A proper digital marketing strategy for manufacturers will enhance the ability of manufacturers to connect with modern buyers. What do you want to do in your digital marketing strategy to get beneficial results as a manufacturer? The following factors should be your priority.
- Get high-ranked in search of your key topics
- Your target audience should find you easily when they search for topics of your business
- Deliver helpful content to become a genuine source of information for your prospects
- Engage online on different social media platforms
- Focus on creating effective digital marketing strategies to grow your business organically
Think of your website as a platform to invest in digital marketing and not just an expenditure. As a manufacturer, it is true that your focus is going to manufacture the best quality products.
But when it comes to investing on a website for a targeted topic, SEO company in India, digital marketing, and content development, most of them would think of it as an “additional” expense.
Consider digital marketing as a long term investment instead of an expenditure. Because it is the most effective way to stand out online and get a competitive edge. Commit to a strategy, optimize your website, create content, and promote!
Otherwise, you will rely on traditional outbound techniques like cold calls, sending out boring emails, list buying, and ads. It may or may not be successful, but it will surely be very expensive.
On the contrary, digital marketing will slowly and steadily get you results without too much expenditure. The reason is, it’s a strategic decision and not a one-time investment like the traditional outbound techniques.
Why should a manufacturer prioritize a digital marketing strategy? The simple answer is because your target audience wants you to have one. They want you online, they want to see helpful content and be available when they need you.
You provide them with actionable solutions, they become your loyal visitors. This increases your chances of conversion and turning visitors into customers. 95% of the B2B searches start with an online search.
What should be the key elements in digital marketing for manufacturers?
Value for customers:
This is one of the most important elements to consider in a digital marketing strategy for manufacturers. Unless your prospects feel that they will benefit from it, why would they invest in something?
The first step of digital marketing for manufacturers will be to specify how you help them in resolving their problems. Focus on creating a strategy that clearly defines the value you add. Only then, your target audience and prospects will consider your services valuable.
Once you define how a digital marketing strategy will help a manufacturer, then it is time to promote your services.
Targeting the audience:
To get the attention of your target audience, it is important to define your ideal client. There are a lot of digital marketing companies available. So, why should a manufacturer feel that you are different from the others? The following factors will let you differentiate yourself.
- Who can you help the most?
- Highlight your unique perspective
- What are the products/services that you make the most profit from?
- Observe the common behavior of your profitable/loyal clients
- Who can refer you to high-value prospects?
It is imperative that your prospects can differentiate between you and your other competitors. In most of the cases, the buyers prioritize the pricing aspects. This is why while creating a digital marketing plan for manufacturers, be specific about the target market.
You can focus on a certain technology, a particular industry or solve a specific problem. Identify the ideal buyer persona, you can create content that will speak directly towards resolving their issues.
That’s how you convince a manufacturer to invest in creating a website, SEO, digital marketing, and more. If you don’t focus on the ideal customer, your competition will be doing it, making your life difficult.
Lead generation
Lead generation activities will help you communicate the message regarding the kind of services you will provide. It is recommended that you opt for a combination of inbound marketing, outbound marketing, and direct sales proposition.
Inbound marketing helps you in attracting prospects using the website, SEO, PPC, social media marketing, blogging, and more. Outbound marketing includes a bit more traditional advertising tactics like direct mail, trade journals, trade shows, advertising, and public relations.
Sales prospecting will cover the activities that your sales team will engage in for generating leads. These include warm calling, networking, and referral generation. A good digital marketing strategy for manufacturing should include all of these three.
The key to creating an effective online marketing strategy is to test small and then scale up with what delivers the best result. Follow the KPI’s for measuring every tactic. Then hold your team accountable for the ultimate results that you want to see. That’s how you generate revenue.
Converting your leads to customers
This is the buyer journey. A major aspect of creating a successful digital marketing tactic is to understand the buyer’s perspective. To study the buyer’s perspective, consider the following factors.
- How do the buyers consume information about the solutions they need?
- What triggers them to like one company and dislike the other?
- The time taken by the buyers to opt for a certain product or service
- How do the prospects interact with the salesperson?
- Do they prefer demos or sample runs to form an opinion?
- In what way do they want you to present the solutions? The price? The delivery or the service?
The common factor among all these questions is how will they know about you, trust you, and invest in you. This is all about the buyer persona.
Digital marketing for your existing customers
Creating a digital marketing strategy for manufacturers is not only about new customer acquisition. A good manufacturing marketing will also depend on whether you are delivering enough value to the existing customers. The present customers should buy more frequently and buy more per transaction.
The strategy should include who is buying from you, how much, how often, and when. Then you used the marketing tactics to find new customers and also apply it to the existing customers. Keep helping your customers, continue educating them, and stay in touch with your customer base.
With an efficient digital marketing strategy, you can win in the marketplace. The tactics help you implement the steps for executing the strategy. A lot of companies execute marketing tactics well but they lack a coherent strategy. This is mostly the case with small and medium businesses.
It is important to define why you are capable of delivering value to your audience. Communicate specifically on their benefits. Then figure out what needs to happen to get them the benefits. That’s how you have a strategy for digital marketing for a manufacturer.
