As a marketer for an aerospace manufacturing company, I am proof of how participation on LinkedIn can lead to substantial growth for manufacturing companies.
Through our involvement on LinkedIn, we have experienced a significant increase in sales. A full third of our new business has come directly from leads cultivated on LinkedIn. Thousands of aerospace engineers who had never heard of us prior, now know about our company and our product. Developing our presence on LinkedIn has provided a significant boost to our business and can do so for yours too!Social Media Is Not For Me
The most common refrain I hear from fellow business owners and managers in the manufacturing sector is “social media is not for me.” Another common statement is “social media doesn’t work for my type of company.”
Many think of social media as just a place for young people to share selfies and memes. Or a channel that only works well for B2C sales. They cannot imagine how a company as complex as their manufacturing business, with all the intricacies involved with their orders, could ever find social media helpful in driving growth.
Well, if you work in manufacturing and if you have had those thoughts – I am here to tell you you’re wrong.
In fact, I have made it my personal mission to share what I have learned so that others in manufacturing can join me in growing their businesses using LinkedIn – because social media works for us too! Two Strategies: Brand Awareness and Lead Generation
There are two main marketing strategies to focus on when using social media to help grow your business. They are not mutually exclusive, but rather, they truly complement one another and work in tandem to ultimately increase sales.
The two strategies are:Brand AwarenessLead GenerationBrand Awareness
Brand awareness is about becoming the company people trust and turn to when they need a particular service, product, or information.
We all know that people can’t buy from you if they don’t know you exist.
There are many ways to start building brand awareness so that you become known as the “go to” for content about your area of expertise.White PapersVideosBlog PostsE-books
Create the content that your B2B audience wants and needs. The more valuable content you provide to your ideal target audience, the more trusted your company/brand will become. The ultimate goal of brand awareness is to have your prospects think of you whenever they have a related question or need.
Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman points out that “given the choice between several options, people tend to prefer the one that comes to mind most easily”.
To stay top of mind, consistent reminders about who you are and what you do will help but creating an emotional tie can be important and impactful as well. So, when building brand awareness, do not solely share the features related to your products, but focus on trying to help the audience develop an emotional connection to the brand as well. B2B customers are certainly a more rational and less emotional bunch than B2C, but people are still people, and emotion still plays a role.
While finding an emotional tie in manufacturing may feel like a stretch, here are a few examples of incorporating some emotional strategies in your B2B content:We put a human touch on a tech-centric worldWe understand that it’s a tough world in businessWe empathize with the stress of supply chain shortagesBecause we’re an obvious choice, we’re a safe choice for youWe work with you to help solve problems
According to The LinkedIn B2B Institute, in B2C there is a 60:40 rule. This means that 60% of your marketing efforts should be dedicated to the emotional priming of your target audience and only 40% spent on communicating rational activation messages.
In B2B however, the optimal ratio is 46% emotional messaging and 54% rational activation messaging. This suggests that for us manufacturers in B2B sales, while rational activation messages do play a significant role, we cannot discount the importance of the emotional tie!
As you work on the creation of content for your brand awareness efforts, consider repositioning yourself from a manufacturer that makes XYZ, to a service partner for your customers. Instead of focusing exclusively on the product and performance, highlight your service and partnership. Aim to show your ideal customer that you understand the challenges they face and emphasize the dedication and passion you have in working with them.Lead Generation
According to Hubspot, Lead Generation is the process of attracting and converting strangers and prospects into leads. It’s a way of warming up potential customers to your business and getting them on the path to eventually buying.
So how do you attract strangers and turn them into prospective clients?
The first step is to understand who you are trying to attract! By adopting a customer first approach, you should seek to identify your ideal client by learning about who they are. What they care about. What they want. You should develop a buyer persona that will include demographics, behavioral patterns, interests, pain points, goals, habits, etc.
The next step is to elevate your content, keeping your buyer persona at the center of your efforts. Creating content that is relevant and valuable to your ideal client is key. Develop content to address their questions and concerns, educate them about you and your products, speak to their pain and their goals, as this is what will attract them to you. Utilizing a variety of content forms is helpful as well (i.e. video, short text, images, long-form, blogs, articles, carousels, etc.)
The process of generating leads can include creating offers with landing pages, collecting emails, and then nurturing those leads towards a sale.
Successful lead generation nurturing efforts include personalization, relationship building, and thought leadership. Positioning your brand as an expert in your field, sharing industry knowledge, engaging with potential prospects in comments and groups, personalized emails, and showing a genuine and authentic curiosity will boost your efforts greatly.Recap
Brand AwarenessBecome the go-toCreate contentProvide helpful and useful information
Lead GenerationCreate contentCreate an offer with a landing pageCollect emailsUse a lead nurture campaign to move lead toward a sale
While lead generation is a bit more narrow than brand awareness, the ultimate goal of both strategies is to inform, educate, persuade, and remind potential customers about who you are and what you offer. When companies focus on both brand awareness and lead generation, the number of prospective buyers will grow ultimately leading to an increase in sales!