For some sectors, the concept of digital marketing is slow to take hold. Many businesses that are traditionally bricks and mortar by design find constructing an online presence a hard concept to grasp.
The results can be mixed at best, where websites become too static and fail to function effectively in generating business.
Manufacturers especially may have difficulties in this area, as Lucy Atkins of Infused Media explains.
“If you can’t work out your own strategic reasons for having a website, imagine how difficult it will then be to convince others – your potential prospects and customers.”
Are You Reaching New Customers?
“Really, for manufacturers, one of the main reasons for having a website is straightforward: to reach new customers, to become the supplier that procurement managers, design engineers and others are looking for.”
For some, they have reasons for not engaging online, but, as Lucy points out, these are, in fact, myths.
“It is too easy to decide that your products are too technical to market online, or assume that because you’re very specialised, no one will be searching the internet for you.”
“Someone will be looking for your area of manufacturing expertise on search engines, but it is a case of matching your web content to these expectations.”
“The internet is ideal for niche searches, because it is such a wide but precise repository of knowledge.”
“According to a B2B marketing study, 94% of people research online before they commit to a purchase. Therefore, your manufacturing website should provide them with answers they seek, to drive them towards you”
Websites are the dominant marketing sales tool, and this can be as true for manufacturers, however niche, as for other sectors.
How Could You Be Different?
The very fact that some manufacturers are slow to adapt to an online world, means that there is a huge marketing opportunity for those that do.
“Having an engaging, dynamic website can differentiate you. It is an opportunity to go beyond the norm, to reach a wider online audience of potential prospects.”
A manufacturer’s website should be a perfect intersection of their own and their buyers’ objectives.
“Absolute clarity is a must:
- Explain the benefits of what you produce, arising from your capabilities
- Always ask, what do your buyers want?
- Think about the most frequent questions you are normally asked, and go about answering them through your website’s content”
This is not to say that a manufacturing website should be coldly technical.
“The website is the foundation for building an online presence through various channels such a social media. This is how you build and enhance your brand, and humanise your company.”
“For so many manufacturers, what they produce has an intrinsic specialised value. The right website can tap into this and explore it as a means of brand building and engaging with target audiences.”
“It is an opportunity that modern manufacturers cannot afford to miss,” Lucy concludes.
If you want to turn your website into a dominant, effective sales tool, please contact Infused Media on 01254 447050 or visit infusedmedia.co.uk.
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