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When it comes to marketing for manufacturing companies, there is no 'one size fits all' approach. Every manufacturing business is different, and digital marketing  needs to be tailored to the specific target markets, and more specifically, the target personas within those markets.

When you spend money on marketing for your B2B manufacturing company, what kind of return on your investment should you expect? We’ll review how to calculate ROI and what ratio is considered the best for the manufacturing industry.

Pages on a manufacturer's website that specifically name the industries you serve and how you solve problems for businesses in that industry are valuable content that serve many purposes. Manufacturing marketers can realize several benefits when website content is planned and built out around the types of businesses that use their product or services.  The below menu is an example of how one manufacturer structured its industry pages.

Producing content about your products and services is the most effective way to leverage organic search through an inbound marketing strategy (also known as content marketing). People such as engineers and plant managers searching for manufacturing equipment, typically experience a buyer’s journey that includes three phases: awareness, consideration, and decision. To leverage the power of inbound marketing for manufacturing equipment, content should be created or optimized for each of these stages in order to attract, engage and delight customers. 

Effective websites attract visitors to your pages over competitors’ but a poorly designed or non maintained website can actually drive away prospects. Your website is the face of your business and if done well, is the primary tool for capturing the attention of prospective customers.

The internet has the farthest reach of any advertising medium so if you want to get to the farthest corners of your market, generate good content about your products so those potential buyers can find you. We often hear that a manufacturers’ products are so niched that the best way to reach a target market is through networking and at tradeshows. Networking with current and prospective customers in-person will never be wrong, but remember that your prospects and customers ARE on the internet, searching for solutions to their daily manufacturing problems. Nearly 70% of engineers say they use supplier websites to research products and services (Trew Marketing & Global Spec 2022 Survey). Just like you, they read emails and social posts from leaders in their industry to learn about the latest innovations and market trends. They are searching for ways to improve production, reduce costs and impress their boss with the newest industry information. In addition to your networking efforts, your website is a 24/7 research tool; that if set up well, with robust content, will provide answers that put you in the spotlight as the subject matter expert. However, if your site does not answer product questions, or worse, is not ranked for the key search words and phrases, then your competition could snag your leads. In our 2021 survey of equipment manufacturers, content marketing ranked by far the digital marketing tactic that they were having the most success with.

We experienced quite a show in Atlanta on January 25 and 26 at the International Production and Processing Expo! If you missed it, here are some highlights of the event: 

WebStrategies works with all kinds of equipment manufacturers. From food processing equipment that places pepperoni on frozen pizza to equipment that wraps pallets of goods to be distributed around the globe, we understand that manufacturing clients have to identify incredibly niche markets to sell their products. And yet, we often hear manufacturers claim that their product is too unique to be marketed online. In fact, that is not the case at all.

We regularly update this article with the latest information pertaining to marketing budgets for manufacturers. Last update: January 2022  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.