Digital marketing for manufacturers is evolving rapidly to incorporate building trust and helpful content into your audience’s buyer’s journey. With a purpose-built digital strategy, you can generate more qualified leads and establish long-term partnerships that grow your business.
Why Digital Marketing Isn’t Optional in Manufacturing Anymore
The most effective manufacturing and industrial digital marketing meets people where they are. Digital marketing is no longer an option in manufacturing since more B2B buyers are turning to online purchases or online research for their business needs.
According to an Amazon Business report, 91% of B2B buyers prefer purchasing online. If you’re not consistently meeting your potential partners in the environment they’re most comfortable, you’re leaving money on the table.
Your Website is a Lead Gen Platform — Not a Brochure
Manufacturing websites need to communicate consistently to build trust with site visitors. At the minimum, your site should have the following for manufacturing lead generation and industrial lead generation:
- Clear positioning: what is your value proposition and how do you stand apart from the competition?
- CAD files and datasheets: give potential partners everything they need to know to feel confident working with you.
- Application pages: RFQ forms and CTAs aren’t just contact forms: they help you convert site visitors into future partners. As such, your website should make it easy for people to know who to talk to and how.
The Role of Paid Search in Filling the Pipeline
Since SEO is a long game, paid search can help you close the gap more quickly to generate manufacturing leads. These solutions include everything from pay-per-click advertising to remarketing strategies.
You can create a steady stream of warm leads to your website by regularly meeting your target audience halfway. A few examples of this include:
High-Intent Keyword Strategy
The closer your content lines up with your target audience’s search intent, the more easily you address their needs. For example, awareness-focused keywords often answer questions or clear up myths about a topic.
Awareness keywords need helpful, educational content that focus more on building trust and authority. If you create an SEO-optimized blog post for an awareness keyword that pushes too hard to sell, then you’re not meeting people where they are.
Targeted Ad Copy
The average person sees roughly 5,000 ads per day, so you have to provide targeted solutions to stand out from the noise. Understanding your target audience is half the work of creating targeted ad copy that increase industrial leads and eventually convert.
Lean hard into your manufacturing niche to speak directly to your ideal buyer, whether that’s bringing up an industry-focused pain point or a selling proposition many competitors don’t offer.
Consistent Campaign Architecture
This term refers to how all your digital touchpoints interact with each other. For example, a potential B2B buyer may first learn about your brand through an ad, then click on it to land on your website.
Consistently designed campaign architecture would mean this potential buyer could easily find an RFQ page or useful blog post. On the other hand, poor campaign architecture could look like a cluttered site with difficult-to-find contact information.
If your content strategy doesn’t make the buyer’s journey frictionless from beginning to end, you could miss out on opportunities to turn leads into customers.
Design Isn’t Just About Looking Pretty: It Supports the Buyer’s Journey
Your website should provide a seamless experience for your target audience. If you make it hard for them to find answers to questions or bury contact information in a cluttered user interface, you’re turning them toward your competitors.
You can more easily turn a manufacturing website into leads by understanding the buyer’s journey. The average buying cycle for a technical buyer is as follows:
- Awareness
- Shortlisting
- Internal recommendation
- Procurement
- Sale
The Right Content Turns Your Site into a Sales Asset
According to a study by the Content Marketing Institute, 42% of B2B content marketers say a lack of clear goals are why their marketing efforts are less effective. When you have a clear outline of the kind of content your target audience needs to understand your brand, you make it easier to turn leads into customers.
You can build credibility with site visitors by providing them with the right content to help them, then differentiate you from the competition. This kind of content for manufacturing buyers includes (but isn’t limited to) case studies, industry specific blog posts, and buyer focused FAQs.
What Winning Manufacturers Do Differently Online (and What is Holding You Back)
Many manufacturers today operate on outdated websites, unclear ICPs (Ideal Customer Profile), and no content strategy. B2B marketing for manufacturing excels when it’s specific, consistent, and leans on modern digital tools.
A minimum viable marketing engine for manufacturing website lead generation includes:
- Local and technical SEO marketing
- Content marketing strategy (including technical content marketing)
- Modern website design
- Gathering data on site visitors
How to Optimize Your RFQ Process for Manufacturing Website Conversion
A manufacturing RFQ website needs to make it easy for visitors to quickly request a quote and move to the next step. Tiered CTAs that target common pain points make it easy to meet site visitors where they are, such as Download Specs or Talk To An Engineer.
Place these CTAs strategically throughout your website pages and blog posts where people would be more likely to click. For example, a landing page that targets a buyer’s pain point about needing a local partner could then add a Talk To Our Local Advisors CTA.
A 30-Day Roadmap to Jumpstart Digital Growth
A smart B2B manufacturing lead generation strategy leverages a well-designed website combined with targeted content and RFQ optimization. By aligning your digital experience closely with buyer needs, you can effectively differentiate your business—even against established competitors.
Since your website is a hub for your target audience to learn about your business, optimize your website first. In just the span of a month, you can make a difference in the amount of warm leads contacting your business:
Tighten Messaging on Your Homepages and Service Pages
Potential buyers immediately need to know what your manufacturing business offers them. Make sure you have clear messaging on crucial details such as pricing, delivery, or special offers. This part also requires you to improve manufacturing RFQ for clear paths to conversion.
Create a ‘Problem We Solve’ Article Aimed at Your Best Buyer
Successful content marketing for manufacturing narrows their buyer down to the last detail. Create a targeted ‘problem we solve’ style article aimed at your ideal buyer, answering questions and targeting concerns plainly.
Implement Simple Marketing Automation to Nurture Leads
Does your website have a form people can fill out to contact your staff or a way to track the activity of site visitors? Take some time to think of automated tools that can help you nurture leads with less effort.
Industrial content marketing and modern manufacturing marketing is easier with a dedicated team by your side. When you’re ready to attract leads and convert them into customers, we’re ready to help.
Mileage Design Will Help You Optimize a Manufacturing Website for Leads
A robust content marketing strategy starts with tapping into helpful resources. At Mileage Design, we combine industry expertise with years of digital marketing experience to help you adapt to your customers’ needs.
From helping you with building a content strategy to manufacturing request for quote leads, we’ll make sure every step of your site visitor’s journey is seamless and engaging.
Not sure where to start? We’ll build a digital performance snapshot comparing your traffic, rankings, and RFQ funnel against your top competitors. Contact us today to start a conversation about how your business can develop a more targeted online presence.
