Everyone is familiar with some sort of traditional or digital marketing. Many manufacturers have a marketing manager or person in charge of planning trade shows, posting into social media, and more. But when we talk to industrial B2B companies, we realize that everyone doesn’t know exactly what inbound marketing is. Furthermore, they are not aware of the benefits that come along with it.
Take a look at where your potential customers spend their time during the workday. Are they always on their feet, running production lines on the manufacturing plant floor? Or, are they the CEO of a company, sitting at their computer, able to receive emails, out and about at networking events, or traveling to meetings around the country? Once you know where your prospects are during their workday, you can take a look at their stage within the sales funnel and we target them online according to the industry sites, social media platforms (like LinkedIn) other resources they read on a daily or weekly basis.
The goal is to have the right content in front of a prospect when they need it. For example, appearing in the top of the search results when the prospect conducts a Google search for a solution to a problem.
Let’s say your ideal customer is a parts purchaser for a manufacturing company. They feel pressure from their manager because one of their current suppliers never delivers their requested orders on time and affects their entire production timeline. They know they need to find a solution to this ongoing issue, so it’s in the back of their mind. Here’s an example of what your prospect may be experiencing during different stages of their journey.
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Sales Funnel Stage |
Ideal Interaction |
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Top of the Funnel: The Awareness Stage |
They see a blog post in a LinkedIn group, click it, and read the content on your website. |
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Middle of the Funnel: The Consideration Stage |
They click on the Call-to-Action (CTA) at the bottom of your blog post to download a whitepaper. |
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Bottom of the Funnel: The Decision Stage |
Because they downloaded a whitepaper, they are nurtured through email marketing and ultimately request a quote. |
You may still be wondering how you push your prospects from the top of the funnel to the bottom. The goal is to convert your leads into sales, right? Here are examples of marketing tactics you can use:
Drip campaigns for B2B manufacturers are successful in keeping the conversation going and converting prospects from leads into customers. Click here to learn more about the steps involved with creating email campaigns.
One of the most common questions we hear from manufacturers is: “How can I get my company to show up #1 in Google?” Well, it’s a great question! SEO is the answer and is a critical component of funneling your prospects down their buyer’s journey online. Attract prospects during every stage of their buyer’s journey with a robust SEO strategy.
Posting blog content into LinkedIn groups has a high success rate for reeling prospects into the sales funnel. Learn 8 ways manufacturers use social media to increase ROI here.
That’s my brief, yet jam-packed, summary on how inbound marketing works for manufacturers.
What kind of traditional or digital marketing does your manufacturing company do for lead generation? Share your experiences with us in the comments!