So, you are in charge of marketing and you want to launch a marketing campaign aimed at manufacturers but you don’t know where to start. The first step is to know your audience. In the manufacturing industry, your target audience will likely be Procurement Managers, Design Engineers, and MRO Managers. Let’s learn a little bit about each persona and which content appeals to them.
Procurement Managers
Procurement managers are the purchasing arm of every manufacturing organization. They make sure that the products needed to complete the job arrive on time, are of high quality, and are at a competitive price, meaning they often negotiate the price.
They are tasked with identifying, researching, and selecting suppliers for the business. They build and manage an “approved vendors list” that is used whenever there is a need for products or parts. If the products or parts needed are not supplied by anyone on the list, a new supplier must be identified, researched, selected, and added to the list. They may have to walk through a number of internal steps to certify a new vendor is capable of meeting requirements.
Procurement managers like to see as much information about your products and services as possible. Examples of who you work with, industries served, measurable quality standards, supply chain capabilities, and certifications.
Source: Hubspot
https://blog.hubspot.com/insiders/persona-targeting-procurement-managers
Design Engineers
Design engineers find solutions to complex problems. And while working on finding a solution to a problem they usually spend a large percentage of their time researching products and technologies that can help them deliver solutions.
Here in lies your opportunity to get products into the client’s facilities, products, or services. They oversee the identification of the necessary components when redesigning systems, assemblies, or products.
They often look for the product’s function, performance capabilities, dimensions, operational specifications, graphs, and acceptable ranges for environmental conditions.
Source: Hubspot
https://blog.hubspot.com/insiders/persona-targeting-for-manufacturers
MRO Managers
MRO Managers are in charge of maintaining and repairing machinery and keeping industrial plants operating. This means that when a system fails and stops operations, it’s the MRO manager’s responsibility to diagnose the problem, find a solution, get the parts needed for the repair, and get production going again.
As expected, MRO managers are on call 24/7 for potential problems. Whenever production can be interrupted, they must be ready to solve unexpected problems. Therefore they are loyal to those who help them during emergencies.
Downtime must be kept to a minimum. MRO managers appreciate it when vendors provide installation guides, product maintenance bulletins, lifecycle expectation charts, troubleshooting guides, product specifications, and emergency delivery information.
Source: Hubspot
https://blog.hubspot.com/insiders/persona-targeting-maintenance-repair-operations-managers
With these audiences in mind and what kind of content they are looking for, there are a few key platforms or channels to reach them through.
Search Engine Optimized website
Search engines are the go-to tools for engineers when looking for information on products and technologies. An Enquiro/MarketingSherpa survey found that B2B purchasers go to search engines when researching products and 69.6% click on organic listings vs paid ads. Hence the importance of optimizing your site to be in the top organic results.
Trade Magazines
In a Machine Design survey, 96.5% of respondents stated trade magazines were their number one source for getting information about suppliers. Additionally, the respondents indicated that when they have priority projects, 72.3% call the 800-number listed on the ad, 70.1% visit the supplier website, 44.5% call the non-toll-free number, and 42.8% email the supplier directly.
Social Media
Using social media platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.) is a great way to disseminate your content so that it is more accessible to your audience. It allows you to engage with large numbers of people simultaneously and take advantage of the networking effect. It can often be easy to leverage these platforms at the same time with the same content. Looking for a good marketing automation platform to do so can be key. While not all social platforms are equally important for every market, it may be just as easy to post on all three with automation platforms.
Source: Marketingsherpa
https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/how-to/5-mustknow-strategies-plus-2
