As a manufacturing marketing group, we understand the excuses businesses often make for keeping their marketing services in-house. “It’s too expensive” or “We’re doing fine just the way we are” are pretty common put-offs, while other manufacturers believe they have such a niche industry that marketing strategies wouldn’t be necessary or effective.
We tend to disagree. You should understand all the pitfalls you could encounter trying to go it alone to decide for yourself what third-party marketing could do for your manufacturing company.
Key Takeaways:
- Manufacturing companies need a unique approach to marketing to be effective in the industry, but too many in-house marketing teams don’t have the skills and knowledge to be effective.
- Keeping up with the latest tools, trends, and technology in the marketing sector takes time and resources that manufacturing companies would be better off investing in new products and production processes.
- Marketing takes more than a one-size-fits-all strategy, and the right marketing partner for your business can develop a tailored plan that gets you better results more quickly.
Mistakes You Can Avoid With a Manufacturing Marketing Group
Manufacturers can take advantage of the benefits of traditional and digital marketing strategies just like other industries, but it can take a little creativity to get it right. Unfortunately, if you’re trying to do it on your own, you’re likely making some common mistakes and sabotaging your results.
While we applaud your efforts at growth, take a look at these mistakes and see if your efforts are falling short.
Mistake 1: Failing to Get Ahead of Your Competition
You don’t want to break even with your competition or hold steady in your industry. Your goal is to blast past them and grab a larger corner of the market. To do this means getting a jump on a digital marketing strategy and building an online presence that attracts a following.
Mistake 2: Having an All-About-You Strategy
If your current marketing strategy is simply building up your products and your company, you may gain some attention, but you won’t gain conversions. In the manufacturing industry, buyers are looking for suppliers who help solve their problems or answer their questions.
You need an inbound marketing strategy that focuses on informative consumer content, whether it’s industry news, legislation changes, research articles, or other value-based content. Both targeted campaigns and online, SEO-friendly content drive traffic to your site.
If you aren’t seeing a lot of site traffic, you probably aren’t doing something right. A manufacturing marketing group can fix that problem.
Mistake 3: Wondering Where Your Results Are
Not tracking the results specific to your marketing campaigns means you’re losing leads, wasting resources, and missing out on key consumer buying data. By tracking results across all your campaigns, you see what is working best for both attracting new buyers and encouraging repeat purchases.
There are marketing software packages that can help with gathering, tracking, and analyzing data, but this is one more thing your in-house team will have to figure out and try to make work. A manufacturing marketing group already has these systems in place and the know-how to make the most of the information.
Mistake 4: Giving Marketing Your Leftovers
There are a lot of processes in the manufacturing industry that demand your attention. If you’ve been tossing only your leftover time and resources at your marketing and sales engine, you’re making a serious mistake.
A DIY solution to sales and marketing that only gets going when you have a little extra in the budget or a few hours on your hand is not enough to see huge gains and brand development.
Marketing is a full-time job that demands attention, effort, and a healthy budget. If you haven’t been able to give this area the attention it needs, you’re better off letting the professionals handle the job.
Mistake 5: Following the Status Quo
Think back to when you first put a marketing strategy in place. What kind of activities were you doing? What was your initial emphasis? What about now? Has anything changed?
Whether you’ve been open for five years or five months, the industry’s standards, your processes, and the problems your buyers are dealing with are not the same as when you started. A marketing strategy that stays stuck in the past and rests on prior success won’t take your company to the next level.
The job of a manufacturing marketing group is to keep up with the changes in marketing techniques or platforms, as well as the trends in consumer behavior within the manufacturing industry.
It’s not just about choosing between what works and what doesn’t. It’s about choosing what works best for your business and continually improving on the strategy.
Mistake 6: Ignoring the Benefits of a Diversified Strategy
Your in-house team may be good at email marketing, but can they adequately handle an expanded strategy that includes social media platforms or SEO-optimized content? The most successful manufacturing marketing strategies are multi-faceted.
Digital platforms are immensely productive for generating leads, but you can’t get rid of traditional campaigns, either. If you don’t have a strategy that combines the best of both approaches, you are missing out on a lot of revenue and growth potential.
For many businesses, an in-house team doesn’t have the depth of experience and skill to effectively manage a diversified marketing strategy. There is no shame in admitting this fact.
Understanding that you could use expert help puts you ahead of your competition since you are more likely to bring in third-party professionals who know what they’re doing.
Mistake 7: Failing to Get Personal
If your current marketing plan is a generic, widely thrown net of advertisements or emails, you’re missing the mark on developing personal relationships with your current buyers and potential ones.
Personalized marketing is vital to both retention and acquisition. From targeting specific areas with specific products to simply including names on the greeting in an email blast, you are more likely to engage with buyers when they feel noticed as individuals.
Target marketing introduces products or content that solves their problems, while the use of names displays a personal interest and heightened attention to customer service.
Mistake 8: Ignoring Your Mistakes
Now that you know the crucial mistakes that are easy to make, you have a better idea of how to assess your marketing efforts. Knowledge is power, and by admitting to these shortfalls and choosing to take action, you can build a stronger, healthier company. Ignoring them will just make them worse.
Experienced Guidance from an Expert Manufacturing Marketing Group
Don’t let these mistakes bog you down or get you discouraged. As a manufacturing marketing group, we see them a lot and know what to do to counter them. At Shanahan Strategy, we work with you to develop a marketing plan that aligns with your business goals and delivers impressive results. Contact our team to find out more.
