Manufacturing companies need to grow up fast and start marketing using the amazing tools now available for free, or at least very low cost, compared to traditional advertising, trade shows, etc. People are changing how they are buying and manufacturers need to adapt - no different than when new technologies create efficiencies and greater productivity forcing companies to change tools, techniques, engineering, processes, and equipment on the production floor.
The best marketing strategies for small manufacturers employ new sales and marketing tools that relate to inbound marketing programs along with modified outbound (traditional) marketing to create an integrated approach that meets buyers where they are in the buying cycle.
Before using the cool new marketing tools, manufacturers must talk to prospects and customers first and then build what they need - as opposed to building something and then going and trying to find a market. Helping your prospects first is key to building a relationship with them that turns into a sale. Just jumping into these tools without laying the groundwork with customer-based insights may doom your efforts to failure.
Do you really talk to your customers? When was the last time you called one up and asked them questions like:
I once asked a salesperson that I managed to call his last 10 sales and ask them why they bought from us. After a few weeks of reminding him to make the calls, and him making excuses as to why he hadn't called them, he finally fessed up. He said he didn't make the calls because he was afraid they would change their minds. Still an amazing answer to me.
When you do this your team will build confidence because you will hear firsthand how helpful you are and how much your solutions drive business value for your customers. These insights can become testimonials or case studies but they also should inform how you create messaging for your marketing and how you conduct the sales process.
What are you left without these customer-generated insights? Features, specifications, and stuff about you and your product. Those things are of no interest to your customers and prospects. They are interested in what is in it for them.
How can you talk to customers and gather insights other than just picking up the phone - which is still the best way to actually engage with them other than actually visiting face-to-face? Social media, websites, e-mail, LinkedIn....and lots of other creative ways.
Many companies don't know how to blog for manufacturing but blogging is one of the best ways to communicate your customers' success stories and insights into their issues as well as engage prospects.
Running an ad is not talking to prospects - it is telling prospects.
So stop whining about how to market a manufacturing company is a difficult process and start winning using marketing innovation that matches the quality and technology of the products you make.
Read more about manufacturing marketing here.