You are in business-to-business manufacturing, and, on top of all of your other duties, “marketing” has now been added onto your list of responsibilities. In the industrial world, it’s not uncommon to find a marketing team of one or a sales department manager who now has marketing on his plate too.
Where do you even begin?
You understand the importance of digital marketing and creating an online presence for your brand. You’ve heard the buzzword “Inbound Marketing,” yet you don’t fully understand the technologies and tactics behind it. You’re not sure what to do, or what not to do.You’re unsure where to even begin.
Just like with all engineering and manufacturing projects, start with a strong foundation.
Best Digital Marketing Tools and Tactics 2017
Similar to any work project, you need to have the right tools, tactics and skill set to get the job done. Developing a successful inbound digital marketing program requires a balance of technical know-how and strategic analysis.
Here are essentials tools and tactics you must have for a digital inbound program:
A Mobile Friendly and Relevant Website
Your website is key to attracting prospects and will make a first impression. In a recent survey, 74% of business buyers told Forrester they conduct more than half of their research online before making an offline purchase. Your site must provide relevant, updated content and must be mobile friendly. More than half of users start searches on their mobile phones. If you do not have a responsive or mobile version of your company site, you will be dinged on Google, hurting your overall search ranking. This is an update that can’t be missed.
Keyword Research
Keywords and the terms surrounding those keywords are based on how clients search for answers online. You need to align keywords and semantic keywords on your website and blog to ensure your audience finds your website, blogs and the other content you provide. Through keyword research, you gain a better understanding of how to write content that meets the needs of your prospects and customers.
Blogging
Blogging is extremely important in today’s digital world. It allows you to flex your knowledge as well as help customers find you when searching for a particular problem they have that you can solve. This may be one of the first interactions you have with a future client. Blogging should be more subtle, less about how great you are and more about sharing the knowledge you have with the world. Now is the time to build trust.
Social Media
Everyone knows that social media is a must for any business. However, did you ever take the time to think about which social media channels your desired customers are using? Is Facebook the best option? Would you have stronger results with LinkedIn? These are things to consider and research when updating your marketing plan to include a digital marketing strategy.
Tracking Tools
The proper tracking tools will allow you to see where your potential customers are coming from and what they are looking for. It also allows you to track your Return on Investment (great for those monthly meetings with the team). In it’s simplest form, it gives you the opportunity to see most viewed pages, times of day you get the most traffic, and where your future customers are geographically. Google even offers free tracking tools through Google Analytics. You simply add it to the back-end of your company website and Google Analytics does the work for you.
Marketing Automation
Marketing automation is software (like HubSpot) that sends out your content to the right people at the right time for you. The goal of marketing automation is to cultivate your leads into customers, and your customers into happy advocates of your business, without requiring you to spend all day thinking about who you’ll send what content to and when. Marketing automation systems improve efficiency and productivity.
Build the right team
While you may be viewed as a one-man marketing machine, it’s still important to surround yourself with the right people. A strong digital marketing team will have an SEO specialists, content writers, social media specialists, web designers and more.
If you are afraid you may not have the right makeup with your current company, don’t be afraid to outsource. According to a recent study from the Content Marketing Institute, 64% of marketers outsource their writers, 54% outsource designers, and 22% outsource editing.
Bring it all together
In order to get the utmost out of your marketing efforts, it's paramount to align yourself with a strategic outsourcing partner that can help you strategize and executive an effective digital marketing program.
At Marketing Essentials, we start with an in-depth digital audit to assess every part of your digital presence, from website to emails and more. You will get insight to help you determine what strategies and tools to put in place, along with what competitors are doing.
Is it time to align with a strategic inbound partner to help you achieve your goals?
Don’t spend another dime on marketing tactics without a solid strategy in place. Schedule your free strategy session with Marketing Essentials today!
