Digital marketing is a vital part of all manufacturers' marketing strategies. With all the terms, concepts and platforms out there, marketing can be confusing if you're just starting your digital marketing plan. We created a guide to give you an overview of what you should consider when planning.
In August 2020, Capterra conducted an online survey with 149 manufacturers. Survey results reported all of the following:
The takeaway? Digital marketing for manufacturers became much more competitive since the start of the pandemic.
First impressions are incredibly important and long lasting. In today's technology-driven environment, the first impression customers have of your business is the homepage of your website.
It is so important to engage visitors immediately with a website design that gives a clear message and represents your company and product accurately.
If you have invested in a professionally designed website but it doesn't generate leads for your sales team, consider SEO services designed specifically for manufacturers.
There are two main types of marketing, inbound and outbound marketing. In this post, we cover inbound marketing strategies and topics.
Inbound marketing is one of the most effective digital marketing approaches across all industries. According to HubSpot, "Inbound marketing is a set of marketing strategies and techniques focused on pulling relevant prospects and customers towards a business and its products." Additionally, with inbound marketing, costs are 62% less per lead than traditional outbound marketing.
The other marketing approach is outbound marketing. This is an approach that involves actively reaching out to potential customers through various channels, such as television advertisements, telemarketing, direct mail, and print advertising.
The goal of outbound marketing is to interrupt people and grab their attention, with the hope of getting them to take some form of action. However, this type of marketing is becoming less popular and successful because today’s audience is highly resistant to intrusive or interruptive content.
Fact: 78% of professionals check email on their phone. This email stat shows the importance of making your emails optimized for mobile viewing, and the webpages associated with the links in your email.
In addition to the benefit of creating a better experience for your prospective customers, a mobile-friendly website is a major SEO ranking factor.
Content is king. Unfortunately, though, many companies struggle to provide valuable content for their prospects in both emails and on their website. Studies show 91% of email users have unsubscribed from a company’s email list they previously opted into.
Quite frankly, most people don’t want to be sold to every single time they open an email from you or visit your website. When people interact with your brand, they expect to see valuable content that makes their lives better or solves a problem for them.
If your company is struggling to win with content marketing, hit the reset button, and begin with establishing a Brand Voice. Once your brand voice is finalized and your entire content marketing team is using it to craft website copy and email, it's time to move onto blogging.
With so many consumers researching information online, company blogs have become a crucial component of an effective digital marketing strategy.
HubSpot reports that companies with a blog receive 55% more traffic than those without blogs. In the same report, you'll find the statistic that companies with blogs produce an average of 67% more leads monthly than companies that don't blog.
Why do blogs work?
People use the internet to find solutions to their problems; they research possible solutions and familiarize themselves with the brands that can help them. They don’t simply buy products or services the very first time they find a brand online; they engage with the brand and look for trust signals.
Sharing helpful blog articles allows you to build trust and position your company as the solution to a problem in the mind of your prospective customers.
This is why we’re huge proponents of blogging. Blogging has become a critical online channel proven to consistently deliver results.
According to HubSpot research, 80% of brands say their community building efforts have resulted in increased traffic. Think about it from a customer perspective; when they are scrolling through the social media platform, they are mentally relaxed and are often more open to receiving information.
Catching your prospects when they are open to receiving information is incredibly valuable for every business. It’s for this reason that most marketers now consider a social media strategy crucial to their business.
For inbound marketing campaigns, you will want to use a combination of tools to make your campaign efficient and effective.
Automation tools are important to digital marketing because they help streamline repetitive and time-consuming tasks. Some common automation tools include:
Hubspot
Marketo
Pardot
ActiveCampaign
Stellation Media
Growthoid
Act-On
Infusionsoft
SendPulse
Nitreo
Tracking tools are important to digital marketing because they allow marketers to measure and analyze the performance of their campaigns so they can tweak as they need. Some common tracking tools include:
Google Analytics
Mixpanel
Heap
Kissmetrics
Hotjar
SERanking
Semrush
Adwords
Ahrefs
Clicky
Digital marketing is a vast, complex field with many opportunities– but there are also obstacles. Some common mistakes companies make with digital marketing include the following:
If you’re ready to get started with digital marketing for your manufacturing business, download the free guide below to ensure you are implementing an effective inbound marketing strategy. You can also reach out to the Knowmad team to speak with a marketing expert and request a proposal. We would be happy to help you generate more leads with inbound marketing and SEO services.