Do manufacturers need to worry about digital marketing? Yes, they do. Digital marketing for manufacturers is essential for manufacturing companies to find new customers and be found by those who may need them most.
Not sure you understand digital marketing, but that’s okay. We’ll look at what it is, where to start, and what some digital marketing tips manufacturers are.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is the term used for all marketing efforts over the internet. It includes digital channels such as:
- Social media
- Search engine (SEO)
- Multimedia Marketing
- Pay-per-Click advertising
In this age of digital communication, digital marketing is a common site among consumers. Search engines like Google track those searches and make valuable recommendations to their visitors as they search for products and services online. In addition, ads, blogs, and social media often appear on the page.
As more people turn to the internet to discover and research new products and services, digital marketing campaigns are becoming more vital for businesses. Not only does it allow you to focus your efforts on a new campaign, but it also helps to build brand awareness among viewers.
Where Do You Start?
Before starting a digital marketing campaign, you need to establish a baseline to help you determine what your site, social media account, or email database currently looks like. Knowing where you’re starting will help determine if your campaign is working as you want it to.
As you continue to create your campaign, you need to know what you would consider a successful campaign. You need to know:
- How many leads do you currently generate each month
- How many sales opportunities do you see in a month
- How many opportunities do you close each month
- How many more leads and sales opportunities do you want to see each month
With this knowledge, you can use analytics to determine if there are sales funnel issues. For example, some funnel issues include too many leads, not enough leads, too low of a close rate, and not enough close rate. Thankfully, there are marketing solutions to each of these issues.
Essential Digital Marketing Tips for Manufacturers
Digital marketing for manufacturers requires a skilled hand to offer a successful campaign. These digital marketing tips can help you recognize where you need to focus and where your weaknesses lay.
Digital Advertising
Online advertising is an excellent way to get your business in front of new customers. Pay-per-click advertising is available on social media sites and search engine platforms such as Google, Facebook, Instagram, and Bing.
You can also use email marketing for advertising new products or sales to your current customers. Email marketing has the potential to bring in new customers if recent newsletter recipients share your messages with family and friends. However, it’s still an excellent way to promote new products and services to those who may want them most.
Optimize Website
To ensure your website is found in organic search engine queries, your website needs to be optimized for search engines. On-page optimization ensures the text on your different pages and blog posts adhere to search engine guidelines and contains the keywords for which you want to be found.
In addition to the text on-page being optimized for your chosen keywords, on-page optimization includes title tags, meta descriptions, and alt tags for images. Each of these should consist of at least one of your keywords to be effective.
Off-page SEO is also essential for optimizing your website. Again, these measurements are taken outside your website to improve your search engine rank. An example of this is high-quality backlinks to your site help to build yourself as an authority.
As more people use the internet to look for products and services, more rely on their smartphones or tablets to surf the web. Therefore, you need to ensure your website is optimized for mobile use.
Be Visible on Social Media
Digital marketing for manufacturers isn’t only about running ads and optimizing your website for search engines. It is also about creating a rapport between you and your customer base. Social media has become a great place to let your customers know you.
Not all social media platforms will work for your company. To maximize your reach, you need to focus your time and effort on the platforms that will work best. For example, manufacturers might find that Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are good options.
Social media is not necessarily the best place to pitch new products and services. Instead, you can announce company news, connect with clients, and build your online presence. While social media is not a platform to use only for marketing, it can work well in tandem with other forms.
Digital Marketing Should Include Infographics
A picture is worth a thousand words, even in digital marketing for manufacturers. So yes, you still need words on your site, but using infographics can help market your company.
The human brains process pictures quicker than reading. Therefore, these eye-catching informational pictures are easy to share and resonate with the audience.
Track Analytics
All your digital marketing efforts will be for nothing if you don’t keep track of your actions. Use Google Analytics to understand how visitors navigate your website. You can see how long they stayed on your site, what pages they viewed, and more.
You can also use analytics from your email campaigns and social media accounts to determine what works and how your customers interact with your company. You’ll be able to take this information to tweak your campaign.
A flow chart can help you identify where leads are coming from, what they are connecting with, and if there are any conversion declines.
Conclusion
These digital marketing tips for manufacturers can help get your manufacturing company out in the public eye, where more customers can find you. Instituting search engine optimization alongside ads and a social media presence is an excellent way to begin.
If you are ready to learn more about what OEM Digital Marketing can do for your manufacturing company, contact us today or download one of our white pages to learn more.
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