10 Ways for Industrial Companies to Market Online for Next to Nothing

Written by Kerry O'Malley Monday, 22 November 2010 14:21

Most industrial companies today have websites (although believe it or not, I've met a few that don't.)  When I hear that, my eyes generally pop open in surprise, and I ask them, "don't you realize that at the very least, 90% of your prospective customers are going online to search for vendors, products, solutions to their problems and alternative ways to do business?  Don't you think they ought to be able to find YOUR company?  The sad thing is, without a website your business exists in a vacuum - and a very small, narrow vacuum at that.

A website is just the beginning of building a foundation for an online presence.  Just because you build it does NOT mean they will come.  If you want to compete with all the other companies vying for your customers' attention, you need to have a presence in the same online sources your customers and prospects go to when they're researching or looking for business related information.  They have to first see you, feel compelled to learn more about you, AND THEN click over to your website.  Make your online presence broad and deep, and it will increase the traffic to your website, which then increases the likelihood of gaining new business.

Fundamental to a successful online presence is an affective website (covered in other posts.)  After you have that in place, use these 10 low-cost strategies to build your online presence and draw more traffic to your website.

1. Start a blog related to your business or industry. Blogs do not have to be a burden on anyone in your organization.  People think of blogs as "articles" which sounds like a daunting task.  Some blog posts are no more than a few paragraphs, or even a few sentences!   The important thing is that the person writing the blog has insight, or some expertise that is of value to your customers and prospects.  Deliver value in your blog posts, and readers will come back.  Blogs can be built into your website or a standalone page.  With all the blogging software and plug-ins available today, there's bound to be a solution that works for you.
2. Publish articles FIRST on your website, and then submit them to various article distribution websites. With the proliferation of writers on the Web, the need for well written content dealing with every subject under the sun has become huge.  If the article is technical enough, you can pitch it to a trade publication that has an online article library.  Wherever you place the article online, the site will generally allow you to add a link back to your website which helps increase your natural search engine ranking.
3. Start email marketing. Don't make the mistake of thinking this has to be a major initiative.  That only leads to procrastination.  Do your sales people have email addresses for prospective customers?  Add those to email addresses for exisiting customers, and you've got the most highly targeted email marketing list available - for zero cost.  Email blasts don't have to professionally designed, although that will help with your conversions (visitors to your website as a result of the email.)  Do you know what the most important element of your email is?  THE SUBJECT LINE.  Yes, it's true.  The most beautifully designed email is worth nothing if the reader deletes the email before it is opened.  Be creative with your email subject lines and really consider what would make a potential customer open your email.  There are many good web based email distribution sites, and the best have good technical support.  If you don't want to take the time to manage the campaign, contract it out to your industrial marketing communications agency.
4. Place banner ads in highly targeted enewsletters. Most trade publications now have enewsletters going out, sometimes weekly, directly to the Inbox of your potential customers.  These are readers who have "opted" to receive information from the publication.  If you don't have your own email database for email marketing, this is a great solution.  I don't advocate trading digital ads for print ads; however, the 2 together can go a long way in gaining more awareness for your company and products.   Banner ads are great for promoting a specific product, success story, trade show event, or white paper.  The banner ad "teases" the reader to click over to a "landing page" that contains the full story, then that page links to your Home Page.  Another bonus:  banner ads are usually much less expensive than print ads.
5. Place listings for your company in searchable online directories. We all know about the expensive package deals with online directories; but most of them also have a "free" listing available.  You won't be at the top of the search list, but you WILL have a link back to your website.  This is just another way for a potential customer to find you and click over to your website for more information.  When I am looking for a company in a searchable directory, I usually look for the ones that are in my city, first.  Many companies would rather do business with other local companies.  You may be on page 10 of the complete list, but come up on page 1 when they search within your city.  Don't underestimate the power of free listings!
6. Register, or become a member on industry related blog and forum sites. As you comment more often, your name will become recognized.  People will be interested in you and your company and this natural curiosity will often make them go to your website to learn more.  If there are numerous forums and blogs in your industry and you have several engineers or technical people in your company, divide up responsibility for maintaining a presence on each of them.  Just remember to always be professional on these sites.  Once you post something, it's there forever!  Don't say anything in a forum or on a blog that you would be ashamed of if your boss (or if you are the boss, your spouse) read it!
7. Submit listings to the trade publications in your industry that have a Supplier Directory. Many of them do!  You know which publications are gong out to your target audience.  It doesn't take long to check their websites to see if they have this feature.  Advertisers will probably get premium listings, but they all offer free listings as well.  If you are able to include a link back to your website, this is one more backlink that helps to boost your search engine ranking.
8. If you're not happy with your natural rank in searches, consider a pay-per-click, keyword advertising program. You can hire a professional to set up an account for you, or do it yourself.  Just choose your keywords wisely to minimize your costs.  For example, rather than the broad keyword, "mixer" use "inline static mixer."  Make your keyword phrases as precise as possible in order to get the right number of eyeballs seeing your ad.  You can also set a cap or budget on the amount you're willing to spend on a daily or monthly basis so costs so don't get out of hand.
9. If the cost is reasonable, join industry related trade associations. Even if you're only an "associate" member (one without full membership privileges) you will generally be listed on their website with a link back to your website.  Many trade associations also have forums or a blog where you can become more visible and recognized as an expert in your field.  Look for opportunities to provide value to the other members.  This requires going to the interactive area occasionally to see what is being discussed.
10. Get social - with social media, that is. Even if your company isn't ready to take a full leap into social media marketing, you can start learning about it and leveraging some of its opportunities today.  Just start somewhere!  If you are convinced you don't have the time personally, find someone in your company who A - already has some knowledge of social media (that would be anyone under the age of 30!) and B - is a worthy representative of your organization.  Ask that person to start an account for your company on at least one social media site.  YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook seem to be the ones that currently hold the most opportunities for industrial businesses.  Enlist the help of an industrial marketing communications consultant that has experience with social media if you want to be sure best practices are being utilized.  If you don't have anyone internally that fits the bill, outsource the entire set-up and much of the posting.  You'll still have to be involved, but you can minimize the time you have to personally spend. Social media marketing doesn't yield results overnight, but if you're consistent and you do it RIGHT you will eventually start seeing an increase in traffic to your website, as well as improved search engine ranking.

There are so many ways to increase your online presence that won't break the bank.  Take the time to develop an online marketing strategy and it will pay off in increased traffic to your website and more inquiries before you know it!