Measure Your Marketing to Manufacturing Companies
While proving marketing ROI may be challenging, inbound marketing is one of the best strategies for achieving high returns. Inbound marketing is a proactive approach that attracts, engages, and adds value throughout the customer journey. Encompassing branding, social selling, content marketing, SEO, and marketing automation, inbound marketing actively involves the customer at each phase of the buying process.
Pushing the Prospective Buyer: How Not to Close a Sale
In 2018, getting a response from prospects was the top sales challenge cited by 40% of marketers. [i] Inbound marketing shifts the focus away from “pushing” products or solutions upon prospective customers, instead working to build trust and loyalty over the long term.
A report from NewVoiceMedia states that 57% of people said they would be encouraged to make a purchase from a sales person that doesn’t try to apply pressure or hassle them when following up, and 68% say they are more inclined to commit to a sale from a person that listens to their needs and supplies relevant information for them. Inbound marketing helps this entire scenario by providing relevant, supporting content that helps educate the buyer—as well as the sales staff—with the kind of information prospects and customers are looking for.
Selling, especially to manufacturing companies, has become increasingly challenging with enhanced competition from overseas and consolidation among suppliers. The selling process has also become more complicated with companies now having multiple markets, decision makers, and influencers to contend with. Inbound marketing for manufacturing companies is an excellent strategy because it’s cost effective, easy to implement, and readily generates traffic and converts leads to keep the sales pipeline full.
Personalize the Sales Experience
While marketing automation is a key component of inbound marketing—and provides valuable data and the ability to respond in real-time—personalization is essential. Buyers don’t want to be bugged by a constant barrage of emails, but they do want personalized content. In a recent survey, 92% of buyers stressed “the importance of sales teams that had insights about personalized company needs.”[ii]
Personalizing content throughout the customer relationship—emails, digital ads, landing pages, videos, webinars, demos—illustrates a genuine understanding of a customer’s challenges and how you can help solve them. Case studies describing how you have helped companies solve similar problems, and customer testimonials, also help to build trust and confidence.
Customer journey analysis is another great tool for gaining a better understanding of your prospects and helping you figure out the best way to customize their interactions with your company. McKinsey & Company found that “maximizing satisfaction with customer journeys has the potential to lift revenue by up to 15%.”[iii]
First Stop on the Buyer’s Journey: Your Website
Because digital marketing works, CMOs spend a full 25% of their budgets on paid and organic search, email, and company websites.[iv] A company’s website may be its single most important communications tool. Research shows that 94% of B2B buyers perform extensive research online before making a purchasing decision.
Creating unique, interactive—and memorable experiences—for website visitors will help to differentiate your company from its competition. The goal of inbound marketing is to develop a lifelong partnership by nurturing the relationship at each stage, from prospect to lead to customer.
A full 89% of buyers said they chose vendors because their websites “provided content that made it easier to show ROI and/or build a business case for the purchase.”[v] Central to a successful inbound marketing program is creating and disseminating relevant content that addresses a buyer’s pain points. Videos, chatbots, personalized landing pages, case studies, white papers, and compelling CTAs help to engage the visitor and create meaningful interactions.
Inbound Marketing = Measurable ROI
Converting leads to customers is the number one priority cited by marketers (69%), but “generating traffic and leads” is also their top marketing challenge.[vi] Platforms such as HubSpot are an excellent way to increase traffic and leads, and to convert leads to customers: 93% of companies using inbound marketing increase lead generation.[vii]
The 2018 HubSpot Growth Platform ROI Report found that after implementing an inbound marketing program, companies:
- Reached 2.1 times more visitors per month within 1 year
- Converted 2.5 more visitors to leads per month within 1 year
- Turned leads into customers, with 3% seeing an increase in sales revenue (45% within just 6 months of using HubSpot)
- Saw a 70% increase in their lead-to-customer conversion rate
As a HubSpot Gold Partner and one of the top Boston digital marketing agencies of 2020, Grant Marketing has successfully grown clients’ businesses through powerful inbound marketing strategies. We deliver a robust inbound program—brand development, content creation, search engine optimization, lead nurturing, and email marketing tactics—with proven results.
We can help you engage your target audience to:
- Increase website traffic
- Convert visitors into leads
- Nurture leads into sales
Contact us now to get the conversation started.
[i] State of Inbound 2018. HubSpot.
[ii] 2017 B2B Buyers Survey Report. Demand Gen
[iii] “The three Cs of customer satisfaction: Consistency, consistency, consistency.” McKinsey & Company. (March 2014.)
[iv] CMO Spend Survey 2018-19. Gartner.
[v] 2017 B2B Buyers Survey Report. Demand Gen
[vi] State of Inbound 2018. HubSpot.
[vii] “93% of Companies Using Inbound Marketing Increase Lead Generation [New ROI Data].” HubSpot.
