How Content Marketing Can Benefit Manufacturing Companies

Although manufacturing may not seem like the most fascinating industry, it’s crucial to market your business and get yourself noticed. Content marketing is an effective strategy for any business — manufacturing companies included. It can help boost brand awareness, drive people to your website and ultimately attract new customers.

Industry reports show that 74% of marketing firms have used content marketing to successfully build trust and credibility with their customers. Creating a content marketing strategy can help ensure that your business isn’t left behind. Let’s explore content marketing and how it can lead to increased profitability and growth.

What Is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is a unique marketing technique that aims to attract and engage with potential customers without directly selling them something. The process involves creating valuable and relevant content that answers a question, solves a problem or provides entertainment. In return, content marketing helps you build brand recognition and forge meaningful connections with your audience. It allows you to showcase your expertise and demonstrate the value you can provide.

Consumers are bombarded with over 4,000 ads every day, so competing for their attention with traditional advertisements is costly and challenging. With content marketing, consumers come to you because they have a genuine interest in what you’ve published.

Content marketing is the new normal that consumers expect in every industry. Creating content that is high-quality, consistent and engaging impacts their purchasing decisions more than any other strategy.

What Are the Different Types of Content Marketing?

Content marketing has many forms to help businesses reach customers on various platforms. Here are some of the most popular types of content marketing:

1. Blogs: Creating a blog where you post articles related to your product or industry helps improve your visibility and attract potential customers. You can design your content for search engine optimization (SEO) to boost organic traffic to your website.
2. Videos: The amount of videos that people watch online has nearly doubled since 2018. Videos are an affordable way to post content and engage with your viewers. Nearly 70% of businesses predict video will be their top content marketing-related investment in 2022.
3. Podcasts: Recording podcasts is an increasingly popular method that can help you reach a broader audience. It’s even easier than creating videos because it’s strictly audio broadcasting. You could record interviews with industry experts, share advice or tell entertaining stories.
4. Checklists: A checklist is a valuable tool that helps consumers solve a problem. Whether it’s a to-do list or step-by-step instructions, you can format checklists for many different industries.
5. Infographics: Infographics display valuable data and other information in a visually appealing graphic. They’re fun and convenient for consumers and extremely cost-effective to create. They’re a simple way to make seemingly boring or technical information easier to understand.
6. E-books: An e-book is less like a book and more like a long blog post. It provides clients with an in-depth view of a particular subject that relates to your product or industry. They take more time and effort to produce, but you can use each chapter to create other content.

Why Should Manufacturing Companies Take Advantage of Content Marketing?

Traditionally, business-to-business (B2B) companies made sales by establishing a network of relationships over time. In the fast-paced and highly competitive market of today, buyers prefer making purchases on their own terms. Instead of being sold something, they want to see proof of your expertise and efficiency. Content allows you to highlight these strengths and start building trust and loyalty with customers before they even contact your sales team.

Content marketing for manufacturing companies is becoming increasingly competitive every year. The percentage of organizations with mature or sophisticated content marketing strategies grew from 29% to 39% in 2020. Investing in content marketing allows you to keep up with industry leaders and gain a competitive advantage over manufacturing firms that are stuck in the past. Unlike traditional platforms that are cluttered with advertisements vying for attention, content-based channels provide a clear pathway to reach your target market.

Content Marketing in the Manufacturing Industry vs. Other Industries

Content marketing is extremely versatile, allowing businesses to customize their strategies based on their products and marketing goals. Understanding the differences between content marketing for manufacturers versus other industries can help you create successful strategies for your business. Consider the following factors that make content marketing in manufacturing unique:

• Complex products: The products and services that manufacturers offer are often more advanced and complex compared to other industries. Manufacturers are tasked with creating content that explains these concepts in a way their customers can easily understand.
• Dry content: Many parts of the manufacturing process can seem dull, so marketers must find creative ways to make their content interesting.
• Longer sales cycle: Choosing a manufacturing firm is a pivotal decision for business leaders, so the buying cycle tends to be longer. You’ll need more than one piece of content to establish trust and make a sale.
• Niche markets: Since manufacturing products are highly specialized, manufacturers must tailor their content to a niche market.
• Requires experience: It takes years of experience to understand your customers and demonstrate the level of knowledge and efficiency that they’re looking for in a manufacturer.

Content Marketing Ideas for Manufacturers

There are many different content types that you could use to cover countless topics. Successful content marketing starts with a strategy to produce relevant and engaging content that appeals to your target market. Here are some of the most effective types of content marketing for manufacturers:

• Videos: According to the Content Marketing Institute research report, 52% of manufacturers said videos produced the best results for their content marketing. Manufacturers can create video content with customer interviews, product demos and other valuable insights to address common issues that arise during the sales process.
• Virtual events: Webinars, online courses and other virtual events are effective methods to generate leads. They allow you to reach users and interact with them on a larger scale. You can use webinars to demonstrate complex products that are challenging to explain through articles and textual content. You could also answer live questions to showcase your expertise and help guide viewers through the sales funnel.
• E-books: E-books are long articles that you can use to explain complex topics using informal language and visuals so they’re easy to understand. They’re ideal for manufacturing companies that have complicated products and services that are sometimes challenging to explain within a short blog post.
• Blogs: Blogs are a crucial part of any content marketing strategy. They help improve your SEO and visibility to attract more users to your website and generate new leads. Companies use blogs to share short articles, e-books, videos and other forms of content so they all link back to one convenient location.

Create Content Marketing for Your Business With MANTEC

At MANTEC, we partner with manufacturing companies just like yours to resolve problems and promote your success. We’ve used our industry expertise and resources to help manufacturers grow and improve their operations since 1988. We’ll teach you how to create high-quality content that attracts prospective clients by providing the information and solutions they need. Reach out online or call 717-843-5054 for more marketing help and services.