Signals from the Field

Producing content about your products and services is the most effective way to leverage organic search through an inbound marketing strategy (also known as content marketing). People such as engineers and plant managers searching for manufacturing equipment, typically experience a buyer’s journey that includes three phases: awareness, consideration, and decision. To leverage the power of inbound marketing for manufacturing equipment, content should be created or optimized for each of these stages in order to attract, engage and delight customers. 

When B2B manufacturing marketers promote a new product, reaching the target audience takes an organized plan of attack and someone dedicated to managing the project. The frequency of product releases is different for every manufacturer so whether it is something that happens every few weeks, every few months, or every few years, keeping a documented playbook handy makes the process smoother for everyone involved. It also ensures no channel is overlooked and over time marketers hone the digital strategy that yields the best results.

If you work in B2B manufacturing marketing, you put a lot of thought into how to reach prospective customers including what marketing channels are best and the messages to resonate with your target audience. Your sales team is actively engaging customers and leads at tradeshows and through regular contacts but that only engages the leads you know about. 

To varying degrees of success, most digital marketing agencies can run paid advertising and write copy for content marketing purposes, so you may ask, “What makes WebStrategies a premier credit union digital marketing agency?” WebStrategies has operated in the digital marketing space since 2005 and credit unions emerged as a primary industry that we serve. We have over 60 credit union clients because we’ve become extremely knowledgeable about their business operations and the needs of our clients. In fact, we often shock the C-suite with our ability to assist, not just with marketing, but the ability to solve problems that arise from silo’d departments and nonintegrated systems. 

Social media platforms have been available for businesses for over ten years yet many manufacturers still dismiss the platforms as frivolous rather than embracing the potential to build a brand reputation through organic posting and to target specific audiences with ads. Social media is not just for B2C brands and taking a look at Industry Week’s top 10 manufacturing companies, leading B2B manufacturing marketing departments leverage the platform for branding. (Ironically, Clorox and Apple, the two manufacturers of consumer products in the top ten list, are the least active on Facebook.)

Pages on a manufacturer's website that specifically name the industries you serve and how you solve problems for businesses in that industry are valuable content that serve many purposes. Manufacturing marketers can realize several benefits when website content is planned and built out around the types of businesses that use their product or services.  The below menu is an example of how one manufacturer structured its industry pages.