Digital Marketing For Manufacturers
If there was ever a time to invest in digital marketing for manufacturers it is now. Digital Transformation for manufacturers is currently valued at $263 billion dollars and is expected to reach $767 billion by the year 2026, leaving no doubt about its growing importance in the industry.
The standard way of referrals and networking is valuable but digital referrals are the future of manufacturing. Having the ability to drive consistent highly qualified leads to a website outperforms those costly trade shows every single time.
That said, today we will be justifying digital marketing for manufacturers and identifying the best digital marketing methods a manufacturing company can leverage to see more leads.
- December 30, 2022
- Justifying Digital Marketing For Manufacturers
- What To Focus On
- SEO – Search Engine Optimization
- Google Advertising
- Website Design
- Digital Marketing For Manufacturers – Final Word
Justifying Digital Marketing For Manufacturers
If there is one thing almost every manufacturing company hates, it’s digital marketing. The issue is that many manufacturers cannot justify investing in digital marketing when they have seen little to no results with it during past investments. This usually means the budget for digital marketing is either small or nonexistent.
However, The truth of the matter is that digital marketing does work, it just needs to be different for manufacturers. Following “marketing experts” who claim to understand the marketing of multiple industries just isn’t going to cut it when it comes to actually getting results.
We have found that digital marketing for manufacturers should consist of the following: Industry specific SEO, Sales Driven Web Design, & Extremely Targeted Advertisements.
The reason digital marketing may have failed you in the past is for one of three reasons. Either the proper prospect research was not done, you failed to create a proper inbound funnel, or you weren’t patient enough. If you had been, you would find that there are plenty of companies & entrepreneurs in need of your manufacturing services, they just weren’t correctly targeted and guided.
However, we don’t blame your failure. The truth is that there is almost no information out there about digital marketing for manufacturers and the information is usually false or just a copy-and-paste plan from other industry strategies. Now that we have covered that, let’s jump into eliminating these mistakes and refining the process.
What To Focus On
I’m sure there is plenty of noise coming from marketers pulling you in the direction of social media advertising, or cold emailing. The truth is that nobody on social media is looking for manufacturing services, and cold emails get ignored or blocked. Manufacturers have survived and will continue to survive off of referrals. However, the game has changed and digital referrals have turned into a driving force in the success of many manufacturers who have invested in their digital presence.
What we have found most effective is to bring traffic to a manufacturing company rather than chase after prospects. Companies are searching Google for manufacturing services daily. In fact, the word “contract manufacturing” is searched almost 5,000 times every month.
That being said the greatest focus of a manufacturing company should be building its digital referrals and authority through SEO- search engine optimization, website design, and Google advertisements.
SEO - Search Engine Optimization For Manufacturers
SEO is the process of optimizing a website for organic visibility. This means that with the proper SEO strategy and integration a manufacturing company can rank in Google’s SERPs – Search Engine Result Pages. This is especially valuable for manufacturers because it guarantees consistent and highly qualified leads.
For instance, a manufacturing company that optimizes for the keyword “precision manufacturing company” will receive consistent traffic from searchers of that keyword. Although from a long-term perspective SEO is cheaper and more profitable than Google ads, it can take substantial time to see results. Based on our experience at the agency we have noticed that it typically takes manufacturers anywhere from 3-12 months to start seeing organic visibility.
Google Advertising
As we have stated, SEO can take some time to kick in, making Google advertising extremely lucrative for driving fast traffic and leads to a manufacturing company. However, Google advertising can be a great tool it requires consistent monthly payments and is less effective at converting users than SEO.
If the company budget is up for it we suggest using both Google advertising and SEO to drive traffic, convert leads, and get jobs.
Website Design
Website design is very overlooked within the manufacturing industry and this is a real issue. Driving all the traffic in the world means nothing if a website is poorly designed and has a bad user experience.
Notice how companies like Xometry have beautiful interactive websites while your standard manufacturing company doesn’t. It is because a lot of manufacturing companies are stuck in the past and refuse to see the value in digital marketing, either that or they cut the budget so thin that results are nearly impossible to obtain.
A website can be thought of as the face of the company in the digital realm. When you are at trade shows or meeting with prospects your not wearing a shirt that is wrinkled and pants that haven’t been washed in years. Rather you make sure to present yourself in a way that reflects the quality and professionality of your company. So why is the same attention not being given to the digital face of your company? Why is there confusion about the lack of digital leads when your website is outdated and the images are stock or not professionally taken? Why is it that the website functions terribly on a mobile interface when that is where the majority of your traffic is coming from?
We encourage each and every manufacturing company out there to put a little more effort and money into their website, as we know it will lead to more job opportunities and a better company image.
Digital Marketing For Manufacturers - Final Word
The truth is that if a company does not fully invest in its digital transformation then it will continue to suffer digitally. It has always taken many months if not years to develop a profitable manufacturing company so why is it that it should be expected to take weeks when done digitally?
We encourage each and every manufacturing company to stop putting their digital marketing on the back burner. For best results, we suggest setting aside 10% of annual revenue for digital growth. Obviously, you can choose to be either more or less aggressive depending on your company’s situation.
