Digital Marketing Tools for Manufacturers – How to Integrate the Right Ones
Are you familiar with the latest digital marketing strategies to drive customer engagement and sales for your manufacturing company? Are you maximizing their effectiveness?
If the answer is “not really” (or something similar), you’re missing out on countless opportunities to connect with your customers and prospects.
Technology has impacted the way we communicate. Your sales process has been altered by the ease with which customers can interact with any brand they choose and access the information they need in seconds. Customers now sell themselves with all of the information available, even before they ever reach out to your company’s sales team.
Understanding these shifts and how to implement the right digital tools to drive your sales to the next level is critical in today’s interconnected world.
Digital Marketing for manufacturers relies on: ‘Effective’ Websites, SEO, PPC, Retargeting, Digital Ads, Video Marketing, and Lead Generation.
Following are brief descriptions for each of these B2b Marketing tactics for manufacturers
1. A Mobile Friendly (Responsive) Website
Your website will most likely be the first stop for customers searching for your products and it must be compatible with smartphones and mobile devices. Now more than ever, this research is often conducted on a mobile/handheld device. Everything from your product catalogs, to the company history, to the site navigation, must be easily viewable on a mobile device.Google also favors companies with a mobile friendly site over thosewithout, which can help place you higher in search result listings.
2. Search Marketing Tactics – SEO and PPC
A balanced approach to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising is critical to cost effectively gain website traffic. SEO increases website visibility through organic, unpaid search engine results. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) or AdWords drives traffic to the website through paid ads, and a fee is charged only when a viewer clicks your ad. The advantage of an AdWords program is that you can have it up and running within 24 hours, while an SEO organic program may take up to 3-4 months before you see results.
3. Retargeting
Retargeting provides online advertisements to those viewers who have previously visited your site or searched for your company and products using specific keywords. Since the buyer journey is now no longer linear, B2B manufacturers are using retargeting to help them stay in front of prospective customers during longer purchasing cycles. Your prospects may visit your site one month, a few weeks later they discover your latest blog article, then one week after that decide to check out another blog post. Weeks later they may decide to get in touch with a sales representative. Then it takes several more weeks of meetings and discussions to come to a decision to buy. Retargeting can help your buyers through this convoluted process.
Following are three different retargeting strategies–Pixel-based, list-based, and keyword search-based:
Pixel-Based:This is the most common type of retargeting. When a prospect comes to your website, an unobtrusive piece of code is placed on their browser to track them. When they leave your site, that cookie notifies retargeting platforms to serve specific ads based on the pages they visited on your site. This same technology is available on social media platforms and is very cost effective.
List-Based:You can use a list of email addresses for a retargeting campaign (usually on a social network like Facebook). The platform matches the users to their profile on that network, then serve retargeting ads just to them.
Keyword Search-Based: Search retargeting is very different from the other types mentioned. While the others retarget users with whom you’ve somehow come in contact, search retargeting allows you to reach entirely new customers for your business. This allows you to show your ads to viewers who have previously searched for keywords that are related to your business or products, but have never visited your website.
4. Digital Advertising
Integrating digital advertising into your current media schedule is an important step in creating your “digital footprint.” Trade publications’ websites and e-newsletters, for example, are effective digital tools designed to reach your prospects. What makes these ads particularly effective is that the publications’ online subscribers are genuinely interested in this type of information and have specifically opted-in to receive these communications.
5. Video Marketing
Video puts your message directly in your customers’ hands. Your video content should reinforce your brand, and can easily be used to educate your audiences. It can be transcribed and even translated into a variety of languages. At present, video is a very effective marketing tool and receives higher engagement than static images.
Your customers and prospective customers are online, and you need to be there too in as many places as possible. B2B Marketing is about driving people to a brand that they will connect to emotionally. If you’re not where your customers can find you, how can they learn about what you have to offer?