By | Categories Blog | Featured | July 12, 2018

Marketing today in many ways has gotten a lot more complicated than marketing ten years ago. Before the inbound craze, B2C companies had billboards and television commercials. B2B companies handled almost everything behind the scenes with business connections and networking. Inbound marketing has opened up a whole new world of opportunities to B2B providers like manufacturing companies. It has also added a new layer of complexity to how marketing decisions are made. Here are some helpful tips about manufacturer inbound marketing.

B2B Manufacturer Inbound Marketing

A simple example of this is how different manufacturer inbound marketing is from classic B2C inbound styles. You’re not trying to appeal to the masses and having a ‘trendy’ online presence isn’t really going to improve your reputation and industry esteem with the businesses and inventory managers who are your true clients. While the tactics like using social media and short videos may still work for you, how you use them is wildly different from how B2B eCommerce, retail, software, and entertainment brands are going to do things. You’re looking for a few dozen reliable business partnerships instead of ten thousand consumer customers. Unfortunately, this also means that the vast majority of marketing advice out there is only minimally helpful.

Instead, your goal is to impress professionals, decision-makers in the business world who choose which products will be stocked on the shelves or even where their brand’s unique products will be manufactured. To apply the tenets of inbound marketing to this task, it’s time to start thinking like a client. What do your clients think about when they’re on the lookout for a new manufacturer? What are their pain points and what would be a major selling point in their decision-making process? We’ll give you a hint, it’s not how viral your social media videos are. When your audience is made up of professionals and serious brands, your manufacturer inbound marketing material should answer questions they want to know about their manufacturing partners.

How Much Per Pallet

We know, we know. Mentioning price in your inbound marketing content is practically a promotional faux-pas. But let’s face it, this is one of the deciding factors when a business is looking for a new manufacturer. You can bet they start with a list of requirements indicating if a manufacturer is right for their business. And it starts with the words “Within Budget”.

Every business decision has a budget. If the costs related with the choice repeat monthly or quarterly, it becomes part of overhead optimization as well. Find a way to work a rough estimate of price per pallet into your blog articles. It doesn’t even have to be a promotional piece on your products. Give friendly examples of what it’s like to be a customer; write an article on how efficient manufacturing keeps costs down. That’s the kind of affordability your clients want to hear about.

How Reliable Are Your Deliveries

One of the reasons a company might be looking for a new manufacturer is because a business they had partnered with in the past could not reliably meet their needs. Your clients will be counting on you to stock their shelves or supply much-needed parts for other purposes. This means the reliability of your service matters a great deal. Manufacturers with inefficient or inaccurate ordering processes and consistently late deliveries lose good business. This gives you the opportunity to snap up companies in need of a good manufacturer; one who can provide the right goods on time every time.

To convey this, we suggest writing articles highlighting the importance and processes involved with providing a reliable manufacturing service. Authority position yourself as the expert on reliable manufacturing and you will convey that your company delivers this every time.

Topics

  • how much you value reliable service,
  • how to identify a reliable manufacturer,
  • best practices for ordering reliable manufacturer deliveries
  • methods you use to ensure highly reliable service

What Regions Do You Serve

Everyone is online these days. This isn’t just a vast generalized statement. It’s an important point to remember; particularly when talking about any kind of business requiring a physical component like delivering manufactured goods. If your manufacturer inbound marketing is well-built and successfully draws in potential clients, it’s vital that you make it clear the regions you serve and those that are too far away for you to practically work with. Nothing is more frustrating than finding a great business opportunity with a company you like – only to discover that you’re a few thousand miles too far away to take advantage of the opportunity.

For this kind of solution, be sure to use local manufacturer inbound marketing techniques that put you on the map for nearby businesses and mention your regions of service often. Write about local business concerns and opportunities in your blog. SEO your website to make it clear exactly which area and neighborhoods you can deliver to.

Can You Make Custom Products

There are three different kinds of manufacturers. Those that make one or a small collection of necessary items that are universally useful to your target audience, those that only make items for their own brand and then sell those through retailers, and those that allow their clients to customize the products produced to fit their own brands.

If you are the third type that offers product customization, you are in a unique and powerful position for those clients who need to source a manufacturer to make a product they have designed and are ready to sell. Be sure to write a few articles about what kind of customizations can be made with the items you produce. Of course, if you don’t offer custom orders, making that abundantly clear is almost equally helpful so that potential clients know exactly the kind of deal they’re deciding on.

Do You Have Special Partner Deals?

Speaking of deals, not every manufacturer offers special deals to their customers but if you happen to net the interest of a high-volume client, you have every reason to offer them a special status as a business partner. Some manufacturers quickly identify their biggest customers, sometimes known as KAs or Key Accounts, and offer them special deals and opportunities based on their high volume of purchases. For the best leads out there looking for a lot of products from you on a regular basis, advertise that you offer special bulk discounts for high-volume business partners and watch the interest and money roll in.

One of the best ways to highlight that you offer special partner deals is to get permission to use your current business partner clients as examples. Talk about how you have partnered with a few big names, given bulk discounts, and worked together to optimize the benefit they get from your services. Other companies who want this sort of treatment will be more than interested in both your inbound copy and the opportunities you have to offer.

For more great manufacturer inbound and other industry-specific marketing tips, tricks, and trends, contact us today!