For manufacturers, finding clients manually or waiting for them to knock on your door is a thing of the past. These days, you can take matters into your own hands by leveraging the power of digital marketing.
How can you get started with digital marketing in the manufacturing industry today?
Although it may seem somewhat mysterious at first, succeeding with digital marketing can be pretty straightforward. Here are some valuable tips for getting users to arrive at your doorstep.
1. Design an Amazing Website
The first step to a viable digital marketing campaign is to create a functional website. A solid manufacturing website will showcase your best work, provide contact information, and be able to accept orders. Here are some examples from our own project archives:
- Sargent Metal — fabricated metal products for a wide range of industries and the military.
- Inman Mills — textile manufacturing
- ECS and Thermal Solutions — industrial combustion support for manufacturers
- Warptek — fabric warping specialists
These websites are gorgeous and lead visitors toward learning more about their respective companies and product offerings.
2. Showcase Your Capabilities
Building on the point above, your new or updated manufacturing website should highlight your company’s capabilities. You want your visitors to like and trust your company enough to continue the conversation over the phone or email. What is the best way to hype up your services to the website guests? Impress them with everything you’ve got!
Here are some tips for making your manufacturing website sing:
- Get them excited: Display videos or images directly in your hero section to show potential leads what you do.
- Be a trusted manufacturer: Place successful contracts and/or projects you’ve completed in a portfolio area to highlight your success.
- Be more than meets the eye: Provide access to beautiful factory floor and product photos in a gallery section to show more of what you do and how you do it.
- Be the trusted industry experts: Allow satisfied customers to vouch for your service(s) at the bottom of any web page.
- Make it your own: Add any desired section or element that makes your manufacturing company shine. You know what makes you unique — highlight it!
There are countless ways to showcase your manufacturing capabilities, so take the time to incorporate everything possible into your website.
3. Get a Google Business Profile
Trust is a huge factor in the digital marketing world, and you can rack up big points with a custom Google Business Profile (GBP). A Google Business Profile is a directory of verified businesses that users (and search engines) can visit to look up basic information about an organization. Not only will a GBP boost your authority in the eyes of Google, but it will also provide the following benefits. A GBP:
- Verifies the authenticity of your organization
- Instills trust in customers
- Hosts reviews from past customers
- Generates a trusted ‘star’ rating for your company
- Displays your exact location on an interactive map
- Provides an online place for others to link to your services
- Accelerates indexing by Google and other search engines (meaning you have a better chance of showing up online when people search for your service offering)
Creating a GBP is easy and free, making it an essential step in digital marketing for manufacturing companies. (See our full guide here).
4. Spend Time on Keyword Research
Keywords are extremely important in SEO for manufacturing companies and should take up the biggest chunk of your marketing resources. This means that you should find the top keywords that will bring the most traffic to your website and have the highest chances of scoring orders.
After compiling keyword lists, go out there and do everything you can to make it easy for searchers to find you. For instance, get some backlinks for your domain and for some added SEO power.
Keyword research and strategic SEO take an enormous effort to plan out and execute. At the same time, it’s one of the most important marketing activities your manufacturing organization could (and should) be doing throughout the year.
At the very least, you should have one person working on and monitoring your SEO to get as much traction as possible. Or, you could free up your time by outsourcing your SEO to a reputable marketing firm. Engenius is known for top-notch SEO in the manufacturing industry, and we’re ready to cater to your needs. Click here to schedule a free 30-minute consultation about your SEO goals, and rest assured that your manufacturing company will get exceptional amounts of exposure.
5. Generate Informative and Inspiring Content
When it comes to manufacturing industry content, intrigue and interest are the ways to go. Dull and boring content can only drive users away from your brand…which is ultimately detrimental to your bottom line. Attract search users with colorful, informative, and shareable content. Then, work to cover all your bases by creating content in all formats: written, graphic, video, and audio.
6. Brand Yourself on Social Media
Believe it or not, social media is a powerful channel for your manufacturing digital marketing campaign. Platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn all contribute to branding dominance. In fact, Google regularly points search users toward social media posts that are linked to search intent!
Here are some manufacturing social media post ideas to help you get more B2B clients:
YouTube Video Tours
If you have a bustling factory floor, then you have everything you need to get your future clients excited about your services. Start with a video tour of your production floor, then pan over to your storage areas, and then around the corner to your loading docks. These will be your most popular videos because they reveal each station in detail so that B2B representatives don’t have to book a flight to visit your facilities.
LinkedIn Manufacturing Trends
Many companies search for manufacturers on LinkedIn, and yours could become the most discovered business around! Create and post insights about the manufacturing industry and current trends that will help brands stay competitive.
Facebook Business Pages
Facebook has direct access to just about everyone on the planet with an internet connection, making it a powerful influence in the manufacturing world. Create posts that give viewers a reason to ‘like’ or ‘share’ them!
Trust Your Manufacturing Digital Marketing to Engenius
Manufacturing is a strong industry that depends on obtaining and fulfilling orders for clients. The good news is that the internet now allows anyone to find manufacturing services — a feat that was impossible a few years ago. Digital marketing is the key to getting as many leads as possible, and you can succeed by following the tips outlined above.
Digital marketing is rather effective in the world of manufacturing, but it does take quite a bit of manpower to achieve. If you’re looking for the most efficient way to leverage digital marketing for manufacturing to your advantage, then a professional firm is worth your while. At Engenius, we’ve been working with manufacturers on strategic marketing efforts since 2008.
Our digital marketing firm is ready to complete all the hard work for you, from conducting keyword research to helping you refine your web design. Click here to get your free 30-minute consultation and power up your digital marketing right away.
