There’s a ton of reasons to swing into the drive-thru and grab yourself a quick bite of a seasonal McRib sandwich. You’re thinking about the "right now"… the fact that you didn’t plan for your meal and that you want to fulfill your immediate goal of food in your belly. But, think about this… what do you actually prefer?  The fast food or a slow cooked, juicy, healthy, delicious pork tenderloin?  If you are willing to invest a little bit more, including time, into what was going into your face, you could have been able to be dining on some delish healthy option. Also, the food would be much more beneficial to you in the long run and I guarantee – much more worth the investment.

It’s not a secret or surprise anymore… video is the NOW of digital marketing. And, good news for you, if you’re trying to market a complex or customized manufacturing product or service, doing so with video gives you a bunch of advantages... and, it doesn't have to be as hard as you think.

Pause and think about this…

What do you think “BRANDING” is?

You're not Coca-Cola.  I'm pretty sure you knew that already, but just in case.  But, what that means is your marketing dollars need to be spent targeting very specific people.  Specialized manufacturing in the USA has become an efficient market. Creating and maintaining a competitive edge means staying innovative when it comes to your core business and improving all aspects of the business - including design and brand.

We are assuming that you, like most other manufacturing companies, gather most of your leads through avenues such as trade shows, referrals, and word-of-mouth? You probably spend money on outbound marketing, but don’t really understand what the ROI is, if there is any at all? And, it’s probably near impossible for you to have success with cold calling because your product or service is too complicated to explain in such a brief conversation. Right? That is exactly why an inbound methodology for your manufacturing company is what you need – setting yourself up as an educational resource with useful content is the perfect way to explain your complicated widget or product.

Believe me.  We get it.  It’s not easy to make the long-term investment over the short-term, instant spend when it comes to marketing your manufacturing company.  Don’t you feel that way?

Seeing your logo on a web banner, your name on a billboard, or even hearing your voice in a radio ad can make you feel like you are doing something impactful to promote your business – plus it kinda makes you feel cool.  So many eyeballs! So many ears!

But what really matters? The mother driving her kids to school seeing your billboard or hearing your radio ad?  Or getting your message in front of actual potential customers? (Spoiler: It's the second one)

I am sure that there are a ton of people thinking… what the hell is a buyer persona and why is this important to me? Well, honestly, those are great questions. Kudos to you for admitting that you don’t know and taking a step towards enlightening yourself.  Trust me – this topic is worth the read!

When someone is online searching for answers, they want the most relevant information possible.  When you are online, isn't that what YOU want? Well, in order to make sure your marketing investment is being spent on providing and pushing out relevant information to attract the right people, first you need to know exactly who those RIGHT people are.

A B2B marketing strategy for a manufacturing business HAS to utilize premium content such as eBooks! It allows your website to become your #1 salesperson, all while providing the exact knowledge about your service or product that you want to be sharing.

If your manufacturing company’s website isn’t utilizing premium content guarded by forms, YOU ARE MISSING OUT ON POTENTIAL QUALIFIED LEADS! I can break this down to two main reasons to jump on board:

For some of you I can understand how you might scoff at the words “social media” and “easy” in the same sentence.  It can easily feel like a young man’s game. (Or woman’s game – didn’t mean to exclude – its just an expression.) You have to keep up with the trends and the lingo… tweeting, sending snappers, likes, pokes, bitmojis, blocking, hide from newsfeed, stop sending me game invites, I don’t want to play Farm Heroes so STOP ASKING!