manufacturing – user's Blog!

March 16, 2017

How Manufacturing Business Owners Can Succeed at Digital Marketing

Why does a manufacturing business need digital marketing? Five years ago, that may have been a valid question, but today, the verdict is in. B2B buyers are human beings and they make decisions in the same way any shopper will. They research the product, the company reputation and reliability, and pricing before you ever get a crack at selling them. If you don’t have the content they are searching for, you’ll never get a chance to close. What’s more, you can lose previous customers lured to another site when they go searching for answers.

What is Digital Marketing?

At its core, digital marketing is content-based. You lure potential buyers to your site, woo them with content, and sell them with your knowledge and reputation. Then you keep them coming back with the answers they need and the customer service they want.

Your job is not to produce a steady stream of words to fill up your website, your emails, and your blog. Random content is not effective. Your job is to know your customers so well that you can anticipate what they will ask, and have the answers ready and waiting for them. It’s not hard, because you have history. While new questions will certainly pop up from time to time, most will be asked again and again as customers come on board.

If your reps are well trained, the answers to “what do my customers want to know?” are in your CRM. Use your data to find the questions most asked by customers, and be sure to answer the follow-up questions. Consider your content a knowledge base; a first-stop resource to give customers the fast, in-depth information they are looking for. Comprehensive informational content can save them time and cut down on your customer service hours, all while being a great selling point.

What Digital Marketing Does

Digital marketing is an inexpensive (by comparison) method of reaching a highly targeted audience with offers they are most likely to be interested in. You’ll take your business to the next level by:

Increase Brand Awareness. Customers are more likely to do business with your company if they recognize your name. Digital marketing gets your brand in front of a larger audience.
Build Your Mailing List. Your most valuable asset is your mailing list, and getting people to sign up isn’t always easy. Digital marketing strategy might include contests, valuable content to download, or other incentives in exchange for information.
Encourage Customer Loyalty. Digital marketing campaigns tempt your existing customers with offers and content tailored to their needs. Your digital strategy should include social media, and give you constant opportunities to engage and respond to customers. Customers and their onlookers will see the way you respond to your customers. It’s a very public way to build a reputation for stellar customer service.
Show Your Expertise. Your content and the answers you give demonstrate your knowledge and authority to readers, who may recommend you to their followers, organically increasing your reach.

Building a Digital Marketing Strategy

An effective digital marketing strategy starts with knowledge: understanding your customers, your industry, and your goods or services.

Manufacturing companies are often faced with having to explain technical topics such as engineering specs to a non-technical audience. One of the biggest challenges is often speaking your customer’s language. You may have to create content that explains what you do without going over readers’ heads…or dumbing it down.

Your content should strike a balance by avoiding industry terms. To understand the concept better, think about talking to your doctor. If you were told you were a victim of synchronous diaphragmatic flutter, would you be more nervous than if your doctor said “you have the hiccups”? Save industry terms for meetings and talk to the public in plain English.

Get the topics and the language right, then forge ahead with a strategy that includes social media, email campaigns, and a wide wealth of informative content. Blow your competitors out of the water by becoming the go-to resource in your industry.

At Insightly, we offer a CRM used by small and mid-sized businesses from a variety of verticals. Learn about all of Insightly’s features and plans on our pricing page or sign up for a free trial.

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February 13, 2017

6 Ways Technology is Redefining Manufacturing

The manufacturing industry has been among the slowest to adopt new technology, for a variety of reasons. It’s often costly and complex to implement, and the return on investment can take years to see. However, as the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to grow and manufacturing begins to embrace it along with other technology, we’re seeing the many benefits come into play.

Improving Safety

The IoT, along with other technologies, can automate tasks in particularly hazardous areas, such as in underground mining. Mining company Rio Tinto is working on automating the process as part of its Mine of the Future Program.

Reducing Waste

With the IoT, it’s possible to make adjustments to the supply chain to reduce waste. Through the use of radio-frequency identification (RFID), it’s possible for a company to track inventory completely wirelessly. In the end, this would allow goods to be produced just in time to be sold, avoiding waste of unnecessary inventory, and reducing the need for storage facilities to hold excess inventory. Clothing retailer Zara is already embracing the RFID trend.

Better Quality Assurance

In the past, manufacturing has been focused on reactive quality – dealing with mistakes in the form of product recalls after the fact. Now, the IoT makes it possible to keep quality proactive – fixing issues as they come along, before the product makes it in the hands of the end user. This saves time and money by curbing the amount of rework that must be done and reducing rejection rates.

Changing to an Outcome-Based Pricing Model

All over the economy, we’re seeing a transition to results-based models, This is especially true the case in the healthcare system. Some experts say we’re starting to see the death of billable hours. In manufacturing, many companies are making the switch, too. For example, Spanish rail company Renfe has partnered with Siemens in a performance-based contract. Siemens developed the train monitoring technology that helps keep trains on time 99.9% of the time. And when they’re not, passengers are reimbursed for any delays that exceed 15 minutes.

Expanded Roles

Manufacturers are expanding into wider roles as technology grows. Popular tractor manufacturer John Deere is expanding into partnering with farms. They are creating farm-state-sensing technology to help with crop assurance. Farm sensors and software make it possible to grow more food with less water. Sensors keep machines running smoothly and send information wirelessly to your computer or smartphone. They can also help keep track of everything from temperature to wind speed to keep crops healthy.

Improved Efficiency

The IoT is helping manufacturing to improve efficiency, increase production machinery uptime, reduce the time to market, and provide better insights into buyer behavior. For instance, manufacturers can use a CRM to keep track of vital customer information, including buying patterns. They can see who their best customers are, and make sure they’re taking steps to keep those customers happy, while working to bring in additional customers.

As manufacturers learn more about how people are buying and when, they can adjust manufacturing accordingly – keeping inventory levels exactly where they need to be for greater profit.

The IoT allows the manufacturing industry to get on par with others that have been using it to their advantage for a while. Increased productivity and efficiency allows for better profit, while automation reduces injury risk to workers.

At Insightly, we offer a CRM used by small and mid-sized businesses from a variety of verticals. Learn about all of Insightly’s features and plans on our pricing page or sign up for a free trial.

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January 26, 2017

Are You Ready to Take Your Manufacturing into the Digital Age?

The manufacturing industry generates more data than any other sector in the economy, but they’re lagging behind when it comes to making the transition to digital. Going to an all-digital management system can be a major undertaking, but it comes with a number of benefits. With the data manufacturers already have at hand, costs can be decreased, production time can speed up, and profits, along with customer satisfaction can increase.

German auto manufacturers are at the forefront of an industrial revolution. They have worked to digitize processes that helped bring ideas to production, as well as sales and delivery, and factory maintenance. By 2030, there is an estimated $1.4 trillion dollar gain by following their lead. The majority of the gains come as a result of better managing processes before and after production while the rest will come from the actual manufacturing process.

Digitizing Pre-Production Stages

Before a product can ever start running on the production line, a lot of work must be completed including research and development, testing, and product launch. Going digital allows the R&D team make better-informed decisions faster. Data integration and analysis makes it easier for everyone involved to work together with partners and stakeholders.

Digitizing the Supply Chain

With supply chain management software, you can get a clearer overview of the raw materials and any manufactured parts that come through the plant, allowing you to better spot potential quality control issues, saving time and money.

A CRM can help in your supply chain management. Keep track of relationships you’ve built with suppliers, distributors, and customers. If and when communication between your staff and any members of the supply chain is strained or challenged, then the supply chain is going to suffer. Use your CRM to keep track of all your contacts, and keep everyone on your team up to date with the status of each contact, allowing you to stay on top of any issues that may arise.

For instance, if a distributor calls upset that their order didn’t make it there on time, your customer service team can make a note of it in the account, so you can discount a future order. Then, you can make a note in the contact with the shipper that details how the situation was handled with them to make it right.

The integrations with other programs you’re already using, such as your accounting software, can help you with sales forecasting.

Using Smart Equipment

Connected equipment can help you keep an eye on maintenance issues, keeping the equipment running smoothly all the time, to make production go faster and produce more. Data analytics can also help you optimize factory operations to make sure you’re using equipment and staff in the best ways possible in terms of scheduling and product delivery. You’ll be able to send customer experience data directly to your product management team to forecast demand, and assist in the design and development of better products.

Though there’s a long way to go before we see industry-wide digital technology adoption, we’re now in the middle of Industry 4.0, or what many are calling the 4th industrial revolution.

At Insightly, we offer a CRM used by small and mid-sized businesses from a huge variety of verticals. Learn about all of Insightly’s features and plans on our pricing page or sign up for a free trial.