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Is your manufacturing blog lacking content? Sitting down to develop a content map or write a new post but nothing is coming to you? Great manufacturing blog content may be right under your nose. Here are some simple ways to find and create blogs that are relevant and engaging to the various verticals and buyer personas that you serve.

1. Review Social Media & Website Forms

Are people consistently asking the same kinds of questions on your contact us form? Are people leaving comments on your blog or social media? These are all great places to get a sampling of your audience and their unique needs, wants and preferences. What content is getting the most engagement? Your audience is probably already telling you what to do.

2. Re-purpose Videos and Webinars

Have a great video of your process? Did you do a webinar showcasing your industry expertise? Just because you shared your videos and webinars doesn’t mean they can’t be re-purposed! Embedding videos provides visual interest. Consider transcribing the script of the video for a blog series or create an eBook.  Remember, to have good search engine optimization ranking, aim for 300-500 words in your blog content.

3. Check Out Your Manufacturing Network

Look at manufacturing industry related LinkedIn Groups to identify current trends and issues facing their industries.  Also, follow industry experts on LinkedIn and Twitter.  While you’re checking your feed, jot down trending topics for content inspiration.

4. Set Google Alerts

Google Alerts are a simple want to stay on top of industry trends. Set Google Alerts with keywords from your industry or the verticals you serve. Google alerts will send you emails with your pre-defined industry headlines.

5. Debunk Manufacturing Misconceptions

Notice any common manufacturing misconceptions? Don’t be scared to explain why the misconceptions are wrong and take the opportunity to explain how your products and services address the challenge.

Example: A common misconception our client in the gasket and rubber products industry faces is that o-rings and lathe cut gaskets are interchangeable. Writing a blog on the 5 differentiators of a lathe cut gasket vs an o-ring in a certain application is a great way to showcase your expertise and give your audience valuable knowledge.

6. Showcase Industry Research and Case Studies

Let’s face it: people are naturally skeptical of what they see on online. Your prospects know that you can say anything you want about yourself on your website. That’s where your white papers and case studies come in. White papers and case studies add third person credibility to your company.

7. Interview Your Employees and Business Partners

Hearing firsthand from your employees and business partners why they like your company and enjoy working with you. Employee spotlights and partnership spotlights always make great pieces of content.

8. Recap Industry Events

Attend or present at an industry trade show or seminar? Share the key takeaways in a short 300 word blog with photos from the event. Don’t forget to caption the photos as captions are often the most read item on a page!

9. Highlight Giving Back

Does your company raise money for charity or volunteer for a specific cause? Bring awareness to your philanthropic efforts and invite others to participate. Remember, your customers do not want to buy from a “vendor” they want to buy from people. Making the public aware of the company’s volunteering brings a human aspect to your brand and helps you develop deeper relationships with your prospects.

10. Survey Your Prospects and Customers

If you’re stumped for content go directly to the people who are consuming yours. Create a simple 5 minute survey about your content to gauge if your prospects and customers like your content or if not, what types of content they would enjoy seeing from you in the future.

In Part One, we covered the steps necessary to prepare your company to arrange interviews with industry media at trade shows. Now that you have interviews scheduled, you’ll need to be prepared for the actual interview.

The Interview

Have both your media-trained experts as well as media kit information ready at interview time. Copies of press releases, company profiles and even product samples are important. Be ready for photo opportunities, including video and audio interviews. It’s a mega-media world now.

Hint: We stop (no not accost) anyone with a skinny notebook or a camera more expensive than your first car. These are media that may be flying under your radar. Ask who they are working for and if they know your company. Invite them back to your trade show booth for a tour.

Hint two: Same approach with media but track them down in the show’s media room. There is often a table for your materials and you might be able to politely start a conversation while you drop off your materials (last show I was tossing candy bars across the room to the hungry media toiling over their laptops).

The Follow Up

If you promised photos or a research paper, send it! Make sure they have everything they need to post their story. Thank them and follow them as well on social media. We often post pictures during the interviews at the booth to the media social accounts.

So, go get ‘em! Start a relationship with media. Be patient. Understand they work months ahead of time, have no obligation to cover your company and have a job to do as well. Be persistent, helpful and flexible. The results may be years of stories as you become a trusted industry resource.

 

Every day design engineers and procurement professionals across the globe are searching for new suppliers and manufacturers. If you are not seeing steady traffic and qualified leads hitting your website, you can make some simple changes to position your company as a leader in your industry. The following are the five most important components of information that design engineers and procurement professionals are seeking when considering new suppliers and manufacturers for their products.

1. Thorough Capabilities Information

The most important component of your content should be your capabilities. Visitors need to know that your company can execute the products or services they are seeking.  There should be detailed information about the manufacturing and fabricating services offered along with in depth content regarding the materials used, maximum dimensions, quality processes, achievable tolerances, industries serviced, and accepted drawing formats. This will help the purchasing decision makers and engineers viewing your website know if you are a viable manufacturer worth further consideration.

2. Promote Industry Certifications

Is your company ISO certified or do you hold other certifications in your industry? If so, promote it! Certifications increase your credibility and show prospects that your company is recognized for its achievements. Certifications should be prominently displayed on your website and visitors should have the ability to download or request documentation.

3. Video

Video has emerged as a leading way for manufacturers to influence and engage their prospects. Using video content in a company’s strategy used to be an option but now it is an integral piece of the puzzle that could make or break your company reaching its sales goals. Video is an excellent way to showcase your quality processes, safety and scope of products and services offered.

According to a study done by Klein Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), this year video content will represent 74% of all internet traffic. 

4. Case Studies

Let’s face it, people are skeptical of what they see online. Your sales team can say whatever they want about your company, so engineers and procurement managers are looking for ways to vet you and other companies that are considered quicker and more efficient. Featuring case studies on your website is a great way to show your prospects you are a credible company. Showcase the types of projects you’ve worked on, parts you have manufactured, and specific companies utilizing your products or services.

5. Valuable Offers

The way you really start to see who is visiting your website and their actual interest level is by creating valuable offers. Having strong calls-to-action on your website, which leads visitors to a landing page form to “Download a Free eBook” or “Contact Us for a Free Assessment” is a great way to see which content or offers are most appealing to your visitors.  In addition, it is also important to capture their contact information for a follow up by your sales team. To learn more about the importance of strong offers in your overall inbound marketing strategy, click to download our Industrial Manufacturer’s Guide to Inbound Marketing below.

Today’s guest blog is provided by Ty Haines, president of Manufacturing Solutions, LLC. 

How to Ensure You Maintaining ISO Compliance

Yes, the parent ISO operates like a monopoly.  Yes, it appears they bundled up minor clarifications, reshuffling the requirements and twists of definitions to create ‘new’ standards with the intent to make money.  Yes, a change in the Standards requires about $1B to change hands globally.  The need filled remains international standards for quality.  Customers require the certification so we comply.  When done well, a Quality Management System (QMS) pays for itself as a requirement to participate in certain markets, reduces wastes and requires continual improvement.

Revisions to the ISO Standards for 9001:2015, TS16949:2016, Medical 13485:2016 and more are in place and the clock is ticking for the dates of required compliance.  September 2018 is when companies are expected to have their upgraded certifications in place for 9001, the basic standard.  Many companies already have this upgraded certification in place.  Some put it off as long as possible and end up in the last-minute rush.  I have heard a Consultant scare the daylights out of people at events to generate business.  My perspective is simpler and direct:

• Companies can comply on their own, given adequate resources. Consultants make it easier, shorter and can often spot gaps to improve the system performance.
• The changes to the standard are tedious but not that tough: much you already do!

What you need to do for ISO 9001, and similarly for the more advanced standards includes:

1. Read the Standard: I favor the $10 9001:2015 Pocket Primers from Indiana Quality Council vs. spending the $150 from ASQ or other sources.  To read is to learn:  document this as training – seminars in Vegas are not an ISO requirement.
2. Largest changes:
   1. Went back to more sections: now 10, was 8
      1. Decide if you want parity with the new section count and the new shuffling of requirements within the sections, or just go with a cross reference table. Your format matching the Standard is easier on Auditors.
   2. Terminology changes: these redefine common terms into abstracts only ISO would endorse.  Example:  “Control of externally provided processes, products and services” is ISOese for what any normal business person would call Purchasing and as a title, it fits on a business card!
   3. Risk: take credit in your procedures for what you do to address Risk, both positive and negative.  Common Risk control actions to put in a table:
      1. RFQ: quote acceptable risk; initial & date no quotes of unacceptable risks
      2. Contract Review & change orders: orders are rejected if we cannot meet requirements
      3. Purchasing: good contracts and specs ensure on time and quality
      4. Inspections: verify that all requirements are met

3. Knowledge capture: procedures, work instructions, ERP & system backups plus training work for most.

4. Clarify or add wording to meet the other minor changes in the Standard and your system will comply. Check your work instructions still fit the revisions.

I favor avoiding a gap analysis as the value is low and starting in by updating the first procedure, then the next. The Standard remains redundant section to section and definitions are a bit more esoteric.  Documentation process is same:  revise the procedures, train, audit, fix and you are ready for the Registrar.

Need Help with ISO Compliance?  Contact Ty Haines at HainesMFG@roadrunner.com

Are manufacturing sales managers naturally angry? Is there something about their role managing salespeople that has them really ticked off? Of course not, unless your boss is Lumbergh from Office Space and your sales people have not turned in their TPS reports.

We all know how much sales people love doing reports. Whether it be calls to prospects, detailing meeting results or potential for deal closing, reports just do not get filed. Additionally the “churn” of lost leads through the database are often a major problem when it comes to data accuracy. Excuses revolve around quality of the leads. Common complaints we hear from salespeople include: “These leads suck…”, “I do not have time for data entry” and “Who really reads those reports anyways?!”

The Sales Process Disconnect

So, what’s a sales manager to do when they’re frustrated with leads and reporting their sales process? They could blame marketing for the leads (always a popular decision), criticize the sales team for being lazy (now that’s a good way to motivate), or perhaps, maybe, just for a second, examine the tool you have provided them to use. Do you have 7 salespeople and as many separate spreadsheets store on laptops around the country? Do you have one of those “garbage in – garbage out CRMs”?

Creating a Cohesive, Streamlined Sales Process

Sales managers and sales teams, whether inside or outside the company need a central place to discover, capture, nurture and STORE leads; a “Command Center” of sorts. With www.hubspot.com you can do just that.

Need to capture a lead on the fly? There’s an “app for that.” Want to craft your exploratory conversation around their interest? See what pages your customers and prospects viewed on your website and what content they are consuming before you call. Wouldn’t you rather discuss what they are interested in, instead of the deal of the day? How about being notified the very second they engage with your company? Got to beat that competition to the punch, right?

So, do those leads really suck? Probably not. Perhaps the leads are just not prioritized properly or the ability to surface the qualified leads has not been attempted. With the proper tool, backed by content such as eBooks, emails and white papers your sales people will be more efficient, you can see the activity without pestering for reports and cultivate better, stronger prospect relationships. Using forms to request titles and level of interest is a great place to start. You can guide the prospect through the sales funnel more effectively and let your sales team do what they do best, close interested prospects.

“Oh, and I’m going to need you to come in Saturday, oh-Kay?” Yeah, work from your smartphone instead and let Lumbergh’s calls go to voicemail!