Yes, You’re Busy—but You Have Lots of Low-Hanging Fruit to Share!
News, updates, and new product releases are just a few of the topics that manufacturing companies can promote through a running “blog” of current information. Blog, you say? Too busy taking care of business on the production floor to even consider writing technical intel info or pithy subjects on the latest industry buzz? We get it. While we strongly recommend you get a full-fledged content program underway, we also want to let you know there are some things you can do in lieu of that. Here’s where the “news blog” comes in.
Many manufacturing companies don’t realize the wealth and depth of information they are sitting on that could boost their traffic and prove their authority in the industry. When customers, shareholders, prospects, or potential talent are looking for information on industry topics, an up-to-date news blog is the best way to get their attention. Without an active blog, a company website will be harder to find and may look outdated. And even if you can’t attend to a “regular” blog, if your news page is current, that makes a notable impression on website visitors. Think of your website as your digital door—if they see you are updating items—they’ll know someone’s minding the store!
Improving Your SEO with News Articles
When people are looking for topics related to manufacturing or a specific industry, they typically turn to search engines. The search engines comb through websites looking for topics that align with the search query. The more pages a website has on relevant topics, the more likely they will land in the top results for that query. Companies that have a blog have more indexed pages for the search engine to examine.
The more topics covered in that blog, the more likely that one of the pages will cover the exact question—or keyword phrase—that the user entered into the search engine. News stories naturally cover various topics without keyword stuffing, sounding natural, which SEO bots like. Search engine algorithms look for websites that are keeping updated with new information and fresh content—it is actually a vital part of the algorithm.
Keep Your Site Updated and Active
Visitors are going to be more interested and trusting (you know, the lights are on AND someone’s home perception) if a website is clearly up-to-date. Think you don’t have enough interesting tidbits of interest to write about for a news blog? You do. Keep in mind these are all easy, low-hanging fruit topics—ones you likely have all the information you need at the ends of your fingertips. You can type these up quickly with minimal research and simple fact-checking. You’d be surprised how quickly 500 words spill out onto the page, making for an easy task.
Here are some ideas for topics you can cover:
- New product announcements
- Company acquisitions
- New location or facility
- Company events
- Trade show events—exhibiting or speaking at or attending
- Awards individuals or the company has received
- New hires of note
- Programs, training, workshops you run or participate in
- New processes, protocols, production line, or equipment
- Any new or updated certifications
- Charitable organizations the company supports
- Special recognition of employees
- Company milestones
- Promotional contests or giveaways
- Announcements of new brochures or corporate videos
- Announcements about press or media coverage
You Are Interesting!
The mindset that many manufacturers have of thinking that they just don’t have interesting subject matter to write about—as we can clearly see above—just isn’t so. We often say at Grant Marketing, that behind the efforts, we are all are people doing business with people. And people are naturally curious. They want an inside peek at your people, the company culture, and the progress and improvements you make along the way. It gives them a beat on what they can expect when doing business with you. Oh, and people don’t generally like surprises (at least in business!), so giving them a look under the hood helps to set expectations.
A news blog is a good way to post content that proves authority and activity without feeling out of place or forced. According to Precision Marketing Group’s report, only 44% of manufacturing firms are utilizing social media to promote their content and increase their reach. A news blog offers a stream of content that can easily be promoted across social channels to gain new contacts and appeal to top talent as potential hires.
Create a Content Calendar
Restating it here: you’re busy. No one wants to waste time creating branded content that is meaningless or thrown together. It’s easy enough to create a content calendar that will organize a simple plan. This will keep all topics and deadlines straight, so the flow of news releases is timely and effective. This is one of the many pieces of our marketing strategy that we implement with clients as part of an overall inbound marketing strategy. An inbound marketing agency can help manage a content calendar that is stocked with relevant content that will attract qualified leads and help increase sales for the manufacturing company.
A news blog is a good place to start, and if you are curious to know more about how ready you might be for an inbound marketing program, take this quick, DIY Inbound Marketing Assessment. It’s a little bit of fun in a busy work day.
