- Posted by:
- Categories: Industrial Marketing, Marketing Tips, Websites
The World Wide Web is simply full of terrible industrial websites and we are not just talking about bad designs or clashing colors. There are a lot of elements that need to be incorporated into sites today that make or break a site entirely. Your website must be user friendly and inspire people to actually do business with your company. From easy to find contact information to quality client testimonials here are the 3 key items that your site needs to turn it into a powerful marketing tool:
- Speak directly to your target audience
- Make Navigation and Search Easy
- Solidify your brand’s reputation
Speak Directly to Your Target Audience
To craft a potent marketing website, everyone at your company must first be on the same page with (agreed upon, defined, and documented) who your “target audience” is. For most industrial manufacturers the target audience is usually an engineer. When an engineer or industrial buyer is looking at multiple companies for their next project the ones that speak directly to them will stand out over those who speak more generically. You need thoughtful, well-written content (product descriptions, uses, capabilities, etc.) that is directed specifically at the engineer or technical buyer. What details can you share that will help them understand that they have found the company/service/product that they have been searching for?
Make sure that you include all key information, such as:
- Case studies
- Customer testimonials
- Quality certifications
- Engineering capabilities
- Shorter time to market capabilities
- Processing accuracy and time
- Materials used
- Shipping rates and time
- and more
Make Navigation and Search Easy
Never make things more complicated than they need to be. No one wants to waste time hunting for the information they are looking for – they will simply move on to another company’s site. Every visitor to your site should be able to browse your capabilities or search your site easily to find what they need. So how do you do that?
Make sure that your site’s navigation is clearly laid out and easy to read. Include items like a search box and a site map. Prominently display a contact phone number in both your header and footer (this is especially important for mobile device display). Make sure that your services and product pages are well-written, organized logically (by application, industry, or material), and include all of the detailed information that someone would need to know; items such as:
- Dimensions
- CAD drawings
- Finish options
- Industries served
- Materials
- Part numbers
- Tolerances
- Uses
- Volume
- and more
Solidify Your Brand’s Reputation
Your website serves as the first point of contact for most of your customers as well as a 24/7 advertisement. It should clearly convey your skills, experience, certifications, and technological proficiency.
Having a strong, clean, attractive, up-to-date website can really solidify your company’s brand in someone’s mind – it gives them an immediate impression of the health and quality of your entire company.
Items such as:
- A modern layout
- A professional company logo
- An easy to navigate site
- Captivating images and video
- Good color composition
- Logos or information about awards, certificates, partners, or relevant association memberships
- Mobile-friendly site
- Value-based messaging about your company
One last quick tip – use your site’s layout to guide the engineer or buyer to contact you. Strategically placed calls-to-action on each page of your site, using phrases such as “Request a Quote”, “Submit a Request”, or “Order a Replacement Part”, help urge people to contact you about the service or product they are reading about on the page.
Need a bit of help getting started?
Take a moment and download our free in-depth Industrial Job Shop Marketing Guide : www.thericogroup.com/industrial/.
Grow your business with better marketing with The Rico Group.
(805) 497-7401