At the time of writing (April 2024), the UK manufacturing sector is growing more in spirit than in reality. (See the Make UK Manufacturing Outlook Q1 2024 here. While growth remains anaemic at present, there’s growing confidence in the industry, and many businesses are laying the foundations for growth – suggesting a strong recovery in the near term.
This optimism and positivity is extremely evident on LinkedIn, giving manufacturing SMEs a golden opportunity to market their products and services, and create new sales networks among growth focused customers.
Whether you are new to LinkedIn or a regular face in manufacturing circles, now is a good time to review your LinkedIn presence and optimise your profile and marketing strategy to take advantage of any fast-moving opportunities.
Review Your Company Page
On LinkedIn, businesses can create a dedicated ‘company page’ to showcase their products, services, projects, and value proposition to other LinkedIn users. Although most activity on LinkedIn takes place at the level of individual profiles, optimising your company page will help improve your search visibility as a business.
Action Points:
-
Add keywords relevant to your buyer personas throughout your page to improve search visibility and relevance.
-
Update your company overview to highlight your key USPs and offerings – in particular, how you can help customers streamline their supply chains, increase productivity, or prepare for growth.
Engage With Manufacturing Industry Groups On LinkedIn
LinkedIn plays host to a wide range of active groups and forums, where manufacturing professionals share knowledge, collaborate on projects, and seek services. If you haven’t already, joining and actively participating in an industry specific LinkedIn Group is one of the best ways of developing your contact base, as well as staying updated on industry developments and opportunities. There will be a lot of people joining manufacturing groups at the moment looking for expert answers to various operational and sales challenges, so it gives you a good opportunity to demonstrate your expertise and competence in your field.
Action Points:
-
Groups are networking platforms, not bulletin boards, so try to avoid sharing overtly promotional content in groups. People join LinkedIn groups to connect with industry experts, not listen to street hawkers. Instead, focus on offering practical value, being available to answer questions, and sharing any relevant resources and insights.
-
Don’t wait to be asked questions by group members – start conversations by asking thought-provoking questions, or actively seeking opinions on industry ‘hot topics’ to spark engagement and build connections.
Showcase Your Company Culture
Over the past few years, business relationships in the manufacturing sector have become increasingly personal, which gives you the chance to showcase your company culture and the ways that make your business unique. ‘Company culture’ is now intrinsically linked with value proposition. LinkedIn lets your prospects and customers glimpse ‘behind the doors’ of your business, to see your company as a unique team of human beings with individual strengths and talents, and not merely a corporate brand or logo. This is essential in a growing economy, because ultimately relationships are about people, and business owners are looking for genuine partnerships based on credibility and authenticity.
Action Points:
-
Feel free to highlight employee achievements on your company page, including success stories, promotions, achievements, and milestones.
-
Use LinkedIn live to broadcast events, webinars, or project spotlights in real time to engage your audience authentically.
Use LinkedIn Analytics
Regularly review your LinkedIn Analytics to track key metrics regarding engagement rate, post rates, and follower growth to gauge the effectiveness of your marketing strategy. This will help you prioritise your efforts and make the best use of your time and resources on LinkedIn, so that you can focus on the most promising sales opportunities.
Action Points:
-
Identify your top performing content types, posting times, and audience segments to optimise your future content strategy and advertising campaigns for maximum impact.
-
Set achievable and measurable goals/KPIs aligned with your marketing objectives to evaluate the success of your LinkedIn efforts, and help you make data-driven decisions for future improvement.
Find Out More
To find out more about LinkedIn marketing for manufacturers and how you can increase the value of your social media platforms, please get in touch with one of the LinkedIn specialists at JDR today by clicking here.
