An In-Depth Guide to Digital Marketing for Manufacturers

Table of Contents: 

1. Digital Marketing for Manufacturers
2. Claim Your Google Business Profile
3. How To Use SEO to Market Your Manufacturing Business
4. 10 Tips To Make Your Website Stand Out From the Competition
5. Email Marketing 101
6. How to Use Pay-Per-Click Ads
7. Social Media 101

Adapting to new marketing strategies is not just an option — it’s a necessity in today’s fast-paced manufacturing industry. Dive into our comprehensive guide, where we demystify digital marketing for manufacturers and reveal the secrets to creating an effective marketing strategy for the digital age. Discover the power of inbound marketing and tips that will set you apart in the digital landscape!

A lot has changed in the manufacturing industry over the last few years, including how manufacturing businesses market themselves. Since 2020 there has been a marked increase in internet and email usage by manufacturing and industrial companies — meaning manufacturers increasingly are using digital marketing while placing less emphasis on traditional marketing strategies.

What is Digital Marketing?

In the past, most manufacturers relied on more traditional sources for leads and customers, including word-of-mouth and tradeshows. While these can still be valuable sources, more and more manufacturers are turning to digital marketing.

Digital marketing is creating and executing a strategy to promote your company and products online. A well-executed digital marketing strategy for manufacturers can help you expand into new markets, get more quality leads and customers, increase sales and raise brand awareness.

What Is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound marketing is all about bringing customers to you. 

Inbound marketing focuses on addressing the needs of potential customers by creating relevant content. The goal is to attract visitors to your website, allowing them to explore your offerings at their own pace and convenience. It involves producing valuable content and online experiences tailored to your potential customers to drive new business.

While it may seem daunting when you are first starting out, inbound marketing allows you to reach your potential customers at the right stage of their purchasing process and is made easier with the help of good content like a quality website, informative blogs or eBooks, social media posts and email campaigns. When done well, this strategy can help move your target customers through their buyer’s journey and turn them into loyal clients.

Inbound marketing is crucial in today’s competitive manufacturing industry, as it not only provides informative and insightful material that highlights your expertise and positions you as a knowledgeable and helpful business partner but — more crucially — it fits with how industrial and B2B customers do business in the modern world. A whopping 57% of the buying decision-making process is made before a customer even contacts a supplier.

This means potential clients are researching, analyzing, and evaluating you well before they ever get in touch — so you better make a good impression online.

How Do I Use Inbound Marketing in My Shop?

Setting up a digital marketing strategy as a small or mid-sized manufacturing business can be intimidating, especially if you don’t have a dedicated marketing department. But we’re here to help! Remember, not everything has to be done right from the start. But, with some dedicated effort, you can build a strong strategy over time — and begin to reap the results of your hard work.

Before you create a full-fledged marketing strategy, spend some time thinking about who your potential customers are and what their buyer’s journey is like. 

Define Who Your Customers Are

To create content pertinent to your audience and keep you front of mind, it is essential to have a thorough grasp of your buyer and their motives. Take a minute to ask yourself (and everyone in your shop) who are our customers? What are their needs, habits, goals and challenges?

You may even want to develop target personas, which are fictionalized representations of your ideal client based on data collected from your current clients and market research. Manufacturers generally have more than one target buyer persona, such as procurement managers, engineers, operational managers, etc., so you will want to create content that speaks to each.

Define Your Buyer’s Journey

Your buyer’s journey is just that — the process your buyer moves through when they decide to buy a product from you. It starts with them identifying their need, researching potential suppliers, and evaluating and making the final purchase decision. Often, manufacturers deal with particular needs and long sales cycles, which can be challenging, but you can still create relevant and engaging content for your customers and help them to get to know you through your website, online business listings, case studies and social media. 

Create a Marketing Strategy

Once you have a good grasp on your target customer and their buyer’s journey, you can start to create a marketing strategy.

To ensure you’re optimizing your time and effort — and you can track your progress — it’s critical to set some goals for your marketing strategy (for example, increase leads by a certain percentage each quarter). Then, you should specify the particular approach or approaches you plan to use to accomplish your objective(s). With well-defined goals, as you carry out your strategy, you can measure your progress, evaluate what’s working, and know when to change things up when things aren’t.

Claim Your Google Business Profile

Online visibility is vital to your business, and maintaining your company’s visibility on Google is essential to attracting new customers. To take charge of your internet presence and visibility, you must ensure you have an accurate and up-to-date Google Business Profile.

What is Google My Business?

A Google Business Profile, also known as a Google My Business listing, is a free tool offered by Google that allows businesses to manage their online presence across various Google platforms, including Google Maps and Google Search. Essentially, a Google Business Profile is a detailed business listing that includes your business’s name, address, phone number, website, hours of operation, photos, reviews and more.

A Google Business Profile aims to provide potential customers with accurate and relevant information about your business, making it easier for them to find and connect with you. By creating and maintaining a Google Business Profile, your business can improve its visibility in Google search results and on Google Maps and increase its chances of being discovered by potential customers. You can also interact with your audience through messaging and responding to customer reviews. 

A Google Business Profile is a crucial aspect of online marketing and can help businesses of all sizes attract more customers and grow their online presence.

Why You Need to Claim Your Google Business Profile

• An accurate and up-to-date profile will increase the visibility of your business in local search results. When a potential customer searches for a manufacturing business in their area, Google will display relevant search results with information about each company, including their address, phone number, hours of operation and customer reviews. By claiming your Google Business Profile, you will ensure that you appear in these search results, that your information is accurate, and that you are being represented positively.
• A Google Business Profile can help your manufacturing business to engage with your customers and build your reputation. By responding to customer reviews, companies can show that they care about their customers and are willing to address any issues they may have. Positive reviews can encourage potential customers to choose one manufacturing business over another. 
• Use your profile to highlight your unique selling points, such as the quality of your products or your excellent customer service — plus, you can showcase your products and services through photos and videos. 

How to Claim Your Google Business Profile

Claiming a Google Business Profile is a straightforward process that involves a few simple steps:

• Go to Google My Business: Go to the Google My Business website at https://www.google.com/business/ and click the “Manage now” button.
• Sign In: Sign in to the Google account you want to use to manage your business profile.
• Find Your Business: Search for your business by name and location. If your business appears, click on it. If it doesn’t appear, click on the “Add your business to Google” button and follow the instructions to add your business to Google.
• Verify Your Business: Google will need to verify that you are the owner of the business. You’ll be asked to choose a verification method, such as receiving a postcard or a phone call. Once you receive the verification code, enter it into your Google My Business account to complete the process.
• Optimize Your Profile: Once you’ve verified your business, you can begin optimizing your profile by adding photos, updating your business information and responding to customer reviews.

Get Help

There are many helpful resources to help you claim your Google Business Profile if you run into a snag. Google provides instructions on how to do it or check out this video that walks you through the steps and can help you troubleshoot some common problems, like if your profile was claimed by someone who no longer works at your company. This is also a helpful resource that you can use if your Google business profile has already been claimed by someone else.

Claiming and optimizing your Google Business Profile can help potential customers find your business more easily and improve your online presence. 

10 Tips To Make Your Website Stand Out From the Competition

An engaging website is the most effective marketing tool your small manufacturing business can have. Your website must be accurate, informative, user-friendly and easy to navigate to attract potential customers: You have a very short amount of time to make a good first impression as people typically decide within 5-15 seconds of clicking onto your site whether they want to continue browsing or not. 

Before a potential client ever contacts you in person, they will have spent time researching and checking you out online, so you need an effective website that makes it easy for them to figure out who you are and what you do. As all of your other marketing channels — like email campaigns or PPC ads — will also point toward your website, it needs to act as a 24/7 salesperson and be the cornerstone of your marketing efforts. 

Get the Basics Right

It’s surprising how many companies don’t get the basics right. Ensure that your website clearly and accurately communicates who you are, what you do, and how to reach you. 

Ensure that you clearly describe your business.

Visitors to your website need to know who you are and what you do at a glance. One way to do this is by using visual representations of your services in your main homepage banner (also known as the ‘hero image’) and subsequent page banners. But, also be sure to include an introductory text blurb near the top of your homepage that clearly states who you are and what your business offers.

Another way to make it easy for people to learn more about your business is to ensure that your About Us page links are readily available on your main and footer navigation menus. This lets visitors easily find and delve deeper into the details of your business.

Put your contact information where it is easy to see.

If your business’s success depends on customers reaching you or your sales team, make sure that your contact information is prominently displayed — ideally above the fold on your homepage — so that visitors don’t have to search for a phone number or address. If you use social media to connect with your customers, include social links in your website’s header or footer, where they can be easily found.

Make sure your website is accurate.

Nothing turns somebody off more than finding inaccurate information on your website, whether it be a wrong number, out-of-date product information, or a basic grammatical mistake. Periodically check each page for accuracy, especially after making updates elsewhere, and proofread everything before it goes live. 

Be Personal and Unique

Your website is all about selling your brand, so take the time to personalize it.

Make your website unique, just like you are. Think of ways to make you and your branding stand out from the crowd, and even invest a bit of money into this. Always follow good web design practices, but let some of your personality shine through, too. High-quality online experiences are essential to attracting customers to your business, so spending a little time and money on this is worthwhile.

Your About Us page should also not just be a dry block of text about your company: The people who work at your company are unique; use images of your team to personalize your business and stand out from your competition.

Create Customer-centric Content

To rank higher on search engines and retain website visitors, regularly publish quality content on your website. Good content not only helps with SEO but also encourages people to visit your site over and over again.

Make sure your website is customer-oriented. 

To engage with prospective customers and increase sales, consider what your customers want and need when planning website content. Think about what information would be helpful to them and what level of knowledge they may have. Use this knowledge as a jumping-off point to create content that gives potential clients something of value. Good content builds trust so that, over time, you can form a long-term relationship with readers that results in a sale.

Include testimonials.

Testimonials are a great way to show off your value to potential customers, and they can also help with SEO as they are also a great way to post fresh, high-quality content on your site.

Use Simple and Consistent Design Elements

The design of your website is just as important as the content on it. If you check out any professionally built websites, you’ll notice that they consistently use the same fonts, colors, logos, and styles across every page. That’s because keeping things consistent makes it easier for people to recognize your brand and understand your website. 

Being consistent also saves time when building a website because you don’t have to worry about the look of every element — you already have a defined style in place. Before you create your whole site, determine the styles you will use, including creating a logo, your color palette, and fonts, plus how and where you plan to use them across your site.

If you want your site to be easy to read, try not to use too many different fonts (it’s best to keep to two or three across your website), colors, or GIFs — they can be distracting. Short paragraphs and bullet points also help make things easier to read, so try to stick to paragraphs that are no more than six lines long.

Learn How to Use White Space 

Proper spacing is crucial when it comes to making a good website. It makes your text easier to read, your content more organized, and it helps people focus on the important parts of your page. 

White space (or negative space) is vital to successful website design because it keeps your website from feeling cluttered. When you have white space around your text and titles, you can actually boost user attention by as much as 20%. Plus, having some white space on your site can make it feel modern and fresh, communicating that same feeling about your brand to the user.

Make sure to keep your pages uncluttered.

Readers need to be able to put information in context: White space improves readability and helps you to group content together. When a website contains too much information and is too cluttered, it’s easy to become overwhelmed, and visitors won’t retain what they have learned about you. Be sure to use a good balance of text, images, graphics, and white space to create a clean, uncluttered page to focus your reader’s attention. 

Organize Your Web Content

Few people will read every word on your website, instead, they will scan it to find relevant information. Organize your website content using a visual hierarchy to make it easy for visitors to find the information they want.

A successful visual hierarchy emphasizes the most critical elements while making navigating your site easy for visitors. Professional website designers use various techniques, such as element size, color, contrast, and spacing, to guide a visitor’s attention across the page. 

However, you can simplify this process by following three key rules: prioritize the most crucial elements by placing them at the top of the page and making them larger; use contrasting colors to highlight important elements like CTA buttons; and downplay non-essential details by placing them further down the page and making them smaller.

Create CTAs That Stand Out

Every page on your site needs to have a purpose and should contain a clear CTA, or call to action, that invites a reader to take a specific action, such as calling your company, signing up for a service, buying a product, downloading a whitepaper, or doing something else that benefits your business goals. 

Create CTAs — in the form of a button, link, or action words — that are noticeable and prominently placed on a page. It’s best to have at least one CTA above the fold so that readers do not need to scroll to get to it. Things you can do to make your CTAs stand out include using contrasting colors, incorporating multiple buttons throughout a page, combining a CTA with other elements to make the offer clear, and using different CTAs on each separate web page.

Make Your Site Easy To Navigate

Visitors to your website might not always land on your home page first. You need to ensure that your site is easy to understand and navigate, no matter what page a visitor is on or where they start.

Ensure you have an easy-to-use header bar.

A good header bar makes it easy for people to find the information they need from any page on your site. A good tip to follow is to keep your top menu simple, with only five tabs that are easy to understand. Then, make sure the pages related to each tab are neatly organized underneath it. Also, don’t forget to add a visible link back to the homepage so people can always get there no matter where they are on your site.

Other elements you can use to make your site navigable are: 

• Breadcrumbs show a visitor the path they have taken to get to a specific page. They typically appear at the top of the page and show the different pages visited, like a map. Breadcrumbs are helpful because they make it easy to return to the previous pages or other related pages on the website.
• A search bar that allows users to search for specific content or information on your site.
• Links in the body of the text make it easy for people to discover more information about the topics your article discusses. 

• Expandable accordion blocks allow you to delve more deeply into a topic or answer a question without redirecting a visitor to a new webpage. This block lets you include more information without cluttering your page.
  

Use Responsive Design To Look Good on All Devices

Responsive web design means that your website looks good no matter what device someone uses to view it, whether a laptop, tablet, or phone. 

Having a mobile-responsive website is crucial. Not only do most people spend five+ hours on their phones every day — making a positive mobile user experience a must — but a non-mobile-friendly site can also negatively impact your search engine ranking, making it harder for users to find your website when searching on Google. If your site is not easy to read or navigate on a mobile device, potential customers will choose your competitors instead. 

Optimize Your Website for SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a series of techniques you can use on your website to ensure that it is properly indexed and ranked by search engines, which increases its visibility to potential users. Once search engines crawl a website, it competes with similar websites, meaning that having high-quality design and content can improve your ranking and visibility on search engine result pages and put you ahead of your competition.

Things you can do to improve SEO are:

• A mobile-friendly site that is easy to navigate on mobile devices.
• Optimal website code that is free of errors and is easy for search engines to understand.
• Fast loading speeds ensure users don’t lose patience waiting for your site to load.
• Being secure and having an SSL certificate installed to protect user data.
• Using keywords throughout your site to improve search engine ranking.
• High-quality backlinks from external websites with related content to drive traffic to your site.
• Encouraging positive reviews on Google, Yelp, Facebook, and other platforms to establish credibility.
• Internal links throughout your site to guide users to related content and improve navigation.
• Using social media to link to your site and reach a wider audience on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and other platforms.

Your website is the most important tool you have to market your business. Creating a great website takes time and effort, but your effort will pay off and help you effectively market your business and attract new customers. 

How To Use SEO to Market Your Manufacturing Business

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, increases your online presence and drives potential customers to your website. 

81% of B2B (business-to-business) transactions start with an online search, so SEO is every bit as important to your manufacturing business as it is to online retailers. 

Simply put, SEO helps you get found by Google and other search engines so your customers can find you. If your website doesn’t rank high in search results, you’re missing out on a lot of potential customers.

—The top three Google search results get 100 times as many clicks as ALL of the page two results combined—

What Is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the process of improving the visibility and ranking of a website or web page in search engine results pages (SERPs) for particular keywords and phrases. SEO aims to boost the volume and quality of organic (unpaid) search engine traffic to a website.

SEO involves various techniques and strategies, such as optimizing website structure and content, building backlinks, conducting keyword research, and analyzing website performance using various analytics tools. By implementing these tactics, a business can improve its website’s relevance and authority in the eyes of search engines and ultimately attract more visitors to its site.

Search engine optimization for B2B is not only effective in boosting organic traffic to your website, but it is also a cost-effective method of generating leads: SEO makes sure you get the highest-quality, most relevant traffic to your site — giving you a better chance at converting visitors into leads and customers. 

How Can SEO Help Your Manufacturing Business?

1. Increased Online Visibility and Brand Awareness

SEO helps you grow your online visibility and brand awareness by improving your search engine rankings. Using SEO to optimize your website and content will help your business appear higher in search engine result pages, making it more likely that potential customers will find your company when searching for relevant products or services. 

2. Increased Credibility and Authority

By producing relevant, high-quality content optimized for Google and other search engines, you will demonstrate your business’s expertise and boost your business’s online credibility and authority. This will help you to build trust and influence with potential customers, making them more likely to choose your manufacturing business over others to fulfill their needs.

3. Targeted Traffic and Lead Generation

SEO helps your business generate more targeted traffic and leads by optimizing your website and content for specific keywords and phrases. Not only does this attract more relevant traffic to your website, but the visitors who come to your site are more likely to convert into leads and customers as they actively search for products or services related to your manufacturing business’s offerings.

4. Competitive Advantage

By appearing higher in search engine result pages than your competitors, SEO can give your business a competitive advantage over others in your industry. SEO helps your business attract more traffic and high-quality leads than your competitors, which, over time, can help you gain a larger market share and increase your revenue.

5. Improved Website User Experience

Optimizing your website for search engines also has the added benefit of increasing your website’s user experience. Improving site navigation, page load times and mobile responsiveness boosts your SERP rankings, creates a better user experience and increases potential customers’ engagement with your site.

How To Use SEO to Market Your Manufacturing Company

To rank higher and appear more prominently for specific keywords and phrases, your website will benefit from using a variety of SEO strategies. Ensuring that you adhere to Google and Bing’s recommended practices, your website will get more organic traffic by placing higher in search engine results. 

With a few simple steps, you can optimize your website and content to rank in search results and bring in more high-quality visitors. Here are the most effective ways to use SEO to market your company:

Keyword Research

Start by researching the keywords and phrases your target audience uses to search for products or services like yours. Use keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Moz to identify high-volume, low-competition keywords. You can use these tools to determine the search volume, competition, and relevance of different keywords and phrases in your industry, which will help you find the best keywords and phrases for your business to target.

Optimize Your Website Structure and Content

Ensure your website is optimized for search engines by using relevant keywords in your meta tags, headers, and content. Use descriptive URLs, optimize your images, and make sure your site is easy to navigate. Ensure your website is mobile-friendly and has a fast page load speed. These will all help you boost your SEO rankings and improve your website’s overall user experience, encouraging visitors to stay longer on your site.

Create High-Quality Content

High-quality, relevant, and informative content is essential for SEO success. Create blog posts, articles, and other types of content that provide value to your audience and incorporate your target keywords. Good content is essential for SEO because it helps search engines understand what your website is about AND delivers value to your audience.

Build Backlinks 

Backlinks are links from other websites to your site and are an important factor in search engine rankings. Build backlinks by creating high-quality content that other sites will want to link to or by reaching out to other sites in your industry to request a link. Your SEO results will be improved by adding internal and external links to relevant pages on your website and other authoritative websites.

Take Advantage of Analytics 

Use tools like Google Analytics to track your website traffic and see which pages are performing well. Analytics tools can track how much traffic your website receives from organic search, analyze user behavior on your website, including bounce rate, time on site, and pages per session, and monitor the quality and quantity of backlinks to your site. Look for trends over time to see how your SEO efforts are impacting your traffic levels, and use this data to make adjustments to your SEO strategy to continually improve your results.

Email Marketing 101

What is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is a type of digital marketing that involves sending specific messages to a targeted audience via email. These messages can include promotional content, product updates, newsletters, and other information intended to build relationships with subscribers and encourage them to take a desired action, such as making a purchase. 

Email marketing is an effective and cost-efficient way for your business to reach its target audience, build brand awareness, and drive conversions. It can also be highly personalized and targeted, making it an ideal tool for building relationships with customers and keeping them engaged with your brand.

Email Marketing for Manufacturers

Email marketing is a long game for manufacturers, as there are usually many stakeholders involved in a purchasing decision, and purchasing decisions can take months or even longer. 

Some of the tried and tested email marketing strategies that work for B2C (business-to-consumer) businesses won’t work for your B2B (business-to-business) manufacturing company: For example, you can’t create the sense of urgency to push someone into an impulse purchase with a cart abandonment email. But, email marketing can be an effective way to increase sales for a manufacturing business by providing a direct line of communication to potential customers. 

Through targeted and personalized emails, your business can share information about its products and services with interested subscribers, highlighting features, benefits and special offers. 

Email marketing nurtures leads over time, builds relationships with potential customers, and keeps your brand top-of-mind. While it can be easy for your company to get lost in the shuffle that happens when a potential customer looks at all of their options, reevaluates objectives over the time it takes to make a purchasing decision, and becomes preoccupied with day-to-day operations, email marketing tools such as a monthly newsletter can keep you and your message fresh in their minds. 

By staying engaged with your audience through different types of email content, your manufacturing businesses can build customer loyalty, increase repeat purchases, and ultimately drive more sales.

Email Marketing Automation

Email is a great marketing automation tool. Email marketing automation lets you create and schedule email campaigns in advance, segment your email lists based on various criteria, set up triggered emails that are sent based on specific actions or events, and measure the success of your email campaigns through analytics and reports. Automating these tasks can save time, increase efficiency, and improve your overall email marketing performance.

Using email marketing automation, you can create campaigns that send a series of messages to prospective customers whenever they take a specific action. By including clear calls-to-action in these emails, such as a link to a product page or a request for a demo or consultation, you can guide subscribers through the sales process and increase the likelihood of conversion. 

An example of a marketing automation campaign for a manufacturer: 

• A whitepaper or ebook about a type of food manufacturing equipment is downloaded by a prospect, who gives you their email address to access the whitepaper.
• Over the course of a few weeks or even months, you send them a sequence of emails. These emails may include information on how to improve their operations, the time and/or money they can save by using your piece of equipment, and how your equipment can help them improve quality and consistency in their facility.
• Every email includes a new touchpoint and a new call-to-action informing the possible customer that you can give them a quote or other relevant details to help them place an order. 

By sending regular and valuable content to subscribers, you will build long-term relationships with your audience, increase engagement rates, and encourage subscribers to take action.

How To Use Email Marketing in Your Manufacturing Business

Email marketing is a powerful tool for manufacturing businesses looking to increase sales, build customer relationships, and improve brand awareness — however, you must approach it strategically and thoughtfully. Email marketing can be one of your best-performing marketing strategies in terms of ROI, but you can’t just start sending random messages. You must first devise a solid strategy and plan how to use it in your manufacturing business.

Here are some steps to follow when implementing email marketing in your business:

1. Build a Quality Email List

The foundation of any successful email marketing campaign is a quality email list — but this is often where manufacturers make their biggest mistake. Even though building a quality list is more challenging for manufacturers than for companies in other industries, do not purchase an email list; you must take time to grow your list organically. 

There are still several ways to build an effective email list: One option is to offer a free guide, ebook, or whitepaper related to your industry in exchange for an email address. Another option is to collect email addresses at trade shows or events. Over time, you will build up a list of potential buyers so you can start sending out emails.

2. Divide Up Your Email List

Once you’ve built your email list, it’s important to divide it into segments based on various factors, such as industry, job title, and interests. This allows you to send targeted emails to specific groups within your audience, improving the relevance of your messages and increasing engagement.

3. Create Good Content

Quality content is one of the most important — and challenging — things you must do to have a successful email marketing strategy. It’s no use sending out emails if the information you provide isn’t compelling, engaging and relevant. 

To keep your subscribers engaged, you need to create content that prospects will find useful and will encourage them to take action. This could include product updates, industry news, or educational resources related to your products or services. Try to make your content helpful and emotional by addressing common pain points, providing insider tips and tricks, or offering a fresh perspective on an industry trend. Be sure to use a mix of content types, such as blog posts, videos, and infographics, to keep your emails visually interesting.

4. Include Calls-to-Action 

Every email you send should have a clear call-to-action (CTA). This could be a link to a product page, a request to schedule a consultation or demo, or an invitation to attend an event. CTAs help guide subscribers toward the next step in the sales process and increase the likelihood of conversion.

5. Test and Optimize

Like any marketing campaign, email marketing requires ongoing testing and optimization. This could involve testing different subject lines, CTAs, or content formats to see what resonates best with your audience. Use data to track your email performance and make adjustments as needed.

6. Ensure Compliance with Laws and Regulations

Finally, ensuring that your email marketing efforts comply with relevant laws and regulations, such as the CAN-SPAM Act in the United States, is crucial. This includes providing a clear opt-out option and including your business’s physical address in all emails.

With some time and effort — and backed by a solid strategy — you can turn email marketing into one of your company’s most effective marketing tools to increase sales, build customer relationships, and improve brand awareness. 

How To Use PPC and Google Ads to Market Your Business

SEO is a valuable tool that can increase online visibility and brand awareness and is part of a smart digital marketing strategy — but SEO is not always a guarantee. You can’t buy or charm your way onto Google’s top organic page results; instead, you must put in the time, create great content, be patient, and have a little bit (or a lot) of luck. This is why it might be wise for your manufacturing business to spend some money on PPC advertising.

Investing in pay-per-click or PPC advertising and creating compelling ads can quickly place your manufacturing business on search results pages (SERPs). But like with all things related to marketing your business online, you must create an effective strategy — and put in the leg work — to have your advertising dollars pay off.

What is PPC Advertising?

Pay-per-click, or PPC, advertising is a different type of search engine optimization that lets you place ads in the list of results for specific keywords in order to drive paid traffic to your website or landing page to generate leads, sales, or another desired outcome from visitors. As the name suggests, you only pay a fee for the ad when a user clicks on it. While you can experiment with placing ads in many places, including on web pages, social media sites like LinkedIn, or search engine results pages, today, we will focus mainly on Google Ads.

What is Google Ads?

Google Ads is an online advertising platform that lets you create and display ads on Google’s search engine results page (SERP) and other Google properties. With Google Ads, you can easily create and target ads to customers actively looking for goods or services associated with your company.

Benefits of PPC and Google Ads

PPC advertising can help you reach a wider audience, gain a competitive advantage, and grow your business. One of the biggest advantages of PPC advertising is that you can create highly targeted ads specific to your products or services and focus on reaching your ideal customers. 

PPC advertising can help you broaden your reach and gain a competitive advantage by appearing at the top of search engine results pages. This is especially important for small custom manufacturing businesses, as you may not have the resources to compete with larger, more established players in the market in terms of SEO. But, by using targeted keywords and compelling ad copy, you can ensure that your ads are visible to potential customers looking for your products or services.

9 Steps To Follow To Create an Effective PPC Campaign

PPC advertising can be a powerful way to improve your brand recognition, reach a wider audience, and grow your business — but to be truly effective, it is crucial to understand which keywords to target and how your different buyer personas might search online. 

Follow these nine steps to implement an effective PPC campaign:

1. Identify your target audience: Determine your ideal customers and what keywords they might use to search for your products or services.
2. Set your goals: Determine what you want to achieve with your ads, such as driving website traffic, generating leads, or increasing sales.
3. Choose your campaign type: Select the campaign type that best aligns with your goals, such as search ads, display ads, or video ads.
4. Create your ad groups: Create ad groups organized by theme or keyword within your campaign. This will help you create more relevant ads that resonate with your target audience.
5. Craft compelling ad copy: Write engaging ad copy with a clear value proposition and a strong call-to-action. This will help your ads stand out and encourage users to click through to your website.
6. Set your budget and bidding strategy: Determine how much you want to spend on your ads and choose a bidding strategy that aligns with your goals.
7. Launch your campaign: Once you’ve created your ads, set your budget and bidding strategy, and completed your targeting, launch your campaign.
8. Monitor your performance: Use Google Ads’ reporting and analytics tools to track your performance and adjust as needed. This can include changing your targeting, bidding strategy, ad copy, and budget to improve your results.
9. Continuously optimize your campaign: As you gather more data on your campaign’s performance, make ongoing optimizations to improve your results. This includes testing new ad copy, targeting options, and bidding strategies.

Social Media 101

Social media is a robust business marketing tool manufacturers can use to reach a wider audience, build brand awareness and drive business growth. One of the great things about social media marketing for manufacturers is that it’s only as complex as you want it to be, allowing you to tailor your approach to your comfort level and business needs. 

But, just as we have seen with other marketing channels, you need to have a good strategy behind it and use social media thoughtfully for it to be successful. 

Define your goals.

Before diving into social media marketing, defining your goals and identifying your target audience is crucial. Are you looking to increase brand visibility, generate leads, showcase product innovations or engage with customers? Understanding your objectives and pinpointing your target audience will help you tailor your social media strategy to create better and more relevant content — and connect with the right individuals or organizations.

Pick your platforms.

There are many different social media platforms out there, so selecting the ones that align with your business objectives and target audience is essential. Platforms such as LinkedIn, X (formerly known as Twitter), Facebook, Instagram and YouTube can be particularly valuable for manufacturers. LinkedIn allows you to connect with industry professionals, share thought leadership content and build professional networks. X enables real-time engagement, while Facebook and Instagram offer visual storytelling and brand building. YouTube provides an excellent platform for showcasing product demos, tutorials and customer testimonials.

Create great content.

Good content is the heart of any successful social media strategy. Manufacturers can create a variety of content types, including informative blog posts, captivating videos, visually appealing images, infographics, case studies and industry insights. Use social posts to promote your content and drive visitors to your website. 

Share great content too.

While creating great original content is undeniably important, it’s unrealistic to expect that you can generate new content every moment of every day. Fortunately, there is a valuable alternative — sharing existing content created by others that is relevant and useful to your target audiences. Seek out reliable sources, and always remember to credit and tag the original source.

Don’t just hit the “share” button when sharing existing content, though. Adding your own commentary or insights, like saying why you find the content valuable or highlighting key takeaways, gives shared content a personal touch and adds value.

Social media is a two-way street. 

Create engagement with your audience and foster meaningful interactions by responding promptly to comments, messages and inquiries. Not only does this help you build a strong brand presence and cultivate a loyal community, but it can also demonstrate your commitment to customer service. Encourage conversations by posing questions, hosting polls and seeking feedback from your followers. 

Be interesting.

Content comes in various formats. While articles and blog posts are common, consider creating and/or sharing videos, images, insightful infographics or podcast episodes. Different formats appeal to different preferences and diversify your feed. Visual content is an excellent way to capture attention and stand out from the crowd — plus, it can also help humanize your brand and create emotional connections. One interesting way for manufacturers to do this is to share behind-the-scenes glimpses of manufacturing processes and videos that demonstrate your products in action. 

Space out your posts. 

It’s crucial to maintain a consistent posting schedule for both your original and shared content. Use social media management tools to schedule and automate your posts, ensuring a steady flow of valuable content without overwhelming your audience. Spacing out content avoids flooding your feed and allows each post to receive the attention it deserves.

Connect with influencers.

Collaborating with influencers or industry experts can amplify your social media reach. In the manufacturing industry, businesses often face the challenge of appearing faceless and indistinguishable from their competitors, so connecting with an industry influencer can help you stand out from the crowd. 

Identify influencers whose expertise aligns with your industry or products, and consider partnering with them for content creation or product endorsements. Influencers can help you tap into their established audience base, increasing brand visibility and credibility within your target market.

Analyze and optimize.

To continuously improve your social media marketing efforts, it’s essential to analyze data and metrics. Utilize the analytics features provided by social media platforms or employ third-party tools to gain insights into the performance of your posts, audience engagement and conversion rates. This data will enable you to identify what content resonates with your audience, optimize your posting schedule and refine your overall strategy.

It’s also important to pay attention to the latest tools and trends. New online marketing tools, techniques and ways to connect with potential customers are always cropping up. Don’t stop learning just because you’ve read this blog post! There’s always more to discover, so stay curious, as marketing your manufacturing business on social media will be a dynamic, ever-evolving process.

YouTube on a Shoestring 

Don’t underestimate the power of YouTube for marketing your manufacturing business. 

YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine, with over two billion active users — giving you a tremendous opportunity to show off your company and connect with customers. YouTube is a cost-effective platform ideal for demonstrating your manufacturing processes and highlighting your products. Learning how to use YouTube effectively can boost your brand visibility, generate leads and drive growth.

Why is YouTube an effective marketing tool?

The truth is that people love video. Think about how much time people spend on their phones (or other devices) watching videos. 

YouTube gives you a unique opportunity to position your company and products in front of all of these people—showing off things like behind-the-scenes footage of your machinery—every hour of the day, every day of the week. If you can figure out how to make an effective YouTube channel and get people to watch your videos, you can establish your manufacturing business as a trusted industry presence and attract new customers.

You can also create YouTube content and videos on a small budget, making it an invaluable platform for small and mid-sized manufacturers to showcase their manufacturing prowess, build brand awareness and engage with a larger audience. Read on to learn some tips on how to use YouTube as a great marketing tool for your business.

1. Research, Research, Research

Before you can start creating and posting great video content, you need an effective YouTube marketing strategy. Take time to think about who you are making videos for and what they want to see. You also should research and brainstorm ways to create engaging content that people want to watch.

Target Audience

Devote some time to researching the YouTube channels and content your target audience is already following. By understanding the types of videos they watch and engage with, you can gain valuable insights that can help you shape your own content strategy. 

If you already have a YouTube channel, take advantage of the provided Analytics tab. This feature gives you information about your audience’s demographics and interests, and you can gain insights into how viewers discover your videos, whether through search, suggested feeds or other sources.

You can also use social listening—tracking and analyzing online conversations about your brand and industry—to learn more about your audience. 

Search various social platforms, including YouTube, for any mentions of your brand or relevant industry keywords. By actively listening to what people are saying about your business or industry, you can gain insights into the topics and questions that pique your audience’s interest, which you can use as inspiration for generating your own video content.

Competitors

Checking out what your competitors are doing on YouTube is another good way to develop an effective YouTube marketing strategy. One of the quickest ways to grow on YouTube is to figure out what’s working for your competition and then do that…but better. When exploring your competitors’ YouTube channels, check out their subscriber count, average views per video, posting frequency, video quality, comment section feedback and main topics covered.

Ask yourself what their most popular videos are, how you can differentiate yourself from your competition, and what content ideas you can derive from their channel. Put together your findings and use these as a jumping-off point for your own YouTube channel.

Favorite Channels

Another great way to learn about YouTube is by checking out your favorite YouTube channels. These channels don’t need to be related to your industry, but you can use them to give you some good ideas on how to create engaging videos that people want to watch.

Consuming YouTube content lets you gain valuable insights into effective YouTube strategies and helps you keep on top of a constantly evolving platform. For instance, did you know that having good audio quality is more crucial than video quality? It’s true—poor audio can deter viewers from watching your videos or subscribing.

Creating YouTube videos that capture viewers’ interest involves several elements. When you watch other creators’ content, pay attention to:

• Video thumbnails: Take note of visually appealing thumbnails that attract attention and entice viewers to click.
• Channel art: Observe how other creators design their channel art to create a cohesive and visually appealing brand identity.
• Post and product links: Analyze how other creators strategically link their posts or products to drive engagement and conversions.
• Video editing techniques: Pay attention to the use of text popups, special effects and other editing techniques employed by successful creators to enhance the viewing experience.

Many YouTube channels also focus on creating videos, editing techniques and strategies for YouTube growth. Exploring these channels can provide valuable tips and insights to help you improve your content and maximize your YouTube presence.

2. Create Great Videos

Once you have identified your audience and learned some effective YouTube strategies from your favorite channels and your competition, it’s time to start making great video content.

If you’re unsure where to start, think about how you can repurpose and reuse video content you already have but have never thought of posting on YouTube. For example, if you record a video of a machine before it departs from your shop floor, share it on YouTube—with the customer’s consent, of course. You can also repurpose videos showcasing your personnel, company culture or any other relevant and interesting behind-the-scenes content. You are likely already creating some great video content without realizing it.

YouTube content doesn’t have to be expensive to produce, and there are tons of great tutorials and YouTube videos that can tell you how to make good-looking videos without spending a lot. Here are a few other content ideas that small to mid-sized manufacturers can make on a small budget:

• Product demonstrations: Showcase your products in action, highlighting their unique features and benefits. People love watching videos of interesting machines at work.
• Behind-the-scenes tours: Take your audience on a virtual tour of your manufacturing facility. Show them the intricate processes involved in creating your products, or highlight your skilled workers.
• How-to guides: Share valuable knowledge and insights related to your industry. Create informative videos that offer step-by-step instructions on how to use your products or solve common manufacturing challenges.
• Case studies and customer testimonials: Feature satisfied customers who have achieved success with your products. Share their stories and highlight the positive impact your solutions have had on their businesses.
• Industry trends: Position yourself as an industry expert by discussing emerging trends, sharing your perspectives on relevant topics and providing valuable insights.

A word to the wise—keep your videos short. Under five minutes is best, though many experts say that about two and a half minutes is the sweet spot, as any longer and people start to drift off. You can still pack a lot of informative content into two and a half minutes while keeping people entertained and engaged.

3. Optimize Your YouTube Channel

Now that you have created some great content, you need to maximize the visibility of your videos and improve their discoverability by optimizing your YouTube channel. 

• Use keywords: Perform keyword research to identify relevant terms and phrases your target audience will likely search for. Incorporate these keywords into your video titles, descriptions, tags, and transcripts to improve search rankings.
• Engaging thumbnails: Create visually appealing thumbnails that entice viewers to click on your videos. Use high-quality images, bold typography, and compelling graphics to capture attention.
• Calls to action (CTAs): Encourage viewers to take action by including CTAs in your videos. Prompt them to subscribe to your channel, visit your website or engage with your social media platforms.
• Consistent branding: Maintain a consistent brand identity across your YouTube channel. Customize your channel’s banner, logo and color scheme to align with your company’s visual branding.

• Respond to comments: YouTube is a social network, so replying to viewer comments demonstrates that you’re there to establish a community, not just push out self-promotional content. It will also improve your video’s status to the algorithm because more comments mean a more popular-seeming video.
  

4. Promote and Share Your Videos

Creating great content is only the first step. You need to actively promote and share your videos to expand your reach. Use a content calendar to organize when and where you will post videos so that you are consistent and build an audience. Some good ways to promote and share your videos include:

• Cross-promotion: Embed your YouTube videos on your website or blog to make them easily accessible to your website visitors.
• Social media integration: Share your videos across your social media channels to leverage your existing followers and encourage them to subscribe to your YouTube channel.
• Collaborations: Collaborate with complementary businesses, customers or industry influencers to co-create content or cross-promote each other’s videos. This can help you tap into their existing audience and gain exposure.
• Email marketing: Include links to your YouTube videos in your email newsletters or create dedicated email campaigns to inform subscribers about new video releases.

Final Thoughts

Creating an effective digital marketing strategy takes time and effort, but it will help you increase brand awareness, enhance customer loyalty, expand your audience and ultimately increase your sales. To learn more about how to market your business, and to hear directly from our marketing experts, watch our Marketing for Manufacturers webinar.