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Content Marketing for Manufacturers: 7 Ways to Power up your Business Digitally

ANUSREE BHATTACHARYA | March 18, 2021 | 1055 views
There have been rising examples of manufacturers doing impressive things with content marketing to scale up their business.  Manufacturers have been slower than others in different industries to adopt the practice of content marketing. CMI’s annual survey indicates that 59% of manufacturers said their organization’s approach to content marketing was more successful than in the past. And 82% of them attributed that success to excellent content creation.

The pandemic has enabled manufacturers to shift their marketing strategies and invest in online content creation. Yet, many manufacturers are still struggling due to the pandemic.

If you are among these B2B manufacturers struggling with content marketing, you’re not alone.

Let’s face it. Content marketing is crucial if you want to grow your manufacturing business. It’s undoubtedly one of the most efficient ways to connect with B2B buyers searching for manufacturing solutions online. Ignoring this strategy means losing leads to your content-savvy audiences. So, whenever you are ready to embark upon content marketing strategies in your business, there are a few things you need to know to get in full swing. This blog breaks down all the tried and tested strategies to help you power up your business.

Before that, take a sneak peek into how content marketing for manufacturers is working today.

Content Marketing in Manufacturing: Recent Stats

Here are the top areas of content marketing for manufacturers, where estimations are significant in terms of investment in 2021.
  • Content creation: 76%
  • Website enhancement: 73%
  • Social media engagement: 47%
  • Event (digital, hybrid, or in-person): 42%
  • Content contribution (organic/unpaid): 39%
  • Content contribution (paid): 37%
  • Content marketing related technologies: 27%
  • Earned media (PR/media/publications): 20%
  • Others: 2%                                                    
As per a new research by Content Marketing Institute, 70% of manufacturers have modified their targeting/messaging strategy.

60% have altered their editorial calendar.

And, 57% have put more resources towards social media or other online communities.

Content creation and website enhancement are at the top of different areas of content marketing for manufacturers. Manufacturing marketers are considering optimistic results with their content marketing efforts. According to a report, 30% of manufacturing organizations have been successful. And 61% of them are indicating moderate success.

Through the above figures, it's understood that content marketing will remain an essential tactic of B2B digital marketing strategy. But you need to stick to what works to keep your audience's attention, and then, you can generate revenue for your business.

Stick to What Works

In content marketing for manufacturers, there’s plenty of precedent for what works. This should serve as welcome news for you when the notion of business overhaul daunts you.

Keep in mind, your business’s website does not need to infuse tons of novel features or overly designed factors. Instead, it should offer visitors and audiences unique options about your brand. They should get what they’re looking for an appearance that builds trust, an experience that converts visitors into loyal customers, answers their questions and addresses their pain points. All these factors empower visitors to make decisions. 

This blog breaks it all down into six easy steps to understand how the entire process of content marketing should be regulated. And you will be able to take your business to the next level.

Step 1: Conduct an In-Depth Keyword Research

In content marketing, keywords are search terms that are picked up by search engines. After you type, the keyword entered shows related results. Manufacturing companies must strive to optimize their digital content to rank at the top in search engine result pages. So that implementing an effective keyword strategy drives higher-quality traffic to your website and creates valuable conversation opportunities. To do this, here are some tips you can follow when implementing a keyword strategy.

Think of keywords as a way to connect "human" searches (terms your audiences or visitors use when they search online) to the vast library of digital content. So, start from the human side.  What are the primary areas you want your business to be known for? What are the buzzwords that are critical to your industry? What might your target audience be searching for your solutions?

For instance, a 3D printing manufacturer might include keywords such as rapid prototyping, 3D printing market, enterprise 3D printers, 3D printing applications, and more. Then, think about the pain points of the target audience or customers. Include 'problem-driven, 'benefits-driven, 'usage driven' keywords. By doing this, you can create a long list of a manageable set of priority keywords.

Now consider the algorithm side. How will you show your viable search terms in search engines? In this case, start by entering professional words in search engines to get a sense of what other competitors are doing. Then, research deeper using tools like SEM Rush. It will tell you the most important keywords ranking on search engines.

Further, if you find little or no reported search volume for your keyword, broaden it slightly. Or use an alternate angle of that keyword phrase. If a search term is too broad and the difficulty level is too high, try making that keyword more specific. This way, you will create intent-based keywords, which will clear all challenges in manufacturing content. 

Step 2: Develop a Written Strategy

CMI research has consistently shown that compared to 33% of complicated content marketing strategy for manufacturing, only 10% of marketers have documented the initial phases of their content marketing strategy. Apart from this, approximately 32% have a verbal strategy, 47% plan to have a strategy in the coming month. Whereas 11% have no plans to develop a content strategy.

These figures show that manufacturers’ written documented content marketing strategies are one of the most crucial parts of creating successful content marketing tactics. Even if you’re on the verge of starting, formulate a content marketing strategy and write it down. The pages of the plan will benefit over time. The important thing is to document a starting point.

Step 3: Create an Editorial Calendar

Creating an editorial calendar may sound complex, but it’s not. Mapping an editorial calendar will help you set content marketing ideas and goals for the future. It offers an at-a-glance marketing roadmap, which will help you formalize your keyword findings into actionable ideas and ideate for other marketing activities. This includes social media posts or email newsletters to be created quarterly.
                        
Strategically, your editorial calendar can also help you plan details of your monthly blogging modulation, content types, and target publication dates. Doing this will help you determine various types of content for manufacturers.   
 

Step 4: Incline Heavily on Subject Matter

Sometimes, even with a generic topic in mind, you may still have a few compelling cases or finer points to mention in your content piece. So, why not take help from your team of experts?

In cases like this, speak to the team that manages your customers and sales representatives to industry-related partners and experts. Also, conducting interviews with them and considering how your company has helped them through an industry challenge can be an excellent source for your content creation.

Following these steps can generate a plethora of new content ideas. Questions like, what problems do they face? What questions are they asking? Which mistakes do they see most? Are there any industry obstacles they face? These are all considerations, to begin with. Remember, to ensure that your content marketing offers a helpful solution, and you must first relate to the problem.

Step 5: Get your Content Production Process in Order

A survey mentions that only 20% of manufacturing marketers felt that their organization’s rate of content creation is either good or excellent. CMI research shows this as a challenging part for content marketers in the manufacturing industry. The good news is that as an organization grows with content marketing, project flow improves. 37% of manufacturing marketers say that the project rate flow has been excellent because of content marketing.

To improve your content marketing activities in manufacturing, you need to develop valuable processes to scale and create content. If you don’t prioritize the process, you’ll struggle to make strides. This shows the value of content marketing for manufacturers. For which, they need to scale their business to survive in this challenging time.

Step 6: Observe the Content Competition

As stated, you always want to Google your content topic ideas to see what else comes up. The goal is to write something better than what is out there.

Have you noticed that the same few competitors always seem to appear in manufacturing-related searches? That’s no coincidence. They are your content-savvy competitors who are likely stealing the lion’s share of online traffic using the right strategy. By doing this, you can find the holes in their strategy and capitalize on them.

The Future of Content Marketing for Manufacturers

  • Here are some stats from a recent analysis of content marketing for manufacturers.
  • 65% of manufacturing marketers say their organization is much or moderately successful with content marketing than their past years.
  • 48% of manufacturing marketers have a small (or one-person) content marketing team that serves the entire organization.
  • Content marketing is a massive investment in time, resources and dependent on your staff size and dollars. In the end, by having the right strategy for it, the ROI can be huge.
  • A manufacturing business leader, Kardex Remstar saw a 40% surge in business growth with the help of the content marketing and digital strategy team for its global website    

Before you start with content marketing, make sure you consider these starter steps. This   will ensure that you invest your time and money in content marketing strategies that truly work. There has been a substantial surge in content marketing investment in the industrial manufacturing landscape. So, getting ahead of the curve online will be instrumental to your success. Ensure that your content marketing is operating as efficiently as your manufacturing floor!

Frequently Asked Questions


What is content marketing?

Content that is strategically approached and distributed in different platforms like social media, third-party blogging websites to reach out to the right target audiences comes under content marketing.

How content marketing for manufacturers is crucial?

Content marketing for manufacturers owns greater importance. Practicing it, the marketing manufacturers can easily target and attract their potential buyers by creating informational content, a responsive website, and an excellent social media presence. 

How content marketing for manufacturers can be powerful?

Content marketing for manufacturers can be powerful by following the three Ps: Punctuation, Polish, and Power. Marketing has evolved that now focuses on advertising and design to grab the audience’s attention, interest and creating a call to action.

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Machina Labs Awarded U.S. Air Force Contract for Robotic Composites Manufacturing

Machina Labs | March 20, 2023

Machina Labs today announced that the United States Air Force (USAF) has awarded Machina Labs $1.6M to advance and accelerate the development of its robotic technology for manufacturing of metal tooling for high-rate production of composites. Higher vehicle production rates in comparison to current rates is anticipated as experts project that the airline industry will need to triple its fleet to about 60,000 airplanes over the next 20 years. With respect to military applications, there is a similar drive towards balancing mission agility, sustainment, and vehicle cost; giving rise to emerging air vehicle concepts like the Low-Cost Autonomous Collaborative Platforms (ACP) program where there is a higher tolerance over limited life and loss of vehicles during operations. In addition, Advanced/Urban Air Mobility (AAM/UAM) vehicles have received considerable commercial traction in recent years. These highly automated, on-demand passenger and air cargo vehicles are anticipated to have production rates in the tens to hundreds of thousands per year. Lightweight, high-strength composite structures are a key enabler for achieving these goals. As such, the factory throughputs of advanced composite structures have to be increased and their production cost lowered. Machina Labs’ AFWERX Tactical Funding Increase (TACFI) contract will be focused on metal tooling for a fast-cure, out-of-autoclave (OOA) composite processing route. Through its previous contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory, Machina Labs has validated that its tools have vacuum integrity, are dimensionally stable once thermally stabilized, and are thermally more responsive than conventional metal tools. Composite tooling, depending on the materials selected and the tool size, could cost more than $1 million per tool and require 8-10 months of lead time. These costs and lead times for composite tooling do not support referenced increased manufacturing goals. “Machina Labs has demonstrated that its large-envelope, two-robot, incremental sheet metal forming technology can be used for manufacturing of metal tooling for composites resulting in dramatically reduced tool costs and time-to-market of composite parts,” according to Craig Neslen, Manufacturing Lead for the ACP Program at AFRL. “At the same time, given that no part-specific hardware is necessary for manufacturing of the sheet metal tools, it is possible to not only fabricate the tools expeditiously, but to quickly accommodate design changes when necessary.” Machina Labs uses robots the way a blacksmith uses a hammer to creatively manufacture different designs and material, introducing unseen flexibility and agility to the manufacturing industry. The company’s manufacturing platform combines the latest advances in robotics and AI so great ideas can quickly and affordably turn to reality and businesses can benefit from rapid iteration to bring more innovative products to market, faster. “We are pleased to advance our work with USAF in order to advance composite tooling for a wide variety of applications,” according to Babak Raeisinia, Co-Founder and Head of Applications & Partnerships at Machina Labs. “Keeping inventory of tooling is expensive. I believe technology will free up capital and allow organizations such as USAF to transition to an on-demand tooling model.” Machina Labs combines the latest advances in AI and robotics to deliver finished metal products in days – not months or years – and gives customers unprecedented time to market and competitive advantage. Robotic sheet forming is the first process enabled by Machina’s patented manufacturing platform. Using material- and geometry-agnostic technology, the platform outperforms traditional sheet forming methods that rely on custom molds or dies. About Machina Labs Founded in 2019 by aerospace and automotive industry veterans, Machina Labs is an advanced manufacturing company based in Los Angeles, California. Enabled by advancements in artificial intelligence and robotics, Machina Labs is developing Software-Defined Factories of the Future. The mission of the company is to develop modular manufacturing solutions that can be reconfigured to manufacture new products simply by changing the software.

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