Signals from the Field

B2B manufacturer marketing is not flashy because unlike B2C it is not about new trends and selling an irresistible product to people with disposable income. In B2B, there has to be a justifiable business need for someone to seek out products or services and since the investment is usually large, the buyer has no room for purchasing errors. That means the buyer needs a lot of clear, organized information that instills confidence that the product or service will work well in their process, integrate with the existing system, and solve their problem.

The US regained a sense of normalcy in 2022, until inflation became the primary concern - causing interest rates to rise and the volume of loans to decline for the financial sector.

In the ever-changing economy, it was more important than ever for WebStrategies to conduct the newest edition of our annual survey pinpointing how credit union marketing dollars are being spent and what digital tactics reflect the strongest return on investment.

Our survey found marketers are still growing digital marketing efforts into 2023 but as in-person events are returning, marketing dollars are also increasing to offline channels such as events and sponsorships.

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.

The theme of HubSpot's annual conference, INBOUND 2022, was "Connections". This was accurately named after the return of the first in-person INBOUND conference since 2019. After two years of an entirely virtual conference, HubSpot’s 2022 INBOUND conference offered an unmatched in-person experience in addition to a digital option for those who couldn’t make it to the land of HubSpot in Boston, Massachusetts.

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.)