“Content is king.” You've probably heard this saying more than once, and there's a reason for it. That's because it's true. Customers and Google love content. Also, 71% of B2B transactions start with a Google search, so it's important to keep Google happy.
However, for manufacturers, the journey to creating great content is a difficult one. Until now, many manufacturers have used brochures, data sheets, catalogs, etc. And yes, these are contents. But as we've explained in the past, modern buyers want more.
The key to successful content marketing in B2B manufacturing is delivering content to every stage of the funnel. Buyers want your company to help long before they decide to buy a product. And if you can earn that trust, you're very likely to win customers as customers.
But what specific types of content are essential for manufacturers selling to such discerning B2B customers? And how can you use it to get leads?
Understanding the buyer journey for manufacturers
Buyer processes and funnels can be divided into three categories: awareness, review, and decision making.
To generate leads and convert them into customers, manufacturers need to have content at each stage of this process. The challenge is that most manufacturers only have strong content in one stage of the funnel. Often, that stage is “decision making.” The challenge is that content such as brochures, case studies, and data sheets alone cannot effectively generate leads or interest from prospects. This is because buyers begin the decision-making process much earlier than this, and if there is no content useful to the customer at the time of the research, they often go unnoticed by competitors who are doing so.
Essential content types for manufacturers
With the buyer journey in mind, let's take a look at what kind of content every manufacturer needs to capture prospects and turn them into businesses.
1. Blog post (awareness)
Blogs are an essential part of today's content marketing. There are two main reasons for this. First, blogs are hubs for quickly sharing useful information, often in the awareness phase. Secondly, blogging is the most reliable way to improve search engine optimization (SEO), which affects rankings on Google Search.
The challenge is that when manufacturers write blogs, they often want to talk about products and features rather than looking at the challenges buyers are experiencing and how to solve them at a higher level.
For example, if you manufacture products in the renewable energy industry, avoid the blog post “5 Characteristics of XYZ Company Products.” Instead, aim for a blog like “5 Common Renewable Energy Challenges and How to Solve Them.”
2. Downloadable lead magnets (enlightenment/considerations)
If blogging is a way to attract people to your website, then “lead magnets” are a way to turn people into prospects. The blog can be viewed by anyone, but someone needs to fill out a form (and therefore become a lead) in order to download the lead magnet. Almost every blog post you create should include a call to action that takes visitors to such a form and have a lead magnet attached.
Similar to blogs, lead magnets should be helpful, educational, and not overly promotional. However, lead magnets should be much longer and “dig deeper” than a single blog post. By creating such valuable content, you can encourage visitors to fill out forms, become leads, and share and download contact information.
Examples of lead magnets most manufacturers should have include e-books, playbooks, guides, and white papers.
3. Regular e-mail newsletters (enlightenment/review)
For a while, email newsletters declined in popularity, but today they are back in popularity! The advantage of newsletters is that they're a great way to keep customers and prospects in the process of making a purchase.
The key to a successful newsletter is to distribute it regularly. We generally recommend that customers start with a monthly newsletter and adjust their frequency based on email reception and engagement rates.
4. Webinars (matters to be considered)
Today's buyers use information in a variety of ways. Some people love reading, while others like attending webinars and watching videos. In order to maximize the interest that can be garnered, it is important to have a certain amount of diversity in content media.
Webinars are a great opportunity to show the dual benefits of sharing useful educational content and simply promoting your products.
A great webinar also starts with an issue and explores a series of solutions. However, if you provide 30 to 45 minutes of value to your audience, you'll end up offering 3 to 5 minutes to enhance product promotion.
Tip: One of the best ways to get people to sign up for a webinar and actually attend is to partner with an organization that offers continuing education credits.
5. Case Study (Decision)
People want to buy products that others trust. This concept comes from a psychological phenomenon called “social proof.”
That's why we've found case studies to be one of the most overlooked content in manufacturing. If you have an existing customer who has had an amazing implementation experience with your product, why aren't you writing about it? That “social proof” can tell whether a customer is buying from you or a competitor.
Case studies should generally follow the “issue-solutions-implementation experience” format. Case studies can be a little more promotional, but when read like an advertisement, prospects lose trust in the brand. In a great case study, customers are heroes, and your company/product is a humble companion who helped you achieve your goals.
6. Brochures, Data Sheets, and Brochures (Decision)
This is one area where most manufacturers excel. You know your product is amazing, and you spend most of your day focusing on it. So, of course, it's not difficult to create great promotional products for buyers.
Still, this kind of content is essential for manufacturing companies. It's important for leaders and marketers to keep in mind that there's no end to all content. Buyers want more than this, and without helpful content at every stage of their research, they're more likely to take over the business for someone else.
How manufacturers use content to generate leads and win business
The key to making content work well is making sure it's all connected. As mentioned above, every blog post must have a call to action that directs users to relevant content. Ideally, lead magnets require users to fill out a form to download.
From there, you'll need to follow up with additional relevant content to help users throughout the buyer journey. One of the best ways to do this is to send regular emails. It is sometimes called “lead development” or “drip development” in the marketing world.
Finally, once the engagement of these prospects has increased quite a bit, you'll want to get a sales rep to get in touch with them and begin validating them. Often, we do some lead scoring in CRM to identify the most engaged leads.
Start growing your content today
Now's the perfect time to create great content. Buyers are already expecting it, and competitors are almost certainly taking action.
We recommend that you first conduct a content gap audit. It's about which of the important content above already exists in your business, and should you move on to creating it? One way to think about this is in the context of a funnel. For example, if you have content for the decision making phase, it might be a good idea to spread content that supports awareness.
Would you like an expert to help you with that content audit? Start your Aspire free marketing assessment today!
Aaron Marks is Execo's chief marketing officer. A digital pioneer with nearly 20 years of online marketing experience, Aaron has helped organizations from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, from global manufacturers to US presidential elections, get the marketing and business results they need.
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