Even though online marketing is often more cost-effective than traditional marketing methods are, many manufacturers do not have the resources or expertise to effectively promote their products and services online. Some choose instead to focus their efforts on strategies that have worked for them in the past — such as trade shows, print ads, face-to-face sales, and word-of-mouth — because they believe that their target customer cannot be reached through online channels.
I’m here to tell you that belief is inaccurate — especially in 2023.
The internet and the search engines that power it are more important now than ever because they are the most effective way to help people find the information, products, and services they need. As of April 2022, there were more than five billion internet users worldwide, which is 63.1 percent of the global population. Of this total, 4.7 billion — or 59 percent — of the world’s population were social media users as well.
While your potential customers are using many different search engines when browsing the internet, Google remains the number one worldwide, handling 92% of all search queries, and is undoubtedly dominating the global search engine market share. This makes Google the most powerful tool individuals and businesses can use to find the products and services they need quickly and easily. And for manufacturing businesses, it is why having your website appear on the first page of a Google search is really important.
The point is, a strong online presence will allow you to increase your company’s visibility, enabling you to reach a wider audience while making it easier for potential customers to find you. A strong online presence allows you to stay ahead of your competition and can keep you at the forefront of your manufacturing segment.
Having a company website is important. It allows you to showcase your services and enables potential customers to learn more about your manufacturing company and its offerings at their own pace. You can even use your website to build trust and credibility through features like customer reviews and testimonials.
But just creating a website is generally not enough if you want to truly get the most out of your online presence. As I mentioned earlier, you also have to promote it. There are two basic methods you can use to do this: organic or paid search.
Organic search refers to the process of finding a website through the use of a search engine. Search engines return results based on the relevancy of the website to the search terms entered by the user. Organic search results are the web pages that appear in the main body of the search engine results pages (SERPs) after a search query is entered. These results are generated by the search engine’s algorithm and are not influenced by paid advertising.
Organic search results typically include a mix of different types of content, such as:
It is important to mention that business directories and review sites — such as Google Business Profile, BBB, and Yellow pages — can list your business online without contacting you. Chances are, your manufacturing company may already be mentioned online in one of these directories, so it is a good idea to know where and make sure you are represented accurately.
SEM stands for search engine marketing, which uses paid search advertising to promote websites by increasing their visibility in SERPs.
SEM is important because it allows businesses to reach potential customers at the moment they are searching for products or services like theirs. It is a highly targeted form of advertising that can drive a significant amount of traffic and sales to a website, helping businesses to gain visibility and credibility.
If you’re interested in learning more about how to use SEM to promote your manufacturing business, you can find numerous tutorials online. HubSpot — a company that produces software for inbound marketing, sales, and customer service — offers a good free primer here.
Focusing on improving your ranking in organic search results is generally the easiest place for most manufacturers to get started promoting your business online. Here are five tips to help you nudge your company’s presence closer to the top of the list when a potential customer searches for a product or service you provide.
While promoting your business online does not have to be a full-time job, it may be helpful to consider hiring a professional to get you started. If you don’t currently have the time or resources for this, other options are available, including joining the Sustainment community. We’re connecting U.S. manufacturers and suppliers with the brands and OEMs that need their services — and we’re doing it for free.
Start for free with unlimited supplier management, up to 3 active projects and 5 users, then upgrade from $245/month.
