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We regularly update this article with the latest information pertaining to marketing budgets for manufacturers. Last update: September 2020 (note: this information has been updated to include adjustments resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, but further changes could be made as the long-term impact become more clear.) We continue to provide advice about online marketing budgets in a variety of industries, and over the last several years we have been partnering with more manufacturing companies to help them generate leads and sales. Based on industry-provided research and our own experience, we’ve identified a realistic marketing budget calculation for manufacturing companies who are ready to more fully leverage the internet to generate business.

Originally published in 2018; updated April 2020 It has taken a while for equipment manufacturing companies to get into the practice of using digital marketing to generate leads. Having partnered with several manufacturing companies, I wanted to share the tactics used for our clients that have been the most effective in leveraging their websites to generate more business.

Does Digital Marketing Really Work for Manufacturers? In the last few years, we have partnered with a wide variety of manufacturing companies in the USA to help them generate online leads and sales. The fact that we've been able to drive results through online channels may come as a surprise to many in the manufacturing industry. For the most part, the majority of manufacturing sales have been almost entirely relationship-driven. For that reason, there is often skepticism that a marketing agency could produce quality lead generation results using online marketing techniques. The truth is that we've been able to deliver amazing digital marketing results with a B2B manufacturing marketing strategy leading to millions of dollars worth of closed business for our clients. This article provides a little insight into how we do it.

Content marketing is a tactics that manufacturers can no longer ignore. Every manufacturer who wants to generate new leads and sales should have a content marketing strategy in place, and that strategy should be documented and considered a high priority. With 74% of B2B buyers conducting over half of their research online before making an offline purchase, manufacturers must make content available online that meets the needs of those researching. We're hosting a free webinar, Content Marketing for Manufacturers, to guide manufacturing companies in how to put an effective content strategy in place.

Last year, WebStrategies President Chris Leone hosted a webinar on Credit Union Marketing Automation. At the time, while marketing automation was being used successfully by organizations in many industries, financial institutions only had a 25% adoption rate, with another 21% were considering it. Recent research by Demand Gen Report highlight how companies are benefiting from marketing automation.

Security Marketing Webinar There are significant differences in how each generation prefers to communicate and make purchase decisions online, and differences in security needs across the generations. Segmenting your prospective and existing customers based on their age group allows you to create more effective messaging that better resonates with your audience and produces stronger results for your company. 

Year two of attending the Electronic Security Expo (ESX) conference in Nashville, TN, and it did not disappoint! As security marketing experts and ESA members, we feel that conference attendance is a must. As always, Nashville was a very welcoming city with great food, music,  people, walking areas, and plenty of Uber drivers.   From the opening breakfast right up to the last day, the focus this year was on connectivity, leveraging data, RMR growth, the customer experience, and Amazon and Google's impact.

Many manufacturers are wondering how to set a reasonable marketing budget that will produce results, particularly as they shift more marketing resources towards online marketing. I recently hosted a webinar, Marketing Budgets for Manufacturers, to guide manufacturing companies in setting overall marketing budgets, and how much to allocate to increasingly important digital marketing.

We've been partnering with security alarm companies for over eight years, and within the last few years we've come to the realization that using their customer data to personalize digital marketing efforts can yield impressive results. When security companies are proactive in gathering data, they are much farther ahead in the potential marketing results they can achieve.

Advertising of the past involved reaching the widest audience possible, in hopes that some people in your target market would see your message. Over time, the ability to target those audience segments most likely to buy from you became more sophisticated, and today's digital marketing makes precision targeting possible.  If you're not taking advantage of the latest methods for targeting your marketing to your ideal customers, you're probably not maximizing your return on marketing investment or getting as many qualified leads as you could.