Manufacturing companies involved in Digital Transformation are evolving rapidly to meet the ever-changing market conditions. Their customers are also changing, especially in the B2B sector.
Millennials have now settled into business management, and they play a key role, because before making purchases, they do online research and ask for opinions from consultants and colleagues. They are much more informed . Recent research says that today a potential B2B buyer does not contact the seller until they have reached at least 70% of the ” evaluation process ” (source HubSpot). So, how can we keep up with the times?
Why apply the Inbound Marketing methodology
To attract customers you need to change the way you do marketing.
First you need to accurately identify the buyer you want to attract.
Then you need to understand what the essential information is that will help him solve his problem (the so-called “Pain Points”)
Finally, you need to build a strategy to put the two things together: providing the right information to the person who needs it at that moment.
This is the essence of the Inbound methodology.
In this strategy
The website becomes your centralized “marketing hub” , around which all activities will develop. It will contain the information that your potential customers (prospects) will need to accompany them through the purchasing process (or ” Buyer’s Journey ” as they say in the Inbound world) and to create a constructive relationship that leads them to become customers.
The entire methodology is user-centric and guarantees visitors and potential new customers. Current customers will also benefit, as they will discover in their supplier an irreplaceable source of useful information to solve their professional problems.
The 4 Phases of Inbound Marketing
Before you can develop your Inbound Marketing strategies , you need to understand their logic. Each phase focuses on a specific action:
A. Attract B. Convert C. Close D. Build loyalty
Drive traffic to your website ( Lead generation )
Start by driving traffic to your website by publishing articles that use keywords, phrases and terms that are relevant to what your ideal buyers ( buyer personas ) are searching for online. Use social media to spread the word.
From Visitor and Lead (see here what is a Lead )
If your articles are interesting, add even more useful content in ” extra content ” (e-books, white papers, video tutorials, …) accessible only to those who provide their contact information via an online form.
From Lead to Customer
Manage relationships with your Leads using email, marketing automation software and CRM, providing increasingly useful content to solve their problems, to accompany them, step by step, until the sale of your product or service.
From Customer to Promoter
Even after the conversion, continue to provide information and useful advice to your customers: help them do their job better, improve or alleviate their “Pain points”, and transform them into promoters of your business.
Inbound Marketing Strategy: An Example of a Manufacturing SME
Step One: Identify Your Target Market
If you have a marketing department, you have probably already identified your “Target Market”. If you haven’t already, I recommend you get support from an expert marketing partner who can help you precisely define your targets in terms of:
company size
industry
type of product or service needed
Define these priorities also based on your existing relationships and contacts, the market that is most congenial to you and the one from which you can obtain better results for your products or services.
Example
ACME company needs to define its inbound marketing strategy. ACME specializes in injection molding for consumer goods (automotive, electronics industries, …). From a quick search, it was discovered that historically the best customers came first with prototype projects, which then transformed into production work with large distributions. Here is a precise Target identified.
Second step: define your “Buyer Personas”
Buyer Personas are an imaginary representation of your ideal customers.
Try to identify and define who these people are, what their interests are, where they look for information, the problems they have and how you can satisfy their needs.
With precise profiles of ideal buyers, your marketing strategy will be aimed at them, without wasting energy and resources in other directions and towards unwanted targets.
For this reason, it is advisable to limit the number, ideally three to five at most.
Example
Our company ACME knows that the sales process typically begins with a contact with a design engineer, manufacturing manager, or procurement professional. We understand that each of these buyer personas has different needs when evaluating a potential injection molding partner:
the designer is looking for technical skills to have a partnership on product development;
the production manager is more concerned with the supplier’s ability to deliver a quality product within a specific timeframe, which fits perfectly into his production schedule;
the procurement professional is more interested in the partner company’s ability to offer a cost-effective service or with more affordable payment terms.
Step 3: Find the right keywords
Your Buyer Personas, like everyone else, will search search engines for information that will help them solve their problems.
Keyword research involves finding out which words and phrases they are most likely to use to find a solution to their problems through the use of your products or services. Technical terms, jargon from your industry, words used to define your products or services: these words and phrases are essential for search engines to bring users to your website.
ACME Company will use words and phrases that people searching for an injection molding supplier use, such as: “injection molding companies”, “plastic injection molding companies”, “rapid injection molding”, “injection molding companies”, etc.
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Step Four: Build a “content strategy” to attract traffic to your website
With your keywords in hand, start afghanistan phone number resource developing content (or rewriting content that has already been published ) for your website. Content creation is a crucial step: it should contain the keywords and phrases that your potential customers will use in their searches.
Work with some search engine optimization experts, because it is not enough to create valid content, there are tricks and technicalities that must be managed in the best way to have a greater chance of being selected by search engines ( see here ).
This content should be published on social media (including through social media marketing campaigns ) and if possible also on industry websites, online forums or other places other than just your website.
You can also send it via email to your prospect lists.ACME is creating content to drive visitors to their website. Visitors are typically in one of three different stages of the buyer journey : awareness , consideration , or decision . It’s important to know that different content formats are more or less suited to different stages.
For example, blog posts and infographics are great for raising awareness of a topic before they know what their problem will be.
With this in mind, ACME decides to promote their new blog post and social media post: “Top 10 Questions About Injection Molding Answered.”
The post directly targets visitors looking for an injection molding partner, regardless of their problem.
Step 5: Build a Content Marketing Strategy
Now that you have created the content, you need to publish it where your potential customers will see it, to find answers to their problems.
The places are always the same: LinkedIn, YouTube, industry forums, etc.
You need to develop a distribution strategy based on your “target market” and the people in them. The goal is to publish the content where people will see it, and therefore drive them to your website. ACME knows that medical device designers share their ideas in a particular LinkedIn group. They decide to join this group and share relevant content. This is an example of very vertical distribution of content to reach a specific buyer persona.
They could present a white paper on a particular technical solution or present an industry event, thus extending the value of the content beyond the website.
Step 6: Develop a high-level “content offering”
Once you have driven people to your website, you need to continue providing valuable content that people can only access if they provide their contact information, such as their name and email address.
These are called “content offers.”
Content offers should be developed to meet the specific needs of your ideal buyers . Keep in mind that many of these potential buyers are still defining their problem or are aware of their problem, but are still looking at all the possible solutions. These buyers are still in the awareness stage which is also called “top of the funnel” and have yet to become Leads.
Here’s how a visitor becomes a Lead :
read a blog post titled “Answers to the Top 10 Problems in Injection Molding”;
on the same web page, he finds a call to action (Call To Action or CTA) that invites him to download in-depth content;
clicking leads to a landing page to download an e-book, e.g. “5 Ways Injection Molding Solves Your Problems”;
finally fill out the online form on the landing page for this “content offer”;
the visitor has just become a Lead.
Example
Our company ACME has promoted their blog post “Top 10 Questions About Injection Molding Answered” on social media.
Since they want their website visitors to become leads, they put a CTA next to the post on their site telling visitors to download a Checklist with “10 Considerations When Choosing an Injection Molding Partner.” After clicking, the visitor lands on a landing page with a form to fill out (name and email address) to download the content.
Interactive formats like Checklists and Quizzes are better than blog posts for generating interest. Content offers need to be compelling and “valuable” enough to convince visitors to provide ACME with their personal information.
Every piece of content, whether it’s a simple blog post, a white paper, or a beautifully designed infographic , needs to have a specific purpose: target a specific buyer or group of people and align them at a specific stage in the buyer’s journey.
Seventh step: continue to “nourish” your leads (Lead Nurturing, see here )
Once a prospect (potential customer) has filled out a form on your website you need to continue to “nurture” them using Marketing Automation software to create automated email campaigns (called ” drip campaigns “). This is a good way to keep contacts active and try to move the lead along the Funnel ( see here ), towards the final purchase. Marketing Automation software helps you to see which marketing activities are working, and to manage and optimize them “behind the scenes”.
Example
ACME developed drip campaigns for each of three verticals (consumer goods, automotive, and electronics) to continue to demonstrate their expertise and industry leadership. The campaigns feature industry-specific case studies as well as research articles and industry trends. Conversion times are based on an understanding of the sales cycle, which typically takes six to nine months from first contact to initial design.
Step 8: Convert “Marketing Leads” to “Sales Leads”
When a prospect has filled out a quote form on your website, someone from the sales team needs to follow up with them for further verification and, if your product or service is a good fit, lead them to purchase. So now it’s up to your sales team to work and convert this prospect into a customer.
ACME has been selling using a direct sales force for decades.
As the business changed in the 21st century, the company realized it needed to be smarter about its sales process, empowering its salespeople with better information and technology. By implementing an Inbound Marketing process, ACME gave its salespeople a powerful way to identify prospects and manage them in a more time-efficient way. ACME now views the Inbound process as an internal salesperson, amplifying and enhancing the efforts of its current salespeople.
Online Marketing: Reaching New Customers with Inbound Marketing. Download the Guide >
Conclusions
Inbound Marketing for small and medium-sized businesses is all about providing the right information to the right people at the right time . This way, you can demonstrate that your company is the right fit for your target audience, and generate interest in you. Simple to say, but complex to do.
