Manufacturing Marketing: Tactics to Try & Examples to Spark Ideas

Wonder why manufacturers with inferior products and processes regularly outsell your company?

I’ll let you in on a secret.

It probably doesn’t have anything to do with your technology, your quality, or even your sales team. Instead, it’s a marketing issue.

Potential buyers now research solutions independently long before they get on the phone with a sales representative. Which means you need to invest in marketing for your manufacturing business.

To help you get started, I’ll walk you through nine manufacturing marketing tactics to try and basic steps to build a marketing strategy for your business.

Key Takeaways:

• Manufacturing marketing has to account for long sales cycles and large buying committees. The solution? Cross-channel campaigns with multiple touchpoints.
• Written content is a good start. But successful manufacturing companies also invest in compelling visual and video marketing content.
• Digital marketing is a major focus for many manufacturing businesses. But in-person tactics like industry events and trade shows remain critical.

What Is Manufacturing Marketing?

Manufacturing marketing is the process of promoting manufacturing products or services to other businesses. A typical manufacturing marketing strategy aims to build brand awareness, establish credibility, and generate leads using tactics ranging from content marketing to trade shows.

Manufacturing Marketing vs. Consumer Marketing: Key Differences

The biggest difference between manufacturing marketing and consumer marketing is the buyer persona. Marketers in the manufacturing industry use B2B strategies to target businesses, while consumer marketers use B2C tactics to reach individuals.

But the target customer is just one aspect. Other differences include:

• Buying Committee: B2B buying committees include multiple stakeholders with a variety of goals and needs. Marketers often need to appeal to each stakeholder. In contrast, B2C buying committees are much smaller — often including just one decision-maker.
• Sales Cycle: On average, B2B sales cycles last 379 days from initial research to final decision due to the size of the purchase and the potential impact of the decision. In contrast, B2C sales cycles can take less than a day. As a result, manufacturing marketers often require a wider range of marketing assets.
• Customer Relationship: Consumer marketing tends to focus more on transactions. But for manufacturing, one-time purchases are rarely the end goal. Instead, manufacturing companies strive to build long-term relationships, become trusted business partners, and maximize customer lifetime value.

Why Manufacturers Need a Marketing Strategy

Manufacturing companies can’t increase revenue with sales tactics alone. B2B buyers increasingly expect to engage with suppliers across marketing channels, leading to an average of 10 types of interactions across the buyer’s journey.

Here are some of the ways a strong marketing strategy can help manufacturing companies drive business:

• Educate Customers About Technical Products: From website content to emails to social media posts, marketing campaigns create opportunities to walk prospects through your manufacturing processes, explain how your products work, and discuss what makes your company unique.
• Appeal to Multiple Stakeholders: To close deals, you can’t sell to the end user only. A well-designed marketing strategy focuses on creating content and touchpoints that resonate with leadership, operators, procurement, and legal.
• Nurture Leads Through Long Sales Cycles: A carefully crafted marketing strategy helps your team connect with leads at key points throughout the buyer’s journey. This way, you influence buying decisions and increase sales by guiding leads from awareness to consideration to conversion.

9 Marketing Tactics for Manufacturing Companies

I’ll break down marketing tactics to try and share examples from the manufacturing industry to spark ideas for your own marketing plan.

1. Search Engine Optimization to Drive Discovery

When potential buyers search for the solutions your company offers, you want them to find your products or services quickly.

Search engine optimization (SEO) improves your website visibility and helps you rank higher for the keywords your target audience is looking for. Which means buyers are more likely to discover and click through to your site.

Like these companies that rank at the top of Google search results for “plastic injection molding manufacturer.”

To optimize your site for searches like this, I recommend starting with SEO basics:

• Do keyword research to learn what your buyers are searching for and why.
• Optimize your website content for relevant keywords.
• Develop new content (e.g., blog posts) that cover the topics your buyers care about.
• Use link building tactics to earn backlinks from authoritative websites.

2. Content Marketing to Generate Leads

Blog posts are a key part of content marketing for manufacturers. In addition to supporting SEO efforts, this type of long-form content is great for educating buyers on your products and your unique selling point (USP).

But blog posts are just the beginning of a strong B2B content strategy.

Case studies spotlight your best customers, detailing the problems you helped them solve and illustrating your manufacturing capabilities. For example, Fictiv has a case study library with more than a dozen customer stories from various industries.

Downloadable guides help prospects solve complex problems, giving your company a chance to build trust and prove its value. Plus, they work well for lead generation. With lead magnets, you collect prospects’ contact information so your sales team can follow up.

For example, GMI Solutions offers downloadable resources that you can opt to email to yourself so you can share with your buying committee.

3. Social Media Marketing to Connect with B2B Buyers

It’s easy to dismiss social media marketing as a B2C tactic. But social media is just as important for B2B companies.

With social networks like LinkedIn and Facebook, you can promote products, position your business, take buyers behind the scenes, and share links to your content marketing assets.

Use social media to tell buyers about your products and point them toward more detailed information on your website. Like this LinkedIn post by Harcros, which highlights the manufacturer’s water treatment products.

Show some personality and spotlight employees. Have team members share behind-the-scenes content that shows how your facility works or how your products are made. Like this LinkedIn post by 3M, which explores the company’s innovative products.

Connect with B2B buyers by showing them what makes your company unique. Share your company values and differentiate your business from the competition. Like this LinkedIn post by Gretna Machine Shop, which shares how the manufacturer raises the bar.

4. Email Marketing to Nurture Leads

On average, email marketing has a return on investment (ROI) of 36:1, making it one of the most lucrative marketing channels for manufacturing marketers. It’s so effective because it lets you connect with potential customers directly in their inboxes.

To build your email list, collect email addresses from website visitors. Like this subscription popup by Richman Chemical, which prompts visitors to sign up for company news and updates.

Another way to attract subscribers is to create lead magnets like the guides I mentioned above. They’re great for collecting email addresses and learning about the specific problems prospects are trying to solve.

Once you start building a list, I usually recommend starting by sending monthly or weekly newsletters. This is a great way to stay top of mind with prospects and update them on product launches, trade shows, and other news.

As you grow your email list, you can segment your audience using data like subscribers’ locations, job titles, or the content they’ve viewed. Then you can create email marketing campaigns with content that’s more targeted to where subscribers are in their buying decision.

5. Video Marketing to Showcase Processes and Innovations

Text- and image-based content are great for email marketing and SEO content. But video marketing is better for showing your products in action and walking customers through your manufacturing processes.

I recommend setting up a YouTube channel to host marketing videos for your manufacturing business.

This way, potential customers can easily find them via search or the YouTube algorithm. And your team can easily link to them in marketing communications or embed them on your website.

For example, the Wendt Corporation YouTube channel produces videos featuring the company’s production facility, team members, and customer stories.

On YouTube, you can also create video series. Like the Steel Talks series by ArcelorMittal, which is a video podcast featuring interviews with company leadership. It highlights manufacturing innovations, overcoming challenges, and sustainability goals.

6. Webinars to Educate Prospects and Share Thought Leadership

A webinar strategy adds another dimension to your video marketing strategy. Webinars let you:

• Demonstrate products and share in-depth information about use cases
• Share thought leadership from your executive or engineering team
• Host key industry figures for discussions about emerging trends and solutions
• Answer customer questions via live Q&A sessions

They’re particularly effective as live events because they let you connect with B2B buyers in real time. But webinars also offer tons of value as on-demand events.

For example, Sonoco has a webinar library that potential customers can access at any time. To watch the recorded webinars, prospects have to provide their contact information — allowing the manufacturer to add them to an email list.

7. AI-Powered Chatbots to Engage B2B Prospects

When prospective customers land on your website, you want to make it as easy as possible for them to get the information they need to take the next step in their buying journey.

Chatbots are great for answering questions and sharing resources like product catalogs or specs. With AI-powered chatbots, you can program automated responses to common questions and provide 24/7 assistance.

However, automated responses aren’t your only option. You can also set up chatbots that let prospects instantly connect with your marketing team and have more personalized conversations.

Take this chatbot by Connected Manufacturing, for example. You can ask freeform questions about product and service offerings and get responses within minutes.

Plus, you can set up both types of chatbots to collect contact details and hand off leads to sales. Which is helpful for lead generation and qualification.

8. Digital Advertising to Expand Your Customer Base

Ad networks like Google, LinkedIn, and Facebook ads amplify your inbound marketing efforts, helping you reach more prospective customers faster. Because these networks let you target people based on search terms, demographics, and interests, they’re helpful for reaching your target customer.

For B2B marketers, advertising is essential. 84% of B2B marketers report using paid channels, with 73% using paid social ads and 64% using pay-per click (PPC) ads.

PPC ads position your business in relevant search results, helping your company rank above organic results. Like these companies using Google Ads to target the keyword “CNC machining services.”

Social media ads are designed to target people based on job title, industry, location, and interests. Like this Protolabs LinkedIn ad, which generates leads by sharing a NASA case study.

9. Trade Shows to Build Relationships with Buyers

Most of the tactics I’ve suggested center on digital marketing, and for good reason. A McKinsey report found that about a third of B2B buyers prefer digital self-serve channels, and another third want remote communications.

But the final third? They want in-person interactions.

That’s why manufacturing and industrial companies should also prioritize in-person marketing opportunities like trade shows. Trade shows are ideal for:

• Improving brand awareness and establishing credibility with potential customers
• Building relationships and having face-to-face conversations with prospects
• Showcasing your products and demonstrating your latest tech
• Doing market research and learning about the products and services your customers want

For example, Hayward Flow Control regularly participates in trade shows. There, the thermoplastic flow controls manufacturer invites buyers to talk shop and learn about compliant solutions.

The company shares upcoming events on a dedicated trade show webpage, where buyers can pre-schedule appointments with the sales team. The manufacturer also broadcasts upcoming events in Facebook posts like this one.

How to Build a Manufacturing Marketing Strategy

Now put those tactics to work. Use the steps below to start building a marketing strategy.

Set Specific Marketing Goals

Sure, you want more business. But you have to be more specific.

Set measurable goals that align with your overall business objectives. For example:

• Generate 50 new sales qualified leads in Q3
• Secure 500 demo requests after a new product launch in H2
• Close $500,000 in new business in a new geographic market within 18 months

Get Clear on Your Target Audience

Next, clarify who you’re marketing to. Define your ideal customer profile (ICP), including:

• Industry
• Location
• Company Size
• Budget
• Pain Points
• Goals

Then, create a list of the people on your ideal customer’s buying committee. Review past deals to better understand the various stakeholders so you can create content that resonates with them.

Create Marketing Campaigns

Develop marketing content that meets potential customers where they are in their buyer’s journey. Use the tactics above to create content that appeals to buyers at these stages of their journey:

• Awareness Stage: Introduce your business and products with informational marketing content. Address customers’ pain points and discuss the solutions you offer without being overly promotional.
• Consideration Stage: Establish credibility and differentiate your business. Create case studies and nurture sequences that showcase your manufacturing capabilities and the results you help customers achieve.
• Decision Stage: Encourage leads to connect with your sales team. Design ads and organic content that prompts leads to book demos or request samples.

Measure Your Results

Monitor how your campaigns and marketing channels perform. First, focus on the end goal — such as leads, demo requests, or revenue.

Then, pay attention to leading indicators like website traffic, email opens, and social media engagement. Which channels or campaigns perform best?

Finally, track cost metrics. Which channels and campaigns have the lowest customer acquisition cost (CAC) and the highest ROI?

Use these insights to optimize your strategy and allocate more marketing budget to top performing channels and campaigns.

Final Thoughts on Manufacturing Marketing

Marketing a manufacturing business doesn’t have to be complicated. But when you need to attract customers, drive revenue, and grow the business, it’s essential to think beyond sales tactics alone.

Start with one of the tactics I shared, using the examples to spark ideas for your business. Once you see results, test another until you’ve built out a successful marketing strategy.