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Content Marketing For Manufacturers – How To Get More Customers Using Content

content marketing for manufacturers

Content marketing is a powerful way to reach your customers, but it’s not something that every business can do.

A common mistake is to think that content marketing is only a viable option in industries such as SaaS and tech. But this isn’t true, and a clearly defined content marketing strategy can have a powerful effect in other sectors, with manufacturing being one of them.

Sometimes manufacturing can be a little more technical and use more specific terms, but that doesn’t mean that content marketing can’t be effective. In fact, it can help generate leads and revenue for your manufacturing business, just as any other industry.

With this in mind, we’ve put together a guide for manufacturers that will help you understand what content marketing is, why it’s important and how you can get started with it.

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is such a powerful way to attract and engage an audience around a particular topic or brand. When you make content, such as blog posts, videos, or infographics available for free online, people start to associate your brand with helpful information.

Why manufacturing companies should embrace content marketing

Content marketing is an excellent way for manufacturers to connect with their customers.

Customers are turning more and more to digital channels to learn about products, services, and businesses. In fact, 90% of consumers say they use the internet as a resource when making a buying decision.

While content marketing is a widely used channel for some industries, it is under-utilized in manufacturing. According to the CMI, less than 25% of marketers in the space have a strategy for content.

However, this represents an excellent opportunity for manufacturing marketers to get ahead of the competition.

Think of it as getting in on the ground floor. You can take advantage of uncompetitive keywords and build a winning content marketing strategy that will engage, convert and generate revenue for your manufacturing business.

How to develop a content marketing strategy for manufacturers

Sometimes we can be tricked into thinking that an industry isn’t glamorous enough to create compelling content. But this is, in fact, an opportunity to shake things up and leverage a gap where perceptions can be changed.

What has worked in other industries can help you build a robust content marketing strategy for your manufacturing business.

There are some slight differences for manufacturers to acknowledge when compiling a content marketing strategy:

Products might be more complicated: manufacturing companies will often have more complex products, which requires more explanation to understand why they are different and better. 

Audiences will be more educated and expect a certain level of expertise in return: this means that they are generally not looking to be sold to. You will first have to build trust and show your knowledge.

Buying cycles may take longer: there may be entire teams making an informed decision on your product, and the costs involved are much higher than say a SaaS tool.

When working on implementing your content marketing strategy it’s important to stay organised and stay consistent. There are multiple tools to help with this (even templates for tools like Notion) that will ensure you can create the best content for your manufacturing business.

Types of content to include in your manufacturing content marketing strategy

Blogs

Blogging is one of the most commonly used content marketing channels for B2B businesses for a reason.

According to research, companies that blog are likely to generate 67% more prospects than companies that don’t.

These companies also have an over 400% increase in the chance of being ranked on search engines and will receive on average 97% more links to their site. So not only does it benefit your ability to convert, it will improve your business’ SEO.

Blogging is an effective way of acquiring customers because they want to understand who you are, and they want to know that they can trust you before doing business.

A blog is a fantastic way to do this because it shows you know what you are talking about and that you are on the pulse of the industry in general.

Blogging will help establish your company as a leader in the manufacturing space and strengthen the relationship between potential customers and your brand.

For manufacturers, the following tips will help you to get an influential blog on the ground:

  • Speak to your sales team: this will help you identify the pains and problems of your potential customers that will form the basis of excellent blog content.
  • See what the competition is doing: imitation is the highest form of flattery. There’s nothing wrong in looking at what already ranks and creating a better, more valuable resource from there.
  • Take inspiration from other industries: look at what has worked in different industries where content marketing is more prevalent.
  • Consistency is vital: keep going, even when it looks like nothing is happening.

Case studies

One of the best things for boosting your brand’s reputation is a case study. These case studies use the best sources possible to show how credible your business is. They leverage your previous customers to do this. Some benefits of case studies to your marketing strategy are the following.

Influence: Webinars, blog posts, and white papers are all great content types that can help industrial companies increase leads and grow their client base. But when making a buying decision, nothing is more persuasive than an actual case study with real numbers.

Originality: Case studies are an original type of content since they use fresh content. You can create this fresh material, unlike case studies produced by your competitors.

Drives value with current customers: When you develop case studies, you want to go to past customers and talk to them. You’ll get their approval to do this and ask them for customer references or testimonials if they are trustworthy. This process allows you to figure out if certain customers are willing to vouch for your brand or service.

Videos

Some people like to learn about new products and services visually. That’s why videos are such a great content solution for manufacturers. They provide endless opportunities to communicate and explain why you are different.

An excellent place to start is looking at the fundamental problems your customers face and explain and help solve these via informative videos.

Another option is to repurpose your blog’s (and your competitor’s) content in video form.

Some key formats for manufacturing videos are:

  • Customer interviews: video case studies and interviews can build trust and decrease the length of the sale by showing your previous results.
  • How it works: customers love to see how things work under the hood. With highly specialized products and services like those found in manufacturing, you can stand out by showing the ins and outs of how your solutions work.
  • Demos: it can be incredibly easy to get lost in jargon on a landing page. Scrolling down the page, you can struggle to establish exactly what the product you are looking at does. Demos walk potential customers through this visually and are far more engaging than any written content could be.

Whitepapers

These are great to show authority and create trust with potential customers. Generally, a whitepaper will focus on an issue and present a solution to this. They will often contain statistics, research, and other data presented more formally.

Usually, they will contain a methodology and will talk to issues that your manufacturing niche is facing.

Whereas a blog post can take less than a day to put together, a white paper is more detailed and requires a transparent methodology, so it should take much longer to put together.

However, the effort is worth it as they will usually generate higher-quality leads. They are best for potential customers that are towards the bottom of the sales funnel. These people are closer to making a purchase decision, so your long-form, well-researched white papers will be a great asset to build trust and convert these people into paid customers.

Another great thing about white papers is that they can be used to build your audience and generate prospects. Most companies will put their best-performing white papers behind a form. When a site visitor requests the white paper, they will be given the option to sign up for an email list or other repeatable channel.

To create excellent white papers, you must do the following:

  • Think about making your content engaging: too many white papers are dull, and many prospects will not read all of it. They must be technical but using visual representations of the findings can help to keep them engaging.
  • Make sure it’s unique: create a truly unique whitepaper, and you will reap the rewards. This is because unique findings and statistics will get reused in other publications and sites, generating backlinks to your page and making it rank higher in search!
  • Think about others, not just your company: it can be easy to slip into self-promotion mode. But, this is about establishing trust rather than making a quick sale. Focus on the broader industry trends and how the industry as a whole can solve any problems or issues.

Social media

Social media is a great way to generate interest in your company, product, or service. To help you get the most out of your social media marketing, here are some top tips for using social media as part of your content marketing strategy for manufacturers.

  • Storytelling is key: we won’t apologize for repeating this, but it’s super important for content marketing. Keeping your posts to reflect a story will help you to invoke emotion with potential customers. It’s this emotion that will lead to them becoming customers.
  • Have a cause: this ensures that you can differentiate yourself from others in your manufacturing niche. Still, it also allows you to engage and increase your presence by interacting with others.

You might think that your product or service isn’t that interesting, but you shouldn’t let this hold back your social media content. Create interest and tell stories, and you’ll be on your way to higher engagement and more customers.

What are you waiting for?

For many businesses there’s no better option than B2B content marketing. The ROI is incredible, and you can see fantastic results for little investment.

Ensure that you leverage different types of content and build a robust strategy that will make you the leader in your manufacturing niche.

Get it right, and you can be the breath of fresh air that will drive traffic, inquiries, and customers.

 

Author bio

James is a content marketer and SEO expert who has helped multiple businesses grow and nurture their businesses through content marketing.

content marketing for manufacturers

 

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Visual Commerce: The Visual Marketing For eCommerce

visual commerce

This is an article written by TaggBox, a way to help your customers shop visually on your website. We haven’t used this software but it’s intriguing to us and definitely looks like it’s worth checking out if you have an online store!

eCommerce is an exponentially growing industry in this contemporary world. Every brand and business is strategizing to establish their online stores. Because of this edging competition in the eCommerce industry, customers have multiple options to choose from and buy products they want. Hence, it is a challenge for brands and marketers to attract customers by delivering unique experiences with their online store and attract them to purchase their products.

Like the offline shopping world, displaying beautiful products, attractive window shops, eye-catching offers, etc., you can also do the same with your eCommerce store.

How? With the commencement of Virtual Commerce, brands and retailers can set up an attractive interface of their eCommerce store with the help of visuals.

Do you want to know how Visual Commerce will help your online store too? If yes, then read this blog till the end and discover something new that helps you grow your online business.

Visual Commerce – Meaning

Visual Commerce is not limited to any single aspect of creating and applying visual content on your eCommerce website. Still, it is a comprehensive term that includes a diverse methodology of applying visual content in different marketing touchpoints.

First of all, Visual Commerce includes highlighting the product visual throughout the online store using creative graphics, videos, close product shots, 360-degree product view, etc.

Second, it is also about sharing high-end product visual designs on social media channels, emails, newsletters, etc., to enhance the user’s experience.

Lastly, Visual Commerce includes collecting UGC or user-generated content from social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, etc.. It integrates into marketing campaigns to repurpose it in the advertisement, shoppable posts, feedback forms, etc. to build a trustworthy relationship with customers.

Hence, Visual Commerce is all about integrating beautiful-looking visuals into marketing channels to enhance customers’ shopping experience by delivering qualitative visuals wherever they need.

Importance Of Visual Commerce For eCommerce

The major challenge with eCommerce stores is that customers cannot touch the product while making a purchase, which is why millions of people leave the product page without buying.

To boost eCommerce sales, it is important to showcase the pictures of products that customers will easily see that how it would be in real life when they use it.

This is also why big eCommerce stores like Amazon are making huge sales as they are making the best use of visuals that help potential buyers find the important elements of the product.

But have you ever noticed that you confidently and instantly make a purchase decision when seeing the real-life picture of the product in the reviews section of the product instead of product images shown on the page by the brand?

Also, the brands reposting UGC on Instagram and Facebook tend to receive a greater response from the customers than the professionally clicked picture of the product.

But now, as your competitors are also following the same path for more sales and conversion, they grab your customers’ attention by encouraging them to buy their products with the help of creative visuals.

So now, it has become increasingly important for eCommerce brands and stores to make a robust visual commerce strategy where you allow customers to get the 360-degree look of your product and find your product at different stages throughout their buying journey.

Hence, Visual Commerce is the growing need of the eCommerce industry to integrate into their marketing channels, including social media marketing, user-generated content, retargeting, and reaching customers via email marketing.

How Brands Incorporate Visual Commerce Into eCommerce Stores?

Seeing this growing competition, Visual Commerce is no longer an option with the brands and online stores; it is crucial to design a robust Visual Commerce strategy that they have to throughout their online stores.

So many big brands are utilizing the potential of Visual Commerce by inserting appealing images and visuals that are successfully grabbing customers’ attention and improving their journey with your eCommerce store.

Visuals work as the storytelling content on your website, building a connection with the audience and improving their experience from the point of contact.

Not only infographics, high-quality visuals, and professionally clicked pictures make a huge difference in online stores, but inserting user-generated content from Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, etc on the eCommerce website or online store is generating enormous sales.

Visual Commerce is a potent solution for brands and marketers in this tough competition to attract customers and build relationships with them by displaying creative pieces of content that help them make better and informed purchase decisions.

Wrapping Up

I would like to conclude the blog with the last note that Visual Commerce is performing very well for those brands that are already practicing it. With the help of Visual Commerce strategy, they can attract their customers effectively and make huge sales.

So now it’s your turn to blow the market and stand out from the competition.

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WordPress vs. Squarespace

Big Imprint designs websites using WordPress, which offers the best blend of versatility, functionality, and ease of use for our clients. However, some people prefer to build their own website. We always encourage a DIY approach if you’re willing to dive in and build your own website! If you do the DIY route, there are several main website platforms that you can consider. Two of the main platforms would be WordPress and Squarespace. Here’s a comparison of these two options.

WordPress and Squarespace are two leading platforms for building websites today. WordPress has been around for a longer and it is extremely popular. WordPress powers about 455 million websites (in the year 2020), which is 35% of the total websites in the world. On the contrary, Squarespace only backs 450 thousand websites, which is around 1.4% of all the websites worldwide. While both platforms help users create a visually appealing and highly functional web presence, they are worlds apart. Given the statistics, you may conclude that WordPress is the obvious winner, but Squarespace has its advantages.

The first glance is not enough to determine that which tool suits your needs better. Every startup is unique, which is why a Business Attorney does not provide the same legal advice and services to every client. The purpose of your website and knowhow of web development are two factors that will greatly influence your choice. Now let us compare various aspects of the two contenders:

Ease of Access

Setting up a website with Squarespace is fast and easy. The site’s editor tools are very intuitive and the designer templates are of topnotch quality. When building a website with Squarespace, no coding or web development experience is required; even a child can create a stunning blog or portfolio using this platform. The user-friendly interface makes it an attractive option for creative professionals, like writers/bloggers, artists, photographers, and filmmakers.

In comparison, WordPress is more abstract. The possibilities with this platform can make it overwhelming and confusing for beginners. The editor has many layers, which is only a good thing if you possess some programming skills. You may need to conduct research or follow video tutorials to make sense of the user interface.

Versatility

WordPress is probably the most diverse web development tool, having thousands of themes and plugins to choose from. It can be used to build the most advanced, complex, and unconventional websites. You can add unlimited features and extensively customize your web page to make it one-of-a-kind. On the other hand, the options on Squarespace are limited. The built-in themes and templates are beautiful, but the variety is scarce. You can build a promising conventional website, but nothing extraordinary or exclusive; you may tweak a few features, and that’s it!

Operations & Costs

Squarespace gives you the whole package, starting at a $16 per month; you get concession on annual bundles. The standard package includes domain name registration, web hosting, and the website itself. You can always expand your site privileges with premium bundles. WordPress is a free content management system, though you may have to pay for certain themes and plugins; many free options are available for a simple and decent webpage. In addition, you have to purchase a domain name and hosting service separately.

Control

WordPress is an open source platform, i.e. developers from all over the world can contribute to it. Squarespace works in a closed manner, which is why it lacks the flexibility of the former. If you build your website with WordPress, you are in charge of everything. You can publish content without any restrictions or interference. Squarespace only grants you partial control, i.e. you have to abide by certain policies to keep your page operational. Squarespace may deduct a portion of your website earnings and impose several limitations.

Security & Maintenance

With Squarespace, you do not have to worry about security and maintenance, as they are included in the package. WordPress users have to update their plugins regularly, or their website will not run smoothly; outdated software is at a higher risk of being hacked or infected.

 

Author Bio

John Adams writes on various programming and technology related topics, which are most relevant to his field of expertise. He also loves traveling and blogging about personal life experiences. Work and relationships are equally important to him, but he encourages readers to put themselves first in order to pursue happiness.

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Client Story: Big Grove Brewery

Big Grove Brewery is known across Iowa for their craft beers, delicious food, and excellent service. Along with our partner, Creative Mellen, Big Imprint had the pleasure of helping the brewery recreate their website. We talked to Jill at Big Grove Brewery to get some insights into their business and how their website has helped them grow.

Big Grove Brewery has two locations in Iowa. Each location has a brewery and taproom that guests can enjoy. Their first brewery opened in Solon in 2013 and started to make a name for itself. Big Grove became known for the high quality of their unique beer, amazing food, and service that can’t be beat.

They decided to expand into Iowa City in 2017. The Iowa City brewery is 28,000 square feet and is a great space to hang out with friends. Big Grove has become a tourist destination for everyone who comes to the area. But don’t worry if you don’t live nearby; Big Grove sells their beer across most of Iowa. They have continued to expand in the past years, growing to a staff of 200 amazing employees who all help make the Big Grove experience special.

Big Grove Brewery HomePage

Which of their delicious craft beers is the crowd favorite? A simple answer is: all of them. The talented brew team at Big Grove can create the best beer in many different categories. Many of Big Grove’s guests enjoy the fall beers, including Burch the Bear (Brown Ale), Wade Wisely (Oatmeal Stout), and 1939 (Amber Ale). Then there are the classic beers to turn to during every season, including Easy Eddy, Color TV, Big Ed, Double Nod, and Turtlehunter. You really can’t go wrong at Big Grove when it comes to their beer!

Big Grove has had their fair share of success throughout the years. Most of their success lies in their reach; they are considered one of the fastest growing breweries in Iowa. They won a gold medal for Easy Eddy Deer Beer and are the official beer sponsors of the new Xtream Arena in Coralville. In 2019, Big Grove became the official beer of RAGBRAI and was the first Iowa brewery to sponsor the event.

Big Grove had to figure out how to manage their way through COVID-19, like many businesses. They shut down in March and stayed closed until May, but they came up with creative ideas to get through this tough time. They switched to distribution only for their beers and started a Saturday drive thru. Thanks to their new website, people could place orders online and get some delicious food and great beer without getting out of their car. Big Grove is happy to be open again and inviting guests back into the restaurant. The Iowa City location has a large outdoor seating space for people who feel more comfortable outside.

Big Grove Brewery Online Store

Having a new and refreshed site was a big boon for Big Grove during the pandemic. The Brewery came to our design partner, Creative Mellen, with the need to make their current site more visually appealing, organized, and easy to update and to offer an online store. Creative Mellen was their top choice to redesign their new website. Jill from Big Grove Brewery says, “Kevin at Creative Mellen is really great to work with, does what he says he will do, is patient, and is just a really nice guy. We had a great experience building this new website with him.” Big Imprint was lucky to partner with Kevin in creating Big Grove’s new and improved website.

Big Grove enjoyed seeing their website come to life in front of their eyes. They liked how well the website matched their personality and that it turned out as they envisioned it. The new website has been a great help in communicating with their guests. People are able to look up the hours, directions, menu items, and beer information, as well as learn about the staff and apply for open positions. Overall, the new website has helped Big Grove Brewery in many different ways.

Jill’s favorite part of the new website is the online store. She says, “The online shop is awesome! A lot of people out of state wanted to buy our merchandise, and now they have pictures to look at and it is easy to use.” The online shop particularly helped their business during COVID-19. Jill says, “It was very huge for us to have the online shop capability all set up and ready to go when COVID-19 hit. We pre-sold all of our food and beer for our weekly drive thru through our online store and it worked out very smoothly.”

Big Grove Brewery is always looking to improve and innovate. You never know what new beer or merchandise could pop up with that team! They also have their eyes on further expansion. We look forward to seeing all the new things Big Grove will offer in the next few years!

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Client Story: Iowa Rural Development Council

Iowa Rural Development Council is a non-profit organization with public, private, and non-profit partners from all over the state. They are focused on supporting rural communities and encouraging rural development across Iowa. IRDC had a great deal of information they wanted to make available to the public, and that was a priority in their search for a website designer. Happily, Big Imprint and Creative Mellen partnered to create a website that shares IRDC’s important information in an attractive, accessible way.

Iowa Rural Development Council HomePage

If you want to get involved with the Iowa Rural Development Council, it’s easy—just let them know! You’ll be added to the mailing list and invited to meetings. Groups, businesses, schools, and associations can also be members. Sustaining members contribute funds which help the IRDC pay staff, create websites, host the Annual Iowa Rural Summit, and offer other events. All of their members contribute to the success to the organization.

The Iowa Rural Development Council was formed in the 1990s and has gone through several phases. Ten years ago, organization got a boost of new life. Their number of core attendees grew from five to eighty people and they’ve added two hundred people to their mailing list. The IRDC has recently partnered with the governor’s office and supports their work in creating and empowering the rural Iowa Task Force.

The IRDC was not spared the impacts of COVID-19. Their 4th Annual Iowa Rural Summit, to be held in April 2020, was moved to August 2020 and held completely online, which provided a whole new challenge for the organization. The Summit ended up being a rewarding experience and was able to reach many participants from all over the state, allowing rural leaders to bring important issues to the table. The IRDC is now planning their 5th Annual Iowa Rural Summit. Information about that offering, and more, can be found on the website.

The IRDC was starting from scratch when looking to create a website. They knew rural community leaders were looking for information on how to get projects going, address issues in the community, and address housing and other needs. The IRDC also knew they wanted a company based in a rural community to create their new website. Big Imprint was fortunate to rise to the top of their list.

Bill Menner, the Executive Director at IRDC, said, “Big Imprint did such a great job and had such a compelling story, and we as an organization love West Liberty. We wanted to have a website that could be easily updated and kept fresh by someone who isn’t experienced with websites, and Big Imprint delivered that.”

Once they saw the site come to life, the IRDC loved it. They appreciate the fact that everything about the site is uniquely Iowa, from the photographs to the content. When asked, Bill identified multiple aspects of the website that are his favorite. He loves that he can easily update content on the website by himself and create a post where everyone can see it. On the homepage, he likes the six colorful boxes that let people know where to go for specific information and the rotating logos at the bottom that display the names of sustaining members.

Iowa Rural Development Council 6 boxes

They are always thinking ahead at the IRDC about issues that are important to rural communities. At the top of their list are rural access to emergency services, healthcare, and access to capital for small businesses. They will continue to elevate issues of importance and draw the attention of policymakers to make good things happen for rural Iowa. We at Big Imprint are excited to see what the Iowa Rural Development Council does next!

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Client Story: Wertzbaugher Services

Wertzbaugher Services opened in 2012 as a welding and fabrication business and have since grown to become an important part of the West Liberty community. Their services have expanded to include repairing personal trucks and trailers and hauling freight. As a business wanting to expand their outreach, they came to Big Imprint to build them a website, and we were excited to help them grow within our community and expand outside of it.

One of the unique services that Wertzbaugher offers is creating customized pieces. You can bring them any idea and they will work to bring it to life. Some of the Jason’s favorite welding projects over the years have included making Christmas gifts for family and friends. They also made a memorable contribution to the West Liberty Parade. They took an old dirt bike and a garden tiller and put them together to make a full-size motor. If you have a welding project that you want to see come to life, Wertzbaugher Services is the place for you.

COVID-19 impacted many businesses in a negative way, but luckily it had the opposite effect for Wertzbaugher Services. Their work hauling freight for Menards and Lowes stores is typically a seasonal gig for them. This past year, with everyone staying home, many people wanted to do projects around the house. Transporting supplies for would-be do-it-yourselfers kept Wertzbaugher busy six days a week throughout the spring, summer, and fall.

Wertzbaugher Services

Wertzbaugher Services chose Big Imprint because they believe in staying local when possible, and because we provided everything that they wanted for their website, including knowledge and reliability. Jason Wertzbaugher says he likes the fact that the new website tells the company’s story and is easy to navigate. They have gotten a lot of contacts through the website’s Contact Us page, which lets them respond quickly to clients and get started on new projects directly through the form on their page.

The business has grown so much that Wertzbaugher Services is planning to move into a bigger shop so they can have the room they need. We are looking forward to seeing them in their new shop and to continuing to provide website services for their growing company!

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