Marketing for Manufacturing Businesses

The Small Manufacturers' Marketing Plan

Grow sales and increase profits by pulling together and executing a great marketing strategy, designed for small manufacturing businesses

Marketing for Manufacturing Businesses

Small manufacturing businesses need work and regular orders to survive. Like all small companies they can often do with a little help to ensure any money, time and effort they spend on marketing isn't wasted.

You may have an online presence, spend a little on advertising and even employ a sales rep or two. Perhaps you're fortunate enough to rely on referrals for new work. However, is this enough? A little like your manufacturing processes, how do you know you are getting the best outcome from your efforts?

Ask Yourself These Questions...

A few questions for you: Do you know specifically who your target market is? No, I mean really know; as well as fully understand what your customers want? Have you asked them? What marketing and promotional methods do you use and how effective is each one? Do you understand why? How do your prices compare to competitors and where do you sit in the market? How simple is it to buy from you once somebody makes contact - what's the customer experience like? How responsive and attentive are you to your customers' needs and are your logistics and shipping set up to sync with your customers' wishes? Ultimately do you truly know what your marketing RoI is in terms of cash spent versus resultant sales?

Ask yourself - is your marketing effort organised, planned and coordinated? Guess what? The best performing small manufacturing businesses do just that. By thinking through and executing a more comprehensive marketing strategy, it's possible to obtain more orders and reap far better financial rewards.

It need not be complicated. Instead you can come up with a plan with a little thought and by adapting proven ideas used by the best performing small manufacturers.

If your aim is to grow sales, increase profits and build up your small manufacturing business, your marketing efforts really need to be planned and executed to maximize return on your marketing investment.

Your Marketing Plan

Take a look at some of the information below. You'll find ideas and themes ideal for small manufacturers. Start thinking about what your ideal marketing plan would look like - what would work in your firm? What do your competitors do? Is any company particularly successful and well known through effective marketing? What do they do well? What is typical in your industry sector?

We'd suggest listing what you do and spend on marketing. Follow this by examining the ideas below and cherry picking and tailoring ideas you think could work for you and your manufacturing SME. Adjust and adapt concepts liberally! Picture how your marketing plan could be improved, made more robust and deliver more enquires, quotes and orders.

Alternatively, is working with a marketing partner an option? Effectively outsourcing, through collaboration with a manufacturing marketing specialist, could be a good fit for your firm.

Marketing is vital to engage your potential customers, build relations and get your message out there. Put a marketing plan together to build a strong brand, gain market share and win orders. Make it happen!  

Marketing for Manufacturing Businesses - Short, highly informative, videos...

Five Low Cost Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses (Courtesy of driveyoursuccess.com)

Clear explanation of 5 methods small manufacturing business or engineering consultancies can use as a low cost marketing strategy. They include industry trade publications, your local chamber of commerce, social media, SMS (texting) marketing and email marketing. This simple to follow information lays out a clear plan and each of the 5 areas is further expandable for more information. A useful basis on which to set up a simple marketing strategy.

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Outsourcing Your Manufacturing SME Marketing to Specialists (Courtesy of Lead Optimize)

Many larger manufacturers have their own sizable marketing teams, however most small to medium sized manufacturers simple can't justify this. As a result it may make sense to outsource your marketing function to specialist companies who understand the requirements of manufacturing industry. These firms are capable of offering a professional marketing service and so increase awareness of your capabilities. Close working partnerships are perhaps the best way of making sure an appropriate range of marketing channels are used to promote your business in the way you want.

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Modernizing & Professionalizing Your Marketing with Digital Tools (Courtesy of The Pool Marketing Site)

The internet is the primary method for engineers, technicians and customers more broadly to research products and services. Your SME manufacturing marketing strategy needs to reflect this if you are serious about getting your name out there. A coordinated web-based marketing strategy is the most effective way of doing this.

You may decide to use some or all of a range of digital channels such as your website, blogs, email, videos and social media channels. Ensure your business can be found and that key information is clear and easily accessible. For many SME's this may seem overwhelming. The good news is there are digital marketing specialists who can help. Look for ones with specialist manufacturing experience.

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How Manufacturing Companies Can Improve Their B2B Relationships

Manufacturing is a competitive market and, unfortunately, even companies that produce high-quality products can find themselves struggling because they didn’t market themselves correctly. This is why it’s important to develop business-to-business (B2B) relationships. Here’s three key areas you need to focus on if you want to ensure your company is successful. Info Here...

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Marketing for Manufacturing Businesses - Slide shows featuring great advice...

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This really useful website provides a vast array of marketing assistance and is targeted at small businesses. The Marketing Donut is aimed at helping businesses to succeed by providing reliable marketing information and resources that can save business owners time and money.
 
With an engaging mix of how-to guides, feature articles, checklists, expert Q&As, FAQs, case studies, video content and blogs, each site provides new and established businesses with free advice about how to manage a range of key tasks and issues. The site also contain a weekly round-up of small business news.

The Marketing Donut information is updated regularly and checked by a network of leading business support professionals and independent experts.

Marketing for Manufacturing Businesses

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