Do you have a marketing strategy in place for your industrial or manufacturing business? Great!
Now, are you making these mistakes that may keep you from seeing the fullest impact?
Join Marketing Essentials CEO Tyler Louth and hear more about the mistakes you should avoid in your industrial marketing strategy.
1. Failure to Understand Your Persona’s Pain Points
Let’s take a step back and identify what a persona is.
A persona is:
- A roadmap of your ideal customer
- An identification of their pain points, needs and wants as it pertains to your business
- Based on real data you’ve gathered from talking to customers
Creating a persona should be your first step in producing a marketing plan that gets you results.
Think of it this way: How will you know what your messaging and overall strategy should be if you don’t understand your audience? To put it another way, you wouldn’t just leave on a trip without knowing the route you’re going to take to reach your destination.
“Companies need to position content relevant to their customers’ pain points that resonates with them,” said Tyler Louth, CEO of Marketing Essentials. “Many times, we see people producing content, but it’s not tailored to that audience and resonating with the ideal customers.”
2. Ignoring Competitor Research
You might think, I don’t need to know what my competitors are doing. I know I’m doing a better job.
That may be true, but you’re missing a crucial component of competitor research: Seeing how you can differentiate yourself from the competition.
“Many companies ignore the outside world,” said Louth. “Don’t just do research on yourself.”
When you notice what other companies are doing, you can leverage the reason why you’re different and why customers should come to you.
3. Failure to Analyze and Track Data
Some companies start their marketing plans with every good intention. They’ve mapped out a persona and understand their competitive landscape. Yet, at the end of the campaign, they find it didn’t really bring results. So what happened?
Often, they didn’t review data from previous campaigns or from this one in real time — and they missed an opportunity to adjust and adapt.
“Not reviewing data is a missed opportunity to see patterns and make recommendations,” said Louth.
Tracking data can be more challenging when companies use a hodgepodge of tools, with some data scattered here and some scattered there. But figuring out how to review and analyze data can be crucial to understanding what’s working and what’s not working for your company.
For example, you might track data around points like:
- Average sales cycle time (the time it takes between a lead being generated and becoming a customer)
- Average lifetime value of a customer
- Response rate from your marketing campaigns
“Tracking your data is really the only way to see the ROI and know where to allocate your budget,” said Louth.
4. Not Adhering to Brand Guidelines
Personas help explain who you’re targeting with your marketing strategy. Brand guidelines explain the specifics of how you’re going to connect with them.
Many companies dismiss brand guidelines as unnecessary. The problem with this approach is that your marketing materials now have no guiding light, so they can be all over the map in terms of look, style and messaging. This can lead to your content and materials looking unprofessional and potential customers not taking you seriously.
“Brand guidelines are a must. They keep your brand on course and provide consistency,” said Louth. “Make sure to map these out upfront so you know exactly how your brand is positioned and how your message is being shared with your audience.”
Need Help With Your Marketing Strategy?
Our approach to digital marketing for B2B companies sets us apart from the rest. We know your industry is complex, so we start with an analysis of your market, your company and your competitors. We don’t make assumptions, and we don’t do cookie-cutter. Instead, we recommend a tailored strategy that pushes you ahead.
Schedule a free 30-minute consultation today and take a step toward creating a marketing strategy that works for your business.
