Manufacturing businesses make two critical errors with marketing: they either follow the same generic marketing formula used by other industries, or they ignore marketing altogether in favour of ‘cold’ sales. All too often, this leads to missed opportunities, poor strategic planning, and wasted resources.
Marketing can yield excellent results for manufacturers, but what does it really involve? Although there are plenty of good marketing resources and digital tools available, there is often too much for businesses to know where to start, which is why having access to professional marketing expertise is a real benefit when deciding on the best strategies.
1) Base the strategy on fact, not fiction
Every business idea begins with a spark of inspiration that ignites a vision for the future. You may want to replace customers lost during the pandemic, prepare your business for sale, or simply increase your profit margin year on year. Marketing can help you do all these things, but unless your goals are practical and specific, they are little better than dreams.
With the use of advanced analytics, behavioural modelling, and demand forecasting, skilled marketing teams can create comprehensive, realistic strategies tailored for your business and the manufacturing sector. The most important starting point, however, is to align your marketing objectives with your business goals, which is where strategic planning advice can be invaluable.
2) Develop growth-focused strategies
Growing a manufacturing business takes time, effort, and understanding. For this, clear differentiators and market positioning must combine seamlessly to form a marketing plan – i.e. the types of activities you use to market your business to your target audience. Get this wrong, and the result is activities that may add little or nothing to organisational growth – why invest heavily in Facebook adverts, for instance, if your core market primarily uses LinkedIn?
Get your marketing mix right, and the roadmap to future success is both detailed and accurate. Professional marketing experts can help to clarify the differentiators for your sector and articulate your core messages and value proposition for your target buyers, nurturing healthy growth.
3) Market connections
Professional marketing experts are well-connected, surrounding themselves with multiple networks. It’s one thing knowing what to do in order to get more sales, and quite another to implement the practical solutions that make it a reality. Once a business has paid for the services of a consultant to devise a personalised strategy, some implement on their own using in-house resources, and others benefit from working with an agency.
If you choose to work with a third party, the input of a professional marketing expert can be invaluable, ensuring you establish the right relationships and avoid unsuitable providers. A consultant’s established business connections and informal networks can make the implementation of strategies smoother, more streamlined, and therefore more successful and cost-effective.
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To find out more about how your manufacturing businesses can get more value from your marketing budget, attract more leads and close more sales, please give me a call in confidence today.
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