Table of Contents

    Although the manufacturing sector is diverse including companies that produce industrial machinery to consumer goods, developing an effective marketing strategy is crucial to them all. Having a strategic approach to manufacturing marketing directly correlates with how well these companies enhance brand visibility, attract customers, and drive sales. As outlined in Explorium’s B2B Manufacturing Marketing article, our strategy is built around the key pillars of market segmentation, predictive prospecting, lead generation, and marketing automation.

    Research And Analysis in Manufacturing Marketing

    Identifying market trends, creating a competitive analysis, and using data to make informed strategic decisions all contribute to your marketing ROI.

    Explorium’s AI data technology ensures that manufacturers not only identify business trends but also target the highest-value customers. Explorium allows manufacturers to:

    Leveraging Explorium technology allows manufacturers to revamp strategy and gives them the ability to create custom data signals to answer their most important business questions.

     Importance of Market Research

    To make strategic decisions for your marketing plan, market research is a must. Market research has multiple parts. Data collected in an industry analysis, competitive analysis, and customer segmentation can all be used in your planning.

    Competitive Analysis

    A competitive analysis identifies opportunities within a manufacturer’s industry that can be altered within their marketing plans to put them ahead of the competition. 

    Data-Driven Decision Making

    Market research allows you to make data-driven decisions for your marketing plans. An industry analysis identifies key companies, market trends, growth drivers to go after, and potential challenges to overcome. A competitive analysis analyzes the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of competitors. This identifies gaps in the market that manufacturing businesses can fill.

    Understanding The Target Market

    To build a successful strategy, we must understand the target audience.

    Identifying Potential B2B Customers 

    B2B leads data is important information for sales teams, and helps build target audience profiles. It consists of a list of historical and real-time details of prospects. When identifying potential B2B customers, manufacturers can use the information from market research to pinpoint companies that align with their product or service. 

    Market Segmentation in Manufacturing

    Market segmentation should be a company-wide practice within manufacturing businesses. Segmenting potential and current customers into groups based on industry, size, location, needs, and other specific differences helps tailor marketing efforts to different customer groups. This allows for direct language in your marketing materials, speaking directly to an intended audience and increases your response rates and leads.

    B2B Customer Needs

    To identify customer needs, manufacturers need to create a customer needs assessment. This will identify the problem companies need to solve by purchasing their product or service. When this is understood, products and solutions can be adapted to further match the problem they are trying to solve.

    To complete a customer needs assessment the following information needs to be gathered:

    • Identify customer pain points
    • Categorize pain points into specific customer needs – quality needs, price needs, product needs, and service needs.
    • Once their needs are categorized, prioritize them based on their importance level to the customer. Which one means the most to them, and why?
    • Based on the prioritized needs, create a solution that addresses their pain points and meets their needs.

    Product Positioning in Manufacturing Marketing

    Successful product positioning not only answers the question of why products and services solve pain points but why companies should choose you over your competitors. Here are key principles of product positioning specific to manufacturing:

    • Market analysis: Identifying the needs of the customers and the competition.
    • Competitive landscape: Identifying the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors
    • Target Market Segment: Identifying the specific segment of the target market for your product and services.
    • Company & brand values: Identifying your company’s brand values and how they align with your product positioning.
    • Product vision & value proposition: Defining your vision for your product and value proposition.

    Following these principles will lead you to creating a product positioning strategy and marketing messaging that will differentiate your product from your competitors to your potential customers.

    Marketing Strategies Implementation

    Digital Marketing for Manufacturers

    Inbound digital marketing such as email and social media campaigns are essential tools to lead prospects to a manufacturing website. 

    SEO for Manufacturing Companies

    Content from websites and blogs are also components of inbound marketing that will drive traffic to your site. Using rich keywords that someone would use to look for your product and services will improve your website’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Making sure your website is packed with keywords will increase your online presence.

    Content Marketing for Manufacturers

    Using keywords in content that is published regularly like blogs, not only increases your presence but identifies your company as a thought leader on the subject matter. This provides value to customers and builds trust with potential customers.

    Relationship Marketing for Manufacturing

    Communicating how products or services will benefit a company’s business, and following up with them will build a good relationship with prospects. Keeping good records in customer relationship management (CRM) software helps nurture relationships with prospects, customers, and partners. 

    ROI Measurement in Manufacturing Marketing

    Measuring the effectiveness of marketing strategies via key performance indicators (KPIs) and analytics provides valuable data for future strategy adjustment. 

    Conclusion

    Limited prospect visibility impacts sales revenue. Explorium enables sales teams to prioritize high-ROI customers. Manufacturers can save millions in potential losses with GenAI capability that points out real-time issues and red flags in supply chains. When it comes to manufacturing marketing data, Explorium has the technology solutions to put you ahead of your competitors.