There’s no shame in admitting your internal marketing efforts aren’t as successful as you would like. The sooner you embrace the idea of working with an industrial marketing agency, the more likely you are to watch your company grow and thrive in a very competitive market.
The only problem with this option is choosing which marketing agency to use. After all, a quick Google search will turn up thousands of leads. With this handy comprehensive guide, you don’t have to worry about making the wrong decision. We’ve got all the insider tips you need.
Key Takeaways:
- Not all marketing agencies are equal. You need one with a focus on the industrial or manufacturing industry.
- Unless you have clearly defined goals for your company, no marketing strategy will ever be 100% effective.
- Finding the right marketing agency means hammering out some important details such as budget, scope of services, scalability, and more.
Armed with the right questions to ask and the information you need to understand what an industrial marketing company can do, you shouldn’t have any problems knowing which company is the best fit.
Source: WebFX on YouTube
The Process of Looking for an Industrial Marketing Agency
As you start to look for the right marketing agency, you can break down the process and actions into two categories. The first one deals with your responsibilities when doing the research. The second category deals with the responsibilities of the agency you are interviewing. But we’ll get to more on that in a minute.
Understand and Fulfill Your Responsibilities
If you hire the wrong company, there is no one to blame but yourself. After all, you have plenty of opportunities to check on the experience of the company by looking up reviews or asking for references. You aren’t (or shouldn’t) be going into this process blind.
It’s important to fully embrace your responsibilities by asking the tough questions, following up on the answers, and knowing the lingo of the business. You have to take ownership of the process if you’re going to make the right decision. These are your key responsibilities.
1. Give Your Company an Identity
If you want your industrial marketing agency to knock it out of the park, your company needs a clear identity. The agency needs to know your company’s unique capabilities and expertise. You need to define your marketing goals, whether it’s more conversions or increasing brand awareness.
Spend time clearly outlining the big details of your company so it’s easier for your potential marketing partner to know how to build your brand. This is where industry specialization is key.
2. Limit Your Search to Sector Experience
An industrial marketing company specializes in a target market. This means they already know the language of the industry and the common pain points in the customer experience. Limiting your search to such companies goes a long way in avoiding trial-and-error marketing efforts.
Even if you’ve heard great things from fellow businessmen, keep your search criteria to agencies that specialize in industrial and manufacturing growth and marketing strategies. You’ll skip over a lot of new relationship learning curves this way.
3. Acknowledge Your Limitations
You need to determine how much you plan to rely on your industrial marketing agency before signing a contract. Decide if you just need some guidance with your strategy or if you need a full-service design and execution of a transformative marketing strategy.
Be honest about what your efforts have done and where they are failing. This isn’t about feeling embarrassed or incompetent. This is about growth, revenue, success, and so much more.
Discuss your plans with your internal teams and make sure everyone commits to seeing this process through. When leads start pouring in, you need to know your sales team can handle it. Make changes as necessary to support your new marketing efforts.
Recognize and Establish Accountability for The Agency’s Responsibilities
Now that you know what you are bringing to the table when looking for a marketing agency, you can focus on what the agency needs to do to secure your business. Think of it like a job interview.
You have a job that needs doing, and the best use of your resources is hiring a company that will do the best job. Make it the agency’s responsibility to address the following requirements.
1. Present Proof of Work
An industrial marketing agency worthy of hire is generally proud of its work and has no problem sharing a portfolio of past or present clients. Look at social media platforms, content, or website designs. Ask for data on client rankings and the average timeline for growth results.
If you want to know the real experiences of working with the company, ask if you can call current or former clients to talk about working with the marketing team. You want accessible, efficient professionals working on your brand.
2. Define the Scope of Services
Remember what you need when talking to agencies. The services they offer should correspond to what your goal for the marketing plan is but with a manufacturing perspective. Services that directly benefit your company could include:
- Search engine optimization
- Trade show marketing
- Branding
- Social media
- Content marketing
Your specific goals will influence which services are applicable, but if you plan to grow and expand the brand, your marketing agency should have scalable services.
3. Share the Plan
The goal of working with an industrial marketing company is to stand out from the competition. That means you need a plan custom to your business and goals. The diverse and competitive nature of the manufacturing industry requires a multifaceted approach to marketing.
The agency should share its plans for integrated marketing efforts across platforms and a creative strategy that deals with your company’s strengths and weaknesses. Your agency should know how to grow the business, define how it will exceed expectations, and demonstrate how its plan will achieve your goals.
4. Provide Proof of Results
You won’t know you picked the right industrial marketing agency unless you have results. This requires marketing efforts to be specific and measurable. The agency should provide sample reports or metrics used to measure results.
It needs to present an overview of the past successes of its clients, but you should also receive a customized timeline with key metrics for the success of your marketing strategy. Your return on investment depends on how well the strategies perform.
The Solution to Your Industrial Marketing Agency Search
Your search for the best industrial marketing agency ends with Shanahan Strategy. We check all the boxes when it comes to delivering customized manufacturing strategies, having worked for leading industrial brands around the world. Contact us today to find out how we can grow your business.
