Digital Marketing Best Practices for Manufacturers

Written by Chelsea Carter | May 24, 2020

Many manufacturers still rely on classic marketing methods to promote their brands such as trade shows, word-of-mouth referrals, and networking events. However, today's industrial buyers are more educated and are determined to avoid sales teams. 70% of the industrial buyer’s journey is done prior to talking to sales teams, and most prospective buyers are looking at your brand online as a part of their research process. Digital marketing is an effective way to stand out amongst your competitors.

Digital marketing is the use of the Internet, mobile devices, social media, search engines, and other channels to reach consumers.

Popular examples of digital marketing are

Content Marketing

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Social Media
Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)
Affiliate Marketing.
Email Marketing

Digital Marketing Practices

Keep Goals In Mind

The best way to ensure your business succeeds in digital marketing, is to create a set of attainable and measurable goals. These goals allow your business to strategically organize marketing efforts and allow you to set timely deadlines.

Examples of strong goals are

Increase leads by 50% over the next six months
Increase revenue by $10,000 by acquiring three new clients
Increase sales by 150% this year

Name recognition best practices

One of the best ways to improve lead generation and direct sales numbers is to increase brand awareness and strengthen the image of your company.

Social media marketing - Social media is a great way to engage with your market and increase brand recognition
Focus on building engagement. Sales are a byproduct of engagement. To build an effective marketing strategy, don’t focus on every platform at once. Instead, concentrate on building an audience on the platform where your buyer’s spend their time
Guest blogging - Guest blogging is an effective way to get brand recognition. Your content is published on other sites while back-linked to yours, which improves search engine rankings
Use analytics - HubSpot connects blog performance data to customer analytics. This data can be useful when obtaining prospective clients, reporting on blog engagement, and building marketing strategies

Email Marketing

Once you have collected a decent-sized audience, you can create a targeted email list designed to turn leads into customers. 59% of customers say email market campaigns influenced their purchasing decision. Using a CRM like HubSpot, you are able to create effective email nurture campaigns using personalized information.

Invest in Website Development

In the digital age, a website is arguably the most crucial element of your marketing strategy. Procurement specialists visit websites as part of their research before becoming qualified leads. Your website should be designed in a way that it offers value and is considered a digital business card.

Items To Consider Using In Your Web Design

Modern and minimalist designs
Ecommerce storefronts
Lead forms
Call to Actions (CTAs)
Videos

Integrating these features onto a website is able to boost its effectiveness by a huge margin. On average, every $1 invested in User Interface Design brings in $100.

Use Digital Advertising

Google discovered that 67% of purchases for multiple industrial manufacturing and pack-and-ship industries have been influenced by digital means. Additionally, 58% of B2B industrial manufacturer purchasers begin online research with a particular product prior to following up with a brand. Digital advertising is an effective and easy way to ensure your product gets found by pre-qualified buyers.

Examples of Digital Advertising

PPC Ads - Pay-per-Click (PPC) is a text-based ad popular on search engines and blogs. PPC allows you to get a link and description in front of many readers, and you will only have to pay if they are clicked on
Display Ads - Display ads are photo and animation based ads that link to an affiliate site
Social Media Ads - Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn host text-based and visuals ads that can be targeted to various audiences
Video Ads - Video ads are 15 and 30 second commercials that are often streamed on video hosting platforms and on the sidebar of many websites

Video Production

Video is one of the most popular forms of content online. By creating effective video content you are able to generate a larger mindshare with consumers and display various services and products your business offers.