June 2019
H
ow manufacturers market their products has
changed with the rise of new technologies.
Whether it requires a reinvention of current strategies,
the development of new processes, or connecting
with knowledge experts, manufacturers can no
longer trust their products to sell themselves. They
have to market what they make in a way that
connects with 21 st century consumers.
Today’s customer experience is far different than
decades ago. The power to influence product cost,
quality and efficiency is in the hands of the consumer.
Technology allows customers to conduct a world-
wide search for the perfect product rather than rely
on what’s available locally.
A strong digital marketing strategy can help
manufacturers of any size and any location connect
with customers and potential future employees in a
way they never could have only a generation earlier.
Digital marketing is a strategy employed by many of
the world’s leading brands and it’s worth a look.
“The main pillars of digital marketing are lead
generation, lead nurturing, and customer delight,”
said Chris Beecher, president of The Whole Brain
Group (WBG), an Ann Arbor-based MMA Pre-
mium Associate member. “By focusing your
company’s marketing resources — internal or
through the hiring of an outside firm — on these
pillars, you can set yourself up for stronger sales,
more valuable connections and a greater confidence
that, regardless of company size, you can success-
fully market to consumers in 2019 and beyond.”
But how can a manufacturer with limited
resources build up their marketing efforts when so
many other aspects of the business demand their
time? To answer that, the WBG team and Jim
Richards, CEO of Total Security Solutions and the
2018 recipient of the John G. Thodis Michigan
Manufacturer of the Year Award, provide insights
to developing your own marketing strategy.
Tips to Turn Your Marketing Strategy
into a Next Generation Talent Locator
• Marketing is more than a one-person job but marketing-
by-committee can quickly become death-by-committee
as projects begin to bottleneck and fail
• Learn where your existing gaps are (e.g. content drafting,
SEO, graphic design, account management, etc) and
apply that knowledge to your hiring practices
• Look for candidates with proven strategic or tactical
experience in at least two areas of digital marketing
• Develop a strong employer brand to attract young talent
• Promote your brand consistently across multiple channels
MiMfg Magazine
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The Steps to Build Your 2019 Strategy
“Digital marketing strategies should always
support your current business goals and a good first
step is to diagnose how you currently sell your
products — and your overall brand — and then build a
marketing strategy from there,” Beecher offered.
Once a strategy is built, some foundational work
will be needed, including developing customer
personas and understanding the buyer’s journeys.
“There are plenty of popular marketing tactics
you can begin incorporating — content marketing,
video marketing, search engine optimization (SEO)
campaigns and e-mail campaigns; but it really does
begin by understanding the audience you want to
reach,” Beecher said. “The tactics you choose should
align with the best way to reach that audience. SEO
plays a significant part of everything you do digi-
tally; effective marketing strategies must have a
strong foundation in SEO.”
When you hit a ceiling you need to take
a step back and look at the issues at
hand, determine what it takes to solve
them, and who is the best person to
solve them, and empower those people
to take you forward.
— Jim Richards, Total Security Solutions
Wait. Personas? Buyer’s Journey? What are those?
“When we get started with a client, we first
analyze their current performance so that we can make
recommendations to solve their biggest problems,”
said Megan Sherwood, WBG’s director of client
production. We’ll ask about your website, what relevant
keywords you use, how leads are generated, overall
traffic and ways you currently promote your business.”
From there, the WBG team prioritizes next steps,
including helping you to nail down what they call the
manufacturer’s “marketing foundation,” including:
• Ideal Customer Profile (ICP): outlines the types
of businesses you want to work with if you are
a B2B company like most manufacturers
• Personas document common decision makers
and influencers at those ICPs, including job title,
motivations, commonly asked questions, places
they find information about your solution and
even a name and age range of the persona to
make them “real” to you
• Buyer’s Journey outlines the initial trigger that
would guide customers down a path that
could lead them to your company’s solution.