As a manufacturer, you have plenty of tools in your belt (literally and figuratively).

But, like every brand, there are probably a few things that are out of your wheelhouse.

For many manufacturers, digital marketing at scale is one of those things.

But once you learn which tactics to use and how to employ them, you can launch winning campaigns that drive more local sales.

Here’s everything you need to know about digital marketing for manufacturers.

Why do manufacturing companies need digital marketing?

As a manufacturer, your target audience is probably more of a blue-collar, old-school crowd — so you probably don’t expect them to spend too much time plugged into their phones or computers. As a result, you might not put a whole lot of thought into your digital marketing strategy. But just because your consumer base is a little more traditional doesn’t mean they’re not online. In fact, 95% of American adults use the Internet.

So, crafting a strong strategy is more important than you think.

Here are some of the many benefits of digital marketing for manufacturers:

• Improving visibility: Marketing digitally means reaching customers where they are, whether surfing the web on Google or scrolling through Facebook. As a result, you boost the likelihood of consumers coming across your brand.
• Increasing foot traffic: Digital devices influence 36% of in-store sales. In other words, a customer who discovers your products online may decide to visit one of your locations.
• Boosting sales: Digital marketing tactics put your brand in front of consumers who are most likely to make a purchase, resulting in more revenue.

Use digital marketing tactics on top of traditional methods like direct mail, point-of-sale signage, and out-of-home displays, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for success.

Best digital marketing tactics for manufacturing companies

In a highly digital world, there are countless online tactics your affiliates can use to promote your brand locally.

So, we narrowed them down to some of the most impactful.

Here are 6 digital marketing tactics manufacturers need to drive results.

1. Business listing management

Claiming business listings is crucial for any manufacturing brand that sells equipment through local affiliates. By claiming local listings on Google My Business, you ensure all the locations that sell your brand are visible on Google when consumers search for your products and services. You can also take this practice a step further by claiming listings on local review sites and directories like Yelp and Nextdoor.

Once your affiliates claim their business listings, you need to ensure they maintain them through location data management — the process of keeping information accurate everywhere your listings are published. Up-to-date listings will rank higher on Google, which means your locations will get in front of the right customers and drive sales.

2. Paid search

Paid search, also known as pay-per-click or PPC, is arguably the most impactful digital marketing tactic for manufacturers. Unlike other slower-working channels, paid search ads make an impact relatively quickly — and the results are highly measurable.

Here’s how it works:

1. Bid: You pay to place an ad on Google by bidding on specific keywords.
2. Place: This ad will appear toward the top or bottom of the SERPs with a “Sponsored” tag.
3. Pay: Every time someone clicks on the ad, you will be charged a cost-per-click (CPC) rate.

When all is said and done, your paid ad will look a little something like this:

The great thing about PPC ads is that they get served to individuals who are searching for your products and services — aka, consumers with high purchase intent. That means you can expect more sales on the horizon.

3. Email

Marketing emails offer a cost-effective means of driving brand awareness, promoting products, and engaging consumers. Plus, it offers opportunities for personalization and relationship nurturing without requiring a huge lift on your end.

Here are a few ways you can utilize email marketing in your strategy:

• Promote products: Promote your newest product lines, services, and sales.
• Provide value: Send consumers educational blogs, whitepapers, and guides.
• Offer social proof: Highlight customer testimonials and case studies.
• Send company updates: Celebrate company milestones and accomplishments.

4. SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a must for any brand looking to drive traffic to their website. It’s the process of adjusting your web content to gain the favor of search engines like Google, causing it to rank better in the search engine results pages (SERPs). By improving your site’s search rankings, you can gain greater visibility for your brand and drive more traffic to your website.

Here are a few SEO best practices to get you started:

• Choose your keywords: Optimize your content for keywords that are relevant to your brand, have high search volume, and are relatively easy to rank for. Then, sprinkle these keywords throughout your body copy in even distribution.
• Fill in metadata: Implement your keywords into title tags, meta descriptions, alt text, and URLs to account for on-page SEO.
• Ensure readability: Pages that offer a positive user experience rank best on Google. To ensure your pages are readable, be sure to incorporate white space, listicles, and bulleted lists and keep paragraphs limited to 88 words or fewer.

Before you can optimize your site, you need some SEO-worthy content. Here are a few ideas for content you can create:

• Product and service pages
• Blogs
• Whitepapers
• Guides/eBooks
• Industry pages
• Location pages

5. Social media

No digital marketing strategy for manufacturing is complete without social media. Of course, that doesn’t mean you have to create an account on every platform out there — just focus on the ones your audience frequents most. For the manufacturing industry, your target demographic is likely Gen X or older, which means you’ll probably have the most luck with Facebook.

Organic social

It’s not enough to just have a social media account — you have to post actively to maintain visibility and drive engagement. Here are some things you can post for your organic social strategy:

• Product and sales promotions
• Customer reviews and testimonials
• Company culture photos
• Employee spotlights
• Contests and giveaways
• Company updates
• Funny memes

Paid social

Paid social media goes a step further than organic by allowing you to target individuals who are most likely to buy your products. Then, you can access performance insights so you can determine which ads are working and which aren’t.

The types of ads you can launch will depend on the social media platform you use, but in most cases, you can find the following three:

• Image ads: These visually engaging ads use a single image and limited body copy to promote a brand.
• Carousel ads: Carousels include multiple images positioned side by side that users can rotate through. These ads are great for promoting multiple products at once, showing a step-by-step process, or displaying a product’s features or benefits.
• Video ads: Video ads are ideal for telling a story. Just be sure you keep your videos short and concise to avoid losing the viewer’s attention.

6. Location-based marketing

Your brand likely has a whole network of dealers that sell your equipment. That’s why digital marketing for manufacturing companies is all about location, location, location.

With location-based marketing, you can target consumers within a specific geographic area using locally relevant content. Types of location-based ads you can implement into your strategy include:

• Geotargeting: This tactic uses data from consumers’ mobile IP addresses to create ads geared toward their locations and interests.
• Geofencing: Geofencing uses GPS technology to serve ads to individuals who enter a specific virtual radius.
• Geo-conquesting: Similar to geofencing, this tactic establishes a virtual boundary around competitors’ stores, then serves ads promoting your locations.
• Dynamic landing pages: These web pages provide unique user experiences by using geographic data to tailor elements of a landing page to consumers’ locations.
• Beaconing: Beacons use Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to retrieve location information from consumers’ mobile devices and send them ads.

Leverage digital marketing solutions for the manufacturing industry

Ready to master digital marketing for your manufacturing brand? BrandMuscle empowers manufacturing brands and their local dealers to drive more sales at the local level.

Get in touch with one of our marketing experts to learn more.