Regardless of what your business produces, a web search is the primary way potential clients will find out about you. Alex Turrell, Marketing Manager at Intergage Marketing Engineers gives a run down on the latest search engine optimisation techniques.

Manufacturers usually spend most of their time developing new products, optimising supply chains and using data to improve quality standards and productivity. And rightly so.

Sadly, they rarely give the same focus to the sales and marketing production line – the beating heart that provides the business engine with the fuel it needs to survive. Without this focus, manufacturers risk stifling growth and profitability.

Or worse, being overlooked by potential customers. But with it, there is an increasing focus on digital: 71% of B2B buyers begin their research with a generic Google search, according to Think with Google. And 62% of manufacturers invest most of their marketing budget in digital marketing, and less in more traditional forms.

So where should manufacturing businesses start when it comes to digital marketing? And how much could it cost them if they don’t apply the correct focus?

The digital marketing mix is growing constantly with the likes of search engine optimisation (SEO), marketing automation, account-based marketing and digital advertising on the rise.

Manufacturing marketers have their hands full when it comes to initiatives to focus on. With resources stretched, it’s crucial to focus on the areas that will make the most difference.

How does SEO work?

When people search on the internet, Google serves up content in order of relevance. So how does that work?

• The internet user searches on Google – it displays lots of results based on the keywords and the intent the searcher has used.
• The user clicks on the result most relevant to them and the problem they’re trying to solve.
• If the page is useful, insightful and answers their questions, the user is likely to spend more time on the website that published it, engaging with other content on that site.
• Google understands from this behaviour that this page is useful for searchers using similar keywords and intent – and therefore serves up this content more frequently.

How SEO fits into the digital marketing mix

Manufacturing businesses considered social media promotion, regular written content, email marketing and SEO as the four initiatives that drove the most success in 2020. As laid out in The Marketing In Manufacturing Report.

Yes, email marketing will help you to generate results from a captive audience. And social media will help you to promote your products and services to those who already know you. But the incremental new business that every ambitious company needs stems from being found by search engines.

When prospects are searching for your products and services, hungry for information, you need to show up. If you’re not ranking in the top five positions, you’re losing out on valuable opportunities, research shows. Higher search positions mean more eyes on your offering.

This makes positions 1-5 on Google some of the most valuable real estate in digital marketing. This doesn’t mean aiming for top positions for your brand name: you should have those anyway.

This is about owning top positions for problem-, product- and service-related search terms. These top of funnel, problem- and solution aware searches are what give you the opportunity to connect with prospects at an early stage to build trust.

The cost of poor SEO

Our research shows that manufacturing businesses are missing out on an average of £270,000 in revenue a year because of poor search engine positions. This depends on contributing factors such as:

• Average sale value – the higher the value the more potential loss (or gain)!
• Website conversion rate
• Lead-to-sale conversion rate.

One manufacturing business we dealt with was missing out on more than £1m of revenue a year on phrases it ranked for poorly in search engines! Could you afford to let a potential £1m slip through the cracks?

It’s even worse to think that the revenue you’re missing out on is going to your competitors – even if your products and services are superior – simply because they have higher search engine positions than you.

With many manufacturing firms in niche yet competitive marketplaces, they simply cannot afford the cost of poor SEO and missing out on this kind of revenue potential.

Slow and steady wins the race

It’s important to note that investing in SEO doesn’t generate results overnight. The key is to be consistent with efforts: most manufacturing businesses will see results within 6-12 months.

If SEO work proves too much of a strain on internal resources, join the 64% of industrial marketers outsourcing at least one marketing activity, according to Content Marketing Institute.

Intergage Marketing Engineers is offering manufacturing businesses free SEO ROI Reports to show you:

• How much revenue you’re currently missing out on
• How much additional revenue you could be making if you owned the top five positions on Google.
• Which actions you should take to get better SEO and revenue results.

In association with Intergage Marketing Engineers

For the last 20 years, Intergage Marketing Engineers has been helping ambitious manufacturing businesses grow through digital marketing, marketing strategy and marketing automation. Think of us as your sales and marketing production line, generating a predictable pipeline of sales leads with a focus on providing return on investment.

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Images courtesy of Intergage