The Thomas Blog

Grow Your Manufacturing Business: Expanding Into New Markets

American manufacturing is on the upswing. Hiring activity is at historic highs; reshoring is bringing production back to the U.S., and buyers are spending more on new suppliers than they have in recent years.

Business owners continue to be cautious with investments and costs, with good reason. Even as manufacturing and the economy as a whole make gains, the memory of tougher times looms. Fortunately, today's digital marketing landscape allows you to take substantial steps to grow your business and expand into new markets.

Opportunities For Manufacturers To Grow The CBD Industry

The global CBD market is anticipated to grow at a strong rate. Market projections see the recreational cannabis market expected to grow over 40% between 2020-2025 as availability increases and prices drop. With medicinal and recreational marijuana legalization increasing throughout the U.S., more consumers are exploring the benefits of cannabis products, and the market has responded with an array of innovations.

Using Digital Marketing To Win Business From Fortune 1000 Companies

Landing a contract with a major buyer can have a significant impact on your business. However, large buying organizations like Fortune 1000s tend to do things differently from smaller businesses that have more flexibility in approaching new partnerships.

According to DemandGen, 67% of B2B buyers rely more on digital content to research and make purchasing decisions than they did a year ago. So if you want to drive real new business results and get in front of major companies, it's necessary to have a strong online presence that addresses the major concerns and qualifications these companies are looking for when considering new suppliers.

6 Ways Manufacturers Can Transform Their Sales Organization

The B2C space has adapted quickly to using technologies and tools to connect with more customers, and B2B businesses (including industrial companies) making a move too. We've pulled together some tips to incorporate tactics that fall under the sales transformation journey (and tied to inbound marketing) to help you become more competitive in the current market and have meaningful conversations with high-quality leads.

Website Content Marketing To Strengthen Your Custom Manufacturing Brand

Most custom manufacturing businesses and service providers have an extensive list of their capabilities, services, materials, machines, and certifications. These are the basics that help potential customers understand what you can do for them.

How To Create Quality Content For Industrial Companies To Engage B2B Buyers

Content marketing for manufacturing companies is a critical element to any lead generation strategy today. When done right, it builds your brand image and creates a stronger relationship between you and your customer. But the last thing you want to do is crank out blog posts, eBooks, or other resources that won't be effective — it will not only waste your time, but it'll turn your prospective customers away.

Creating effective, strong content and engaging prospects is so essential to businesses that there are numerous books, webinars and entire conferences dedicated to getting marketing and sales professionals from across the globe up to speed. To help produce content that drives buyers and engineers to learn more about your company's industrial products and services, make sure to follow the best practices below.

Beginner Lead Generation Tips For Manufacturers

Do any of these sound familiar to you:

• “My sales profits are down."
• “I don't have enough leads for my sales team.”
• “I'm not getting any RFQs online.”

We can all use a little bit of luck these days. Unfortunately, many manufacturers and industrial companies have these problems and seem to rely on luck (or word-of-mouth referrals) a little bit too much when it comes to generating leads.

When it comes to growing your company and lead generation efforts, you don’t want to leave your success to chance. In today's digital world, it's more important than ever to take the time — and exert the effort — necessary to put yourself in the best possible position to attract new buyers and grow your business proactively using digital marketing. 

Here’s how manufacturers can help solve basic lead generation problems or make your life a little easier and skip to a free digital health check where our marketing manufacturing strategists will let you know exactly what you need you to generate high-quality leads online.

For Manufacturers: What Is A Qualified Lead?

As an industrial marketer, your primary goal is to generate leads for your manufacturing business. However, not every person that fills out a form, downloads an eBook, or requests a call makes for a great prospect. In fact, many of these folks may not be a great match for your products or services.  

Unfortunately, however, not every manufacturing companies has a system to separate good leads from bad ones. This results in salespeople wasting a lot of time and effort chasing down less-than-ideal prospects while ignoring more serious opportunities. 

That's why you need a proven process for qualifying your leads. 

Supplement Word-Of-Mouth Referrals With Inbound Marketing

According to HubSpot, a whopping 90% of people believe brand recommendations from friends, and 61% of consumers use search engines before they make a purchase. With the emergence of social media and the digital transformation of sales and marketing, traditional marketing and how referrals are shared have shifted.