2023 Digital Marketing Planning & Check List

Get your industrial manufacturing company growing in 2023!

Can you believe that 2023 is just around the corner?! Is your company’s marketing strategy in place? If you haven’t already begun, now is the time to prepare your strategy to grow your industrial business throughout the coming year.

Not sure where you should begin, or are you looking for ideas to boost your business and grow your lead capture efforts? Start by grabbing a copy of our free comprehensive Industrial Job Shop Marketing Guide.

Our guide gives you:

• some easy strategies you can quickly incorporate into your marketing strategy,
• marketing techniques that will fit into just about any budget,
• an easy-to-understand walkthrough to help you generate more qualified leads for your industrial manufacturing company.

CLICK HERE to grab your FREE copy now!

2023 Digital Marketing Planning & Check List

Putting together a marketing plan can seem daunting, but we can help! It would be best if you began by reviewing how your marketing efforts performed over the last two years.

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 the last two years?
• How were your overall sales?
• Did you reach any of your target sales goals?
• How has the on-going COVID-19 pandemic affected your sales?
• Have you experienced any difficulties acquiring raw materials? If yes, how did that affect your sales?
• Has your market shifted due to the pandemic, material shortages, shipping issues, or other market changes? If so, how does that affect what you offer?

Once you have analyzed what did and did not work in the last two years, it is time to brainstorm and build your new marketing plan. What are your sales and growth goals for 2023? What new tools and tactics will you employ?

Here are some key areas you should focus on for growth in 2023:

-Video Content Creation

Is video content part of your marketing strategy? Video is one of the most effective content marketing vehicles today. They grab attention, inform, help generate leads, and establish you as a leader in your industry. The use of video continues to grow in popularity and will be among the best places to put your marketing dollars in the coming year.

-Email Campaigns / Regular Newsletters

Do you 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 primarily to push your sales messages? You should send out a monthly newsletter with useful information for your customers and any relevant company announcements. If an in-house newsletter is not doable next year, consider paid promotions in well-known third-party industry newsletters. Through them, you may be able to reach a much broader, receptive audience.

-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 essential for sustained growth. Obtaining new leads, as well as following up on them, should be prioritized. Take the time to plan out an on-going 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.

-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.

-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.

-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 an excellent 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. As an industrial manufacturer, you should at least have an active presence on LinkedIN, even if you do not have time for other social channels.

-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 most significant 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 must consistently publish new helpful 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.

-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 backlinks to your own site? Along with regular monitoring of your website’s design, functionality, and safety, 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 chatbots? 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 two 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 three months for any critical updates.

-Tradeshows (both in-person and virtual)

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 surveyed feel tradeshows are some of the most valuable sources for seeking 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?

The end of every year is typically a little slow (business-wise) as we all celebrate the holidays and the start of a new year. It is the perfect time to brainstorm new ideas and goals for the coming year. Take the time to review what worked and what didn’t this year, and consider making changes or adding new marketing avenues to help you build your plan (and grow your business) for the coming year.

Quick 2023 Marketing Plan Checklist

Take a moment to download our quick marketing plan checklist to help you organize your 2023 strategy> HERE

Need a hand?

These necessary marketing tasks and reviews may be overwhelming for many industrial manufacturers and job shops, but that is where experts like The Rico Group come in. We take care of all these tasks for you, so you don’t have to worry or take the time to figure it out, and you can get back to doing what you do best – making your customers happy.

All industrial – all the time!

With over 30 years of experience, The Rico Group specializes in helping industrial manufacturers and job shops grow their businesses and diversify their customer base. We are your bolt-on marketing department. Our solutions give you the full capabilities of an in-house marketing department at a fraction of what it would cost you to hire a full-time marketing crew. 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 to see what your current digital marketing efforts are really doing for your company?

We offer a free comprehensive analysis of your company’s online marketing to give you insights into what your true digital footprint is and how you can improve it. The report also comes with an in-depth competitor analysis and a free expert consultation to review the report with you and answer any questions you may have.

Also, please grab a free copy of our comprehensive digital marketing success guide to help you accelerate your job shop’s growth. The guide walks you through the process of generating more qualified leads for your industrial manufacturing company.

Our industrial clients swear by our strategies – because they work.

Grow your manufacturing business with better marketing with The Rico Group.

www.thericogroup.com

 (805) 497-7401