We know that creating your own industrial digital marketing strategy isn’t easy.
It’s decidedly different than how other industries and brands market themselves online. This is especially because you’re not selling to individual consumers, but rather to other businesses.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, make costly mistakes, or just put your efforts into ultimately ineffective strategies.
Don’t panic — we’re here to help.
In this post, we’ll tell you some of the best ways you can use content to your advantage in your industrial marketing strategy.
By the end, you’ll have the information you need to eclipse your competition and expand your target market.
Clearly Explain Your Products
The main difference between an industrial marketing strategy and more general consumer marketing is the need to clearly explain your products.
The average consumer or business knows what an office copier or safety goggles are. However, they might not be as familiar with the functions of the complicated machines you’re selling.
As a result, the most important thing your content needs to do is inform businesses, in terms everyone can understand, what your machines do and how they can add value to a company.
Find a way to simplify the more technical language, and instead focus on the benefits of your products. Don’t be afraid to use data, especially when it comes to how much your machines can save businesses in terms of labor costs.
Also, make it clear whether you sell pre-made machines, ones that can be customized, or a mix of both.
Help Customers to Visualize Your Machines
While it’s important to have typed content that clients can refer to, not everyone learns in the same way.
When you’re writing about your machines on your website or blog posts, it’s an incredibly effective idea to create a short video of the machine in action. Plus, video marketing is increasing in popularity.
This means that people are much more likely not just to see, but also to share, your video content.
You can create a video that answers frequently asked questions about your machines. This video can also show how they’re manufactured. It can even feature past clients talking about how their business has grown as a result of your machines.
However, don’t just stop at video.
If you have a large number of CAD drawings for your business, it’s smart to include it in your content.
Make a library of these drawings available on your website. Worried about someone making adjustments your designs? Just use PDF and JPEG formatting.
Let Your Customers Search and Create
Customization should be a large part of your overall content industrial marketing strategy.
One of the best ways to allow your customers to find exactly what they need, and to have a little fun in the process?
Allow them to “play” and design with an interactive website tool that lets them customize colors and look at different parts.
If possible, make your tool three-dimensional. That way, they can see the parts from all angles.
Additionally, consider making a valve sizing program for your site visitors to try out. Customers will be able to choose and examine the valve sizes they want for the products they select.
Remember, your content should be all about transparency, convenience, and saving your customers time. Allowing them to specify dimensions, colors, and other details cuts down on the number of returns and lets them get exactly what they need faster.
Finally, especially if you have a bigger inventory, make sure you include a part number search. Sometimes, a designer may already know which part they specifically need. Make it easy for them to find them. Also, be sure you have a one-click buying option to encourage them to make the purchase that day.
Create a Forum
Blogs are an incredibly important part of your content industrial marketing strategy.
However, they’re not the only way you can communicate with your customers.
Having an online forum for your customers to communicate with both you and each other essentially gives you access to a goldmine of information.
First of all, your customers will be able to offer each other advice about which products of yours to purchase. This helps to promote a sense of trust and transparency.
Now, it’s not you who is “advertising” your products, both rather your past customers.
Additionally, you’ll be able to identify the most common pain points and needs of your target market.
This means you can create more content that’s centered on the issues you already know your customers want to hear about. You can even run promotions on in-demand products. You can place them on the homepage of your website for easy access.
This helps to shift your content’s focus away from the “hard sell.” Now, you can move more towards a “here’s how we can help you to solve this problem.”
Vary the Type of Content
Since you’re primarily marketing to other businesses, they likely won’t have the time to read every blog post on your site.
We’ve already talked about forums and video marketing. However, make sure you continually switch up the type of content you use.
Condense the most important information about a product and company news into a weekly e-newsletter.
Get on social media and blast out quick and helpful photos and tips that are 140 characters or less.
Even create “quizzes” your customers can take. This will help them find out which specific machine or parts they need.
Use These Tips to Boost Your Current Industrial Marketing Strategy
Thanks to this post, you now have several ways to beef up the content component of your industrial marketing strategy.
However, it’s important that you keep in mind that content is only one part of your overall digital marketing strategy.
You still need to focus on optimizing for search engines, (SEO), social media, and so much more.
With everything you have to do in a day, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. You can let your digital marketing strategy fall by the wayside.
We’re here to ensure that doesn’t happen.
Get in touch with us today to learn more about how we can help you to grow your business.
