Where to Reallocate Your Manufacturing Trade Show Budget
With marketing budgets under increased pressure, it is essential to allocate every dollar with purpose and precision. While trade shows and in-person networking events have historically been crucial for the manufacturing industry, COVID-19 has changed the way most companies generate new business now. It is now more important than ever to allocate your trade show budget effectively, so you don't miss out on potential clients even though you're missing out on trade shows.
Below we outline some of the best ways to reallocate your trade show budget most effectively. Reallocating resources to more digital tactics will allow your company to grow your number of new leads, generate awareness, and gain revenue.
Social Media Advertising
With everyone being home right now, more people are scrolling social media than ever before. Now is the time to invest in digital advertising to get the most return from your ads.
If you need to reach a specific audience with your manufacturing services, LinkedIn is the place to do it. There are over half a billion users on LinkedIn, and more importantly, everyone you want to reach in your community is there as well. Advertising on LinkedIn offers an efficient way to reach people where they spend a lot of time, specifically those who are interested in what your business has to say. You can utilize targeting tools to reach specific users with distinct interests, so when they see your advertisement, it's a well-received message. Personalized messaging and precise targeting will make your campaign more productive and increase the efficiency of your budget.
Your ads should be designed around simplicity and positivity and should stand out from the crowd. LinkedIn advertising ultimately allows you to increase your company's exposure to the people that matter within your community. It's one of the most important tools to utilize throughout your lead generation strategy.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Local SEO is a highly effective form of local online marketing that allows local businesses to promote their services at the exact time customers are looking for your type of business. Local SEO uses search engines like Google to enable you to rank higher in local results and appear as a credible source when customers are looking to purchase your products or services.
Local search presence can be make-or-break for manufacturing businesses. If your company isn't showing up on a local search page like Google, especially on mobile devices, you may as well not exist. This cut-throat standard is due to more than half of all web traffic now coming from smartphones and tablets.
Providing remarkable content that is educational and relevant is one of the best practices of local SEO. Posting high-quality content frequently builds trust and increases credibility among search engines, ultimately producing a higher organic search engine ranking.
Currently, people are surfing the web from home now more than ever, meaning it is the perfect time to double down on SEO. While some companies make cuts and scale back on strategies like SEO, now is the ideal time to gain some valuable ground in your ability to be discovered on the internet through local search.
Manufacturing business owners can benefit from evaluating how their customers are searching for them, and what happens when they do. Your website being mobile-friendly is a requirement for SEO, and will only become more critical in the future.
Tip: Fill out your Google My Business listing completely, making it as easy as possible for leads to get in touch with you and schedule service.
Email Marketing
Email marketing continues to be a highly effective way to nurture leads, prospects, and existing customers. The more effort you put into nurturing now, the higher the payout in the future. Design your email campaigns around what your company can offer and why you're the best choice. Remember: Positivity will help you stand out, especially in today's current climate.
It's essential to add personalization throughout any targeted content you produce, and emails are no different. If your message in email blasts comes off as being generic or not relevant to the reader, it will end up in their Trash folder.
Personalized emails deliver 6x higher transaction rates. The growing desire for personalization is why having the proper tools to create consistent, engaging messaging is vital! Including personalization, such as a customer's name, into an email makes the messaging seem like it was written directly for them (rather than being sent out as a mass email.)
Customizing your messaging in email blasts will help you reach the right audience at the right time, meet their needs, and offer them solutions that they want. With the help of software like HubSpot, you and your team can establish more successful touchpoints like this that continue along the entire customer lifecycle.
Automation
Marketing automation is beneficial for virtually every industry, especially for manufacturing. Through marketing automation, you're able to send prospects and customers email blasts or targeted ads when they're in the market for your service. These campaigns not only keep your brand top of mind but are timed and targeted to suit the audience perfectly. The best part? Automation allows us to produce these campaigns with minimal effort and maximum efficiency.
Timing is everything, and we understand the importance of being there when customers are searching for you online. Say someone has recently visited your website and filled out a form to join your newsletter or download a content offer. With automation, you can schedule personalized emails out to this new lead that will provide them with quality content. Your potential customers receive educational content, your business stays top-of-mind, and you don't have to lift a finger.
"Will marketing automation cause my sales team to become less relevant?"
When it comes to integrating into an existing sales team, marketing automation doesn't cause a position in your company to be irrelevant or take away its value. Contrary to what you may think, automation actually makes your sales teams more efficient by taking care of repetitive tasks while still producing consistent and quality content.
Marketing automation is also an excellent solution for businesses with a limited or nonexistent sales team; automation sells your products and services for you! Upselling techniques are continually evolving, but one thing remains constant: the exposure effect. This effect states that the more familiar we are with something, the more we tend to like it, and the more we tend to trust it. Staying in front of your customers is a way to upsell products and services with simple brand recognition.
Conclusion
In-person events like trade shows may have been essential to your marketing strategy before 2020, but that doesn't mean your current and future efforts have to suffer. There are plenty of ways to successfully reallocate your budget into areas that can continue to grow your business during this uncertain time.
Make sure that your marketing dollars don't go to waste on strategies that aren't effective. If your company is looking for experts to help you allocate resources and create an optimized game-plan, our team is ready to develop and execute a plan of action for you.
For more information on how your business can grow with digital marketing, contact us for a free consultation with our team!
