Is your manufacturing sales strategy built upon cold calling, trade shows, and other traditional lead generation tactics? Have you considered hiring an outside vendor to provide more leads - at a volume that seems too good to be true? Does your sales process seem convoluted, inefficient, and ineffective when it comes to generating new leads, or following up with new ones?

It sounds to me like your manufacturing company's lead generation tactics are stuck in the ‘90’s. Welcome to 2016: where content marketing helps sales teams build more pipeline.

You have completely updated your website as part of an effective manufacturing marketing plan; it is mobile friendly, has great images, and is easy to navigate. Now you sit back, and wait for your investment to churn out quality leads left and right. And you wait. All that time and energy and your website is still not generating enough quality leads. Everything you’ve read up to this point has told you – fix the website, and generate more B2B sales. So why aren’t you seeing enough quality leads?

As a builder of homes, you're an expert in your field. You follow the same steps each time you take on a new building project. Similarly, building a marketing strategy for home builders utilizes a series of steps that can be repeated for a successful project. When marketing your home builder company, build your strategy like a building a home: start with a blueprint, a solid foundation, and framing to increase your prospect list and client base.

Email marketing is not an ancient dinosaur close to extinction. It's alive and well. With 91% of U.S. consumers accessing email daily and 40 times more effective at turning leads into customers than social media (Facebook and Twitter), there is no evidence that email marketing is dead.

Emojis. You've seen them in your teen's texts. Twitter and Instagram are full of them. You've probably utilized them yourself in personal communication. But what about professional communication, and even marketing - are they appropriate, and if so, how do you use them well?

via @DanMentos

Emojis are tiny images used to depict an emotion, thought, or idea. They come preloaded on most smartphones today. As companies continue to embrace new technology and social media in their marketing strategies, more and more brands are starting to incorporate these into their communication.

Inbound marketing, as opposed to outbound, is built to attract potential buyers to your business through educational content. Using B2B inbound marketing methodology, your website is a 24/7 salesperson that attracts, converts, closes and delights people who are looking for solutions to a problem that you can solve.

Myth #2: The only reason for manufacturers to blog is to share news updates.

Marketing for manufacturing companies often includes a blog on a company website. But it's a common misconception that blogs are just for PR updates and not an educational resource.

If you're blogging only when you've won an award or to promote your own business, you're missing out on the benefits of blogging. Here are the top reasons you're missing out:

Inbound Smarketing is a Competitive Advantage

Making the change from sales to consulting in a smarketing (sales + marketing, explained more here) way is a strategic initiative. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Why Good Strategies Fail: Lessons for the C-Suite, “88% of respondents say that executing strategic initiatives successfully will be ‘essential’ or ‘very important’ for their organizations’ competitiveness over the next three years” (p. 5).

Removing the Training Wheels & Riding Solo at a Local Trade Show

Recently, I was challenged to attend a local trade show - by myself. Gulp. The opportunity was the 2016 Milwaukee NARI Spring Home Improvement Show, which I love. I regularly spend my weekends binge-watching Flip or Flop, To Catch a Contractor and/or Property Brothers. I fancy myself a little handy and always seem to be painting one of the rooms in my apartment. But I'm not a sales person; I'm a marketing coordinator. Hence, my nerves.