Blog posts

Many traditional marketing tactics are still effective---and even more effective when combined with digital marketing tactics into a successful marketing campaign.

Coming up with fresh social media content ideas is challenging for companies in every industry, and manufacturing is no exception. We’re here to help with a list of social media post ideas that you can use to generate your next successful social media post.

In the dynamic world of the internet, maintaining a relevant and up-to-date website is crucial for businesses’ marketing success.

Company culture may sound like another corporate buzzword, but---utilized correctly---it can be the key to attracting and retaining employees.

A marketing budget is an important part of producing an efficient and productive marketing strategy with a strong ROI.

If your website has a high bounce rate, it’s time to look into why users aren’t utilizing your website.

Find out more about Threads, the newest social media platform, and all the opportunities it presents for companies.

While your customers expect you to utilize robots and cobots for greater efficiency in the shop, they don’t want to deal with robots---or a robotic tone---when they interact with your brand.

Videos are a powerful marketing tool for manufacturers, if you know how to produce and utilize them.

Understanding key website traffic terms can help you strategize successfully and calculate the ROI of your marketing efforts.

Sharing videos on LinkedIn can create instant connections to build rapport for sales leads as well as hiring needs.

When it comes to e-mail marketing, it can be rewarding to put together a strong newsletter that gets the open rates you hoped and the response you anticipated. On the flip side, sometimes a newsletter goes out and gets ignored.

Among the most time consuming part of any inbound marketing strategy is content creation.

As a manufacturing company, the position as a thought leader makes you a go-to resource that clients can turn to for expert advice, information and education. Tactics such as content marketing, social media, blogs, vlogs and other means to increase your authority and knowledge is key for successful thought leadership.

October is Manufacturing Month! During the month of October, we celebrate the manufacturing industry, academic organizations and public entities that raise awareness about advanced manufacturing careers and prepare the current and next generation workforce for the skills and jobs of the future.

There are a number of practices and techniques that can be used when designing and updating your website in order to optimize your SEO ranking. A lot of these techniques are based around updating your website to benefit your visitors, but did you know that there are three overarching categories that drive SEO strategy?

SEO or Search Engine Optimization, is the process of improving your site to increase its visibility when people search for products or services related to your business in a search engine. SEO is often thought of in terms of B2C businesses; where an organic visitor to your site is also the end user of the company’s product or service. In this situation, SEO helps get your target audience to your website and then to convert them to paying customers. SEO for manufacturers can look a little bit different.

Since the early 2000s, podcasting has grown at a steady rate. Today, 62% of the population 12+ have listened to a podcast and roughly 79% are familiar with podcasts. The growth of podcasting grew exponentially during COVID, both in audience size and diversity.

Social media is an obvious place to start when creating your digital marketing strategy. Building an audience on social media means you are connecting with more people who will gain brand recognition the longer they follow and engage your content.So - how do you get people to trust your company just because they follow you on social media?

Inbound methodology works as a strategic process of attracting, engaging and delighting your target audience. While this sounds simple enough, achieving the final stage of inbound marketing - delight - requires your manufacturing brand to provide consistent value that builds a relationship of trust with your audience.

When creating your marketing strategy, there are so many options these days. Print, digital, in-person, e-mail marketing, website design … it can be overwhelming. It’s important to give careful consideration to which platforms you want to use, rather than take it all on at once - in order to effectively leverage that systems’ potential.

As you get started in the world of Google Ads, it’s important to understand the many metrics available at your fingertips in order to update your strategy and maximize effectiveness. We’ve previously offered this article about getting started with google ads, and below we’ll dive into understanding certain ad metrics.

There seems to be endless options when it comes to social media platforms for marketing your business in 2022. To add to the social media noise, all of these platforms are also constantly changing. Thankfully, there is an easy strategy you can implement consistently: content creation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a number of shifts in the digital, online landscape over the past few years. Many people have shifted the way they work, socialize and live to depend even more heavily on the internet.

In more recent years, the idea of humanization is becoming the way that customers expect you to communicate with them. This is where the concept of personalized marketing is becoming more highly utilized.

As we reach the mid-point of 2022, it is a great time to do an analysis on what is working and what needs tweaking in your marketing strategy. As in many prior years, the value and need for virtual/digital marketing is crucial to growing your brand and business. We took note of a few trends of 2022 to be sure you educate yourself on, revisit, or implement in the second half of 2022.

The past few years have presented the manufacturing industry with it all. Between the constant roadblocks and endless ups and downs - there is a lot to learn from this experience to make marketing work for your manufacturing company.

Industrial advertising refers to marketing and advertising that targets businesses that seek products or services related to the manufacturing industry. An alternative name for this type of advertising is Business to Business or B2B advertising, which means a business promotes products or services to another business and can be in or out of the manufacturing industry.

Affiliate marketing offers an opportunity for manufacturers to grow and expand their business at a low-risk. As an industry that has grown exponentially in recent years, affiliate marketing can save your business significantly on your marketing budget while boosting your orders/sales and traffic.

A well-designed website sets your business up to find new customers, build a stronger brand, showcase your products and services, find skilled employees, and help achieve your sales and business goals.

Meta is a '“new” platform that brings together all of Facebook’s apps and technologies under one new company brand. In October of 2021, Mark Zuckerberg introduced at the Facebook’s Connect 2021 conference, that Facebook Inc. was now Meta Platforms. Meta’s focus will be to bring the metaverse to life and help people connect, find communities and grow businesses.

As a brand and business, you know what value you have for your audience and potential customers. An email list allows you to directly market to your target audience who has already extended a hand out to your brand. The question is how do you get your target audience, that can truly benefit from your brand’s offerings, to say ‘yes’ to signing up to your email list?

As a business today, you must continuously be educating and staying on top of the changing digital world. Once you have mastered one trend, another one is beginning to make waves. One of the newest hot trends that seems to be building momentum are NFTs or non-fungible tokens.

If you’re new to the Google Ads world and looking to kickstart this strategy to drive business for your company, a first step is getting to know more about the basics of setting up your first ad. We start here with a breakdown of some basic terms that will be helpful as you get your first campaign going.

If you are in need of more employees yet struggling to find the right matches, you may need to up your game with your hiring strategy.

Building a strong social media presence is valuable, but purchasing followers can actually hurt your business.

Clean email lists lead to better KPI’s and ensure your email list is sparkling to reach your engagement goals.

Effective marketing does a few things, among the most obvious: drive ideal customers to your website and therefore your sales pipeline. As a byproduct, this means effective marketing helps you stand out from the crowd so that potential customers understand why you are different from the competition.

Social media has taken over the way in which we consume and find information. On the fast-moving online space, video content currently leads the way. Videos are the most effective tool for your brand to stand out from other content and capture your audience’s attention. Videos also offer an interactive way for people to engage with your business.

When looking for more leads, a great way to leverage your digital marketing strategy is to focus on ways to drive traffic to your website. Why? Someone who is visiting your website is likely researching a problem they have - and your company may be just the solution.

Manufacturers can leverage LinkedIn tools to reach qualified candidates and fill workforce gaps.

Leverage your digital space to stay ahead of workforce challenges and stand out from your competition.

Boost your business goals by standing out from your competition with Google Ads.

In a world that has been dominated by digital marketing - print marketing, when used correctly, has become a hidden power to marketing.

Content marketing is a great way to drive more leads to your sales team, while also building up your rapport as an expert in the industry.

Millennials and younger generations have higher expectations for companies to provide new challenges and growth opportunities throughout their careers, and are more focused on the overlap of technology and its role in manufacturing.

Your brand is one of the most valuable assets your business possesses. It is the way that your audience identifies you from your competition, the experience your brand provides and includes everything from your customer service style, tone of voice, product packaging, business values, logo and what we are talking about today: colors.

Negative reviews are never the end goal, but they can be an opportunity for your business.

So, how does your company stand out as a viable opportunity in a market like this? Social media is one tool that can make all the difference.

Job fairs are more than a place to hire people, but also to network and spread awareness about your company.

We’ve heard from many manufacturers struggling to hire its ideal team, and that’s why we’ve compiled this series to improve your hiring success.

Many traditional lead generation models rely on cold outreach approaches: cold calls, networking with strangers, mass mailings and so forth.

Why hiring an agency on a marketing retainer may be the best option for your company.

A memorable brand allows your company to stay top of mind when customers have project needs.

There are many skills and tasks needed to successfully implement a marketing strategy, here we break down the real cost of effective marketing.

Visual content is an important component to building your company’s brand.

Email newsletters can be a great way to boost sales and meet your marketing goals, ensure people are opening and taking action on yours.

Social media is a powerhouse marketing tool. According to the Harris Poll, in 2020, 55% of consumers learned about new companies via social media. That’s huge! When used effectively, images on social media ensure that your brand is attracting your ideal audience and building your brand’s legitimacy.

Creating a brand for a company is not something that happens overnight. It requires dedication and persistence, a strategic focus on how your brand shows up in every interaction with existing and potential customers.

Headed to FABTECH? We are, too! There’s more to making this expo work for your company than just showing up, though. What exactly does that look like?

Digital marketing involves many moving parts to make a comprehensive, effective strategy. One standard goal is to drive traffic to your website, where potential customers learn all about your company.

A website is one of the 7 essential pieces of a marketing strategy, yet it won’t do much good without a clear understanding of website analytics to inform your action plan.

Amidst supply chain issues and workforce challenges industry wide, is your company among those also noticing a slow down simply related to the season?

So how do you know when your email is performing well? Here’s a few key analytics to focus on when you’re just starting out.

managing social media for marketing isn't easy as pie. Yet, there are steps you can take to make it feel more like a no brainer process.

A marketing strategy can seem like a complex web, full of intricate details and multiple options and opportunities. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach, there are core pieces that each business needs to consider in laying a solid foundation.

Blogging is a highly involved marketing strategy that requires forethought and many best practices to be effective. Blogs leverage SEO to drive people to visit your website … and, of course, you need people to make sales!

A more professional term could be making a mind map, which is a thought bubble chart that starts with a centralized idea and then branches from there.

Understand the basics about these two types of search formats, and how to leverage that in your SEO strategy.

A key step in your marketing funnel is to generate subscribers to an email newsletter for ongoing interactions and relationship building with your leads.

With so much time spent behind a screen, what’s the point? From a marketing perspective, the point is built into a Call to Action.

Paid refers to the paid ads - the dollars spent to drive internet users to your social media pages and website.

Manufacturing is a unique industry: often dealing with 6 figure sales, multiple supply chains, many moving pieces to produce a single product, an abundant variety of raw materials, and the list goes on.

There’s a wise old saying, “you have to spend money to make money.” Yet its not as simple as spending cash to get a return - there needs to be a rhyme or reason.

Clear, consistent use of your brand goes a long way toward brand recognition, an important factor in client decisions.

Applying effective blog seo best practices will attract people to your website without paying a dime. Here’s how.

It takes months if not years to effectively learn all the ins and outs to drive quality sales traffic, and much like innovative technology in the manufacturing industry - its constantly evolving.

Inbound marketing is a strategy that leverages valuable content and experiences that draw the attention of relevant prospects, and then nurtures them into reaching out and converting to a qualified lead.

LinkedIn is known as a social media platform for professionals. Many people use it for networking with others in their industry, whether as prospective clients, employees, colleagues or other reasons.

At the heart of every well-designed website success story is the strategy that drove quality web traffic to the site, converting those visitors into actual leads.

Simplified, SEO means using relevant keywords to attract people searching for the information you offer on your website. There are many ways to implement SEO strategies, and we’re going to take a look at a couple of things to consider when getting started.

Email marketing is a great opportunity for your company to get in front of a potential client. The key, however, is to do it right. As users browse their inbox, they will pick and choose which emails to open and respond to - and you want it to be yours.

A comprehensive marketing strategy will drive more success for your company in hitting its goals, attracting more leads and closing more sales. Why? Because it fits all the pieces of the puzzle together, meaning everything flows as it should to create that desired end result: business, sold.

Finding leads is time consuming, there’s not much more to it than agreeing this is fact.

Whether or not a customer decides to work with your company, they will go through this process in order to solve whatever the project problem at hand. When you have a comprehensive marketing strategy, you’re able to influence how your company shows up in the decision process as you send potential and existing customers through your marketing funnel.

When it comes to digital marketing, content is a key component that can make or break its effectiveness. When it’s time to write a blog to promote your company, where do you start?

Companies often ask where you first learned about what they sell. While you may come up with an answer, chances are, you’re probably also forgetting a touch point or two along the journey to that sale.

As the industry continues to respond to pandemic conditions, leaders are hopeful for recovery with an increase in the Purchasing Managers Index of 9.5% in June over May.

In the marketing world, properly executing a marketing strategy requires important prep work like this to ensure the plan is set up for success.

Every business needs to establish an online presence these days. A website acts as a tool for validating your company's existence almost in the way your driver's license confirms your personal identity- just digitally.

Employers are adapting to “new normal” best practices in the workplace, taking precautionary steps to prevent the spread and facility-based outbreaks, like this fancy gadget from Kenzen that employees can wear for real-time body temperature monitoring.

Ever post something amazing to Facebook and NO ONE sees it? You may have 500 followers, but only two people "Liked" it. That's because Facebook pushes people to "Pay to play" using algorithms.

As manufacturers continue to adjust to changes in the economy, supply chains, workforce and more in response to the coronavirus pandemic, more stories about positive pivots as well as supportive COVID-19 resources emerge to help companies stay strong.

COVID-19 disrupted the world and metal fabrication companies within the manufacturing industry are not immune from the turmoil. As business owners navigate these muddy waters, we can learn from the ways other companies are surviving and thriving during the pandemic.

As the coronavirus continues to deepen its roots in our community, there are many unanswered questions about what the future holds.

An e-mail marketing strategy holds potential to produce results for your manufacturing company. Without a clear definition of those results, however, you may struggle and stare at a blank screen while developing each campaign.

One place you can take advantage of in order to stay at the cutting edge is in your marketing plan. Many manufacturers struggle with creating a solid digital presence that delivers results to the company, and oftentimes this means its left to the wayside.

Many manufacturers typically have little to zero online presence, yet engineers tend to use Google to research fabricators, rather than rely on word of mouth. Have you considered the impact of a Google review? It can hold the same value as a customer referral, yet it reaches more people.

Clever Dog Creative (now, Steel Mountain Marketing), a full-service marketing agency, is under new ownership as part of a strategic decision for On Point Holdings to provide more comprehensive service to its existing client base.

A Return On Investment (ROI) measurement is what you're looking for and one of the best ways to find this information is website traffic metrics.