Manufacturers leveraging marketing automation, content marketing, and online lead generation is a trend that can not be ignored. More and more manufacturers, large and growing, are looking to the benefits of marketing automation to take their revenue growth to the next level. However, according to a recent Content Marketing Institute study, only 43% of manufacturing companies that responded stated they are currently utilizing marketing automation, considerably less than other business sectors.
We can use the excuse that manufacturers are “old school” in their ways, but the truth is many are very innovative in product development, employee engagement and other areas. Time and resources are heavily invested in these initiatives because high value is perceived to be garnered from them.
For marketing automation and sales enablement to garner the same attention it is imperative to understand and be able to speak to the high value marketing automation can afford today’s innovative manufacturers.
Path to Performance
When it comes to developing the highest quality and most innovative products, there is a path that manufacturers take to ensure a successful product. So too marketing automation has a process that when systematically leveraged leads to the greatest impact.
Know Your Customer
Many manufacturers have a limited view of who their buyers are and why they are buying. Marketing automation provides much needed insights with;
- Automated development of the buyer persona
- Identifying what content resonates with customers
- Visibility into the activity of others in the prospect’s organization
Personalized Marketing
Manufacturers have multiple product lines, market verticals, buyers and influencers. Marketing automation activates prospect interest by providing just the right message to the right person at the right time.
- Personalized and timely email communication
- Dynamic content designed to meet your prospects where they are
- High value content to increase engagement
Streamline the Funnel
Generating leads is important for revenue growth but making the sales process more efficient is the key to profitable growth.
- Deliver the most engaged and highest quality leads to the sales team with scoring and grading
- Segment prospects into the correct product interest, market vertical, geography and more
- Continue the engagement process after the close for better customer satisfaction and retention
Intelligent Selling Process
Putting data in the sales team’s hand in a way they can act on immediately means they can work as efficiently and intelligently as the marketing automation system.
- Provide real-time alerts to Sales notifying of a prospects activity and interest
- Add prospect activity visibility directly in your CRM
- Up sell and cross sell existing customers to extend revenue and margins
Performance Reporting
Traditional marketing methods lack visibility into the ROI garnered from offline efforts. Marketing automation pulls back the curtain to see the value of online and offline marketing and sales efforts.
- Have a complete view of activities from an ROI perspective
- Make spending and resource decisions based on defendable data
Marketing automation touches every step of the revenue generation process. Making the process more visible, efficient, and reportable for manufacturers will make it a valuable part of the organization as a whole. The highly competitive landscape and ever-changing economic conditions manufacturers face make it all the more important to innovate marketing and sales ahead of the competition.
Source: https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/2019_Manufacturing_Research.pdf
