3 free marketing resources for manufacturers

The top three marketing challenges in manufacturing

Creating enough high-quality content, targeting the right audience and measuring success and Return On Investment (ROI) were the top three challenges as voted by manufacturers. Marketing teams are stretched and not being able to measure return on investment means they are likely to be stretched further.

64% of manufacturing business leaders believe marketing is a high priority but there seems to be a vicious cycle when it comes to proving the value of marketing. Without solid sales messaging that targets the right audience, content will always fall flat. Without the right tech in place, measuring ROI will always be difficult. So, industrial marketers are on an increasingly fast hamster wheel, under pressure to deliver leads to their sales teams.

What does this mean for manufacturers?

These three challenges alone mean manufacturers face the issues of:

• Not standing out from the competition – Many manufacturers operate in a finite marketplace against other businesses that offer very similar products.
• Poor search engine rankings – In a finite marketplace, every opportunity is precious. Those manufacturers who can’t generate enough of the right content will miss out to the competition who can. More content = higher search engine positions. Higher search engine positions = more clicks to your website. To give some context, websites that hold first positions in search engines can expect click-through rates of up to 43%, compared to only 3% for those who hold 10^th positions (Ignite Visibility). You can imagine how low the click through rates are for sites on pages 2+ of Google!
• Not knowing what works – We’ll discuss this a little later on, but a lack of measurement and not knowing how much return you’re getting from your marketing spend means you won’t know which initiatives are effective and should be invested in later on.

Want to know how to overcome these top marketing challenges? Attend this FREE Industrial Marketing Challenges & Solutions workshop.

95% Of Manufacturers Invest In Digital Marketing

Considering how digital transformation has become the beating heart of the manufacturing industry, it’s unsurprising that this has also spread into marketing. In fact, a whopping 95% of manufacturers invest in digital marketing.

So, where are manufacturers placing their digital marketing budgets? And which initiatives drive the most success?

51% of manufacturers voted organic social media in their top three most successful marketing activities. According to the CMI, LinkedIn continues to be the most popular social media platform for manufacturers with 87% of industrial marketers using the platform.

In second and third place were digital advertising and SEO, indicating that manufacturers have improved lead generation through both organic and paid means in the last year.

Surprisingly, marketing automation still remains a low priority for manufacturers with only 12% of the industry investing in such software. Furthermore, only 3% of manufacturing businesses placed marketing automation in their top three most successful marketing initiatives. This represents a huge, missed opportunity for manufacturers to:

• Increase marketing efficiency – marketing automation drives a 12.2% reduction in marketing overhead (Nucleus Research).
• Boost sales productivity –77% of business owners saw an increase in conversions after using marketing automation software (Sugar CRM).
• Outperform the competition – 63% of companies using marketing automation outperform competitors (FindStack).

What does this mean for manufacturers?

While it’s positive to see manufacturers taking on more digital means of marketing – especially since the effects of COVID-19 have obliterated many offline marketing methods in the last two years – it does mean the digital landscape will become increasingly competitive. Manufacturers need to work in innovative ways and use their marketing budgets wisely to overtake the competition and avoid being left behind. Having an understanding of where you sit in the market, how difficult it is to compete and who you’re up against is crucial in order to know where your marketing budget is best placed.

Want to get started? Request a free market landscape report here!

80% of manufacturers plan to increase or maintain their marketing budget

The outlook for marketing budgets in manufacturing is largely positive with 80% of manufacturers planning to maintain or increase their budget for 2022. That said, 59% of manufacturers feel they should be investing more in marketing, or aren’t sure of the returns they are getting from their marketing investment. This is deeply concerning considering the majority of manufacturing businesses spend anything up to 10% of annual turnover on marketing.

What does this mean for manufacturers?

Without fully understanding the returns a business is getting from its marketing, it’s impossible to know how to invest further budget. This lack of closed loop reporting means manufacturers could be wasting money on poor sales messaging, unsuccessful advertising methods and expensive campaigns.

Unfortunately, this is not unusual. Intergage recently engaged with a manufacturing business that was spending 52% of their paid search budget sponsoring phrases that were not converting. This cost them close to £21,000!

Just like a physical production line, manufacturers need to work on measuring the efficacy of their sales and marketing production line. This can be done through implementing a strong marketing tech stack, generating tightly managed marketing campaigns and aligning sales and marketing teams to ensure each and every lead is followed up.

Want to know how to avoid the top ten marketing pitfalls? Attend this free workshop!

73% of manufacturers measure marketing success based on new sales leads

As discussed, measuring the success of marketing campaigns is an issue for the manufacturing industry with 41% of manufacturers rating ‘measuring success and return on investment’ as their most significant marketing challenge.

That said, the bottom line is clearly in the minds of UK manufacturers when it comes to measuring marketing. 51% of respondents said ‘generating new business leads’ was their primary goal of marketing, matched with 73% of respondents using new sales leads generated as a marketing KPI (key performance indicator). This indicates that while manufacturers may not be entirely clear on the returns of their marketing spend, they are keen to measure the effect of marketing on sales. Again, something an enhanced tech stack is crucial for.

What does this mean for manufacturers?

It’s hardly surprising that measuring marketing results is such a huge issue for manufacturers. Long sales cycles and complex buying teams mean manufacturers are accustomed to marketing campaigns taking 6-12 months to bear fruit. During this sales cycle, a prospect can be exposed to multiple pieces of content on different platforms, making it almost impossible to know what tipped them over the edge into becoming a customer.

This is exactly what Intergage’s Rapid Lead Generation service tackles. Using a perfect blend of new and existing prospect data, a tried and tested marketing framework and powerful marketing technology, manufacturers are guaranteed to have a marketing campaign up and running within 15 working days, with an aim to generate leads in 90 days. These rapid campaigns focus on achieving short-term objectives while setting the foundation for long-term growth. Want to know more? Take a look here.

While the outlook for industrial marketing is positive, manufacturers still face a number of challenges. The free resources listed in this article have been designed to help those who need to kick-start their marketing and generate results fast.

Who is Intergage?

Intergage is the marketing agency for manufacturers. A flexible in-house team with 20+ years’ experience who use a blend of technology and strategy to generate leads for manufacturers. Fast. Intergage is the creator of the Rapid Lead Generation service which guarantees to get marketing campaigns up and running within 15 working days, with the aim to generate leads within 90 days.