As a manufacturer, you’re no stranger to complex technical topics and industry-specific jargon. But when it comes to creating engaging content, these same topics can feel like a snooze-fest to your audience. Content marketing for manufacturers can be hard!
You know your products and services inside and out, but how do you make them sound exciting to others?
How to Succeed at Content Marketing for Manufacturers
The good news is that you don’t have to be a wordsmith or a comedian to create compelling content.
With a few simple strategies, you can turn even the most mundane topics into fascinating stories that resonate with your customers and set your brand apart from the competition.
Understand Your Audience
Before you start creating content, you need to know who you’re creating it for.
This might seem obvious, but it’s surprising how many manufacturers skip this step.
You can’t create content that resonates with your audience if you don’t understand their needs, interests, and pain points.
Identify Your Target Market
To get started, identify the specific group of people you want to target with your content.
- What types of companies are you targeting for placing your products?
- Who are the decision-makers in your industry?
- What are their job titles, functions, and company sizes?
Be as specific as possible, as this will help you tailor your content to their unique needs.
Know Their Pain Points and Interests
Points of frustration, challenges, and interests – these are the things that keep your target market up at night.
- What are they struggling with?
- What do they wish they knew more about?
- What problems can you help them solve with your offering?
The more you understand your audience’s pain points and interests, the better you’ll be able to create content that speaks directly to them.
Ask yourself:
- What are their goals and aspirations?
- What are they trying to achieve?
- What obstacles are standing in their way?
- What issues are they dealing with that they may not realize are fixable?
By answering these questions, you’ll be able to craft content that resonates with your audience and addresses their specific needs.
Craft Engaging Content
Now that you’ve identified your target audience and what they care about, it’s time to create content that resonates with them.
You want your content to stand out from the sea of technical jargon and industry speak. Rather, you will want to speak directly to their needs and interests.
By crafting engaging content, you’ll be able to capture their attention, build trust, and ultimately, drive sales.
How to Make Technical Topics Accessible
Technically complex topics can be intimidating. Try breaking them down into smaller, bite-sized pieces. This will make them more digestible for your audience.
Use clear, concise language and avoid using overly technical terms that might confuse or alienate your readers.
Many content marketing experts advocate the use of analogies when topics are hard to grasp.
These types of comparisons can make confusing concepts relatable without having to overload the reader / viewer with overly technical details.
Don’t forget, your goal is to educate and inform, not to impress with your technical expertise.
Use Storytelling Techniques to Capture Attention
On a fundamental level, people respond to stories, not facts and figures. Even in B2B spaces, don’t forget that you’re marketing to real people.
By incorporating storytelling techniques into your content, you can create an emotional connection with your audience and make your message more relatable and memorable.
Try using anecdotes, metaphors, or customer testimonials to bring your content to life.
Another way to use storytelling techniques is to create a narrative around your product or service.
Instead of simply listing features and benefits, try to paint a picture of how your solution can solve a specific problem or improve your customer’s business performance.
This will help your audience visualize the impact of your products and make it more tangible and desirable.
Choose the Right Format
One of the most important decisions you’ll make when creating content is choosing the right format.
This will depend on your target audience, the topic you’re covering, and the resources you have available.
For example, if you’re trying to explain a complex manufacturing process, a video or infographic might be more effective than a blog post.
Or maybe you want to do a product overview, which translates exceptionally well to video formats. Particularly if your primary sales channel is ecommerce.
Tips for Creating Effective Blog Posts
If you’re writing a blog post, there are several things you can do to make it more engaging.
Here are a few tips:
- Use a conversational tone to make your readers feel like they’re having a conversation with you
- Break up long blocks of text with headings and subheadings
- Use anecdotes and real-life examples to illustrate your points
- Keep your paragraphs short
Factors to Consider When Developing Video Content
Tips for creating effective video content include:
- Keep it short and to the point – attention spans are short
- Use high-quality audio and visuals to make it look professional
- Script out what you want to say beforehand to avoid rambling
Don’t forget: any good video content should leave the viewer wanting more.
This is especially important when creating video content for manufacturing topics, which can be complex and dry.
By keeping your videos short, visually engaging, and well-scripted, you can make even the most boring topics interesting and accessible to your viewers.
Here are a few more things to consider:
- Use animations or graphics to illustrate complex processes
- Conduct interviews with experts in the field to add credibility
- Use footage of your products or services in action to make them more relatable
- Optimize video content for search engines
Repurpose Content for Maximum Impact
Many manufacturers have a treasure trove of existing content that they can repurpose to reach new audiences and save time.
By reusing and reformatting your existing content, you can extend its shelf life and get more bang for your buck.
How to Breathe New Life into Old Content
If you’ve got a collection of outdated blog posts or videos, don’t delete them!
Update the information, add some fresh perspectives, and re-publish them as new content.
This way, you can attract new readers and give your old content a second chance at going viral.
Strategies for Cross-Promoting Across Channels
There’s no need to create separate content for each social media platform or marketing channel.
Instead, focus on creating a core piece of content. Then, adapt it for different channels and formats.
To cross-promote your content effectively, try turning a blog post into a video script. Or consider using an infographic to summarize a lengthy whitepaper.
You can also share snippets of your content on social media, and then drive traffic back to your website for the full article.
By repurposing your content in this way, you can reach a wider audience and make the most of your marketing efforts.
Measuring Success on Content Marketing for Manufacturers
After creating and distributing your content, it’s time to see how it’s performing.
If you want to understand what’s working and what needs improvement, never skimp on putting proper measurement processes in place.
You need to know if your content is resonating with your target audience and driving results for your business.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to Track
While it’s tempting to track every metric under the sun, focus on the KPIs that matter most to your business goals.
For manufacturers, this might include website traffic, lead generation, social media engagement, and sales inquiries.
If you create content for customer-facing retailers, ecommerce, or other businesses, you can track performance based on their sales volumes or leads generated as well.
By tracking these metrics, you’ll get a clear picture of how your content is performing and where to make adjustments.
Overcoming Common Challenges
Despite your best efforts, you may encounter obstacles that make it difficult to create engaging content about manufacturing topics.
Don’t worry, you’re not alone!
Many manufacturers face similar challenges. With the right strategies, you can overcome them and create content that resonates with your audience.
How to Address Industry Jargon and Complexity
Even the most technical topics can be translated into understandable language.
To do this, focus on the benefits and applications of your products or services rather than the technical details.
Explain how they solve real-world problems or improve people’s lives. This will help you connect with your audience (and their customers) on a more relatable level.
Tips for Managing Multiple Stakeholders and Approvals
Jargon-heavy content often requires input from multiple stakeholders, which can lead to a lengthy internal approval process.
To streamline this process, try the following:
- Establish a clear content strategy and goals from the outset
- Identify key stakeholders and their roles in the approval process
- Set deadlines and communicate them clearly
- Recognizing that feedback is important, designate a single point of contact for comments and revisions
Plus, consider creating a content calendar that outlines topics, deadlines, and responsible parties.
This will help keep everyone on track and ensure that your content is published in a timely manner.
By doing so, you’ll be able to manage multiple stakeholders and approvals more efficiently. And you’ll almost certainly create more successful content in the end.
Conclusion: Content Marketing for Manufacturers Isn’t Boring After All
Content marketing for manufacturers doesn’t have to be dull.
By understanding your audience, creating engaging stories, and using a range of formats, you can make even the most technical topics interesting.
Now, it’s time to put these strategies into action and start creating content that resonates with your target audience.
Tommy Landry
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