5 Key Features Your Industrial Website Needs to Have

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Features Your Website Needs

Having a quality, up-to-date, website is the cornerstone of your manufacturing business’s online presence and overall marketing efforts – it needs to be viewed and treated with that mindset. Your website needs to attract the right visitors, build their trust in your company, engage and inform them, and finally convert them into loyal customers. 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.

Your website should be easy to navigate and have plenty of content on it for your prospects to help them get the true picture of how you are their optimized solution provider. You need thoughtful, well-written content (product descriptions, uses, capabilities, etc.) that is directed specifically at them. Having a strong, clean, attractive, up-to-date website can also do quite a lot to solidify your company’s brand in someone’s mind – it gives them an immediate impression of the health and quality of your entire company.

With all of that in mind, what specific key elements does your site need in order to be competitive in today’s industrial marketplace?

1.) Value proposition that speaks directly to your customer

Your website needs to clearly and quickly spell out why an engineer or technical buyer should choose your products or services. The best value proposition statement targets your ideal customer, defines the problem you solve for them, and explains what makes your solution unique. 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 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

2.) High quality visuals & easy to navigate structure

The first thing a visitor to your site will see are the visuals displayed on the pages; the second is how easy your site is to get around in. Visuals include things like your company logo, videos, header images, product photos, shop images, etc. The human brain is very visual and is wired to notice and remember images, much more than text. Make sure that every single image & video on your site is crisp, clean, interesting, and targeted at your engineering audience.

A visitor will quickly leave your site if it is difficult to navigate or if they cannot quickly and easily find what they are looking for. They will not waste their time hunting around your site; they will simply leave and move on to one of your competitors. 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

3.) Calls to action on every page

Some variety of a call to action is critical to include on every page of your industrial website. Most job shops have one on their home page but neglect to include them on the other pages of the site. A call to action is designed to help guide your prospective customer to reach out to you for a specific reason or make a purchase.

Calls to action are buttons that include phrases such as:

  • Request a quote
  • Call today
  • Click here for more information
  • Send us an email
  • Submit a request
  • Order a replacement part
  • Etc.

Placing calls to action on each of your interior web pages will help reduce the number of visitors who navigate away from your website without taking further action.

4.) FAQs and other helpful technical content

Engineers make the bulk of their buying decision (60%-70%) through online research without ever contacting anyone directly. Most of their research is done through websites, videos, white papers, blogs, FAQ pages, and other content on the web. Having extensive pages across your site that clearly answer the most common questions your job shop receives helps to establish your company as an expert in your field, helps your customers ease their initial concerns on their own, and will help them see how your products or services will solve their specific pain points. Your ideal customers, engineers, are both creative as well as analytical and are constantly looking for new ways to do their jobs more efficiently. Since you are in the business of providing optimized solutions to engineers, you serve them best by providing them plenty of content to help them get the true picture of how you are the expert they are looking for.

5.) Trust Signals and Social Proof

Trust signals and social proof can impact whether or not someone chooses to work with you. Engineers look for industrial manufacturers that will help them produce their product or part in the easiest and most efficient way possible. They want to work with companies that have the resources and technology to produce what they need efficiently, on-time, with great communication, and awesome customer service. Trust signals and social proof help build credibility in your customer’s minds.

Examples of trust signals include:

  • Technical certifications
  • Badges/logos for accreditation bodies
  • Any relevant guarantees
  • Links to other industry leaders
  • And more

Examples of social proof include:

BONUS TIP: Make an optimized landing page

A landing page is a page that is designed to be a place where a visitor “lands” after clicking a link in an ad or social post that is designed with a clear goal, minimal distractions, and guides the visitor to call, visit, or purchase from you. A landing page can be your site’s homepage but it should ideally be a separate, highly focused, sales tool page used in conjunction with your PPC ads.

Just like your overall website, your landing page should include:

  • A compelling headline
  • Your value proposition
  • High quality graphics
  • Strong calls to action
  • Clear benefits to the engineering customer
  • Social proof
  • Trust signals
  • And more

As you can see, your industrial job shop’s website can be a powerful marketing tool… as long as it contains the right mix of elements and is specifically targeted for your ideal engineer customer. Make sure you maximize its value and impact. Your site needs to build trust, educate, entertain, inform, and guide prospective customers to call, visit, or purchase from you. 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. Incorporating these features discussed here will really give your site a boost and help your 2022 marketing plans.

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 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.

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

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.

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

Grow your business with better marketing with The Rico Group.

www.thericogroup.com

 (805) 497-7401