Effective Manufacturing Marketing Strategy Guide

Key Components of Manufacturing Marketing Strategy

When you’re ready to start building your manufacturing marketing strategy, there are four key elements you’ll want to focus on. Think of these as the cornerstones of your plan’s foundation.

1. Target Audience

A vital part of any B2B manufacturing marketing strategy is understanding exactly who you’re talking to. That’s why you’ll want to develop a masterful understanding of your target market and target audience. Your target market is a group of people (or in this case businesses) that are the most likely to be interested in what your company has to offer.

Create a detailed description of your target market using firmographic data, such as:

• Industry
• Organization type (private, public, non-profit, etc.)
• Business size
• Location
• Average annual revenue

Your target audience is a group of people who share a set of characteristics that make them the most likely to be interested in becoming customers. These characteristics can include things like:

• Age
• Occupation/Job title
• Gender
• Values and beliefs
• Income
• Education level
• Interests

Feel free to customize your unique portrait of your target audience to best fit your needs. The important thing is that you get to know them as intimately as possible.

2. Competitive Analysis

Marketing is one of the few instances in which your biggest competitor can also turn out to be a huge help - whether they realize it or not. A competitive analysis involves scoping out other businesses that are competing for the attention of your audience.

A competitive analysis can be a great digital marketing strategy for manufacturing industry businesses that want to:

• Learn what tactics are (and aren’t) working for the competition
• Better understand a specific target audience
• Identify potential market gaps and opportunities to capitalize on unique niches
• Stay on top of industry marketing trends

HubSpot offers free competitive analysis templates that you can use to research your competitors, their products, and their marketing tactics.

3. Marketing Mix

First developed in the 1960s, the marketing mix is one of those concepts that still stands the test of time. Also known as the “four Ps,” the marketing mix is a framework that can help you approach your overall strategy from multiple angles.

Here’s a breakdown of the marketing mix and how it can be applied to your manufacturing marketing strategy:

Product

What are some of your product’s key strengths? Is it more durable and reliable than the competition's? Does it offer great customization? Or perhaps it solves a problem in a way that no other product can?

Price

If your product is lower priced than the competition, you might consider highlighting its value and affordability. If not, then you might choose to focus on its enhanced ROI.

Place

Ensure that reaching out for more information is as easy as possible. Include a link to your website or use HubSpot’s free meeting scheduler to make it easy for leads to schedule a project demo or sales call.

Promotion

Now it’s time to decide how to get the word out about your product. Will you utilize strategies like digital content marketing, case studies, webinars, or a mixture of multiple tactics?

4. Digital Marketing Strategies

Gone are the days when making new B2B connections largely boiled down to connections or traditional advertising strategies. A 2023 survey revealed B2B marketers expected to decrease their traditional advertising budgets by 3.64% in the following year while increasing their digital marketing spend by 8.77%.

Granted, there’s no such thing as a standard marketing strategy for manufacturing industry professionals. If your manufacturing company still pulls in plenty of leads from trade shows, then there’s no need to cut them from the mix.

The important thing is to ensure that you develop a well-defined content strategy that's designed to meet your company's goals. Setting out without a plan is one of the biggest manufacturing marketing mistakes to avoid.