2022 Digital Marketing Planning & Check List

Get your Job Shop growing in 2022!

2022 is just about here. If you haven’t already begun now is the time to prepare your marketing and marketing strategy to grow your business throughout the coming year.

Not sure where to begin or need some ideas? Start by grabbing a copy of our free comprehensive Industrial Job Shop Marketing Guide. The guide goes over some easy strategies you can incorporate into any budget as well as walks you through the process of generating more qualified leads for your industrial manufacturing company.

Grab your FREE copy now: https://www.thericogroup.com/industrial/

2022 Digital Marketing Planning & Check List

One of the best ways to know where you need to focus your marketing efforts is by looking at how your marketing performed in 2020 and 2021. With the pandemic, the last couple of years will need to be looked at a little differently than previous years were.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself, or your team, to get you started:

• Where were your marketing efforts focused?
• What worked and what didn’t work in 2020 and 2021?
• How were your overall sales?
• Did you reach any of your target goals?
• How has the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic affect your sales? What will need to happen in order to recover and move forward?
• Has your market shifted due to the pandemic? If so, how does that affect what you offer?

Once you have analyzed what did and did not work in 2020 and 2021, it is time to brainstorm and build your marketing plan. What are your sales and growth goals for 2022? Due to the ongoing pandemic, you will need to incorporate a few new strategies to achieve your goals this coming year. What new tools and tactics will you employ?

Here are some key areas you should focus on for growth in 2022:

-Tradeshows (both in-person and virtual)

Towards the middle of 2021 we saw the return of in-person tradeshows and industry events. As you are most likely aware, in-person trade show experiences offer marketing value that is unique and singular. A survey by TREW Marketing and IEEE GlobalSpec stated that 86% of engineers they surveyed feel tradeshows are some of the most valuable sources for seeking out information on the latest engineering technologies, industry trends, and products or services. Is your industrial company back on the tradeshow floor? When was the last time you attended or exhibited at a tradeshow? Do you know what tradeshows would be best for your industry in 2022? Is your tradeshow booth and tradeshow marketing materials/giveaways up to date?

Maybe you aren’t ready for in-person events again yet – virtual events are still very popular. Are you interested in exhibiting at a virtual show? Do you know the best virtual tradeshows for your industry? Due to the pandemic, Virtual tradeshows have become very valuable for seeking out information on the latest engineering technologies, industry trends, and products or services. The key to a successful virtual trade show is to engage your prospects in new, thoughtful, interesting, entertaining, and exciting ways. To really drive home your message and gain new business interest you really need to build influence around yourself, your company, your product, or your service offering. You can host a virtual show alone or team up with other like-minded companies that would attract a similar audience to conduct a mini virtual show.

-Regular Content Creation

Do you have a content creation strategy? Is the content focused on your customer’s needs? Is the content helping to provide solutions for your customers? As an industrial job shop, your primary objective is to be that optimized solution provider for your customers by helping them get their job done with the greatest degree of expertise that makes them look good. You are selling your ability to solve a specific problem for an engineer and their team using your particular products, manufacturing methods, and expertise. To that end you need to be consistently publishing new useful content for your customers to consume. When we say “content” here we are talking about items such as eBooks, white papers, blog posts, case studies, videos, social media posts, and more.

-Video Content Creation

Is video content part of your current marketing strategy? Video is by far one of the most effective content marketing vehicles used today. They grab attention, inform, help generate leads, and establish you as a leader in your industry.

-Email Campaigns / Regular Newsletters

Do you currently send monthly newsletters to your customers? Is the content relevant and helpful to them? Are your newsletters solving client pain-points or are you using them simply to push your marketing messages? You should be sending out a monthly newsletter filled with useful information for your customers as well as any company announcements.

-Social Media Presence

Are you utilizing any social media platforms? Are your customers engaged with your company? How effective has your social media strategy been? Are there platforms that you aren’t using that your competitors are? Is the content focused on your customer’s needs and does it help provide solutions for their pain points? Social media is a great place for your company to showcase itself and you really need to post to each of your social accounts at least a few times a week, if not daily. You also need to be sure to answer any feedback, comments, and shares your posts receive.

-Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Does your company utilize PPC (Pay Per Click) ads? Where did you run PPC ads this year? Did your ads generate the business that you wanted them to? Did the campaigns deliver the right type of visitors to your website or landing page? What new platforms do you want to test out in 2022, if any (LinkedIN, YouTUBE, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.)? SEM or PPC campaigns are one of the most cost-effective ways to get your website or offering in front of targeted prospective customers. However, these campaigns need to be regularly monitored and should be reviewed quarterly in order to make changes that could help them to perform better.

-Lead Nurturing and Follow-Up

Do you know what to do with the leads that you generate from your ads or the calls to action on your website? Does your team consistently follow-up on every qualified lead? Did you get any leads this year that have not been acted upon? Do you have a consistent company-wide message for these leads? Consistent incoming leads are incredibly important for sustained growth. Obtaining new leads as well as following up on them should be prioritized. Take the time to plan out an ongoing follow-up process for your leads to help keep your company in their thoughts so when they are ready to purchase they think of you first.

-Website Conversion

Are you tracking all of the traffic that your website receives? Do you know where your best customers are coming from or how they found you? Once you get them to your site, are they clicking through to the pages that you want them to? What is the bounce rate on your website (meaning how quickly does someone leave your site once they are there)? Tracking metrics on your site is the best way to know how your site is performing. These numbers also give you detailed insights into your audience and the overall quality of your content.

-Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Has your company website been optimized for SEO? Where does your website rank with the popular search engines? Does your business have an up-to-date, fully-populated Google My Business and/or Bing Local listing? What other sites does your website link to? Are you placing content on other sites with back links to your own site? Along with regular monitoring of the design, functionality, and safety of your website you also need to be sure that your site is showing up where you want it to in search engines. You should review this quarterly as well.

-Your Company Website’s Design & Content

When was the last time you updated your website? How is the overall look and feel holding up? Is it outdated? Is the messaging still relevant to your company’s goals? Is it easy for users to navigate your site and find what they are looking for? Do you have proper calls to action on each page? Do you have any lead capture mechanisms other than your contact page? Do you have an active blog on your website? Are you utilizing chat bots? Website trends are constantly changing and your site needs to change with them. If you cannot remember the last time your site had a full face-lift and re-write, it is time to do so. Your site really needs an overhaul every 2 years.

-Backend Website Maintenance

Do you have an SSL certificate installed on your site (read why an SSL certificate is so important HERE)? Are you employing a website security platform for automatic malware scanning and removal? Do you have automatic backups  added to your website hosting package? When was the last time your site was fully backed up? What platform is your site running on? When was the last time it was updated? To keep your site secure and functioning properly you need to keep on top of your site’s security, updates, and backups. It is recommended to check at least once every 3 months for any critical updates.

-Webinars

Have you done any webinars for your company? Have you considered adding them to your 2022 marketing plans? The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic really boosted the popularity of webinars, though they were being used prior, and just about every industry is now taking full advantage of these awesome marketing tools. They are highly engaging, interactive, and provide recorded media that you can use in other ways (see content creation and video above) once the webinar has concluded.

The end of every year always brings a flood of new ideas and goals for the coming year. Take the time to really review what worked and what didn’t this year, and consider making some changes or adding new marketing avenues to help you build your plan (and your business) for the coming year.

Quick 2022 Marketing Plan Checklist

Take a moment to download our quick marketing plan checklist to help you organize your 2022 strategy> HERE

Need assistance? Let us help! We are all industrial – all the time.

With over 30 years of experience, The Rico Group specializes in helping industrial manufacturers and job shops grow their business and diversify their customer base. We know how engineers think and what they are looking for. We know your processes, equipment, and materials. We also know that you have very little time to take away from your production and getting your customer’s orders delivered.

Interested in seeing a comprehensive outline of what your current digital marketing efforts are really doing for your company? We offer a free in-depth analysis of your company’s online marketing to give you real and helpful insights into what your digital footprint is and what you can do to improve it. The report also comes with a full competitor analysis and a free expert consultation to review the report with you and answer any questions you may have about the information.

Get your free report here> http://www.thericogroup.com/FreeAudit/

Grow your business with better marketing with The Rico Group.

www.thericogroup.com

 (805) 497-7401