Manufacturing is a noisy industry, with established brands and startups fighting for attention and sales.
You’ve carved out a space in the market for your business, established your USP (Unique Selling Point) – now it’s time to start sharing it with the world.
Marketing can help businesses in this situation to build brand awareness, expand into new markets, increase customer trust and gain a competitive edge – all with the end goal of winning new business.
In the crowded modern manufacturing space, not only is there plenty of competition, but there are hundreds, if not thousands, of niches. This emphasises the need to have a clear and consistent message all the more crucial to standing out as a premium supplier amongst the noise.
As a done-for-you marketing agency, we’ve had the pleasure of partnering with a number of manufacturing businesses. We’ve done the testing so you don’t have to.
Here are the six strategies we’d recommend to any client in the manufacturing space with years of experience backing it up.
Get your data in check
Do you know where all your data is?
It’s important to look for ‘easy wins’ when it comes to data. Maybe you’ve created hundreds of spreadsheets over the years that have never been collated. Perhaps you and your sales team have a stockpile of WhatsApp messages and contacts or even coffee-stained sticky notes littering your desk.
The next step is an obvious one and always the very first step we action with new clients.
Collate, clean and store this data in a single place.
Of course, your website, social media presence and email marketing is crucial (as we’ll explain later), but one true non-negotiable for your marketing strategy is a CRM, or Customer Relationship Management System.
We use HighLevel.
We find it to be the best all-encompassing CRM, with helpful features for lead and contact management, pipelines and opportunities, automation and content management.
Read a full breakdown of HighLevel in this article and, if you’re interested in setting it up, we can support you.
Optimise your website
Your website is your digital shopfront and the hub of all of your marketing activity.
Did you know it takes just 0.05 seconds for a visitor to form an opinion of your website and subsequently your business? If it looks unattractive, is difficult to navigate or loads at the pace of a snail, it’s time to take action.
Let’s face it – you could be producing tons of engaging blogs, guides and social media posts but, if you don’t have a clear and attractive website, you’re risking putting off your prospects.
Your website must have a simple, logical navigation, feature a good balance of text and imagery and be optimised for SEO and, more recently, AI SEO, helping it rank high on Google and appear in AI search results on Google, ChatGPT and other tools.
Adding free resources such as blogs and PDF guides also helps with SEO and positions you as an authority within your space.
Need some website support?
If your manufacturing website is in need of a refresh, you’re in luck.
Flamingo is offering your business a website audit, where we’ll analyse the key pages of your site and see what’s working well and what could be improved, sent to you as a short video.
Email marketing: it's alive and kicking
We quite often hear from business leaders that email marketing is dead.
That it all looks like spam and recipients instantly know you’re trying to sell…
Well, we’d say that means you’re doing it wrong!
Email marketing has simply evolved and it can be a very valuable marketing avenue for manufacturing businesses to spark conversations with potential customers.
We’re proud to consistently achieve email open rates above the 20% industry benchmark, both for ourselves and our clients. It’s proof that, with effective processes in place, email marketing is most certainly here to stay.
Don't neglect print
If email marketing isn’t dead, surely print is a distant memory, right?
Wrong!
If print media puts you in mind of the Yellow Pages, you need to think again.
The very fact that print media is becoming scarcer is why it creates such an impact on your audience.
According to Zap Post, 80% – 90% of direct mail gets read, compared to just 20% – 30% of emails that get opened.
Not to mention the fact that print media is ideal for events and expos. Many attendees will still want to walk away from your stand holding something physical, whether it be a sales letter, brochure, portfolio or product guide.
Leverage social proof
Remember that amazing project you completed?
The one where the client was incredibly impressed and sent you a written review?
Yeah? Well, use it!
Backlinko found that 71% of consumers read online reviews when researching businesses, so this is not one to skip over.
Social proof plays a huge part in growing your reputation and allowing you to forge your place as an authority within your field.
Publishing client testimonials and writing case studies gives potential clients a glimpse into what it’s like working with you and evidence that you follow through with your promises.
There are opportunities to request reviews, rather than just waiting patiently for them to flood in.
If you sell products, it should be part of your follow-up. If you provide services, make it part of your post-project process.
We have run successful Google Review campaigns for our clients, requesting reviews from their existing customers and encouraging them to publish them on Google.
Not only does this boost their credibility and increase their rating – it also provides the chance to share these reviews on their websites, emails and social media posts.
Get on the road
Many aspects of manufacturing work best when your audience can see live demonstrations.
Visiting expos and events is the perfect way to put your products and services in front of relevant people and get involved in industry conversation.
We’ve supported several manufacturing and construction companies to boost their presence at events. In 2024, Worldwide Structures Ltd. needed an impactful marketing campaign for their appearance at major industry event Bauma. See the impact of our strategy here.
Why choose Flamingo Marketing Strategies?
There are plenty of marketing agencies out there, so why choose us?
We like to think of ourselves as more than just a marketing agency, but your external marketing team, providing a full range of services including email marketing, database building, print, graphic design and social media.
Whether you have an in-house marketer, small marketing team or no marketing staff at all, we can support your business to ensure you can stick with what you do best.
Read more about our work in our success stories brochure and check out our full range of services here.
FAQs
How can manufacturing businesses use marketing?
Marketing can be used by manufacturing businesses in a variety of ways, to boost sales, improve brand awareness and create a sense of trust or authority.
What are the most effective lead generation tactics for B2B manufacturing companies?
While it varies from business to business, many manufacturing companies see success with email marketing, print marketing and social media.
Why should manufacturing companies work with a marketing agency?
Manufacturing is a crowded industry with many niches, so it’s often challenging to get your products and services in front of the right people. Marketing allows you to reach your target audience and generate conversations with your ideal customers, and teaming up with a marketing agency means you can leave that to the experts and continue with your day-to-day tasks.
What role does LinkedIn play in B2B lead generation for manufacturers?
LinkedIn is the best place to reach relevant contacts and dream clients. Whether its maintaining a strong and consistent presence with posts and articles or contacting them by direct message, you can build an engaged list of connections to add to your database.
Request a brochure
Considering working with a marketing agency? You can request a copy of our brochure here.
Just fill in your details, and we’ll pop one in the post!
We’re here to help!
We’d love to offer you 60 minutes of our time to find out more about what you do for your customers and show you how we would tackle your marketing (and messaging) to drive the best results. We’ll spend up to 60 minutes on Teams where you can share what you’re doing marketing-wise and we can give you some ideas, feedback and suggestions of additional things to throw into the mix.
You can watch the video below to find out more.