June 2019
The tactics you choose should align with
the best way to reach that audience. SEO
plays a significant part of everything you
do digitally; effective marketing strategies
must have a strong foundation in SEO.
— Chris Beecher, Whole Brain Group
Time to Market: Do it Yourself Strategies
Before you allocate the responsibilities of a
marketing strategy to a current employee or search to
hire someone new, get your leadership team together
to develop realistic goals and plan a support system
so you can manage the influx of new leads.
“Initially, we saw so many leads come in from
the digital marketing side that my sales team could
not keep up with them. That was exciting, but we
didn’t want to waste their time talking to unqualified
leads who weren’t ready to buy,” said Richards. “We
worked to automate as much as we could…over time,
we shifted our focus from measuring quantity of
leads to the quality of our leads, measuring things
like deal size and repeat business.”
Without defining what you want out of your
marketing leads, any strategy — no matter how good
on paper — can still fail in application. This can
include the common expectation that one person will
solve all your marketing needs and position your brand
to magically discover all sorts of untapped talent.
“Often we see many small- to medium-sized
manufacturers discovering their limited resources so,
instead of trying to build a whole team, they search
for one person who can do everything. We call this
person a Unicorn,” explained WBG’s inbound specialist,
Justine Jahnke. “Why? Because these unicorns either
don’t exist or they are extremely hard to find. Don’t
wait around forever to locate one person capable of
everything that a qualified team of specialists can do.”
“We recommend that you hire at least one junior
marketing team member and provide training, internal
support or freelance support for the areas they don’t
know,” suggested Jahke. “Once you have them on board,
don’t expect your new marketing folks to work miracles
or bend time and space to give you the results you
wanted yesterday. Give them a chance to do their best
Your Support is Critical
Contributing to the MMA-PAC is an
investment in Michigan’s future and
one of the most affordable and effective
ways to support pro-manufacturing
legislators and candidates.
Donate at mimfg.org or contact Brianna
Mills at 517-487-8523 or [email protected].
MiMfg Magazine
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job by setting realistic expectations and providing
the support and technologies to help them succeed.”
Time to Market: Hiring an Outside Firm
Rather than place the burden of reimagining your
marketing strategy on an existing staffer or new
employee, many companies look to hire outside
marketing firms. This can reduce the amount of “hit
and miss” trial-and-error marketing and allow your
internal staff to learn essential strategies without
feeling the pressure to do it all themselves.
But not all marketing firms are created equal.
What’s the right one for you? How do you locate it?
“It’s important to screen potential marketing firms
as you would any other partnership,” said Jessica
Haywood, WBG’s inbound specialist. “There are plenty
of questions you should ask to ensure you’re comfortable
and everyone involved shares the same goals.”
“If you look to hire an outside firm, you want to
work with people who know your business, understand
your needs and vision for growth, and assist you in
building a repeatable marketing machine that will
drive leads and sales to support that growth,”
explained Richards.
Time to Market: What’s Next?
Manufacturers should make marketing a priority
regardless of their current size. Small businesses can
grow faster and hire better with it while large businesses
can develop a more stable, structured, reliable brand
with a focused strategy in place.
“Today’s consumers are looking for the perfect
products,” said Beecher. “You could very well meet
every standard they have from cost and quality to
environmental footprint and customer service. But if
they can’t find you, they can’t buy from you. A sound
marketing strategy might matter more today than it
ever has before. It’s worth it to your business to
develop the best path forward for creating yours.”
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Brett Gerrish is MMA’s communications
coordinator. He may be reached at
[email protected] or 517-487-8533.
“ Our ability to support pro-
manufacturing candidates is
imperative as anti-manufacturing
voices are working strategically
against our industry.”
— Patrick Curry, MMA-PAC Chair
and President of Fullerton Tool
MMA-PAC can accept personal contributions or contributions from sole-proprietorships, partnerships or limited liability companies (LLCs). State Law prohibits acceptance of corporate checks.