Most MDs of manufacturing businesses tend to think of digital marketing as something they’ve tried that didn’t work. This typically means that they’ve hired a generalist agency that’s run some generic Google Ads, got enquiries from the wrong companies and stopped. Most of the time, industrial company digital marketing problems are never the channel that’s used. It’s the way the strategy is done.
Why industrial digital marketing usually fails
Manufacturing digital marketing challenges usually come up because industrial businesses have specific characteristics that can’t be accommodated by standard digital marketing approaches. This industry has long sales cycles, which means a click on a Google ad will rarely convert to a purchase in the same session. It also deals with niche audiences looking for specific work or materials, which means that broad targeting approaches waste budget on the wrong companies. On top of this, the industry has technical products, which means that generic content fails to show credibility with a buyer who knows what they want and everything about it.
When manufacturing and industrial businesses use generalist agencies, they apply consumer or B2C logic to their marketing. This doesn’t help, as this industry is all about B2B. Strategies that focus on audience reach, campaign volume and click-through rate do matter in the B2C world, but for the B2B industrial world, there are more important metrics to focus on. The ones that matter are cost per qualified lead, lead-to-quote conversion rate and pipeline value. These metrics need a different approach to the structure of the campaign, as well as unique and specific content and different measurement frameworks.
The real problem of matching digital to the buying process
A huge reason why manufacturers avoid digital marketing is that they assume that it doesn’t work for them. This is because their target audience, such as an industrial buyer who’s researching a new CNC supplier or a specialist plastics processor, doesn’t behave like a typical consumer. These audiences tend to search for specific product specifications, compliance certifications, case studies from comparable industries and lead times. If your website and campaign don’t address these specific points, you’ll lose the enquiry to a competitor whose website does.
As well as this, the buying process for equipment or specialist services often involves multiple people across the business. In this industry, it usually starts with a technical engineer who specifies the requirement, then a procurement manager manages the process and then a director will sign off on the budget. This means that digital marketing for industrial businesses needs to be understood and effective for all of these people at different stages of the sales process.
Industrial buying decisions involve an average of 3.6 people. Digital marketing that speaks only to the final decision-maker misses every other person who shapes the outcome.
What actually works for industrial B2B marketing
So, why is digital marketing hard for industrial companies in the UK? It’s all because the marketing isn’t being done in the right way. The best way to do this is to focus on search advertising that targets specific product and service terms. This works well in industrial markets because the search volumes are smaller, but the intent is a lot more precise. It’s effective as an engineer who searches “precision CNC machining aluminium Bristol” isn’t browsing like a typical consumer. Instead, they’re looking for a supplier. Due to this, having a well-structured Google Ads campaign that targets those specific terms will help generate a small number of highly qualified enquiries.
You can also make use of LinkedIn, as this works for reaching procurement managers and technical directors in specific areas of the industry. It’s more expensive per click than Google, but you can be more precise with your audience targeting. You can create B2B audience by company size, industry and job title, allowing you to market your services and products to the right people. Because of this, if you’re selling to large corporate buyers, LinkedIn can actually be the most cost-effective paid channel to use.
✓ Google Ads targeting specific product and process terms, not generic industry terms.
✓ A website with detailed technical content, including specifications, tolerances, certifications and case studies.
✓ LinkedIn Ads for reaching decision-makers in specific industry verticals and company sizes.
✓ Content marketing built around technical problems buyers search for, not company news.
✓ Email nurturing for leads in long sales cycles who are not ready to quote yet.
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