Manufacturing companies have always relied on traditional means of marketing. Whether it is word-of-mouth referrals or organizing trade shows or sponsoring industry events, these manufacturers have acquired business sales using these conservative marketing tactics.
But in a pandemic-ridden world, where people are seeing less of each other and trade shows are suddenly getting canceled, how can manufacturers continue to bring in business using these tactics? Well, they can’t!
These manufacturing companies have to change with the changing times and embrace other means of advertising to grow their business. And one way to do that is by embracing automation. In this blog, we will understand all about marketing automation for manufacturers and find out the different ways it can benefit them.
Understanding Marketing Automation of Manufacturing Companies
Marketing automation is the process of leveraging software to facilitate your marketing efforts. It involves using different marketing software to automatically run campaigns, allowing manufacturers to develop a more powerful marketing mix without the need for a bigger team to handle it all.
Notable Benefits of Marketing Automation of Manufacturing Companies
Here are the top 4 benefits of marketing automation that can help manufacturing companies grow their business.
1. Increased Efficiency
Almost every manufacturing company’s website has a contact form functionality. When prospects fill up these contact forms, they get dropped as leads into one giant bucket. But sorting these leads and identifying the most qualified ones is a taxing and time-consuming process for manufacturing companies.
Marketing automation is an effective way to streamline this process and quickly sort leads based on the user’s needs and behaviors. For instance, depending on the product page, each contact form can be sent to the respective salesperson which saves time and also boosts customer experience.
Additionally, your marketing automation software serves as a central repository to store all the leads in one single location. This helps to streamline business activities and make sure every lead is adequately followed up by the concerned person.
2. Greater Scope of Personalization
Automation software helps to keep a track of the entire journey of every website visitor. For instance, the manufacturers can check out the pages or the products viewed by every specific visitor. This provides greater scope for personalization.
Right from using the recipient’s name in the email to sending the most tailored messages that are relevant to their needs, marketing automation helps to increase the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. Additionally, the CRM also collects individual user data that helps the manufacturers to find out where a user is in the buyer’s journey and send messages accordingly.
3. Enhanced Accuracy
Marketing automation software keeps a track of all the data in a business. It collects and stores data from multiple sources, eliminating any redundant data. Thus, manufacturers can have all information about their prospects, i.e. their likings, preferences, website activity, purchase patterns, etc. all in one place. This streamlines business operations and brings increased accuracy without any chances of human error.
Additionally, most marketing software have analytical tools and reporting dashboards that allow you to track and analyze your KPIs. So, if your company has been investing in social media marketing for manufacturers, you can track metrics like social media engagement to understand the outcome of your marketing efforts.
4. Automatic Lead Nurturing
The buying cycle in the manufacturing industry is quite lengthy. Factors such as huge investments and the presence of multiple decision-makers make the buying cycle especially drawn out. And this makes the process of constant lead nurturing extremely important for the manufacturing industry.
Lead nurturing with automation is an exhausting task. With automation software, you can keep sending automatic and personalized messages to your leads, keeping them engaged. This will also help you strengthen your relationship with them in the long run.
Wrapping Up
The manufacturing industry is a direct and no-nonsense industry. B2B buyers are logical and practical and don’t want to beat around the bush. By implementing marketing automation, manufacturing companies can foster better customer experiences, enable more personalized communications, and improve efficiency on both sides. And this will ultimately help to build stronger customer relationships.
Working with a good and experienced digital marketing agency such as StratMg can help you leverage marketing automation and grow your business.