Marketing for manufacturers targets the audiences a manufacturing business is aiming to influence or educate. This is more often business-to-business (B2B) marketing but can also be business-to-consumer (B2C) depending on the type of product being manufactured. The target audiences for a company that produces industrial raw materials, components, assemblies, technology and equipment, will more than likely be another business, whereas manufacturers of finished products such as consumer electronics, food, furniture, cars etc will target a mix of businesses (wholesalers, dealers, retailers) and end consumers.
Getting started with marketing for manufacturers
With B2B marketing you will want to establish a strong presence in your chosen markets by building long-term relationships. Your target audiences will depend on your overall business objectives, so your starting point for implementing a killer marketing campaign is to set your objectives, know what you are good at and understand your target market. This will put you in a great position to identify the best marketing strategy for you.
Here are five critical steps to take before deciding on the best marketing strategy for your business.
- Set your objectives. Know what you are trying to achieve with your marketing.
- Grow by generating enquiries and driving sales
- Build brand awareness with a new audience or in a different market
- Change the perception of your business
- Promote innovation and new product development
- Foster customer loyalty
- Be confident about your brand.
If you don’t know how you stand out from the crowd, how can you expect your prospects to? Before you can effectively communicate your value proposition to your target audiences, you need to know what you are good at and how you are better than your competitors. Now’s the time to do a SWOT and competitor analysis.
- Identify your audience.
Most manufacturers will immediately think of a catch all “customer” as their one and only target audience, but this is a mistake. Different types of customer will require different marketing messages and ways of reaching them. There are also other audiences you may want to consider such as partners and distributors, investors or new recruits. Don’t forget your employees too, internal communications is also a form of marketing.
- Understand your audience
When marketing for manufacturing companies, your campaign will need to resonate with your audience and be relevant to their needs. Without the offer of a genuine benefit, they are unlikely to engage with your business. This will need research. Gather research from your sales team or engage a manufacturing marketing agency to speak direct to influencers and decision makers in your target market. By creating well researched “buyer personas” of your ideal customer you will be armed with the information you need to develop great campaigns.
- Market segmentation
Once you know and understand your audiences, they will naturally fit into different groups. By recognising their differences and similarities you can segment your markets and tailor your message, content and campaign delivery method to their needs. This makes marketing for manufacturers more effective. You can see how different types of prospects and customers can be segmented below.
- existing customers you may want to sell more of the same to
- existing customers you will want to sell something different to such as a new product or service
- new customers in the market sectors and geographic locations you are already selling into
- new customers in new sectors or locations
- low-hanging fruit customers by industry or company size who will be quicker to convert or turn a profit in the short-term
- big fish key account customers who you may not be ready to market to yet or those that will provide a larger profit in the longer-term
- OEM or end customers
- customers with similar challenges to solve or motivations to buy
All good B2B manufacturing marketing agencies will recommend that you do your groundwork before you can identify the best marketing strategy for achieving your objectives. You may already have completed the work above internally and just need some help gathering it together, if you need any help or advice contact one of our team.
