We’re bombarded by content. It’s coming at us on our phones, in our inboxes, on billboards and at trade shows. It’s worming its way into our consciousness as video, audio, images and the written word. It’s in our social media feeds and streaming services — and even if you opt out of ads, there’s always product placement barging into the middle of a scene. When everything is content and everyone is a consumer, what is content marketing, exactly? And what is it from a manufacturing standpoint?
In this comprehensive blog, we’ll get to the method behind the madness and look at ways manufacturers selling to other businesses (B2B) can use thoughtful, data-driven content to increase brand awareness and move prospective customers closer to purchasing decisions.
Defining content marketing
Content marketing is more than a collection of assets aligned to the awareness → consideration → decision marketing funnel. It’s the data-driven delivery of assets tailored to target audiences and deployed along the buyer’s journey in accordance with customer behaviors and preferences — the right content, delivered to the right person, at the right time, in the way that makes the most sense to them (channel, format, etc.).
At its core, content marketing for manufacturers is a simple enough concept: if a prospect takes action A, then it’s time to deliver asset 1. However, one look at Gartner’s B2B buying journey chart is enough to give even the most seasoned B2B marketer pause:
The complexity of the B2B decision-making process, the fluid and multidisciplinary composition of the buying team, and the length of the manufacturing sales cycle — typically, several months — requires an “always on” mindset that assumes that any member may need any asset at any stage of the buyer’s journey. This is especially true given that 75% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free sales experience. They’re doing the lion’s share of their research online.
So, it’s complex. Where to begin?
Well, this is about as old-school as it gets: know thy customer. Personal relationships are still highly valued in many manufacturing industries, but they’re no longer the only way to get to the heart of a buyer’s wallet. They’re also not scalable, and they tend to walk out the door as people change jobs.
The ability to gather and analyze data has changed the game. Much of content marketing for manufacturers is about placing content over there (places they frequent for information) to get prospects to come over here (your website, landing page, what-have-you). But you must know where “there” is to make informed investments. Data-driven insights can illuminate even the darkest nooks and crannies of B2B buyer behavior, preferences and motivations. Let’s look at various types of research used to sharpen the image of the ideal customer.
Surveys
Want a broader sample of insights and opinions than your organization’s contact list will accommodate? Choosing a survey company that builds lists and conducts surveys based on your ideal customer profile can reach prospects, not just the current and past customers in your CRM. Surveys are also rich sources of demographic information that aid in audience segmentation and let you deliver content aligned to the needs of people in specific roles within decision-making teams.
Assessments
Subject-matter experts putting a fresh set of eyes on your content — from downloadable assets and websites to emails, social posts and sales enablement materials — can give you perspective on how your library stacks up against competitors, best practices and, most importantly, your strategic direction and company goals. Don’t just assess content for content’s sake. Make sure you’re looking at it through the lens of your company’s near-term objectives and longer-term vision.
Analytics tools
If you haven’t gone down this path before, you might be amazed at the wealth of information that can be gleaned from online analytics tools. For instance, Google Analytics can tell you where your website traffic is coming from, which gives you an idea of where to place content in the future. Once people are on your site, analytics tools can tell you how they’re interacting with your content. Learn more about digital marketing for manufacturers here.
Conversations
Many research tools can tell you the “what” of human behavior, but conversations can help you get to the “why.” Focus groups and 1:1 interviews tease out the reasons people believe and act the way they do. They elicit new questions that may lead research in surprising directions. Talk to employees, prospects and customers, past and present. And don’t leave out the disgruntled ones—they can tell you what’s not working well, which is often just as valuable as knowing what is.
Market intelligence
Market intelligence helps you understand your place in the world — where you stand now, gaps in your portfolio, which new opportunities might suit your products and services, trends on the horizon and more. Industry analysts and government agencies are a great place to start, whether you’re looking for straight-up data such as sector revenue or nuanced market and competitive analysis from an independent party with expertise in their field.
Intermezzo: Developing customer personas
With research in hand, building out detailed customer personas (also known as buyer personas) will ensure your content takes aim precisely where it should: the ways in which a manufacturing product solves a challenge. We’ve called it “intermezzo” (intermission) here because it is that moment to breathe after the research is complete and before the content is created and put into play. It is not idle time, however. It’s time spent analyzing the research to create accurate representations of your ideal customers: their responsibilities, challenges, solution preferences, why they say “no,” where they get information, etc.
Customer personas enable manufacturers to tailor marketing strategies, customer service and even new product development to a target audience. Some words of wisdom when developing them:
- Beware of making assumptions – Research on manufacturing can surprise even those who’ve been in the industry for years. Go into the exercise open to whatever the data may bring, then apply your manufacturing industry expertise against that as a way of diving deeper into, or expanding upon, what was learned.
- Don’t overgeneralize – And for that matter, don’t get overly enamored of the minutia, either. It’s not a dissertation. It’s not a soundbite. It’s a guide. The goal is to include enough pertinent information about roles, challenges, motivations, roadblocks and preferences to inform content development, timing and placement.
- Balance demographics with psychographics – Demographics tell you “who.” Psychographics tell you “why.” The former encompasses facts such as job title, age and location. The latter are the pain points, values, interests and preferences that shape decisions. Together, they marry characteristics and context to create the most well-rounded picture of a customer.
- Honor the decision-making team – Attending to too many personas muddies marketing efforts. A good rule of thumb is to develop personas with typical manufacturer decision-making teams in mind to ensure the right assets are on hand at the right time in the buyer journey. Don’t get into the weeds on job titles, either, because they can differ wildly from manufacturer to manufacturer and region to region. Think in terms of categories such as finance lead, supply chain manager, procurement specialist, etc. — catch-alls that get to the heart of the matter.
Pro tip: Don’t give your manufacturer personas names, use images of “typical” people, or include demographic information such as age or location unless they’re relevant. Doing so can create biases or lead to generalizations that are misleading. For instance, if you’re manufacturing farm equipment, it pays to remember that growers, agriculture specialists, warehouse managers, etc., can be male or female, young or old, tech-savvy or tech-tolerant. Location is likely to matter more if needs vary across terrains, seasons, crops, etc. Be discerning.
Considering the lay of the land
You’ve identified your ideal customers, fleshed them out (so to speak) via customer personas and understand the nuances of the buyer’s journey. It’s time to the put the content in content marketing. As we noted at the outset, content marketing for manufacturers is more than building an asset library, it’s the data-driven delivery of assets tailored to target audiences and deployed strategically along the buyer’s journey. Nonetheless, a collection of content is required. There are several complementary ways to look at the buildout of the collection, including:
By position in the buyer’s journey – Do you seek to build brand awareness, influence preference or catapult a well-educated prospect to an actual purchase? Given the complexity and “always on” nature of the B2B buyer’s journey, there should be something for everyone at all times. However, lean into B2B manufacturing marketing content that’s specific to your company’s goals. If, for example, you know people are generally aware of your product but find yourself in the throes of a battle for dominance, your investment may be weighted toward content and placement that tilts the scales in your favor, such as checklists, demos, case studies and competitive comparisons grounded in customer challenges and use cases.
As market events unfold – Industry and market awareness can guide you to opportunities to put your brand or product on display in the heat of the moment when prospects are on alert for interesting options or save-the-day alternatives. Manufacturing trade shows are a classic example. Placements in online trade publications, LinkedIn commentary by industry experts, booth-centric paid social media campaigns, etc., ramp up in an all-out effort to drive traffic to the onsite sales team. As to those save-the-day opportunities, take-out campaigns that capitalize on a competitor’s missteps can be incredibly effective at converting their customers into yours or enticing those on the precipice of a decision to make the leap to your side. Competitors may be in legal hot water, behind the eight-ball strategically or mired in a supply chain or production disruption. It’s no time to be demure — content that highlights the reasons you’re the better choice takes precedence.
When a game-changer is on the horizon – Foreseeable events such as the imminent launch of a competing manufacturer’s product, a technology whose adoption will reposition the field (looking at you, robotics and AI for manufacturing) or even an impending shortage of skilled talent in modern manufacturing are prime opportunities to position your brand differently and influence sales from a new angle. Content that demonstrates thought leadership, such as deeply researched whitepapers, executive blogs, keynote speaking opportunities and the like should come to the fore, along with associated campaigns that drives traffic to a landing page highlighting your company’s expertise.
So much content! So little time!
When content marketing seems overwhelming, it helps to think strategically about outcomes and break the effort and investment into manageable chunks. As the saying goes, it’s easier to eat the elephant one bite at a time. Let’s assume you’re in touch with the rhythms of the business and understand the company’s budget timeline and process.
Take it step by step:
- Well in advance of that first request for marketing dollars, consider your organization’s business goals. What does the company seek to achieve over the fiscal or calendar year? Content marketing doesn’t exist in a bubble. It’s a means to an end, and that end is achieving revenue and profit targets.
- Prioritize which of those corporate goals you’ll dedicate your content marketing spend to. You can’t be all things to all people, but you can prove your worth to them. Pick your poison in areas where you can execute flawlessly. That goes a lot further than scattershot mediocrity.
- Identify any dates of importance, such as impending product launches (yours or a competitor’s), M&A activity, seasonal buying patterns, trade shows, etc. Also, consider probable market disruptions, technology advancements or bold moves. Well-aware is well prepared.
- Settle on a theme for the year. This will serve as your guiding light, ensuring that content marketing efforts don’t ooze into areas not on your priority list—scope creep is shockingly common when there’s nothing to focus one’s attention (yours and those who are clamoring for content marketing assistance). This isn’t a catchy campaign theme. Instead, up-level it to a strategic raison d’ê
- Build a content marketing plan aligned to the theme with a one-year horizon and break it down into quarterly increments. What do you want to focus on in Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4? Start with the end in mind. A simple, sentence-based rubric can help. “We want to drive [buyer’s journey position] with [target audience] seeking to [solve for pain point/challenge] using [manufacturer’s solution] to [list benefits].”
- With all the above in mind, identify one hero document for each quarter and its derivatives. If Q1 is about building awareness through thought leadership, for example, the hero asset might be a detailed whitepaper that’s then used as the basis for executive blogs on LinkedIn, a keynote presentation and an eBook. If an associated product launch is in the offing in Q2, the effort might turn toward assets highlighting which customer challenges it addresses and how it does so, such as case studies, webinars, spec sheets and product demos. If you have more budget, more people and more time, you can build a more robust library.
- Figure out what success looks like. If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there — but there’s only so much funding for transportation infrastructure, so to speak. Define key performance indicators (KPIs) in alignment with your goals. Are you aiming for awareness, engagement, filling the sales pipeline, or… ?
- Identify where you’ll place your bets and how you’ll measure progress. As noted earlier, much of content marketing is about reaching your audience over there (preferred channel) and bringing them over here (owned property such as a website, form fill, landing page, trade show booth, etc.). It’s inbound marketing for manufacturers at its most effective.
Source: HubSpot
As you create, cut through the chaos with empathy
There is a tendency to think that B2B content marketing for manufacturers should lean into the factual at the expense of the emotional. While it is certainly true that marketing content should be firmly grounded in facts, that doesn’t mean it should ignore the psychological reasons B2B buyers do what they do. Actually, quite the contrary. People are people first, and they make decisions based on all kinds of emotional factors beyond the functionality of a product. A study by Google and CEB Marketing revealed that 70% of B2B customers had emotional connections with more than 50% of their business customers. Thus, weaving empathy — basically, the client’s perspective — into content marketing is imperative for manufacturers (and companies in any other sector, for that matter).
Businesspeople will keep their game faces on, but making decisions about significant investments can be emotionally fraught. There are their professional reputation and peer relationships to consider, not just the impact on the company’s bottom line. Betting on the wrong horse can be a career-limiting move. Understanding their beliefs, values, influences and time constraints is just as important as understanding how your product addresses their business challenges. Detailed customer personas and empathy maps that pinpoint emotional triggers at specific stages of the buyer’s journey can help. Take a deeper dive into empathy and the customer journey here.
In Thinking, Fast and Slow, Nobel prize winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman discusses two modes of thinking that occur in the brain, backed by research he performed with mathematical psychologist Amos Tversky. The first mode is fast, instinctive and emotional. The second is slower, intentional and logical. The studies revealed that people make financial decisions based 90% on emotion and only 10% on logic.
Using AI and content marketing automation to increase efficiency
A well-defined content marketing strategy for manufacturers can significantly enhance brand awareness, attract high-quality leads and foster trust and long-term buyer relationships. Generative AI can enhance the quality and relevance of your content, and automation can help you get the right content to the right people faster and more cost-effectively.
There is hardly a marketing tool out there today that doesn’t incorporate AI in some way to improve performance. Many roll several helpful capabilities into one, such as those that automate audience segmentation based on behavior and preferences, then analyze that data to create personalized experiences in otherwise-generic newsletters, emails, landing pages, etc. Automated posting enables you to schedule and post content across channels without having to hit the equivalent of “send” manually ever time. A/B testing and performance analysis can be automated as well, giving you immediate insights into what’s working and what’s not. The list goes on.
As to content creation itself, generative AI has taken the marketing world by storm. It’s not a panacea, though. Marketers are still being judicious about its use, tapping into tools that help with research and ideation, but keeping drafts and final products firmly in the hands of humans. This may be an innate preference for authenticity raising its hand and demanding to be heard. Some are speculating that the next big thing in content marketing for manufacturers will be a drive for assets and communications that aren’t machine-generated — though who’s to say if people will be able to tell which is which? Already, studies are finding that people prefer AI-generated advertising product descriptions and persuasive content for ad campaigns to that created by professional human writers.
For the time being, the cat-and-mouse game is still being played. Tools that generate AI-driven content are quickly matched by tools developed to root it out, which then beget tools to get around the snitches. Not surprisingly, they’re often offered by the same company. The future remains to be seen, but the present demands a high level of familiarity with AI-powered content marketing tools and their uses.
Source: HubSpot State of Marketing Report, 2024
Choose a B2B marketing agency partner with deep experience in manufacturing
A content marketing strategy is pivotal in establishing authority and trust in the manufacturing sector, and Forbes reports that it has proven effective in boosting lead generation for 74% of companies. Content that prospects deem valuable to decision-making helps manufacturing companies educate the audience, showcase expertise and nurture leads.
As an established B2B marketing company, we serve as a strategic partner helping manufacturing companies connect with new audiences through a wide variety of specialized marketing strategies and services, including content marketing for manufacturers. We’ll help your brand and product portfolio get noticed and convert prospects into customers with a well-defined manufacturing marketing strategy anchored in deep market research and an intimate understanding of your specific audience. Contact us today to elevate your manufacturing marketing strategy.
