It is a common misconception that digital marketing works less well for the engineering and manufacturing industries than it does for consumer marketing.
However, many industrial companies see increased returns on marketing investments after prioritizing marketing efforts, according to the Marketing in Manufacturing Report.– and this carries through to those supplying manufacturers.
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Sales and marketing in manufacturing
Any marketing strategy you choose must communicate the value of choosing your service over that of your competitors.
In a B2B market like manufacturing, this means a slightly different approach to how you might engage with a B2C market.
Costs and procedures matter to manufacturing businesses. Your digital marketing strategy must consider the needs of your customers’ customers.
While making a good return, your customers should also be able to provide their clients with the high quality service necessary to keep them in business.
Most manufacturers sell to other businesses, including wholesalers, retailers or end-users, such as restaurants and building contractors.
Consider these end-users in your own sales and marketing efforts.
Knowing the type and size of companies you’re targeting, how to reach them, and who within those companies can make purchasing decisions is also essential.
What makes email marketing so effective in manufacturing?
Any B2B marketer working in the manufacturing sector needs to plan ahead and take a long-term approach.
Potential clients can easily lose sight of your message when they’re weighing options, re-evaluating priorities, and dealing with day-to-day tasks.
With email marketing newsletters, you can capture leads and appear regularly in their inboxes. This keeps your company top of mind when they are ready to make a purchase decision.
Email marketing is also easy to automate. Because much of the manufacturing sector is involved in detailed, specialized processes, it is always useful to find ways of standardizing and simplifying your marketing efforts.
Email marketing automation also allows you to prepare marketing communications in advance to use in drip campaigns.
A drip campaign allows you to send a series of messages to prospective clients when they perform a specific action.
Emails are sent to them automatically based on their current level of interaction with you.
These can include:
- welcome emails,
- product launches/service announcements,
- emails triggered by transactions, and
- how-to guides, instructions, and product support
The average customer does not make a purchase until he or she has come into contact with your brand at least eight times, according to HubSpot.
We call these brand interactions touchpoints, and every touchpoint increases your chances of getting a sale.
With each automated email, you are providing another touchpoint and a call to action, directing the prospect further down your sales funnel.
An email marketing strategy is essential for any supplier in the manufacturing sector, as it generates a significant return on investment. It is relatively easy to establish and implement a plan with the right tools, and the benefits are significant.
Education is key to marketing to manufacturers
Focus on topics related to your industry when you create B2B content.
You can use keywords to find topics that are relevant to your audience, or research the websites and marketing of your competitors to see what people are talking about.
Make sure to cover industry trends, compliance updates, and other topics that will be useful to prospects, so they look forward to receiving your emails.
Messages that are valuable to your recipients will introduce them to your company and help them learn more about your services. Even if they don’t convert right away, they will remember your business for the future.
Segment and personalize your audience using tools
A good quality, highly targeted email marketing list is the foundation of a successful marketing campaign.
To build on this, segmenting your target audience allows you to create more personal, more valuable emails for smaller groups of subscribers.
Email marketing software allows you to categorize email addresses according to different criteria. Among the most popular email segmentation metrics are:
- by which stage of the buyer’s journey they are at (awareness, consideration, decision)
- by sector or job title, and
- geography
When segmenting, it’s important to get to know your buyers.
Identify the needs of your existing customer and potential client base and communicate directly with them.
A simple personal touch, like putting their name in the subject line or mentioning their company, can have a big impact.
Timing is everything
It is not just what is in your emails that holds the key to subscriber engagement – it’s also when you send emails.
Observe trends in the open rates based on the time or day of the week, and plan your email campaign to go out accordingly.
However, it is important to stay on top of this and keep monitoring your campaigns, as these metrics are subject to change and you may learn that different times and days work for different segments.
Maintaining contact with leads is important, but equally important is spacing them out appropriately so they don’t feel harassed. Do not send too many emails – just enough to ensure reliability, but not so many that it becomes overwhelming.
Your sales and marketing team can connect directly with budget holding decision makers across this valuable industry with More Than Words Marketing’s list of manufacturing companies.
Contact us on 0330 010 8300 if you would like to know more or visit www.morethanwordsuk.co.uk