You have the industry expertise. You have information you want to get out about your manufacturing company. But what are the best ways to distribute that message? While there are a few key avenues you can take, one of the easiest (and most cost effective) ways to get your messaging out is with email marketing campaigns.
Because emails don’t have the overhead costs (printing, postage, fulfillment) of traditional mailings, your communication budget is less restricted. But determining what and how to send your message will give your manufacturing company its best return on investment.
Show How What You Do Benefits Clients
There is great value in what you do. You work hard to produce the best products, train employees to give exemplary customer service and create the most efficient processes. Show current and potential clients how that benefits them. Using an ongoing email marketing strategy for your manufacturing company gives you the visibility you won’t get anywhere else.
You can target select demographics or markets, catering content based on the needs of your audience.
Here are some ideas for how to showcase what you do and how it benefits your customers:
New Products or Processes
Your team puts in a lot of work for each new product you produce or new process you implement. When it’s ready for the market, don’t miss out on opportunities to promote those launches.
It’s common for manufacturing companies to concentrate on production and pay less attention to marketing. This will not produce your best ROI. You can have the best services in the world, but if no one knows about them, it won’t get you far.
New Capacity
Running new machines at the plant? Expanding your warehouse space? Growth announcements are valuable to clients. You made the decision to add a new machine so you can enter into a new market or better service a current one. An email campaign is the perfect way to alert your customers and targets.
If current customers are going to be better served because of added capacity, let them know about it. Explain to them how this will allow them to get materials faster or reduce production costs.
Community Initiatives
A misconception is that business to business (B2B) companies are not as involved in local communities as retail or other consumer businesses.
Manufacturing companies participate in community events, donate to charities, etc. They also employ many members of surrounding communities in their offices and plants. These companies are integral parts of the local communities and can showcase their participation in local initiatives. Sending out information of how to get involved with a local event is another way to engage.
Catering Content to Specific Markets
One mistake companies make with email campaigns is to send the same message to everyone on their email list. Crafting messages that targets different needs will make your campaigns much more successful.
At the very least, you should have two email lists for potential clients and current clients. For instance, if a current customer is already buying one of your products, you wouldn’t send them an email campaign that gives the basic information on why they should be using it.
However, if that product works great in one market and you have a list of potential customers in that industry, this would be a great email message for them.
The current customers may be better served by an email message about improvements you’ve made to the equipment that produce that product.
Here are some different ways to breakdown your email lists:
By Industry
Your products and processes are typically not a catch all across all markets. If you don’t segment your lists, you run the risk of sending a new product email to an industry where it’s inapplicable. As stated, for effective email marketing, and maximum ROI, you need to deliver relevant content.
You also want to make sure that when you do send messaging to an industry, they want to listen. They want to open up your content because you only send information that is relevant.
If you continue to send new product information for the automotive market to contacts in the aerospace market, they will begin to ignore your messaging. Then when you do send them relevant content, you will have already lost them.
By Geographic Reason
Weather conditions in differing geographic regions create different production needs. Or shipping may alter production costs for domestic versus international parts. These are things to consider when creating content for email.
If one region is experiencing heavy rain and you have a product that can handle those conditions, send an email to companies in the geographical area.
By Trade Show
One of the easiest ways to break apart your email lists is by trade show. Send an email campaign to registered attendees for an upcoming show. This can promote a new product you are debuting at the show or it can have technical information that would be of importance to attendees at the show. If you have a booth at the show, you can highlight your booth number in the email to get traction before the show even begins.
Email marketing is just one form of content marketing that can help manufacturers reach their goals. For a complete look at Content Marketing for Manufacturers, check out this guide.
