In little over a decade, social media has become an integral part of everyday life for businesses. These platforms are no longer seen as a source of entertainment or distraction at work – they also have huge potential for business marketing and communication purposes. This is particularly true if your company doesn’t have in-house marketing know-how or you don’t have time to learn the ins and outs of digital marketing.
In this article I’ll look at how and why social media marketing is important for manufacturers when it comes to marketing.
You can’t grow your market share if you’re invisible to customers. To gain visibility, build a strong presence in places visited by your target audience. Chances are that one of those places is social media, especially LinkedIn.
You can think of social media marketing as the shortest distance between your manufacturing business and your customers. By being active, you’re making it easy for them to find you using the channels they’re familiar with. What’s more, research shows the connection between customer loyalty and their interaction with brands on social media.
Not long ago, having a website was touted as the way of expanding your customer base. But today, having a website on its own is no longer enough. Your website is the destination and hub for your online sales strategy, but customers need a path to get there, and in many cases, that path is social media marketing.
A recent survey shows that social media has an enormous influence on buying decisions, since more than 70% of consumers use these platforms to research products and companies. So make your social media profile count!
Social media platforms offer extensive targeted advertising functions, and given the sheer size of their user base, it’d be foolish not to use them.
Targeted ads take into account important factors, including location, age, job title, or company. It’s quite easy for social media companies to segment their user base at a very granular level based on key demographic and behavioural factors. In short, targeted ads are a very direct way of ensuring you reach the right people at the right time.
Social media can do more than advertising or directing people to your site. Manufacturers can also use these platforms to offer customer support. This is crucial given that for many people in procurement, social media is now the go-to channel for customer support. This is an opportunity to show you’re responsive and match the most demanding expectations.
This is a deal breaker, no matter what industry you’re in. In the current economy, the priorities of potential customers may have changed, and you just can’t afford not to know what their current needs are. Analytics tools are a great feature of social media for manufacturing companies and are especially crucial during stages like product development.
Social listening (the systematic monitoring social media) can help you gain crucial insights and understand sentiment not only towards your brand, but also about the issues your customers care about. You can then incorporate this data in your decision-making and integrate it into your products to show you take your customers seriously.
Are you ready to work with an expert in social media marketing for manufacturing companies? Contact me and we'll discuss how to make it work for you.
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