What is content marketing?
Content marketing is an approach focused on creating and distributing valuable content to attract potential customers for your industrial business. (It’s an important part of doing digital marketing for manufacturing.)
What should I expect after hiring a digital marketing agency?
When you hire a digital marketing agency, you should expect them to immerse themselves in your business and your business goals. Your digital marketing agency will assign an Account Supervisor to you and review your marketing plan together. There will be regularly scheduled meetings to see how your marketing campaigns are going and how your content is performing. We also welcome any ideas you have to incorporate into your marketing plan!
Thomas has more than 122 years of experience connecting buyers and suppliers, so you should expect our strategies and solutions to attract, convert, and retain customers in the industrial space.
More on what to expect after hiring a marketing agency here.
What is the best way to create a content marketing strategy?
Honestly, it depends on what your goals are in your company. If you’re looking to diversify into a new market, you would want to create content around metals for the aerospace industry — whereas if you wanted to get your brand recognized for its “green” initiatives, you’d talk at length about your in-house recycling programs and environmentally friendly processes. We have a ton of blog posts written about all types of content — video, blogs, eBooks, etc. — you want to check those out here.
At a minimum, your content marketing strategy should include research about the buyers you're going after, the content they need to get their jobs done, and marketing channels like emails to help promote that content.
Should I create a custom content marketing plan?
Yes. Each company’s goals and target audience is unique (yes, even within the manufacturing and industrial space), which means you’ll have to tailor the type of content that works for your audience and your business goals.
Does content marketing work for B2B and/or industrial companies?
Content marketing is one of the best ways to reach a B2B and industrial audience and inform them of your products and services. Business decisions are rarely impulsive, so you’ll need to provide some information to buyers to catch their interest regardless of what stage they’re at in the buying cycle.
What types of content work well for manufacturers?
Today, company overviews and shop floor tour videos have helped manufacturers close more sales, but there is no standard formula for the types of marketing that work for every manufacturer. Each company is unique in its own way, and each company has its own set of goals. Our industrial experts and marketing strategists will work with your team to determine the right content that your customers, engineers, and buyers need and create that content for you.
I think I have a lot of content about my manufacturing company already. But I'm still not seeing enough leads come through. What's wrong?
Great content only works well if it's in the right places at the right time. Your potential customers are looking for resources online but you need to make sure your content has the right digital campaigns in place for your audience to see them.
Make sure you're promoting your content on platforms your buyers, engineers, and procurement managers are on — industry newsletters and sourcing platforms, like Thomas. Request a free digital health check to find out exactly how you can improve your online tactics.
How can I use digital marketing to promote my content?
Depending on your marketing goals and business needs, our marketing experts will create content and online campaigns to reach more engineers, procurement managers, and MROs.
For example, use your Thomasnet.com Company Profile to showcase your product catalog and upload product videos — every second an engineer sources for suppliers on that platform. Create your profile here for free.
Or put the spotlight on your company in industry's leading email newsletter, Thomas Industry Update, where you can target more than 310K subscribers by job function.
There are many opportunities for content marketing to help you break into a new industry, increase your brand awareness, and get more quality leads. For additional industrial marketing resources, visit the below links:
