Top Strategies in Content Marketing for Manufacturing Companies

Although content marketing for manufacturing companies is still an excellent strategy to attract new consumers and build connections with key clients, only 22% of manufacturers consider themselves mature content marketers.

I understand when I chat with business leaders and digital marketers (especially those in the manufacturing field) who believe something about their business niche, industry, or firm makes them too unique to embrace marketing.

Your requirements are distinct. Your ideal customers are not the same as those who visit an e-commerce store or a professional services organization. But, to attract more customers, how do you market a manufacturing company?

Content Research for B2B Manufacturing

According to the Content Marketing Institute and Content Profs:

1. Manufacturers are investing significantly more in content strategy creation than in past years. 41% of manufacturers claimed they have a defined strategy, up from 21% the year before.
2. In contrast to a year ago, 65 percent of industrial marketers believe that content marketing makes their company a lot or somewhat more successful.
3. Almost half of the industrial marketers (48 percent) say their company has a small marketing team that serves the entire company.
4. Sixty-four percent of manufacturing marketers outsource at least one content marketing task, with production the most common (87 percent).
5. According to manufacturing marketers, 50% of the content they develop is for consumers at the beginning of the buyer's journey (top-of-the-funnel). For steps further down the funnel, far less content is created.

Do any of these factors affect your manufacturing company? It shows that your competitors see the importance and ROI of marketing and are investing in it. It is a pattern we expect to continue.

There has never been a better time for your company to invest in a content marketing plan.

Marketing Ideas for Manufacturing Companies

Let's go through some strategies your company can take to create a successful B2B marketing strategy:

1. Create a plan that is strategic and well-researched.

Many B2B industrial manufacturers worry if a written strategy is essential.

Yes, it is correct. According to the survey, 41% of manufacturers have a defined plan.

While creating blogs that answer your target customer's inquiries is essential, you should always write with an end goal in mind.

Is it necessary for me to create articles for my products?

Yes!

Your marketing team is most likely small. If you've read this far, you have the potential to be a one-person marketing machine. Here's an example of how other manufacturing teams are organized:

Here are the most critical components to include in your strategy if you're in charge of creating one for your firm.

What should you include in your manufacturing marketing strategy?

1. Buyer personal research: To personalize your content to your audience, you must first understand them.
2. Extensive keyword and SEO research: Finding the keywords — and carefully incorporating them into your articles in a way that optimizes them — may make or break your strategy. Failure to finish this stage is a significant blunder that could cause your initiative’s poor return on investment.
3. An examination of the material and the website: Examine your current website’s performance and other outlets. What keywords do your website already rank for? What are you hoping it will be ranked for? Make a list of your gaps using this information.
4. Core topics: What do you want to be renowned for as far as material goes? When people seek your answer online, what subject should you be an expert in? Your research will aid in the selection of your themes.
5. A well-planned editorial calendar: regularly Publishing purposeful and well-researched articles is critical to your success. A calendar can assist you in focusing on the issues for which you wish to be known.
6. A dashboard for measuring success: Tracking success metrics, whether using Google Analytics or another tool. These tools will allow you to understand what's working and what isn't.

You should keep track of the following metrics, among others:

• Traffic
• Rate of Bounce
• Snippet positioning and SERP features
• Conversion rate (how many people visit your material before becoming a lead?)
• Reporting on attribution (who views your material before becoming a customer?)
• Ranking by keyword and domain
• Inbound connections 

7. A fantastic writer: It's not enough to be an expert in your field. You must present the material in a reader- and search engine-friendly way. You could have someone on your team that is a fantastic writer. That isn't always enough to get a return on your marketing efforts. It is most likely why 64% of manufacturers hire specialists to write for them. A skilled manufacturing marketing copywriter will do the following at the same time:

• Please make sure you communicate with your audience in a language and tone they are familiar with.
• Present your company as an expert in the field without being overly aggressive or sales-y.
• Optimize your articles to appear in search results so that people can find them quickly.
• To make yourself stand out, write something more significant than your competitors.

2. Identify the problems that your buyer is experiencing.

Understanding what irritates your customers might help you respond to the questions they put into Google. You can figure out what queries your buyers have in a few ways:

• Interview customers: Your best source of information is your consumers. Inquire about the search terms they used to discover you on Google. Please inquire about the solutions they're looking for. Inquire about their purchasing process. 

• Where did they look for help? If they were to buy again, what information, insights, FAQs, or product specifics would be helpful to them? After that, write material that addresses these concerns.

• Inquire about your sales reps: Your sales team interacts with your customers daily. They most likely already know what holes need to be filled.

3. Conduct market analysis.

Without a thorough competition study, no strategy is complete. Even if your product is incredibly niche, conducting a competitive analysis on closely related product sites can benefit you. 

At AI bees, we enhance your account and use it to target prospects who are similar to your clientele using top lookalike companies in competitive analysis. Our AI solution would identify lookalike companies and find opportunities to promote your solution or services.

If your competitors are outperforming you online, we can help employ a two-pronged 

strategy:

1. Attempt to rank for keywords and topics your competitors aren't ranking for.
2. Attempt to overtake their current position with better, more practical, and targeted articles.

It's also helpful to look at what your competitors are up to on social media, particularly Facebook and LinkedIn. You should also monitor your competitors' email and nurture campaigns.

While copying what your competitors are doing is never a brilliant idea, understanding their organic success and other marketing efforts might help you develop a strategy for your company that surpasses theirs.

4. Create material tailored to each stage of the buying process

Added additional TOFU material to your website will help you attract more visitors. As a result, most firms devote more than half of their marketing resources to TOFU.

What is the substance of TOFU?

TOFU (top of the funnel) articles target purchasers with high-level pain points or issues that need to be solved. In manufacturing, this usually entails looking at employees’ daily difficulties. Whether it's a business problem (reducing manufacturing time) or an equipment issue, they can help (streamlining operations). 

We often ask these questions, such as: 

What is?

How to?

When do?

Etc.

However, generating some material for the middle and bottom of the funnel is equally crucial.

Searchers are already aware that they are looking for a product or service that you can provide.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Increasing traffic to your site isn't enough; you also need to tell your visitors what to do next after they've arrived.

How do I persuade my visitors to take the next step in the marketing process?

• Add CTAs to related, helpful material to begin.
• Add quality links to related and valuable material.
• Clear routes of communication and channels to get in touch with you.
• Add testimonials and success stories relevant to your product or services. 
• Add links to ‘learn more’ about the content, such as signing up for your email newsletter, following you on social media, and so on. 

5. Consider your options beyond the blog. 

People generally think of "content" as blog posts. A blog is also a must-have for a successful SEO strategy. It is necessary to develop content outside of the blog.

What are the best avenues for content development for manufacturers?

• Social media marketing

• Video marketing
• Newsletters and email nurturing
• Interactive graphics
• Customer testimonials and tales
• Advertisements in print, articles in print, news stories in print, press releases in print, and so on.
• Live events, trade exhibits, and webinars are all options.
• Guest blogging 

This graph illustrates how other brands prioritize their content marketing channels:

Top-performing content strategies go far beyond the blog, incorporating various kinds to cast a wider digital net.

PRO TIP: Repurposing content can help you streamline your strategy. You can divide a thoughtful blog into 10 to 100 social posts if you write a brilliant blog. You can create teaser videos from segments of a webinar or sales presentation. This is a simple method to generate quick, free ROI.

6. Make marketing a priority.

What you put in, you get out, particularly in the manufacturing field. If most of your business comes from referrals or word of mouth, it may be time to invest in a strong internet presence. A strategy is the most excellent place to start because it provides the most long-term ROI online.

Content that you create once might work for you daily. Evergreen articles can generate exponential traffic increases - sometimes over the years.

Here's an example of how other companies outsource marketing services:

To generate manufacturing content, where should you put your time and money?

Develop a professional strategy: You'll need premium SEO tools like SEMrush or Spyfu to develop a successful strategy. In addition, you should budget between 25 and 75 hours for keyword research, topic research, creating an editorial calendar, and tracking. 

Not to mention the time and money you'll have to spend composing the material once you've figured out your strategy. Outsourcing strategy development can be cheaper — and a lot more efficient — than doing it yourself.

A writer with experience: Look for someone who has created content for your ideal buyer before and has a lot of experience with it. Also, ensure that they are well-versed in SEO and generate content that ranks.

Paid per click: A PPC or Paid Social expert can ensure that you're not just producing high-performing PPC but also that you're managing your investment over time. Paid strategy evolves with time, with new paid competitors appearing regularly. It's crucial to manage your PPC strategy and modify your approach to see a return on your investment. 66% of manufacturers currently use paid social marketing, while 61% use paid search ads.

Interactive content and professional design: What if someone arrived on your website and could view a quality digital representation of your brand onsite? It's conceivable and impactful. Interactive and well-designed content is not only a terrific sales tool, but it can also help your company stand out online.

Content marketing for manufacturing companies today: where do you begin?

Choose the top five questions that your consumers frequently ask. Use Google to look up the answers to those questions. Take a look at what else is ranked. Then, to answer the questions better than anybody else, produce a helpful, detailed, and non-sales blog article. 

Use one-of-a-kind photos whenever possible and link to other sites which make sense and are relevant to your topic.

Then, recast all those blogs as social postings over the next six months.

You're well on your road to establishing your brand online.

Final Note

The more complicated it will be for companies to rank as more manufacturers see the value of investing in a solid content marketing strategy. With relatively minimal competition in the B2B manufacturing space, those who start early will see the best SEO results.

Why? It gets increasingly difficult for your competitors to outrank you when your site gains topical authority online.

What is my recommendation? 

Begin as soon as possible. Begin right now.