If you've ever been on our blog before, then you know that there are two things we love: inbound marketing and manufacturing. We happen to think that inbound marketing has great potential for creating manufacturing sales leads, but it's not uncommon to find manufacturing companies that don't agree. A lot of these companies say that their websites don't bring in a fraction of the sales leads that traditional channels do. And while this may be true, chances are that it's not because inbound doesn't work. Often we find that there are three areas that manufacturers need to work on to make inbound generate the kinds of manufacturing sales leads they are looking for.
1. A stellar website
One of the first things we look at for manufacturing companies is their website.
If you've ever browsed a poorly made website, then you know how frustrating the experience can be. Unfortunately, a lot of manufacturers think that because they deal in complex B2B products or services they don't need to focus on their website. Which is why we see a lot of manufacturers with website that are not only frustrating to browse, these websites aren't bringing anywhere near the number of manufacturing sales leads that they should be.
A couple of the things we try to work on to improve these sites are things like creating compelling offers, CTAs and landing pages, and easy ways to share opinions and contact the business. Check out our post here to see the 7 things your website needs.
2. Amazing content
Content is king in the world of inbound marketing, but it tends to get overlooked in the world of manufacturing. What most manufacturers don't realize is that they are uniquely qualified to create amazing content that will attract and land the kinds of manufacturing sales leads they are looking for.
Manufacturers often work in industries with a lot of specialized knowledge, and while this might seem like it offers little in the way of exciting content this couldn't be farther from the truth. True, an average browser might not be interested in a technical article, but someone in the market for your goods or services is going to be interested.
Creating content that draws on your knowledge and expertise is going to give visitors a reason to stick around, download offers, read blog posts, and move deeper into your sales cycle.
3. Lead nurturing that works
The third key to generating manufacturing sales leads is lead nurturing. Once you have an appealing website that is leveraging content you need a way to draw leads further into the sales cycle. Lead nurturing that is tied to each of your offers/landing pages has great potential to move leads deeper into the sales process.
The goal of lead nurturing is to take a lead and convert them to a customer. To put lead nurturing into context:
Internet search→ landing page → submitting a form→ lead generation→ lead nurturing→ sales
If you're new to inbound marketing, I suggest you check out this post to learn more about lead nurturing and how it relates to inbound marketing and lead generation and retention.
Topics: Marketing, Manufacturing
