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.

With the rise (and domination) of social media, your website has not lost importance, it has gained it.  Manufacturing CEO’s, the goal of your social media should be two fold: build trust and send people to your automated marketing and sales funnel.  And, the most effective automated marketing and sales funnel is still your website - partnered with an email system and a CRM/Database.

As I go around speaking attending conferences, and working with our manufacturing clients, I’m often asked questions about what marketing technology is best for a medium-sized manufacturing firm. For context, I tend to think of companies with $25-100MM in revenues as medium-sized companies.  There are SO many choices now, your head will spin.  As you know, software as a service (SAAS) is now normal.  With that normalcy has come a market inundated with constant new technology and software applications.

As I sat down to write this post, I immediately dove into researching statistics, articles, and trends about maximizing success at trade shows. About 10 minutes into my search, with multiple tabs open across multiple windows, I stopped. And I laughed. Where was the first place that I went to jump-start my ideas? The internet. Google searches. Websites.