Execute Your Marketing Plan

In this day and age, there are a lot of advertising media options for you to choose from. And it seems like a good plan to conduct your marketing campaign across all media types. After all, B2B buyers are spread out across these platforms .

Marketing on every platform all at once means higher chances of reaching your audience, right? And the more you can reach out to, the greater your sales. This seems logical, but remember that you’re also allocating a portion of your budget to these campaigns. So it can be expensive and actually lessen the effect of your campaign.

Decide on a Few Media Outlets to Run Your Campaign On

To know where they are, you can hire a manufacturing marketing agency to do market research. They also look at which platforms your competitors are using. They’re marketing their products on those platforms for a specific reason. If you share the same audience with them, then this is a great strategy to find the right marketing channel.

A Detailed Plan Helps You Stand Out

It’s hard to stand out in a competitive environment such as the manufacturing industry, but not impossible. Having a detailed and effective B2B marketing plan helps a lot in your marketing journey.

Start by following these steps to develop a marketing plan for your manufacturing company. To maximize your efforts, think about hiring a manufacturing marketing agency. You can do more with the help of experts in the field of marketing.

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Waqar Hussain

Waqar Hussain is the founder of The Business Goals. He writes about entrepreneurial strategies and is an SEO consultant by profession. He is a B.Com, GDM, and an MBA from the Australian Institute of Business.

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What Is a Go-to-Market Strategy? (And Why You Need It to Beat Your Competition)

Learn how to create a go-to-market framework to turn your product ideas into growth opportunities for your company.

Richard Harris

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Imagine a world where you create a new product that everyone wants. It’s a snap to make and it sells itself – a mega hit. Congratulations, you’ve smashed your goals! In this world, there is no overnight success. If you sell a product without attracting the right buyers and demonstrating how it meets their needs, it may just sit on the shelf. Meanwhile, a competitor does their research, knows what buyers want, and delivers it. Not only have you lost revenue, you’ve lost potential customers to the competition. Ouch.

How do you avoid this and capture customer interest? Build a comprehensive go-to-market (GTM) strategy that combines careful research with tailored messaging that hits on the right buyer pain points.

What you’ll learn:

What is a go-to-market strategy? Why is a go-to-market strategy important? How to build a go-to-market strategy framework Go-to-market strategy example

What is a go-to-market strategy?  

A go-to-market strategy is a step-by-step plan for introducing a new product to buyers. This includes market, customer, and competitive research that uncovers problems your product can solve. Creating a buyer persona lets you target prospects with key messaging that emphasizes your product’s unique problem-solving value.

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Why is a go-to-market strategy important?

A well-crafted GTM strategy ensures target buyers see your product, understand and appreciate its value, and are compelled to buy. As Howard Brown, CEO of Revenue.io put it , “Meeting expectations early and often builds trust and is the foundation of any successful partnership.”

You can launch a product without a go-to-market strategy, but buyers who really need your product might not see or appreciate its value. They might turn to competitors who are already established in the marketplace and are percieved to be stable. In the early stage, it’s normal for someone to see your solution and say, “Oh, you’re just like [competitor],” even if they don’t offer what you offer. Research bears this out, especially for smaller companies. Of startups that fail, more than a third do so because there was no identified market need. 

How to build a go-to-market strategy framework

A successful go-to-market strategy requires understanding your market, prioritizing buyers’ pains, and identifying your competitive advantage. Building a framework around these four elements can help deliver your product in a way that makes it “ready to buy.” Let’s run through how to do that in six steps.

1. Create your buyer persona

Selling is about delivering value to your target buyer, and that often takes the form of a solution to a unique problem. To make sure you’re targeting the right problem, build out a buyer persona that connects their pain points to your solution.

To surface this detail, you’ll start with your existing customers. Dig into customer data in your CRM , conduct interviews with buyers whose problems you’ve solved, and lead market research efforts to see where else these needs surface in your industry. (Check out our comprehensive guide on buyer personas for more guidance.)

If you sell B2B, your team will likely be coordinating a purchase with multiple people at each prospective company. The buying group might include end users, the CFO , an operations lead, and so on. Make sure you include problems and needs for these roles in your buyer persona.

2. Conduct competitive research

Going to market with a new product isn’t just about making sure you solve prospects’ problems. It’s also about separating yourself from the crowd of products already in market. To make sure you’re delivering unique value, conduct research on competitors with similar products to see how they’re positioned. Use these questions to guide you:

• What similar products are already in market?
• What do you offer (features, price, functionality) that your competitors don’t?
• If a competitor’s product is popular, why is it resonating with customers? How can you use that information to frame your own messaging?

If you have an AI-powered CRM, you can likely offload some of this research. Use AI tools to scan sales call transcripts for competitor mentions and pricing information. Pair this with automated online research based on industry, competitor, and product keywords. (Here’s how Sales Cloud does this.) 

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3. map customer problems to your product solutions.

You know your target buyer’s problems. You know what competitors are doing to solve those problems. And, you know what your product offers. It’s time to connect all three and deliver a high-value solution that’s unique in your market. Build out a simple matrix so you can see all three and how they connect. Here’s what this might look like:

Product: Long-lasting, high-performance running shoes with extra arch support priced 20% below similar products Example buyer: Casual runner, mid-40s, median income

To keep the focus on the buyer during this value mapping, review your matrix and ask: “How would my target buyer see or understand this?” That’s a good gut check before you frame your messaging.

4. Develop key messaging for marketing and sales efforts

Using your matrix from the previous step, draft messaging for each prospect problem that shows why your product is uniquely qualified to serve as a solution with proof points to back it up. 

Let’s continue with the example of our shoe buyer. You know from your research that they are between the ages of 40 and 50, like to run as a hobby, and want to stay active despite minor injuries. But, they’re also price-conscious. Here’s what key messaging might look like for this target buyer:

• Problem: Their feet hurt when they run, likely due to prior injuries, muscle strain, or bad shoes. 
• Product value: A pair of running shoes designed with input from an orthopedic surgeon, with research that finds 60% of wearers felt less foot pain after a month.
• What competitors offer: Some shoe brands advertise “extra support” but don’t have medical experts contributing to design or research showing this support works.
• Key message: Running doesn’t have to end when you hit middle age. Buy orthopedist-designed running shoes that keep you on the trail, whatever your age. Don’t believe us? Just ask our runners: 60% of customers in their 40s say they felt less foot pain after a month of running in our shoes.

Complete this messaging for every problem you’ve identified, making sure to demonstrate clear and measurable ROI. You can also emphasize the potential downsides to sticking with the status quo or going with the competition.

5. Identify your sales channels

Now you need to reach your prospective customers. But how do you take your key messaging and combine it with the right buying channel ? Start by identifying the channels your buyers typically use to make a purchase, then select the right strategy to match. Here are the most common strategies:

• Direct sales: This involves a rep talking directly to a customer, building a personal relationship over time before closing a deal. This is perfect for longer sales cycles that require ongoing negotiation, typical for complex products at high price points. These deals are often high-touch, requiring a nurture-heavy strategy with lots of explanation and sharing of valuable resources to build trust.  
• Self-service sales: This strategy is much more hands off, letting customers make a purchase on their own without speaking to a sales rep. Consider this option when you want to make it fast and easy for your customers to buy, and/or when you don’t have a large team to handle individual sales. It works best for simple products that don’t require a lot of explanation and are offered at a low price point. I typically see this strategy with B2C business models, where customers can buy products on a website, but I also see it with SaaS companies that offer subscriptions. For example, Salesforce lets small-business owners buy software through the Salesforce Starter page. 
• Partner sales : Consider this strategy, also known as channel sales, if you want to get your product to market quickly without adding headcount. It’s ideal for smaller, resource-strapped companies launching a simple product that’s relatively low-cost, but best sold directly through reps because it requires some assistance with delivery, onboarding, or setup. The big benefit here is broader market reach via preferred vendors like online marketplaces, resellers, and third-party distributors. 

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6. go to market and measure results.

With the core elements of your go-to-market strategy in place, it’s time to get your product to the right buyers. As you ramp up marketing and sales on your channel(s) of choice, start tracking total units sold, prospect engagement and objections, and sales cycle length. You can do this easily with an AI-powered sales analytics tool that delivers insights in real-time. 

If you lag behind expectations, consider adjusting elements of your go-to-market strategy to compensate. Go through the steps above again periodically (at least once a quarter) to make sure your research and persona are up-to-date. By surfacing any new needs or problems of your target buyers, you can adjust messaging to keep customers interested.

Go-to-market strategy example

Mary, a software as a service (SaaS) company founder, is working on launching her new product to the market. Mary has created an innovative solution that automates data entry for companies with high volumes of customer information to manage. Her soft launch was a success, and she’s ready to sell.

To make sure she’s bringing in the right prospects, Mary develops a buyer persona based on conversations with her current customers, and conducting market research. After a few weeks, she lands on the target buyer: mid-sized retailers that take a lot of customer orders online and by phone. The problem: the only other software providers on the market are too expensive for mid-sized companies, and their solutions take too long to get up and running.

With this as a guide, Mary decides on key messaging:

• Spending your weekend entering customer orders (only to ship them too late)?
• Automate your data entry to save your weekends and keep customers happy.

Mary also knows from customer conversations that she needs a sales team to engage with prospects – it’s a long-term investment for her customers, so they need to see demos before they commit. So, she hires 10 sales reps to start conducting outreach and connecting with prospective customers.

Within a few weeks, the team has scheduled demos and is having in-person meetings. She even lands some initial clients, who find the software easy to set up out of the box and affordable for their budgets. Most of them are impressed with how it works, but there’s a problem: people say they need more app integrations to make data management easier. That’s excellent feedback, so Mary takes it to her team. After some investigation, they land on the top 10 most requested apps to start. As customers start using Mary’s software with the app integrations, they see real time savings for their teams. Because they don’t have to spend extra time entering customer data manually, they can also save on headcount and ensure customer orders are shipped promptly. Within a few months, Mary saw a 40% increase in sales, with many customers saying they’ll write positive product reviews and refer their friends.

Build your customer base with a strong go-to-market strategy

A go-to-market strategy may seem like more fuss than it’s worth, but it helps you accomplish the most important task in sales: solving customer problems. Just keep in mind that it’s not a “one and done” effort. Continually monitor your sales and customer engagement to see how you can adapt your strategy to meet evolving buyer needs. 

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Richard has more than 20 years of SaaS experience and teaches revenue teams how to earn the right to ask questions, which questions to ask, and when to do it. Richard’s clients include Zoom, Salesforce, Google Cloud, PagerDuty, DoorDash, Salesloft, and Gainsight. He’s also the co-founder of Surf & Sales.

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Examples of Manufacturing Strategy Development

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Although management and marketing play a major role in any company's success, manufacturing strategies can mean the difference between success and failure for many corporations. Companies must develop a manufacturing strategy that plays up their strengths and pits them competitively in their market. Developing a manufacturing strategy that suits a company's strengths is essential not only to maintain the supply chain to customers, but to ensure the company remains competitive within its market.

Flexible Manufacturing

Firms that adopt a flexible manufacturing strategy develop a manufacturing process that's easily customizable to fit ever-changing market solutions. These systems stress the process' ability to make modifications to their product quickly and adapt to changes in the volume of goods produced. Manufacturers that employ this strategy attempt to remain competitive by allowing for small-run batches and the ability to cheaply customize their products for clients to provide an advantage. Flexibility also allows manufacturers who employ this strategy to adapt to market changes more readily than competitors with other strategies.

Lean Manufacturing

Lean manufacturing strategies, also known as just-in-time manufacturing, aims to make the manufacturing process as efficient as possible by eliminating inventories and streamlining the manufacturing process to reduce wasted labor and materials. Companies that employ this strategy must employ workers with multiple skill sets to assume different roles as needed, and must develop a process that produces a high percentage of goods that passes quality control on the first pass. By maximizing efficiency, companies who use lean manufacturing plan to reduce costs and make themselves more competitive in the market.

Service Based Manufacturing

Often employed by companies with established customer bases or by those that sell goods with a low profit margin, this strategy attempts to focus profitability not on the initial sale of a good, but on continued aftermarket purchases. This strategy may focus on providing spare parts for goods with a long lifespan, or leasing big-ticket items for a limited term and providing full service to the product during the course of the lease term. This strategy puts a premium on producing profits not from sales of the item, but on aftermarket sales and service.

Determining Your Strategy

Developing a manufacturing strategy is a difficult proposition for any company. A manufacturing strategy should be developed alongside a company's marketing and corporate philosophy, and should cater to the end needs of the distributor. While the type of manufacturing a company produces -- single piece vs. multiple items, low volume vs. high volume -- may impact a strategy, manufacturing needs and capabilities should also be considered. Just as there are many business philosophies that may fit inside an industry, no single manufacturing strategy works best in any situation.

• Reference for Business: Flexible Manufacturing
• Production and Operation Management Society; Service Based Manufacturing Strategies; Ulf Karlsson

Wilhelm Schnotz has worked as a freelance writer since 1998, covering arts and entertainment, culture and financial stories for a variety of consumer publications. His work has appeared in dozens of print titles, including "TV Guide" and "The Dallas Observer." Schnotz holds a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from Colorado State University.

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