If you were to ask any business leader what their main goals for their company are, the answer would most likely be something along the lines of increasing sales and leads. In fact, even if they mentioned other goals, such as improving website performance and SEO, or redesigning a website for better user experience — the main objective behind these actions is to get more people onto the site, ideally leading to more sales.
For Corrugated Metals, Inc., these were the goals in a nutshell. But as with many companies in the industrial space, carving out time to improve their online footprint was a daunting task. As a roll forming manufacturer creating necessary products for the construction, equipment, transportation, and defense industries, focusing on customer needs usually trumped their own business development.
Identifying Goals and Opportunities
Eventually, the company decided to take a leap and venture into inbound marketing. Corporate goals were outlined so that a custom industrial marketing program could be created:
- Increase quality leads for the sales team
- Increase sales revenue
- Target opportunities from a specific industry for long term sales potential
- Redesign the website to bring design and UX (user experience) up to date and increase engagement
- Have accurate representation for all products online
- Maintain and increase SEO
At the end of the day, all of these goals lead to one central aim — attract new and better business opportunities.
One of the first steps of their inbound marketing strategy was to overhaul the company website and create a new, responsive design that was coded to display well on all devices — meaning a user can easily view and interact on your website on desktop computers, tablets, and mobile phones. More and more customers are conducting product research on the go, so it is more important than ever to make sure your products are easy to browse on a smartphone. Even if you’re still seeing most purchases coming from a desktop computer, chances are that people are looking at your products before they buy, and they’re looking at them on a very small screen. Plan your website design carefully — we’ve outlined the first 10 steps to redesigning your website here.
Tied into this — because so many people are searching for and comparing products online — you need to increase your digital footprint to be found by potential customers who may not know you exist. That’s why you need to be where your buyers are. If a buyer is looking for a metal siding supplier, having a strong SEO strategy in place will help you appear in search results for that term. And once the buyer clicks through to your website, having an easy-to-use and attractive design and user experience is a must to keep them on the site.
But a successful inbound marketing strategy is NOT a one and done approach. In addition to keeping up with new SEO updates and initiatives, a strong content strategy is another piece of the entire overall marketing strategy. Download our guide How To Increase Your SEO Traffic in 30 Days to get your SEO foundation in the right place.
Creating Click-Worthy Content
For Corrugated Metals, their content strategy involved creating an active social media presence and posting informative blogs related to the industries they serve. Most industrial companies focus on the main social media platforms first — Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Having this presence may attract attention from relevant professionals who may not be actively looking for a specific part or product, but who are just browsing headlines they find interesting. Since Corrugated Metals serves the construction sector, they created content that revolves around energy efficient building materials. All content should be high quality and interesting enough that site visitors will read all the way through. The longer they stay on your site, the more likely it is that they’ll check out your other offerings and website pages.
Read more: 12 Ways To Improve Your Manufacturing Blog
For this reason, it’s important to think of your blog as more than just a sales tool. We all read content because we want to learn something from it. Be that source of knowledge to keep readers coming back for more. Once you’ve attracted their interest and turned these visitors into leads, you can start nurturing them to move them through the sales funnel. This is an organic process — very different from the traditional cold calling tactics. Instead of searching for prospects and reaching out directly, you’re now drawing them in with your educational content and letting the users make the first move. Learn more the types of content to support your traditional sales tactic in the eBook How Inbound Marketing Drives Growth.
The Results
After creating an updated web presence and overhauling Corrugated Metals’ SEO strategy and content reservoir, the company saw a 198% jump in website traffic, and an incredible 285% increase in leads. But that wasn’t all — the quality of leads drastically improved as well, leading to a 321% increase in quote values. Because they were able to identify and target long term sales prospects through persona targeting and lead nurturing, they even lined up a potential million dollar per year customer with the possibility of 20 years of recurring sales.
Learn how to make it on your industrial buyer’s shortlist.
Get Started With Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing requires constant attention and reworking to maintain the successful momentum. Want to learn more? Download our eBook, How Inbound Marketing Drives Growth for Manufacturers. You’ll learn how the inbound methodology works with the industrial buying process and get steps on how to nurture your leads down the funnel. Or if you’re already in the middle of your inbound marketing approach and you’re not seeing the good enough results, reach out to our industrial marketing team.
