In little over a decade, social media has become an integral part of everyday life for businesses. These platforms are no longer seen as a source of entertainment or distraction at work they also have huge potential for business marketing and communication purposes. This is particularly true if your company doesn’t have in-house marketing know-how or you don’t have time to learn the ins and outs of digital marketing.
In this article, I will look at how and why social media marketing is important for manufacturers when it comes to marketing.
1) Build brand awareness and loyalty
You can’t grow your market share if you’re invisible to customers. To gain visibility, build a strong presence in places visited by your target audience. Chances are that one of those places is social media, especially LinkedIn. You can think of social media marketing as the shortest distance between your manufacturing business and your customers. By being active, you are making it easy for them to find you using the channels they are familiar with. What's more, research shows the connection between customer loyalty and their interaction with brands on social media.
2) Improve your website traffic
Not long ago, having a website was touted as the way of expanding your customer base. But today, having a website on its own is no longer enough. Your website is the destination and hub for your online sales strategy, but customers need a path to get there, and in many cases, that path is social media marketing. A recent survey shows that social media has an enormous influence on buying decisions since more than 70% of consumers use these platforms to research products and companies. So make your social media profile count!
3) Get the most out of targeted advertising
Social media platforms offer extensive targeted advertising functions, and given the sheer size of their user base, it'd be foolish not to use them. Targeted ads take into account important factors, including location, age, job title, or company. It is quite easy for social media companies to segment their user base at a very granular level based on key demographic and behavioural factors. In short, targeted ads are a very direct way of ensuring you reach the right people at the right time.
4) Develop solid connections with your customers
Social media can do more than advertising or directing people to your site. Manufacturers can also use these platforms to offer customer support. This is crucial given that for many people in procurement, social media is now the go-to channel for customer support. This is an opportunity to show you’re responsive and match the most demanding expectations.
5) Gain customer insights
This is a deal breaker, no matter what industry you are in. In the current economy, the priorities of potential customers may have changed, and you just can’t afford not to know what their current needs are. Analytics tools are a great feature of social media for manufacturing companies and are especially crucial during stages like product development. Social listening (the systematic monitoring social media) can help you gain crucial insights and understand sentiment not only towards your brand, but also about the issues your customers care about. You can then incorporate this data in your decision-making and integrate it into your products to show you take your customers seriously.
Find out more - download Your free marketing guide
JDR Group specialise in marketing for manufacturers. This includes web design, social media, and marketing strategy.
You can see how we help with our manufacturing case studies, including:
- How this industrial parts supplier got onto page one for 1,782 keywords
- How this engineering company went from 2 enquiries a month to 74
- How this specialist engineering company got over 100 leads a month
- How this manufacturing business generated £3.6m from their website
- How this precision engineering firm built the best web presence in their industry
To find out more, download a free copy of our FREE guide How To Get More Customers In The Manufacturing Industry.
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