Best Digital Marketing Guide For Manufacturers

let's look at tactics manufacturers will use to bring their business into the digital marketing world. In this article, I will teach you the fundamentals and give you a better idea of whether digital marketing would be a wise investment for your business.

digital marketing for manufacturers

Many manufacturers still use antiquated methods to market their brands. Trade shows, word-of-mouth recommendations, and networking opportunities are mainstays of most industrial marketing strategies for a good reason: they are effective!

,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Nearly 70% of the industrial buyer's journey is completed before speaking with sales, and the vast majority of potential customers visit your website as part of their due diligence.

Manufacturers must have a strong online presence to draw in ideal clients (and perfect candidates for jobs!) and raise their chances of being considered for a shortlist.

With no waste of time let's see how to implement digital marketing for the manufacturing industry.

How to Implement Digital Marketing For Manufacturing Industry?

digital marketing for manufacturers

As a manufacturer who wants to bring his/her industry into the digital marketing world, you need to set up the followings:

1. Define your strategy

Business marketing is a necessity; this is a widely acknowledged fact. That does not imply that all organizations have the same marketing objectives.

While the majority of manufacturers will have general marketing goals like increasing sales and strengthening their brand, they will also have specific goals like hiring new employees, luring new suppliers, or diversifying their product lines. To maximize your marketing efforts, it will be helpful to be very clear about your overall objectives and strategy.

2. Understand your audience

The ability to reach a large, geographically unrestricted audience of potential customers is one of the key benefits of digital marketing for manufacturing companies. However, digital marketing only works well when marketers put in the effort to comprehend their target market.

For more detail, you need to understand your audience this way: Understand their basic need, understanding their wants, understanding their best priorities, understanding their pain point and offering a solution to them, and finally, understanding what motivates them to make a purchase.

It's extremely vital to truly understand these multiple aspects. Through its use, businesses can develop digital marketing campaigns that speak directly to their target market.


3. Write a compelling content

What, then, qualifies as compelling content in the manufacturing industry? It's always helpful to think about your readers' problems and how you can help them solve them when choosing content. For instance:
  • What types of questions are made to your sales team?
  • What questions are being sent to your inbox and social media accounts generally?

If you notice any recurring themes, that is a good place to start when creating content that proactively addresses these queries. All manufacturing companies must keep a close eye on a few standard issues. scaling up quality production. turnaround times that are predictable. cost control. Find original ways to talk about these topics in a relatable and beneficial way.


4. Search engine optimization

One of the most important components of the digital marketing framework is search engine optimization (SEO). Making your website more visible to potential customers who use search engines like Google and Bing are what SEO stands for. Your website is more likely to rank highly in search engine results if you use words and phrases that are related to your goods or services.



5. Make use of social media

There are a number of reasons why your business needs to be active on social media.

First, social media platforms offer a quick and affordable way to connect with potential clients. Social media can also be used to forge lasting bonds with customers and foster customer loyalty. Last but not least, social media platforms provide strong tools for monitoring consumer behavior and gauging the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

Which social media sites should your company be present on to reach your target market? That brings us full circle to step one, which calls for understanding your audience and where they spend their time.

Read about: 

Why Should Manufacturers Use Digital Marketing?

digital marketing for manufacturers


Digital marketing can address a variety of problems for manufacturers, engineering firms, and construction companies, including:
  • Educating customers on complex products
  • Improving brand perception and industry perception
  • Generating qualified leads
  • Increasing sales velocity
  • Recruiting skilled workers

Most manufacturers are not sure of:

  • What should we invest in marketing (for a business of our size)?
  • Who should I hire—an agency or an internal team?
  • Which comes first, tactics or strategies?
  • Are current marketing trends and best practices appropriate for us?
As a result, some of them prioritize quick fixes over strategies for achieving long-term, sustainable results.


The best digital marketing makes your brand more relatable and lively by:

  • Your website
  • Blog post
  • Podcast
  • Video
  • Social media
A variety of digital content gives your customers the option to consume information according to their personal preferences, which fosters trust.


What Should I Budget for My Digital Marketing Program As Manufacturer?

digital marketing for manufacturers


You must determine your marketing budget so that you can create a thorough marketing plan that supports your strategy after you have synchronized your business goals with your marketing objectives. Basically, you have three choices to make:

Study Plan1 to 2 % of your gross revenue. In essence, you commit to using straightforward tools and strategies to engage and keep current customers. This is perfect for businesses that want to hold onto their market share and don't have lofty growth objectives.

The answer can change depending on your company's size, current infrastructure for marketing, level of marketing expertise, and, of course, business objectives. But we can share with you a few lessons learned from our experience:

  1. You'll have to spend more money if you want results more quickly.
  2. The "percentage method"—spending 5–10% of your revenue on marketing—is not typically used by small- to medium-sized manufacturers.
Therefore, let's discuss real-world situations, examples, and dollar amounts. The typical monthly inbound marketing retainers we support range from $5,000 to $15,000. This comprises:

  • Project management
  • Regular meetings
  • Reporting on and analyzing data
  • Strategy support
  • Tactical implementation of the program's components
Obviously, you can spend more or less depending on your budget. Additionally, depending on your seasonal cash flow, there may be times of the year when you need to increase your budget (to support a major launch or event) or reduce spending. A firm that is accustomed to assisting industries that are affected by the seasons, like construction, will be flexible with the retainer budget.


Target Plan3 to 4 % of your total revenue. Using cutting-edge tools and strategies, the objective is to draw in new prospects and keep hold of current clients. This is perfect for businesses with modest growth objectives (10–15 percent annual growth) and a desire to increase their market share.


Stretch Plan: At least 5% of your total revenue. By using more resources that are concentrated on generating leads, conversions, and sales, your goal is to accelerate your results. In order to achieve this, you'll employ sophisticated marketing techniques and cutting-edge equipment. For businesses with ambitious growth and market share plans (20% annual growth or more), this option is ideal.


I think this is not enough, I will further tell you the best digital marketing tactics for manufacturers that usually come out with the best result.

Top Digital Marketing Tactics For Manufacturers

Consumers in the industry are changing. The majority of manufacturers are aware that Millennial consumers are increasingly replacing Baby Boomers and Generation X customers in many businesses. Even though the Boomers and Xers shouldn't be disregarded (they are probably still the Decision Makers), Millennials are starting to assert themselves as Influencers or even Decision Makers, and they make purchases very differently than their more senior counterparts.


It will take a combination of marketing tactics to speak to three (possibly four) different age groups of customers. The strategies you select should, once more, directly support your corporate objectives. The most typical strategies for manufacturers using digital marketing are listed below:


Blogging/Vlogging: Blogging (and its video equivalent, vlogging) is a low-effort, high-return strategy, just like email. A great way to increase organic traffic to your website, establish your business as a thought leader, and give your sales team an excuse to get in touch with and share helpful information with their leads is to regularly publish articles optimized for search. 

There isn't a secret formula for blogging frequency, but we do advise at least twice a month and 600–1,000 words. Remember: your blog is not a place to make sales. Help is available there. Your first few blog posts should address common queries that your sales team encounters early in conversations.



Social media: The majority of the manufacturing businesses we work with use social media in two ways: to spread the word about their blogs and other content and to highlight their corporate cultures for job recruitment. Your employer brand can be effectively promoted through social media. 

I advise concentrating on LinkedIn if you need more time to properly monitor and post on multiple channels. Join LinkedIn groups relevant to your industry, share blog posts from your business, and leave insightful comments on other posts to demonstrate your leadership.


Video: The play button is the most effective call to action currently available, according to data. In actuality, video content is 50 times more likely than plain text to influence organic search results. 

It's a great way to nurture your leads to use video at every stage of the buying process. mix formal and informal videos together. You can create your own "talking head" videos in which your engineers tackle difficult questions about issues that your clients face. 

A professional can also create a "brand anthem" video, which is more of a marketing tool to highlight the strengths and culture of your business. Regardless, you need a video!

It can be used in a variety of places, such as emails, social media, your sales deck, your homepage, etc.



Website: Your main tool is your website. It must be found in searches, highlight your products, inform customers, win their trust, draw top talent, and convince them to buy from you. 

Your website is failing you if it isn't mobile-friendly, professionally written, SEO-optimized, well-designed for a good user experience, and packed with conversion points. 

Your website is not an online brochure; rather, it is a marketing tool that should generate leads for you, represent your brand, and enhance the image of your business.



Demos, trials, and webinars are examples of online educational events: Promote your team as industry authorities by taking advantage of educational opportunities. If you can give your attendees credit for continuing education, even better. Because you can reuse webinars and use them as "on-demand" content to collect leads on your website long after the live event has ended, they are a great marketing tool. 

For customers who are already aware of your service offerings and are comparing vendors, webinars are fantastic middle-of-the-funnel offers. They are also a useful tool for ensuring client satisfaction (helping your existing customers stay on top of trends and continuing ed credits).

Also read: 


Now, I am through with the digital marketing tactics which you as a manufacturer could consider and implement, and now we gonna move to the next section to see the best digital marketing automation tools for manufacturers.

Best Digital Marketing Automation Tools For Manufacturers 

digital marketing for manufacturers


Here, I will tell you some of the best digital marketing automation tools you can use as a manufacturer to make your marketing easier and simple. Here are:

1. HubSpotHubSpot is an inbound marketing and sales tool that assists industries in bringing in customers, converting leads, and increasing sales. It's easy to expand your business with HubSpot CRM.


2. ActiveCampaign:  ActiveCampaign is a cloud-based software platform for small-to-midsized businesses. The business provides software that combines the categories of transactional email, email marketing, marketing automation, sales automation, and CRM. Check ActiveCampaign reviews to see how it covers a lot of features.


3. GetResponse: GetResponse is a comprehensive marketing software platform that aids in content creation, sales growth, and online traffic expansion. You can launch successful marketing campaigns by using integrated email marketing, autoresponders, and landing pages. For in-depth details. GetResponse reviews. 


4. Salesforce: This is a CRM platform that helps you connect with your customers and manage the sales process.

Also, there are some additional platforms to be friendly with in order to bring your products to gain more visibility online:

1. SemRush and Ahref: These are tools for link building, research, and reporting in search engine optimization.

2. Google Search Console: this is a free tool that assists you in maintaining and monitoring the presence of your website in Google Search results.


3. WordPress: This is the most widely used, user-friendly open-source CMS for creating websites.

4. Google Analytics: This is a free tool for tracking and reporting website traffic statistics.

Common Mistakes Manufacturers Make in Digital Marketing

digital marketing for manufacturers


Many manufacturers have stepped boldly into the vast marketing environment, looked around, and dove in. Some of them were incredibly prosperous. Others cursed the day they Googled "Do it yourself marketing," wasting their time, money, and resources.

The most common mistakes I have observed manufacturers making are listed below:

1. Expecting results overnight: Digital marketing is a long game, even though it's possible to see some quick wins on the board right away. After roughly one year of consistent, strategic efforts, it would be reasonable to anticipate measurable, long-lasting results. However, the amount you spend and the speed at which your digital marketing will produce results are directly correlated.


2. Focusing on perfection: Zero defects are what you want in manufacturing. Before it is sent out, everything is painstakingly put through quality control. A lot more trial and error goes into marketing. The objective should be to publish the best content possible (consider B+ vs. A+), and then A/B test, measure, and improve as needed. You can't know what will work with your audience until you try it, and if you're paralyzed by perfection, you won't try anything at all.

3. Going tactics-first vs. strategies-first: Even a damaged watch is accurate twice daily. By pure luck, it can occasionally be successful to start with tactics. It is much preferable to develop a strategy based on SMART business goals, have a sales and marketing SLA in place to hold everyone accountable for results, and regularly measure and tweak the tactics in your program.

4. Getting distracted constantly: CEOs, business owners, and entrepreneurs are visionaries. They are creative thinkers with the power to transform markets and entire industries.

Unfortunately, big ideas can cause us to lose our way by chasing after unimportant distractions. Allow your marketing team or agency to decline your requests. To avoid wasting time, money, and human resources, don't have your team stray from the SMART goals you set at the beginning of the quarter.


5. Being an obstruction: This is a common mistake for CEOs and business owners, similar to #4 above. Wordsmiths and pixel-push everything to death (see #2), and they want to see everything before it is sent out. As a result, projects occasionally sit on their desk for weeks because they simply lack the time to review them. 

Consider giving authority to a member of your team who has the motivation and ability to advance your marketing initiatives.


6. Not tracking marketing metrics: Even if you don't make mistakes 1 through 5 above, this one can ruin your marketing strategy. Digital marketing can be measured, so it should be obvious what is and isn't working. Early on in the project, establish benchmarks, and follow up with regular reporting to make data-driven decisions about what to abandon and where to put more money in order to repeat success.

Digital Marketing Outcome Of the Study

Although creating marketing is enjoyable, it is not done solely for amusement. Your digital marketing efforts ought to show a definite return on investment. Access to data demonstrating revenue/deals that were directly influenced by marketing efforts is made possible by modern marketing automation tools. It may be that obvious!

You are well aware of ROI and getting results as a manufacturer. Every day, your performance in providing goods and services to customers is evaluated. We can relate because we are assessed according to the same standards.


Here are the 5 things that your clients want from you, listed in order of importance:

  • Delivery Performance
  • Cost
  • Quick Turn Around
  • Quality
  • Industry Experience

All of these areas should be highlighted in your digital marketing messaging, along with how you outperform your competitors in each one.

Results in marketing require persistence, data, and skilled digital marketing professionals.

Industrial marketers with experience can create a high-quality, cost-effective marketing program quickly. What is working, what isn't, and what needs more time should all be able to be communicated to you. Most importantly, they ought to avoid taking a formulaic approach. Every company is different, and the people who handle your marketing should be aware of this.


I hope you enjoy this article because I have tried my best to cover everything for manufacturers to understand digital marketing tactics in terms of promoting their brands in the digital world.
If you have any queries regarding to this article let me know in the comment section below.




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