Why manufacturers need a marketing strategy
The digitalisation of manufacturing presents itself as both one of the industries greatest challenges as well as its greatest opportunity. But the digitalisation of manufacturing spans much further than the introduction of artificial intelligence and industrial digital technologies (IDTs). If you’re a manufacturer looking to embrace every aspect of digitalisation, then your digital marketing is just as important as your digital tech, and the best place to start is with a well-thought-out marketing strategy.
But why is a marketing strategy so important for manufacturers?
Understanding Your Target Market
There’s little point in kicking off your marketing without a well-rounded understanding of who your target market is. Really getting to know the people within them is going to be the best starting point for your marketing strategy, so the first point of call should be to build out some informative persona research documentation, which is one step deeper than target audience analysis.
Manufacturing is a broad B2B market, targeted at a whole multitude of differing end consumers, making nailing your target personas more important than ever. Whilst a manufacturer of glass bottles may be targeting those within distilleries and food production, a manufacturer of aqueous dispersions and emulsions would be targeting an entirely different group of people. Understanding who these people are, what platforms they spend their time on and what it is you can offer them will massively influence your marketing activities, and therefore needs to be your first point of call.
A Manufacturers Marketing Mix
You’re probably wondering what marketing activities are best for you as a manufacturer, and that’s another reason why having a well-thought-out strategy is of huge importance. Marketing should work holistically, with each activity supporting another. Aimlessly posting on social media and throwing out the odd press release isn’t going to have quite the effect you might want. Developing an annual strategy can allow you to focus on how your social media, PR, and content strategies can support one another, to ultimately help drive conversions. For example, if you’re talking about your latest CSR report on social media, your other marketing activities should support this campaign and be working for the same end result.
Your marketing mix as a manufacturer will be heavily influenced by your target market, and one thing to consider for manufacturers is the importance of strategy within B2B marketing. Whilst B2C marketing requires companies to promote in a way which appeals to consumers emotional responses, B2B manufacturer marketing requires selling your product and business to an entire team of people within your target companies. Meaning that strategic thinking is absolutely necessary when it comes to constructing your marketing mix.
We work with our clients to create layered annual campaign plans, incorporating a mix of everything from on-site content to email marketing, and these campaigns are well thought out to ensure they run perfectly alongside industry trends and business objectives.
Avoiding Ad Hoc
An ad hoc style of marketing can be seen from a mile away and can have detrimental effects on the outcomes of your activities. Without proper focus, social media posts become disjointed, and websites aren’t updated to reflect current business objectives. An ad hoc marketing plan often means that manufacturers aren’t differentiating themselves in the market and wind up struggling to communicate their values and USPs to existing and potential new consumers.
Having a clear strategy and purpose for the year ahead with refinement interims each quarter means that teams across the business from marketing to sales can have clear objectives.
Strategy with HalstonB2B
There’s a fine art to crafting a well-formed marketing strategy, especially when it comes to manufacturing, and at HalstonB2B we know that many manufacturers struggle to find the time.
If you’re looking for some help putting together your marketing strategy for the year ahead, get in contact with one of our strategists.