3 Industrial Marketing Ideas That Grow Your Business

Just as reaching the right audience is crucial, what's also important is providing them with the content they need. Marketing is playing a more important role by being the medium of education that gets prospects to sales. To get prospects to want to speak to a salesperson, you have to provide them with what they want upfront: detailed content on a quality website.

So what industrial marketing ideas can you do to nurture those leads and grow your manufacturing business?

Industrial Marketing You May Already Be Doing

Your customers want to see detailed product information, your company history, where you do business, and reviews/testimonials that endorse your company. Does your website provide everything a prospect is looking for?

If you answered yes, that's great! You're ahead of the game. But if you answered no, then you're missing out on tremendous opportunities. Industrial buyers are doing their search online first and only speak to companies long after they have researched their company and products. The reality is that your website is where industrial buyers expect to find the answers to their questions about your company. By providing those answers, industrial buyers learn about your products and determine whether your company is right for them — on their own time. Data shows that industrial buyers are typically 70% of the way through their purchase decision process before they reach out to a supplier. Click here for more industrial buying facts. 

1. Video Marketing That Grows Businesses

The purpose of a product manufacturer's website is to engage industrial buyers by providing the content and functionality buyers demand, resulting in quality, pre-qualified leads.

You may already be including a lot of informative content on your website in the form of your product information, specifications, certifications, applications, capabilities and equipment. You should also be including your company history, reviews/testimonials to help prospects validate your company, as well as detailed content that potentially give buyers a positive perception of your company. Rather than just create a standard About Us page with all this information, consider diversifying your content with videos.

Instead of just writing paragraphs of content or posting pictures of your shop floor, videos can effectively promote your brand too — marketing doesn't have to be all about writing. Different people consume content differently so it makes sense that video content grow revenue 49% faster than those who don’t.

Check out these 4 reasons why industrial companies use video marketing — and see a video example below from a metal stamping service business.

2. An Online Product Catalog That Is Functional

Industrial buyers want to find the products they are interested in quickly. With a customer-centric approach becoming popular in business, advanced website functionality can make all the difference between your website and your competitors. Website functionality for product manufacturers specifically falls on an interactive product catalog.

When a buyer or an engineer goes to a website, they are looking for exact product information to purchase and/or specify products into their design. With an interactive product catalog, product manufacturers can provide information of all of their products and their variations, as well as make it easy for users to quickly and efficiently filter their way to what they're looking for. With a highly powered catalog, configurable options and downloadable 3D CAD files make your customers job easier — and yours too. Think how many engineering hours you'd be saving, while simultaneously improving customer service. 

Learn More: How To Use CAD Models To Drive Lead Generation

In addition, an interactive product catalog can streamline the buying process by integrating ecommerce for direct online purchasing. As long as your data is accurate, you can drive sales around the clock. The functionality of an online product catalog ultimately replicates various aspects of your business from customer service to purchasing. It makes you as the manufacturer more accessible at any given time to meet preliminary prospect demands. 

3. SEO In Your Industrial Marketing To Rank Higher On Google

By creating a content-driven website, product manufacturers can take advantage of the opportunities of ranking high on Google and other search engines (that basically means more people can find you!). SEO is very important in your industrial marketing toolbox. By providing detailed product information in a search-engine friendly way, prospects are more likely to find your website for specific search terms. And when they get to your website, they still search very specifically — sometimes even including part numbers in their searches. Here's what else you should include in your advanced search features on your website:

• Performance characteristics
• Pricing
• SPEC documents

You Can Rank Higher on Google in 30 Days

By delivering the information your prospects are looking for on a quality website, and making it easy for them to select and specify your products, you can become favorable and top-of-mind. It's one of the laws of lead generation that industrial marketers use to truly differentiate their company and help grow their business. (The first law is listing your business on the Thomas Network where you can connected with more than a million buyers for free!)