Let’s take a look at your core identity, the single most important foundation to every digital marketing campaign you’ll come up with. In order to reliably build a loyal audience from your key demographics, you’ll need to ensure a high degree of consistency through branding. That means every message you send, every image you distribute, and every marketing campaign you drive should be consistent in terms of voice and appearance. This is the only way to cultivate familiarity, and without it, your digital campaign will become a knot of convoluted, unrelated pathways.
At the center of all your campaigns should be a strong, compelling website. For most manufacturers, this is a simple site that includes information about the company like its capabilities or history. For some, this also includes an e-commerce platform where customers can shop for specific parts or pieces of equipment.
Whether your main focus is an information-based website, an e-commerce platform, or even a simple landing page, you need to make sure your web presence is optimized to inform and convert visitors and aligned to fit in with the rest of your campaigns.
What is it that makes a manufacturer’s website compelling?
· Clear branding and messaging. Aligned under consistent colors and tones, your messaging will be a point of familiarity for repeat customers and will form an immediate impression for new ones.
· Intuitive user experience. When a new customer gets to the site, they need to immediately know how to navigate. Page locations should be so clear that anybody can find what they’re looking for easily within a minute or two. Attention spans are at an all-time low, so your website needs to adapt.
· Minimalism. On one hand, lots of content is a good thing—but make sure you’re using your content correctly. Include whitepapers, blogs, press releases, and other items in respective sections rather than bogging down your main pages with information that may not matter. Invite your users in with simplicity.
· Calls to action. This is a must have for any manufacturer looking to get more leads. Use compelling calls to action wherever you can, leading your users to contact you. Form submissions are a common example of this; include highly visible, easy-to-fill-out forms on your site to encourage users to reach out to you.
All of these characteristics are essential if you want your customers to feel comfortable buying from you. The “new customer” for manufacturers isn’t going to spend time on a company whose web presence is not informative, attractive, or easy to use. Remember, the competition here is national, so you don’t want to skimp on your website.
All your external digital marketing channels—which we’ll be discussing in the next few blogs—should in some way tie back to your core website. Search engine optimization will make your website easy to find, social media marketing will direct users to your offers, and content marketing will keep people interested in your company long enough to build a relationship and start buying products.
The bottom line here is that you need to have a compelling web presence, at least a landing page, before you can fully take advantage of the digital marketing channels available to you.
