Website Maintenance for Manufacturers

Welcome to part five in our series:

 

Website Maintenance for Manufacturers

 

The business-to-business marketplace is changing.  Your manufacturer’s website has become an instrumental tool you can use to market and sell products online, attract new clients, and use it as a place for both to research and find solutions to their needs.

 

Why is regular maintenance to manufacturing websites so important?

 

Because your website is an important part of your company, it needs to be maintained, just like your factory, to keep it running smoothly. Keeping your website running smoothly is required if you expect to attract visitors, and convert them into leads who will ultimately become loyal customers.

 

Here are some things to consider when performing regular maintenance on your website:

 

1. SEO Research and Optimization: This is critical for manufacturing websites; with 89% of B2B researchers using the internet during their research process, understanding the technical terms that your buyers are likely to use when doing an online search helps you target and update specific keywords, so your company continues to have greater visibility online. Data from Google Analytics, as well as Google Search Console, gives valuable information you can use in deciding what additional actions are necessary to improve your SEO.

2. Security Update: Contact and quote forms are a must-have on manufacturing websites and the information they collect is valuable. Google understands how important it is for websites to secure that information, and they will indicate that a page is not secure if it contains a form, but an SSL is not enabled. You should never lose a customer due to an alert that your site is not secure! By testing and reviewing your site for any security issues, you can make sure that your manufacturing site is safe. There is also an SEO benefit since SSL is now part of Google’s search ranking algorithm.

 

3. Website Back-up: Back-up is essential and must be done regularly. You do not want to lose valuable data. Perform secure off-site backups of your database and file system so your website can continue to function while you work on it. If something goes wrong with the technology, your site can be restored to the most recent back-up, and you will never lose your valuable work to server or database crashes again!

 

4. Fix Broken Links: These need to be fixed right away! Getting a 404, page not found message, is frustrating for a user; they may bounce and find another site to look at. It can also cause Google to downgrade your website. Make sure all internal and external links are working correctly.

 

5. Load Speed: Your website needs to load in less than 3 seconds for the best user experience. Since manufacturing websites should have numerous photos, optimizing the size of photos is one of the ways you can increase your load speed and keep visitors to your site happy.

 

6. Responsiveness: A responsive website adapts to any size device and will be deemed mobile-friendly and moved up in search rankings by Google. In contrast, non-mobile optimized websites will start to see a ranking decline in the Google search results. Review, test, and optimize your manufacturing site to keep it mobile- friendly as part of your website maintenance services.

 

7. Updates: The large amounts of information manufacturing websites have can be technical and can change rapidly. Google will only place your company among its top searches if your content is updated frequently. Additionally, make sure your CMS is updated to the latest version and make sure all extensions are compatible with it.

 

We know that as manufacturers, you are continuously looking for ways to improve your operations; keeping your website maintained is critical for your manufacturing business and its overall sales.

 

We hope you found our series useful and informative.

 

1.Social Media for your Manufacturing Business

2.Local Search Engine Optimization for your Manufacturing Business

3.Email Marketing for your Manufacturing Business

4.Video Marketing for your Manufacturing Business

5.Website Maintenance for your Manufacturing Business

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Video Marketing for Manufacturers

Welcome to part four in our series:

Video Marketing for Manufacturers

 

Video marketing offers a significant opportunity for manufacturers. All the products, components, and mechanisms can be highlighted much better in a video than strictly in text. Video marketing is the perfect way to introduce exciting, informative, and interactive content to potential customers.

 

Why Videos are essential to your Marketing Campaign:

 

• Yes, Videos boost your rating on Google and are a must for your website, but they are also the number one type of media used in marketing campaigns. The top social platforms for businesses to market through video are Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. (Animoto, 2018) (Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics).
• Video on these platforms pack a powerful punch, but watchers here don’t want to watch anything for very long. We recommend the video length for YouTube be 2-5 minutes, and Facebook and Instagram 15-30 seconds.

• The addition of video helps break up the massive amounts of information manufacturers have available.
• Your competitors are already using video in their campaigns. 87% of industry professionals say they use video as a marketing tool. (Wyzowl, 2019) (Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics). Incorporating video into your marketing strategy will keep you competitive in your field.
•  Your buyers are watching videos. In today’s mobile world, consumers want to be able to quickly and easily get information. Watching a quick video is more appealing to a growing number of consumers than reading through content. 64% of consumers say watching a marketing video on Facebook has influenced a purchase decision of theirs in the last month. (Animoto, 2017) (Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics). Besides being the preferred way buyers learn about your product, videos also offer a more personalized understanding of your company and products, which is why they are so successful at influencing buyers to make a purchase.

 

 

 What Kinds of Videos Should You Use in a Marketing Campaign?

 

A complete video marketing campaign will not only have great content, but it will also guide a potential buyer through the steps that will ultimately lead to a purchase ­­­­­­––– from first awareness of your brand to consideration and on to a final decision. A video sequence for a product your company manufacturers might look like this:

 

1. Your first video is about introducing your brand. A promotional video highlighting the things that set your brand apart from others. You make these videos to capture your target audience. They are usually fun or exciting and makes your audience want to find out more about your product.
2. Next, you can give a bit more information to your interested target audience. By providing and educational video now, you will be able to answer simple, first questions a buyer might have about your product. And your video will come up in their inquiry on YouTube and Google.
3. Your potential customers are now aware of your brand and trust that your company is knowledgeable since you have also answered some of their questions in an online search they did. Your third video is about giving them more; more information about your product AND your company. This video is a mini-documentary about your company and shows a more personal side of who you are while still providing information about a product. A story about how a particular product has helped someone or provided a service to the community; this video can be a sequence of multiple videos, each highlighting different products. This type of video has a high rate of being shared among people you are trying to attract.
4. This next video in your marketing campaign will give customers detailed technical information they need to compare their options. Your potential customers now want to know all the features and benefits your products offer. Integrating graphs and animation into these videos will help your customers make a decision. Product videos can increase purchases by 144%. (Neil Patel, 2017) (Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics)
5. Testimonials are not only important to incorporate into a Website Design for Manufacturers, but also essential to incorporate into your video campaign. This type of video has the same function as they do on your website; they help build trust with customers and help in their decision making. A testimonial in the form of a case study video reassures customers that your product was able to solve a similar problem effectively for someone else.
6. Finally, the last video in your sequence of videos for your marketing campaign will give an interested buyer a final reason to go ahead and make a purchase. This video should answer commonly asked questions, but in a more detailed way than in your earlier video (#2 above).

 

A well planned and executed video marketing campaign will be a valuable tool and reward you with increased sales. 64% of businesses who use video believe that it has directly led to increased sales.  Using video not only enhances your website but also delivers brand awareness, and information across all social media platforms, allowing customers easy access to information about your company and what it has to offer. Videos allow customers to see your products in action, and they answer customer’s questions about products without them ever having to drive to a store or pick up a phone. Stay tuned for our last post in the series, Website Maintenance for Manufacturers.

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Email Marketing for Manufacturing Businesses

Welcome to part three in our series: Marketing Your Manufacturing Business Online Effectively.

An email marketing campaign is essential to a manufacturer’s overall marketing strategy.
After all, email is the number one digital marketing channel. Email has the highest ROI of any marketing channel available, a median
ROI of 122%!

With 3.7 billion email users in the world today, using email is an excellent way for manufacturers to introduce their products and services to customers, potential customers, and distributors. With an effective marketing strategy in place, manufacturers will be able to create and maintain a lifelong loyal customer list.

How Can Manufacturing Companies Improve ROI with Email Marketing?

Most people today will research a product or service online before buying. A successful Email strategy will guide prospective clients from first being introduced to your products to buying your products and then to rely on your valuable and informative content, and finally, to trust your company to be their first choice for products over and over again. The long-term effects of your Email strategy are a loyal customer base and increased revenue for your company. Here are some things to consider when planning your email strategy:

1. The look of emails can now be customized and personalized. Take advantage of this by customizing your layout, modifying colors and images to match your brand and adding call-to-action buttons. Also, according to Experian, emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened.
2. Build your email list by allowing customers to opt-in to receive your emails. You can add sign-up forms to any part of your website. Building your email list this way will give you a high-quality list of customers who are already interested in your business.
3. Educate your email recipients about the products you manufacture, your services, and your industry. Send recipients content that will encourage them to not only open your email, but also help them to make a purchase, and keep them interested in your products.

   Buyers welcome emails that contain useful items and information, things like how-to videos for products, technical specifications for products along with product pictures, or brochures and e-booklets, discount coupons for a future purchase, updates about safety standards, and significant trends in your industry. You can also send links to your blog posts and other content you have created online; this has the added benefit of sending traffic to your website!

4. Send your email at an appropriate time for individual subscribers, especially if they are global. An email has a higher chance of being opened if it is at a reasonable time of day for that individual. Make sure you know the time zones of your subscribers.
5. Automate your email marketing. Automation allows your customers to consistently get the information they may want and at the right time. Perhaps a customer asks about a particular product; the message that should be automatically generated would include information about that product. A follow-up message might consist of a video on how to use the product; another follow-up message might have information on similar products, and so on, until a purchase is made. Future emails to this particular customer might be a loyalty discount coupon for their next purchase. Once you have the groundwork done, automating your emails makes email marketing one of the most affordable marketing strategies there is.
6. Don’t forget to ask repeat customers for a positive review. Reviews go a long way to help other customers to buy. Reviews also boost your SEO.
7. Use the email marketing tools available to you. Analytics can give you valuable information about customer behavior, the performance of your subscriber forms, the effectiveness of different kinds of content, and the ability to compare various campaigns.
8. Finally, make sure your email campaigns are mobile-friendly. Traffic from mobile users is vital to your business. The way people receive and read emails has changed along with the increasing use of mobile devices.

Email marketing has proven results for manufacturers. With the highest return on investment, low cost to implement, and the ability to create and maintain a loyal customer list, manufacturers should make sure to include the above elements in their marketing strategy for a successful email campaign.

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Local Search Engine Optimization for Manufacturing Businesses

This is part two in our series: Marketing Your Manufacturing Business Online Effectively

Searches for products and services “near me” has increased dramatically over the last few years. According to Google, local intent searches lead to a purchase more quickly.

Certainly, SEO is a part of your marketing strategy for your manufacturing business. As we have already seen in part one of our series, Social Media for your Manufacturing Business, many of the social media channels that you should be using to market your business will improve your SEO. Adding Local SEO to your strategy will help other companies and customers looking for products and services “near me” find your manufacturing company. Google takes all the information from the ever-increasing local signals, and it uses it to create a Search Engine Results Page (SERP) that will show all relevant information to that specific local area.

How Can Manufacturing Companies Improve Local SEO?

Customize Website Information to your Location: Adding regional keywords to a page heading and adding your company’s physical address will improve Local SEO and personalize your company’s website.

Google my Business: This is a free service that should be used by every company as part of their marketing strategy. A business profile lets you connect with customers across Google Search and Maps as well as manage all your business information. Registering your manufacturing business on Google Maps will increase its visibility and improve your rankings on Google. When local businesses and customers search for your products or services, you want your company to show up right below the map!

Google Ads: Having your add appear on Google while a relevant customer is searching for products and services your company offers, can direct local customers to both your website and your physical location.

Local Citations: Make sure you have the correct name, address and phone of your company on local listings. Even small discrepancies can mess with your Google rankings, so be consistent across all local directories like Yellowpages.com, Manta.com and any blogs, newspaper sites, networking groups like BNI and meetups, or event listings where your company information is cited. Since Google loves consistency, doing this will help elevate your search rankings.

Reviews: Reviews show searchers what other like-minded people think about your business. Reviews can influence a searcher to make a buying decision quickly. The appeal of reading a business’s Facebook page review is that the opinion on a company or the products they manufacture is coming from people you know. Since Google adds up the number and quality of reviews as a factor in determining your local search ranking, having reviews on Google My Business, Yelp, Citysearch, Merchant Circle, and Facebook are critical for your business.

Links: Another component in the Google search algorithm is having links to your site from trusted, well-established sites like the chamber of commerce and local networking groups. Joining groups like the Chamber of Commerce, Local BNI groups, or sponsoring a meetup.com group will get you a link from a membership directory or from an event page you are hosting.

It takes a lot of management and patience to stay on top of SEO, especially as the rules are constantly changing with every Google algorithm update. However, there is a lot of Local SEO to tap into to improve your visibility online and increase sales for your manufacturing company.

Stay tuned for our next post in the series, Email Marketing for your Manufacturing Business.

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