Time to read: 10 minutes
This post was originally published in 2017 and has been updated to reflect new data and insights.
Need some hard numbers to back up your strategy? We’ve got a few manufacturing marketing facts for you to help reinforce your investment in a website redesign, running paid ads, or manufacturing SEO services.
Keep reading to find out more about why using core manufacturing SEO strategies, such as content optimization, site design, emails, and more, can greatly benefit your approach.
General Manufacturing Marketing Stats
- 42% of industrial companies feel neutral about their marketing efforts, while an additional 30% are altogether dissatisfied.
- Manufacturers report that their biggest challenges are budget and bandwidth.
- Other reports state that moving past a traditional marketing mindset (51%), not creating sales-oriented content (51%), and finding content experts can make (50%) are other challenges industrial marketers face.
- In 2022, 84% of manufacturers planned on increasing their marketing spend
- They also believe trade shows and email are their best performing tactic, with print ads and podcasts being the least successful.
SEO & Search Engines
Effectively utilizing search engines is another piece of digital marketing that helps your business. By incorporating relevant keywords of the manufacturing industry in content on the site, you can reach a wider audience.
While a worthwhile web revamp can go a long way, achieving top rankings in search through paid campaigns and organic leads is essential to driving customers to your site.
- Currently, organic traffic generates the most leads for manufacturing companies, coming in at 69%.
- 75% of people searching the internet never go beyond the first page of search results.
- On average, researchers from B2B do roughly 12 searches prior to engaging on a specific brand’s site.
- 84% of people searching for services in the manufacturing industry say that they use the internet as their starting point in finding a company, components, and services.
- 79% of manufacturers claim to have an SEO strategy.
- 57% of B2B marketers think SEO generates more leads than any other marketing initiative
- For B2B buyers, 94% research online before making any purchases.
- 70% of industrial professionals say that they compare suppliers online.
- 68% of manufacturing companies say they do link building as an active part of their SEO strategy.
For a great example of search engine optimization and website conversion optimization, check out our discussion about Valco Valley Tool & Die.
Website Content
With digital marketing, you are establishing your brand authority and building trust from your customers online. First impressions are everything. That’s why streamlined, concise site organization is a great starting point for digital marketing. Having quality content on your site is not only crucial to Google, but also will provide value to any person who lands on your site.
- Only 25% of manufacturers said their company was highly successful with content marketing in 2022, and 26% said they were able to greatly see the ROI in their content.
- 88% of manufacturers say they use content to build brand awareness, while only 67% used it to build credibility and trust, and 63% to educate.
- According to the Manufacturing Content Marketing Institute report, only 30% of marketers in the manufacturing industry feel that they are using their web and social content effectively.
- 59% of respondents said their organization had either one or no full-time employees dedicated to content creation, according to Content Marketing Institute.
- More than 70% of B2B buyers pay attention to your site as they’re thinking about requesting more information.
- Content Marketing Institute also reported that 85% of manufacturers say they are doing content marketing as part of their strategy.
- Close to 50% of people read three to five pieces of content from a business before reaching out for more information, which is why you want to position yourself as a trusted manufacturer.
- 47% of manufacturing websites say they publish 3 or more blog posts per month.
Web Design & Conversions
They say a picture says a thousand words, so is it true that the look and feel of your site reflects an impression of your company and brand? Many industrial websites are stuck in the past, so let’s learn some compelling statistics on manufacturing web design:
- 16% of manufacturers say they track website traffic more than lead conversions, and 4% said they track nothing at all!
- Site quality matters – 40% of industrial buyers make decisions based on their opinion of your website.
- Simple design changes to your landing pages, such as adding an arrow, could increase leads by 75%!
- Bounce rates for industrial website average around 45%, while conversion rates average between 2% to 5% (StratMg).
- 59% of manufacturing marketers say that fresh web design and mobile optimization have drastically improved their businesses after just one year, with 82% of them saying it was due to the enticing web content.
- Nearly 60% of manufacturing marketers audit their websites on a monthly basis, if not more!
- 82% of B2B websites have a load time of 5 seconds or less.
- 48% of manufacturer websites do not have easy content management systems. Implementing a streamlined, simple updating platform for your site like WordPress, Shopify, or Drupal, can help facilitate fresh content updates.
- Contact and quote forms convert around 3% on industrial websites.
- Around 77% of manufacturing marketers have noticed increases in their conversion rate because of digital marketing.
- 98% of manufacturers are generating qualified sales due to digital marketing.
- Having strategic landing pages helps 68% of B2B businesses acquire new leads, according to smallbizgenius.
- Do you know how many leads convert on your website? 45% of manufacturers said they are not sure.
- According to research from the Aberdeen Group, there’s a 73% higher average conversion rate for marketers who align content to stages of the buyer’s journey vs. those who do not.
Email Marketing
People are on their phones constantly, checking email at various times of the day. It provides you direct access to reach a prospect directly, build a connection and receive a rapid response. Some may say that email marketing is a dead art, but with these stats, you’ll see why that is a difficult position to defend.
- With over 5 billion email accounts active worldwide, 55% of all companies are generating more than 10% of all income via email.
- 79% of manufacturing marketers said that increased focus on email marketing is responsible for 48% of the year-over-year increase in their ROI.
- 73% of industrial marketers said that email is an extremely important channel to attract new customers, according to Industrial Sage.
- The average revenue gained for companies via email marketing continues to rise. One study even found that for every $1 spent on email marketing, $38 in ROI was generated.
- According to Smart Insights, 84% of respondents have implemented email marketing likely due to its high ROI.
For a great example of manufacturing industry email newsletter content, check out the Advanced Manufacturing example.
Marketing Spend
Digital marketing solutions help you target specific audiences, and it ultimately helps you recognize which campaigns or pages are bringing in the most leads or traffic. You’ll save money by effectively managing your marketing and recognizing the efforts that aren’t paying off as they should.
These digital marketing solutions for manufacturers can cut down on B2B marketing costs and the necessity of attending costly manufacturing trade shows.
- Forrester recently reported that nurturing leads through web marketing is one-third the cost of traditional marketing strategies and typically generates up to 50% more manufacturing purchases.
- 51% of industry workers did not attend manufacturing trade shows last year.
- On the other hand, nearly 70% of all manufacturing workers attended webinars.
- Some companies have saved around $20k by switching their investment to digital compared to traditional marketing.
- On average, only 8% of the total company budget for manufacturers is spent on marketing.
Social Media/Video
Let’s face it, our iPhones are practically permanently affixed to the palms of our hands. Having your company active on social media platforms can help you stay relevant and on your customer’s minds. You can share information quickly, stay in touch with customers and learn about what is trending in the industry.
With our phones having a growing presence in our daily lives, integrating the constant feed of social media posts and video content into your industrial marketing strategy is essential.
- People who are searching for products have also said that they are 4x more likely to watch a video about a product than read about it.
- 86% of marketers feel that video has been effective in generating leads.
- 69% of people in the manufacturing industry were found to follow social media channels focused on their field.
- According to Market Veep, 72% of customers would rather learn about a product or service through video.
- 59% of manufacturers are planning to increase their marketing on social media, with 81% saying LinkedIn is top of mind.
- Each day, over 7 billion videos are watched on Facebook and YouTube. And each day, 95 million videos are shared on Instagram.
- Including a video on a landing page is capable of increasing conversion rates by over 80%, and mentioning “video” in the email subject line increases the open rate by 19%.
- Marketers who incorporate video into their content have seen 49% faster.
- According to Content Marketing Institute, the social media platform that content marketers use the most and produced the best results was LinkedIn.
For a great example of how to effectively utilize manufacturing videos, check out this example from AMECO USA.
There are so many methods in digital marketing that you can take full advantage of and reach an audience of potential customers that you couldn’t have before. By taking the time to fully understand the audience you’re trying to reach, this critical tool can help you reach long-term results.
In conclusion, we know that reaching potential customers can be tough. However, the often untapped role and power of online marketing is undeniably essential to gaining leads in the manufacturing industry.
Quick Wins for Manufacturers
Looking for some ideas on how to ramp up your digital marketing for your manufacturing business? Here are some things you can try:
- Use Google Analytics to see your top landing pages, and ensure those pages are optimized with keywords, interlinks, and other on-page SEO must-haves
- Make sure your listings on major directories all include links to your website
- Examine your top competitors and see where there are gaps in your content
- Evaluate your website’s speed using the PageSpeed Insights tool
- If you consider yourself a local business, ensure that you have claimed and optimized your profiles on both Google and Bing Maps
Other Articles That Can Help
Need additional help with your digital marketing strategy? Check out some of the additional relevant pages and articles for manufacturers we have:
We also have several more statistics articles to help gauge your strategy:
Our Collection of Marketing Statistics and Facts
Disclaimer: The statistics on this page have been compiled by our team from various third-party sources for informational purposes only. We do not claim ownership of this data unless cited otherwise.
