Digital Marketing For Manufacturers: Evenbound’s Exhaustive Guide

Digital Marketing For Manufacturers: Evenbound’s Exhaustive Guide

by | Nov 17, 2020 | Digital Marketing, Manufacturer Marketing

Digital Marketing For Manufacturers: Evenbound’s Exhaustive Guide

If you’re new here, you’re about to learn a whole lot about digital marketing for manufacturers. If you’re not new here, then you know we’ve been working with manufacturers since day one. 
In all of the years we’ve been supporting manufacturing companies with digital marketing services, we’ve used what we’ve learned to develop, publish, edit, and republish dozens of blogs about digital marketing best practices for manufacturers. 
In this Exhaustive Guide to Digital Marketing for Manufacturers, we’ve gone ahead and pulled out just the very best blogs from our years of experience, and combined them into one comprehensive guide. 
How to Use The Guide: It’s comprehensive. That also means it’s long. Read through it from start to finish, or use the menu below to jump to the topics you’re most interested in. 
A Quick Note: The Exhaustive Guide to Digital Marketing For Manufacturers is split into inbound and outbound marketing sections. If you know us (Inbound + Outbound = Evenbound) you know that we believe inbound and outbound marketing together produce the highest quality results for our clients. Check out this blog for more info on the Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing debate. 
Alright, let’s get to it!

Menu: Digital Marketing for Manufacturers

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Inbound Marketing for Manufacturers

20 Blogs To Help You Get Your Manufacturing Company’s Digital Marketing Strategy Off the Ground

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Word of mouth marketing just isn’t doing it for manufacturers anymore. I’m willing to bet that’s why you’re here.
Maybe your company was the first to develop a revolutionary part or component. Maybe you’ve been on top of the industry for decades, but are starting to see the leads dry up. Whatever your concern, most manufacturers struggle with a common issue — your leads are looking for your products online now, and you just don’t have an online presence you’re proud of. 
That’s where inbound marketing comes in. Inbound marketing: 

  • Helps you draw in more of the right leads
  • Boosts your digital presence
  • Improves your position in the market
  • Can get you in front of your competitors in search results
If you’ve ever asked someone: 

  • How to get on the first page of Google
  • How to make your name show up ahead of your competitor’s
  • How to get the leads to call you
Then inbound marketing is your answer. This guide to digital marketing for manufacturers starts with inbound marketing because that is the methodology that will set you apart online and help you draw in more of the right leads. 
Each of these resources will help you improve on a specific part of your manufacturing company’s inbound marketing strategy, starting with how you define your buyer personas.

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Market to the right people:

Start With Your Buyer Personas

It’s hard to have a good digital marketing strategy if you don’t know who you’re marketing to. 

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If you’re not very familiar with buyer personas, start with the first blog. If you’ve heard of them, but want help figuring out how to define them, go with the step-by-step guide. 

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Inbound marketing for manufacturers:

The Basics

Now that you know who you’re marketing to, you can dive into the how-tos of inbound marketing. 
Remember that inbound marketing is all about working smarter, not harder. Click To Tweet
The goal here is to draw more of the right leads to your website and manufacturing company, so your marketing and sales team can focus their efforts on converting those leads to sales. 
Here are some of the basics to know about inbound marketing: 
Why Inbound Marketing: 

Inbound Marketing Tips & Tricks for Manufacturers:

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Convert More of the Right Leads:

Functional Website Design & Intuitive Lead Generation

Inbound marketing revolves around your website. Why? It’s the only space you own on the internet. 
Your website is the place where you can convert all of those visitors into leads. To do that, it needs to be functional. A mix of lead generation strategies and website design tips can help you draw more of the right visitors to your site, and then convert them into leads.

Bringing the Right People in With Lead Generation Strategies for Manufacturers:

Why Your Manufacturing Website Isn’t Working:

Website Design Tips and Tricks To Boost Lead Gen:

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Draw in Leads & Boost Your Digital Authority:

Content Marketing

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If your website is where you convert leads, your content marketing strategy is what gets them to your website in the first place. 
There’s no doubt about it — content marketing is one of the most successful ways to draw the right leads to your site. When you put out high-quality content consistently over time, it has the added bonus of boosting your manufacturing company’s digital presence. (That means you rank higher than the competition.) Here’s how you do it: 
Content Strategy for Manufacturers: 

How the Sausage is Made — What Makes Great Manufacturing Marketing Content:

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Outbound Marketing for Manufacturers

17 of our best outbound marketing blogs to help you draw in more of the right leads.

The first section of this Exhaustive Guide to Digital Marketing for Manufacturers covered inbound marketing — how to pull in more of the right leads. This section will cover outbound marketing for manufacturers. 
This section is all about how to get the word out about your company, in a way that makes sense to today’s consumer. 
In the past, especially for manufacturers, outbound marketing had to do with a lot of cold sales calls and visits, and a lot of print marketing. Today, almost none of that is effective, and it’s a time drain for your sales team. 
The new age of outbound marketing is all about getting your manufacturing company in front of the right leads in non-disruptive ways.

And you do that with modern marketing techniques like social media marketing and advertising, paid search advertising, and the big one — sales and marketing alignment. As always, let’s start with the basics: 

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Outbound Marketing for Manufacturers:

The Basics

If you’re new to modern outbound marketing, these blogs will help provide a better picture of what great outbound marketing looks like and give you some tools to try out first: 

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Getting the Word Out:

Social Media for Manufacturers

Too often, we hear that social media just isn’t for manufacturers. Your product isn’t sexy or cool, and none of your leads are on social media. 
Fortunately, you’re wrong. 
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Social media has a range of uses for manufacturers, from helping you build brand awareness, to putting you in front of legitimate buyers and leads, to helping you hire more of the right people for your growing team. 
If that’s a new thought for you, these blogs have a lot of helpful information that will show you not just why you should be using social media, but how you can leverage it for success. 

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Pulling in the leads you want:

Paid Search Advertising and PPC for Manufacturers

Inbound marketing is remarkably effective, but it can take some time to gain traction. Outbound marketing, on the other hand, has the potential to deliver immediate results. 
PPC advertising, done right, is a great way to a) get your manufacturing company ahead of the competition in search results, and b) start drawing in more of the right leads, right now. 

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The Final Piece of the Puzzle:

Bringing Your Sales Team On Board

When your manufacturing company has a solid digital marketing strategy rolling, the final step is bringing the sales team on board. Aligning your sales and marketing teams to one set of goals will deliver significant ROI. 

When both marketing and sales are working to the same goals, your efforts are laser-focused on just the tactics you know will pull in and convert more of those deals you’re looking for.  
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Start with marketing and sales alignment:

Then implement these manufacturing sales strategies to shorten the sales cycle:

And that’s it! With more than 35 resources and plenty of help on everything from defining your buyer personas to enabling your sales team, I hope you found a few blogs that helped you finesse your manufacturing company’s digital marketing strategy. 
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Want to See Digital Marketing for Manufacturers in Action? Check Out These Case Studies

If you’re not sold on digital marketing, or if you want to see some of these tips and tactics in action, check out these case studies. Each highlights how these digital marketing tactics produced significant results that contributed to a different manufacturer’s growth: 
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Winner of HubSpot's Q1 2020 Grow Better Sales Impact Award

Sales enablement and HubSpot services came together to help shorten the sales cycle for this industrial service provider. In one quarter, Vanguard Fire & Security saw 921 new leads, 96 new customers, and $2.8 million dollars in closed-won sales. 

Check Out the Case Study

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Cleanroom Manufacturer Increases Leads & Conversions

Consistent, ongoing inbound marketing combined with HubSpot’s robust CRM helped this cleanroom manufacturer see a 75% increase in new users, a 355% increase in conversions, and 337 new conversions — all contributing to overall company growth. 

Check Out the Case Study

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Inbound Marketing Delivers Significant Boost In Digital Presence for Manufacturer

After just one quarter of dedicated, strategic digital marketing, this manufacturer saw an 87% increase in organic traffic, a 172% increase in new contacts, and converted 10 new customers. For manufacturers who understand the struggle of a long sales cycle, this is a great case study to look at. 

Check Out the Case Study

geolean web page

Digital Marketing for Manufacturing Consultant Drives Qualified Leads and Conversions

If you’re interested to see how a complete digital marketing strategy can produce results for manufacturers in niche industries, this is the case study to see. In the course of an initial 12-month engagement, this manufacturing consultant saw 241 new conversions, a 166% increase in sessions, and a 178% increase in new users. 

Check Out the Case Study

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5 Actionable Website Design Tips for Construction Companies

5 Actionable Website Design Tips for Construction Companies

by | Nov 10, 2020 | Web Design

5 Actionable Website Design Tips for Construction Companies

Your construction company’s website is a big part of your business. If you’re like most construction companies, you overhaul it every few years, budgeting for a brand new website that is bright and trendy. But if you’re being honest with us, how much business growth have you seen from any of those brand new websites?
If you’re not sure, or if you’re pretty sure those redesigns didn’t impact business much, if at all, then I’ve got news for you. These 5 actionable website design tips for construction companies can all be implemented easily (and in way less time than a full website redesign) and will work to increase conversions on your site. Check it out:
01. Keep it Simple

When it comes to construction, professionalism is key. You want your clients to know, at first glance, that you’re a construction company that delivers professional projects on budget and on time. A simple website design conveys that clean, confident persona you want, and makes it easy for your potential clients to find exactly the information they’re looking for. 

Whitespace

If you’re looking for a way to improve your website design right now, look at your website’s home page, and take out about 3-5 elements, trading them for white space instead. There’s a reason whitespace was our #1 website design trend of 2020. It forces you to focus on just the items that are most important to your construction company. It also helps draw your visitors and leads to the areas of your site where they can make a conversion.

When you limit the distractions on your site, you end up with a more focused, intentional design. With more focus, your construction company looks more professional, and your website does a better job of directing visitors to conversion points on your site.

02. Make Navigation User-Centric

This website design tip is all about keeping people on your site. Once a visitor is on your construction company’s website, it should be your goal to keep them there. The longer someone stays on your site, reading content, checking out your services, and looking at your previous projects, the more likely they are to make a conversion. Your website’s navigation is key to keeping those visitors on your site.

What Do Buyers Want?

Think about what your ideal buyer is looking for when they come to your site. Chances are, they want to know:

  • What your company history is, and where you build.
  • What kind of construction projects you take do.
  • What your past construction projects looked like.
  • How they can contact you.
There’s an old website design tip floating around that says, “your visitors should never have to click more than twice to get anywhere”. While that’s a great thought — if you have a crazy amount of pages, that’s going to lead to a HUGE navigation menu. Instead, we recommend that you edit, edit, edit. Bring it back to your buyer persona or ideal client once more. What information are they looking for? What information do you want them to get from your site? Boil it down to just the most important components, and streamline your navigation to reflect those top priorities.

Check out these simple navigation menus:

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Everything a visitor or lead might want to know is immediately accessible, and BONUS it’s super easy to make an action.
03. Make it Fast & Responsive

This one is a no-brainer. If your construction company’s site doesn’t load quickly and doesn’t meet visitors on any platform, you’re losing leads. The average internet browser will abandon a site if it doesn’t load in just 3 seconds. And if your site doesn’t respond to different screen sizes? Forget it. Not only will you have problems keeping visitors on your site, but you’re probably going to have issues ranking highly on SERPs.

You’ll know if your site is responsive or not by pulling it up on your phone or tablet. How does it look? If it’s tough to read, scroll, or navigate, you’ve got some changes to make. You can test site speed with just about any free tool on the internet. We recommend HubSpot’s Website Grader because it’ll tell you not just what’s wrong, but also how to fix it.
HubSpot Website Grader Competitive Analysis Tool
Image Size

A common problem construction companies face when it comes to site speed is huge image sizes. You want to share images of your amazing construction projects, but those images can take forever to load.

This is actually an easy fix. If you’re having site speed issues, a great place to start is implementing a quick plugin like Smush, which will easily compress images for you so they load a lot faster. You can also take the time to compress each image before you upload to your site going forward, so you don’t deal with lagging in the future. If you want your website to draw in and convert leads, it has to deliver a seamless experience. Site speed and responsiveness are key here. 
04. Make Conversion Points Obvious

Minimalist color palettes with bold accent colors are in, and for good reason. Your construction company’s website is more than just a brochure, right? You want visitors and leads to take an action — call you, send an email, download a content offer, or fill out a lead qualifying form. Website design can help you out here in a serious way.

Minimal Color Palette

If you make use of a generally minimalist color pallet and utilize white space correctly, then anytime you insert a bold pop of color on a button or CTA, your site visitor’s eyes are immediately drawn there. This is a quick, actionable website design tip, but it’s one that’s remarkably effective. If you’re trying to improve conversions, the way you stylize those conversion points can have serious impact.

Check out these examples:

Our home page makes use of a largely black and white color palette. That is, until you get to a bright orange pop of color at the bottom of the page. 
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Hometown Development’s navigation bar is another great example. The two boldest things on their navigation are their logo, and their “free cash offer” button. That’s exactly where a site visitor’s eyes will go when they land on the site. 
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Your website exists to capture new leads for your construction company. Once you’ve got your color palette down, here are 6 more website design elements that boost conversions.
05. Never Stop Improving

For any company, construction included, it’s easy to think of your website as this big thing that you design, develop, and launch — end of story. The truth is, your website should be a living representation of your construction company that is constantly changing and improving. If this is a new concept for you, check out our blog on Growth Driven Website Design.

The idea here is that 1) a website is a huge project and 2) the internet is constantly changing. What was awesome website design in 2020 probably isn’t going to be as exciting in 2021. A lot of construction companies get hung up on developing the perfect website — so hung up that the project takes years, and by the time it’s finally launched, you’re already behind.

Function Over Perfection

The key to successful website design that works for you is small, constant improvements. It’s more important that you have a functional website than it is you have a perfect website. For now at least, work with what you’ve got. Make changes in the places you know will improve user experience and increase conversions. Then, watch and see how those improvements impact your digital marketing strategy. With that data in hand, you can continue to make changes that deliver significant results.

Don’t feel like you have to change your construction company’s website all at once. While a big change is good every once in a while, it’s always more important that you have a functional website that is serving your leads and contacts rather than a perfect website.

I hope these 5 actionable website design tips help you make effective improvements to your construction company’s website! If you run into any questions while you’re at it, or if you’re just not seeing the results you expected, give the Evenbound team a call. We’re always happy to help.

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4 Lead Generation Strategies That Deliver Measurable Growth For Manufacturers

4 Lead Generation Strategies That Deliver Measurable Growth For Manufacturers

by | Nov 3, 2020 | Manufacturer Marketing

4 Lead Generation Strategies That Deliver Measurable Growth For Manufacturers

If your manufacturing company is doubling-down on digital marketing (and you should be) lead generation is probably on the brain. But you don’t just want any leads — you want good, qualified leads who are a good fit for your product, and who are getting ready to make a purchase. 

You’re also going to need to measure those leads and the growth they deliver, so you can show management exactly how your digital marketing efforts are working, and why it’s a valuable investment to continue in the future. 

That’s a big ask, but luckily, digital marketing is one of the — if not the — most measurable marketing methodologies out there. Here are four lead generation strategies that deliver not just the leads you want, but also growth you can measure for your manufacturing company. 

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01. Content Development

If you want to draw in more leads, you need more traffic. Content development gets you there. 

Blogging on topics and keywords that your ideal buyer is already searching for is the best way to pull in more qualified traffic. The more you educate, the higher your manufacturing company will start to rank, and the more authority you’ll gain in the industry. 

Why do you care about authority? Because when you’re the first place someone looks for an answer to their question, you’re also the first place they’ll look when they’re ready to make a purchasing decision. 

Boom — lead converted. 

It’s also good to consider that content development can mean a whole lot more than just blogging. 

Developing interesting video content, helpful how-to guides, infographics, and downloadable content offers are all content development methods that work to pull in more traffic and convert leads. 

And as long as you’re measuring and analyzing the stats associated with your content (you are, right?), you’ll be able to see exactly which pieces of content are driving the most traffic, converting them most leads, and delivering measurable growth for your manufacturing company. 

02. Improve Your Website for Conversions

When it comes to lead generation for your manufacturing company, boosting your traffic is the first challenge. The second is sorting all of that new traffic into qualified leads. 

If you’re looking to support measurable growth, it’s important to improve your website for digital conversions. 

That means calls-to-actions, content offers, landing pages, and lead-qualifying forms. 

Your site can have all the traffic in the world, but if it’s not optimized to convert any of that traffic, you aren’t going to see growth, and you certainly won’t be able to measure it. 

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Implement buttons and calls to actions, like “Contact Us”, “Ask the Experts”, or “Talk to an Engineer” that make it easy for your leads to take the action that’s most valuable to you. That might be: 

  • Making a phone call
  • Filling out a qualifying form
  • Sending an email
  • Or even responding to a chatbot on your site

Take the time to figure out what methods are best for your sales team, and for your customers. Then, implement them!

Strategic conversion opportunities give your website visitors the gentle nudge they need to become leads, and they give you the data you need to accurately measure growth. 

When you implement forms and CTAs, you get the contact information you need to nurture those leads into a sale. You also get all the data you need to better understand what your ideal leads are looking for, and what content is most valuable to them. 

03. Invest in Smarter PPC

Manufacturers love PPC (pay-per-click advertising). Why?

It’s easy. Not for your PPC team, but for you. 

Put a little money behind a few campaigns and *bam* instant lead generation. 

All you need is a budget, and you’re ready to go. In general, content doesn’t need to be approved, keywords don’t need to be approved, you just set a campaign, and forget it. 

Unfortunately, this approach to PPC isn’t going to deliver the measurable growth you’re looking for. 

Like I said, manufacturers love PPC. In general, that means your ads cost more because there is significantly more competition. Take one look at the first chart from our Google Ad Benchmarks by Industry article, and you’ll see manufacturers outspend every other industry significantly. 

EB Google Ads Benchmark Monthly Spend

Having a big budget is great, as long as you’re strategic about where you’re allocating it. If you’ve been operating on a “set it and forget it” mentality, you can do a lot more to foster measurable growth. A few tips: 

  • Do a competitive analysis. See what your competitors are bidding on, and maybe more importantly, what they’re not bidding on.  
  • Do keyword research. General keywords like “automotive manufacturer” and “fifth-wheels” are relevant to you, but they’re expensive and don’t signal buyer intent. Look for long-tail keywords that might have less search volume, but are likely to convert greater numbers of highly qualified leads. You’ll spend less to get better leads. 
  • Create strategic, specific landing pages. If your PPC ads direct leads to your home page, you might as well throw your budget in the trash. If you’re running ad campaigns about a specific product, send those leads to the product page, or better yet, to a landing page that funnels those leads into a conversion. 
  • Analyze, constantly. Finally, you can’t just set your PPC campaign and walk away. Pay attention to how your ads are performing over time. Are you spending enough? Are you bidding on the right keywords? Is your ad copy effective? Are you pulling in the right leads, who convert to sales? If something’s not working, change it. 

In a competitive market like manufacturing, it’s important to be strategic about paid advertising. Optimize your PPC strategy, and you’ll find you’re spending less to get greater numbers of qualified leads. 

04. Track Contacts & Leads with a CRM

The point of this article is to give you lead generation strategies that will deliver measurable growth for your manufacturing company. All of these strategies will get you the lead generation you want, along with some level of measurability. 

But, if you want to take your data to the next level, and get a clear picture of exactly which of your lead generation efforts are delivering growth, a CRM (customer relationship management system) is the way to go. 

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You already know we’re here for HubSpot. It’s affordable, it’s functional, and it gives you data on literally everything, from who is on your site to who is converting from your paid ads. 

But you don’t have to go with HubSpot just because we say so. There are a number of CRMs out there — you just have to find the one that fits you best. 

Find an option that is easy for your team to use, and that helps you measure, track, and analyze the contacts and leads coming to your manufacturing company’s website. Here are a couple of tools to help you get started:  

When you implement a CRM, you get instant cross-company data on every contact, lead, and prospect your marketing and sales teams are interacting with. You can see where they came from, what pages of your site they’re interacting with, and what emails, sales touches, or content pieces are pulling them closer to making a purchasing decision. 

That’s the measurement you need to define and align around the marketing tactics that are delivering growth. 

For manufacturers, finding and marketing to the right leads is often the most difficult part of the sales cycle. These strategies should help, but if you’re looking for more answers, the Evenbound team would love to chat.

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7 Business Blogging Tips To Help You Rank Higher

7 Business Blogging Tips To Help You Rank Higher

by | Oct 27, 2020 | Content Marketing, Digital Marketing

7 Business Blogging Tips To Help You Rank Higher

So you started a business blog. You’ve got a lot to say, but more importantly, someone like me told you that if you start blogging, you’ll start drawing in more of the right leads. 

I stand by that statement 100%. 

But, if you started a blog and aren’t seeing the traffic or the leads yet, there’s probably a reason. It’s important to get the foundation and strategy behind business blogging right, so you put out content that delivers the results you want.

Here are 7 business blogging tips designed to help boost your blog in search engine rankings. If you stick to all 7 of these tips, and blog regularly, you should start to see more of the right leads flowing in. If you don’t? Let us know — we’d be happy to take a look and offer some pointers. 

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01. Don’t Talk About Yourself

Let me be very clear here. Your blog should not be a highlight reel of your company’s greatest accomplishments. That’s just bragging, and it’s not going to do you any favors. 

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Your company’s blog should be useful to potential readers, and that doesn’t mean talking about how amazing your products, services, customer service, or company is. 

If all you’re doing is talking about you, you’re not solving your customers’ problems. That means you’re not going to see traffic or leads. 

The goal of business blogging is to provide your ideal buyers and visitors with the information they need to eventually make an educated purchasing decision. 

Which brings me to my next point:

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02. Do Answer Your Customer’s Questions

As I said just seconds ago ^ business blogging works when you publish content that answers your customer or ideal buyer’s questions. 

Believe it or not, when they’re looking for a product, they want to hear a lot more than flat, promotional, old-school marketing messaging. 

Think about the last time you purchased something significant. 

I’m willing to bet that at the very least, you read the product reviews before you made the purchase. 

Here’s an example. Let’s say you’re trying to eat healthier but as a busy professional, you just don’t have time to think about shopping, finding recipes, and more. You’ve heard about services like HelloFresh and BlueApron, and want to try one out. 

Now, if you’re new to delivered meal services, you’re probably going to do a little research first. You might wonder: 

  • What meal service is the cheapest?
  • What meal service is the healthiest?
  • What meal service is the fastest?
  • What meal service is the most customizable?
  • What meal service has the best reviews?

You’ll browse around the web for a bit, looking for content that answers these questions, until you narrow it down to one or two options that sound best. Then, you’ll read the reviews for each, and search queries like: 

  • HelloFresh vs. Blue Apron
  • Sun Basket vs. HelloFresh
  • Daily Harvest vs. HungryRoot

Finally, you’ll use all of that information you’ve gathered to make a purchasing decision. 

And that, my friends, is how content marketing works. 

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The way your customers search for your product or service is no different than how we just decided on the best meal service for us. 

When you write your business blog, you’re writing to get in front of those customers each time they ask one of those questions.

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But I’m a manufacturer. My customers aren’t asking those questions. 

Wrong. 

Even if you’re a manufacturer of something you don’t think is exciting — let’s say air compressors — business blogging will work the same as the little exercise we just did with HelloFresh. 

Someone buying an air compressor wants to know: 

  • What are the best air compressors on the market?
  • What air compressors are the most cost-effective?
  • How much service will each type of air compressor need?
  • Is there someone in my area who can service my air compressor?

Answer those questions with a well-developed blog, and you’re looking at a high SERP ranking that pulls in more of the leads you’re looking for. 

Still not sold on business blogging for manufacturers or B2Bs? Check it out in action with this case study:

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03. Do Pick Keywords You Care About

If you want your business blog to rank higher, keywords are something you should care about. 

The higher you rank, the more eyeballs on your site. And the more eyeballs on your site, the greater your potential to draw in and convert qualified leads. 

But, how to pick keywords you care about?

As a general rule of thumb, when you’re writing your business blog, you’re looking for keywords with high search volume and low competition. 

These keywords are the low hanging fruit. Lots of people are looking for that information, but not many companies are supplying it. 

Tools like Ubersuggest, WMS Everywhere, and Google Keyword Planner can help you find em. 

But there are so many keywords. Which ones are best?

True. Virtually anything can be a keyword. The challenge is choosing high volume keywords that are relevant to your company. 

I’ll use an extreme (fake) example to illustrate. Let’s say you sell air compressors, but you notice the long-tail key phrase, “how to peel an orange” has amazing search volume and almost no competition.

peeling oranges serp

While you could probably write a blog about how to peel oranges that might rank, that keyword is not useful to you in any way. 

Remember that you want to rank higher, but you want to rank higher for the right keywords. 

You’re driving garbage traffic to your website that will never convert. 

Instead, choose keywords that are relevant to your business, your industry, your products, and your services. 

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04. Do Read Competing Blogs

Once you’ve chosen a keyword you like, go ahead and type it right into your favorite search engine. 

Who is ranking at the top?

What does their content look like? 

What do they do well? What key points are they missing? Have they optimized their blog as best possible?

To write blogs that rank highly, you have to beat out whoever is already ranking first. You need to know what they’re doing, so you can do it better. 

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Reading top-performing blogs also helps confirm search intent

Reading competing blogs is also a great way to verify search intent on a keyword you’ve chosen. When you type your keyword into a search engine, make sure that the results reflect the information you were planning to include in your blog. 

I’ll use a recent example. I wrote a blog about “the breakup email“. 

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the breakup email example

Just looking at that keyword — with no context — you might think it’s about writing an email that breaks up with a romantic partner. 

Actually, the search intent associated with that keyword is related to a sales breakup email — the last email you send a prospect after they’ve gone cold. 

But, I wouldn’t have known that was the search intent until I searched it myself. 

Matching a query’s search intent is another key to ranking highly on search engines. If your blog doesn’t match the search intent associated with the keyword you’re writing to, your blog isn’t going to do well, and even if it did, wouldn’t pull in the qualified traffic you’re looking for. 

That’s why it’s so important to read competing blogs before you start writing. 

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05. Don’t Write for Length

Now that you’ve settled on a keyword and cyberstalked your competitors to see how you can beat them, it’s time for the actual writing portion of your business blogging strategy. 

Blog length is a contentious subject in the SEO world. 

I don’t care if you think your blogs should all be 500 words or 2,000, Google and SEO webmasters everywhere have confirmed — word count is not that big of a deal. 

If you’ve told your content writers that your business blogs should always reach a certain word count, you’re missing the point.

Search engines look for high-quality, comprehensive content. 

From Google’s John Mueller himself, helpful and in-depth content is the real goal. 

John Mueller-Google-Tweets

That doesn’t mean make your blogs longer. That means make them better. 

If you’re answering a simple question like, “what is a search engine”, you don’t need 1500 words to do it. 

If you’re offering a “Complete Guide to Marketing Your Construction Company”, you’ll probably need considerably more than 500 words to deliver on the promise your title is selling. 

Great business blogging is about writing on one topic, thoroughly. 

Instead of writing your business blog according to a certain word count, try a different tactic. 

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How to write comprehensive business blogs without getting hung up on word count

  • Choose your topic — “How to Carve a Pumpkin”
  • Make a list of all of the questions someone might ask when they’re getting ready to carve a pumpkin and the steps that go into the process:
    • What pumpkin is best to carve?
    • How do I prep the pumpkin for carving?
    • How to scoop out the pumpkin
    • Choosing a design for your pumpkin
    • Carving your pumpkin’s design
    • How to make your carved pumpkin last
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  • Cut out any steps that might not be relevant to the question you’ve set out to answer.
  • While those might be related to your original question, they’re not exactly relevant to the problem you’re trying to solve — don’t make your job harder than it has to be!
    • Now that you’ve decided what’s relevant and what’s not, each of those questions and steps you kept become H2s and H3s in your blog. 
    • You’re done writing when you’ve finished writing each of those sections — not when you hit a certain word count. 

    Clearly, not all topics will be as long as the “how to carve a pumpkin” example. Some might be considerably shorter, and some might be much longer. 

    The point is that whatever you write, your blog posts should be comprehensive, and cover the topic you’re focusing on with complete, helpful content. 

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    06. Don’t Get Too Hung Up on the Details

    Oke doke — you’ve written the blog. Now just publish it! 

    One of the biggest problems we come across as an agency is companies that get tunnel vision when it comes to publishing “perfect” blogs. They go back and forth for months on one piece of content, and nothing ever gets published. 

    Yes, you want your blog to sound like your company. Yes, you want to put out quality information that is helpful to your readers. 

    But no single blog is going to accomplish every single marketing goal you have. 

    A blog is just that — a blog. It’s an informal piece of content designed to help your ideal customer make an informed purchasing decision. 

    It’s never going to be the end-all-be-all marketing content that educates your reader, sells them on your brand, and converts them into a sale. It’s one tool in a complete arsenal of marketing tactics. Business blogging is designed to increase brand awareness and lead generation. 

    That’s it. 

    All of your other marketing and sales tactics should pick up the slack from there. Let your blogs do what they’re designed to do — draw in more visitors with helpful content.

    Too many companies put so much weight into the importance of every single word in a blog post that they spend hours editing and rewriting a blog that will never see daylight. That’s just a waste of time. 

    Your blog will only be successful for your company if you publish it. Click To Tweet

    Set a reasonable goal for each blog. Hint: it should be about education or lead generation. 

    If the blog you’ve written achieves that goal, that’s it, you’re done. 

    Post it, and move onto the next blog and the next goal. 

    While you do, the first blog you’ve posted can generate leads and interest. 

    via GIPHY

    Okay, rant over. All I want you to know is that posting good content is more important than not posting excellent content. Get blogs out there. You can always edit and optimize them later if you need to. 

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    07. Put a CTA On It!

    Business blogging gets eyeballs on your site. 

    You have to have a plan for those eyeballs once they make it to your site. 

    CTAs, or calls-to-action, are key. 

    via GIFER

    Once you have a new visitor on your site, if they’re qualified, you want them to keep reading your content and progressing through their buyer’s journey with the content you’ve developed for them. 

    The best way to do this is to get their contact information. When a visitor is reading your blog, you know they’re interested in what you have to say. Including calls-to-action that are relevant to what they’re reading is the best way to convert that visitor into a lead, and keep delivering them quality content that pulls them through their buyer’s journey. 

    Every blog you write should have at least one CTA or conversion opportunity. 

    Take a look at our blog structure. 

    HubSpot-Business-Blogging-Example-CTAs

    If you’re on a desktop, every time you read one of our blogs, you’re hit with a “Let’s Talk” conversion opportunity at the top of the blog. 

    In this image, you can see I’ve also got a relevant CTA at the bottom of the first section. Since this blog was about HubSpot, it made sense to offer up one of our case studies about work we’d done with a client on HubSpot. 

    business-blogging-cta-example

    As you scroll down the page, you also get a pop-up asking you if you want FREE marketing tips delivered directly to your inbox. Who doesn’t?

    And finally, at the bottom of the blog, the reader is hit with one more CTA relevant to HubSpot. 

    All of these CTAs are relevant to the reader, and they’re fairly unobtrusive, too. 

    It’s a suggestion — “Hey! If you want to learn more about this, we’ve got plenty of info.”

    But without a CTA, your readers don’t have much incentive or much opportunity to stick with your content. 

    Yes, most people want to optimize their business blogging strategy to rank higher. But a high ranking blog doesn’t do you much good if it’s not converting your visitors into leads. 

    If you’ve followed and implemented steps 1-6, you’re going to see more qualified traffic headed to your site. Step #7 helps ensure you’re able to capture those leads and continue nurturing them until they’re ready to make a purchase. 

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    Business blogging is one of the most surefire ways to help your site rank higher, draw in more of the right, qualified leads, and boost your company’s authority in your industry. But, you gotta do it right. 

    There’s a lot that goes into the content strategy and production of any business blog. The best way to cut through the noise is to remember that blogs are for people. Search engines and content creators alike are always looking to put the very best, most informational content into the hands of readers. If you can do that, above all else, you’ll start to see your business blog creep up in the SERPs. 

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    Struggling to gain traction with your business blog? Can’t figure out the right keywords, or just can’t seem to rank? We’re here to help! Our team of strategists and SEO experts would be happy to take a look at your content strategy and offer a few suggestions for improvement. Get in touch. 

    And if you’re still not sold on content marketing, I’d encourage you to take a look at this case study: 

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    How to Market a Construction Company: A Complete Guide

    How to Market a Construction Company: A Complete Guide

    by | Oct 20, 2020 | Inbound Marketing, Resources

    How to Market a Construction Company: A Complete Guide

    Building a marketing plan or marketing strategy is never an easy task. When you’re marketing an entire construction company, there is so much to consider. Many construction companies have succeeded for decades based on word-of-mouth referrals and name recognition, and are just now finding that it’s not working as well anymore. 

    The problem is, consumers are starting to trend away from making a purchasing decision based solely on referral, and construction companies without a solid digital presence are starting to fall behind. 

    If you’re looking for ways to market your construction company using new tactics like digital and inbound marketing, this is the guide for you. 

    Part resource and part article round-up, this complete guide to marketing a construction company will cover everything you need to know to start marketing to the modern consumer.

    1. Identify Your Target Marketing
    2. Understand the Basics of Digital Marketing
    3. Set Marketing Goals for Your Construction Company
    4. Start Marketing: Key Tactics Your Construction Company Should Focus on First
    5. How to Marketing A Construction Company: Bringing it All Together
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    Identify Your Target Market

    Before you start any kind of marketing effort, it’s absolutely imperative that you know who you’re marketing to.

    For construction companies especially, identifying your target market is essential to getting more of the right jobs. 

    I’ve talked about Why Contractors Should Know Their Target Market before, so I won’t go too far into it. I will say, if you’re frustrated that your construction company can’t seem to break into a higher market, this is the step that will help you break that cycle. 

    Typically, construction companies get busy taking every job that comes up. While that’s necessary when you’re starting out, it can hold you back from business growth once you’re more established. 

    Start marketing your construction company to the leads and projects you want. Identify: 

    step by step guide to defining your buyer persona
    • Your ideal project budget range
    • What kind of construction you want to do
    • Who is the decision-maker for that project
    • Who might be doing research and collecting bids for that decision-maker?

    All of those answers combine to make up your target market. You can further refine your target market into specific buyer personas. 

    This is a critical step in marketing any construction company. If you want to get bigger, better jobs, you have to know who is making the decisions for those jobs and create marketing strategies and content that speak to them. 

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    Understand the Basics of Digital Marketing

    Once you understand who your target market is, you can get started marketing to them.

    But, to do that, you kind of have to know how to market to them. 

    If your construction company is working hard to revamp your marketing strategy, it’s important to have a solid understanding of general digital marketing best practices. 

    Many construction companies are used to more traditional marketing methods, like print advertising, that just don’t deliver the results you’re looking for. To develop a marketing strategy that puts your construction company ahead of the competition, start with a few basics: 

    Digital Marketing Resources:

    Familiarize yourself with terms and tactics like: 

    I get that this might seem overwhelming. It’s an entire marketing methodology, after all. It can be daunting to scroll through all of those terms and tactics, but I find it helpful to keep one thing in mind. 

    The key to any successful marketing strategy is putting your customer front and center, at all times. 

    If you are taking steps to improve your website and your digital presence in a way that will be helpful for your ideal customer, you’re on your way to a marketing strategy that delivers results. 

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    Set Some Goals for your Construction Company

    There’s just one more thing to do before you start digging into the real work of developing a marketing strategy for your construction company. 

    Set some goals. 

    I’ve talked about goal setting in way too many blogs to count, so check out a couple of these blogs for more info on exactly how to set effective goals. 

    Goal-Setting Resources:

    The point here is that you won’t know if your marketing tactics are successful unless you have some way to measure them. 

    goal-setting-construction-companies

    Setting goals also helps guide your marketing strategy and can make an overwhelming marketing methodology feel more manageable by identifying exactly the tactics you need to invest in to reach your goals. 

    When you set specific, measurable goals that define what success looks like to your construction company, that “where to start” piece just falls into place. 

    For example, let’s say your goal is to grow your construction company’s digital presence. You’ve decided to define that by the traffic numbers your website sees. 

    If you want to grow your website traffic by 20% in the next six months, it’s not too hard to figure out where you need to start. You need to invest in marketing tactics that draw people to your website. 

    via GIPHY

    By defining your construction company’s marketing goals, you can easily zero in on the marketing tactics that can deliver that success. 

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    Start Marketing: Key Tactics Your Construction Company Should Focus On First

    With an established target market, a confident understanding of digital marketing tactics, and solid goals for your construction company’s marketing strategy, you’ve got everything you need to get the ball rolling. 

    At this point, you’ve done most of the hard work. Even though marketing might sound intimidating, remember that you’ve already done a lot to make getting started manageable. 

    Start with the tactics that will push your construction company to the goals you’ve set. Take each tactic one at a time, and you’ll quickly build up to a solid marketing strategy that can generate leads for your construction company. 

    In this section, we’ll cover 6 marketing tactics that can deliver the growth you’re looking for. Jump to the sections that best fit your marketing goals, or run through these in order to get a more comprehensive sense of how to effectively marketing a construction company: 

    Marketing Tactics for your Construction Company

    1. Local SEO
    2. Website Optimization
    3. Content Marketing
    4. Social Media Marketing
    5. Paid Advertising
    6. Email Marketing
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    Local SEO is Critical For Most Construction Companies

    Local SEO is critical to most construction companies, because you likely work in a certain geographical area. Whether you have crews in one area, or you have a few locations, you need to show up in local searches. Why?

    Let’s think about your buyer’s journey. 

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    construction-companies-near-me-example

    What do you think most people are going to search for when they’re looking for a construction company or contractor?

    If you guessed, “construction companies near me”, you’d be right. 

    You need to nail your local SEO to show up in those critical searches. 

    Not sure where to start with local SEO? Here are a few must-make improvements to take care of right away:

    • Claim your Google My Business Listing
    • Claim your Facebook page if you haven’t already
    • Make sure your name, address, and phone number are consistent across platforms
    • Have a dedicated section on your website that clearly outlines where your offices are located, and what regions you serve. 
    google-my-business-example

    Once you’ve got those taken care of, check out these resources for more info on beefing up your local search presence, from why it’s important to how to do it, the right way. 

    Local SEO Resources:

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    Shape Up Your Construction Company’s Website

    If your website isn’t working, there’s no digital marketing effort in the world that will get you the results you’re looking for. 

    Nearly every digital marketing tactic revolves around the functionality and success of your website. 

    Think of your website as your construction company’s digital office. 

    Every marketing tactic you employ, from social media marketing to content development and even paid advertising, is designed to drive people back to your website, where they can call you, fill out a form, or learn more about your services. 

    If your website doesn’t work or isn’t optimized for those visitors, your construction company’s marketing strategy will inevitably fall flat. 

    Not sure if your website is working for you or not? We’ve got a tool for that. 

    Evenbound’s Brutally Honest Website Checklist

    brutally honest website checklist

    This checklist will tell you — in no uncertain terms — where your website is looking good, and where it needs some improvements. 

    From there, you can start to make improvements that will move the needle on your construction company’s marketing goals. 

    Implementing landing pages and calls-to-action will help you convert more site visitors. 

    Optimizing your site for SEO will help draw in more of those site visitors. 

    These resources can help you implement changes that will drive results: 

    Website Optimization Resources:

    Like any aspect of your construction company’s marketing strategy, it’s best to start small. 

    Spend time updating a few key pages of your website, and let them start working for you. You can always make improvements as you go, but it’s most important to get something good out there as quickly as possible. 

    If you’re having trouble settling on implementation, and your team is dragging their feet on making website updates, I’d encourage you to check out Growth-Driven Website Design. It’s a great way to get your marketing strategy up and running in a way that truly delivers results. 

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    Content Marketing to Boost Your Construction Company’s Authority

    inbound marketing vs content marketing

    Any quality digital marketing strategy makes use of content marketing. 

    It’s the best marketing tactic you have to: 

    • Improve brand awareness
    • Draw in more visitors to your website

    Content marketing can also help to nurture leads through their buyer’s journey and position you as an authority in your market. 

    Inbound content marketing is about delivering the relevant information your ideal customer is already searching for. 

    By providing helpful answers to the questions your ideal client is asking, you start to build trust while pulling them into your website. 

    The more people you have on your website, reading your amazing content, the greater your potential to convert leads. 

    While content marketing is a simple concept at its heart — write great content, get great leads, there’s a lot of thought that goes into what and how to write that content that will deliver the results you’re looking for. Here a few resources to get you started there: 

    Content Marketing Resources:

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    Social Media to Increase Brand Awareness in Your Target Markets

    advertising-social-media-ad-campaign

    If content marketing is how you draw in new traffic and qualified leads, social media is how you amplify that content and your brand to increase your reach. 

    Many construction companies feel that, since your industry is more professional, you don’t really have a place on social media platforms. 

    That’s simply just not true. 

    Regardless of how professional your projects are, the people who are in charge of planning them and signing off on them are people. 

    And most people have social media accounts. 

    Social media is a rich platform to grow brand awareness for your construction company, helping you reach more people and gain a better position in your industry. 

    The key to doing social media right, like any other aspect of marketing a construction company, is starting small. 

    Couch-MountainSocial-Post
    Hometown-Dev-Social-Post

    Pick one social media platform that you know your company can do well on. In general, we’d suggest Facebook or Instagram for a construction company, although LinkedIn could also be successful. 

    • Take the time to get to know that platform and build a following. 
    • Share posts and content from other industry leaders that’s relevant to your ideal buyers
    • Share your own content
    • Post regularly — at least once or twice a week

    When you start to see success with that first social media platform, then you can begin to branch out. But take the time to really experiment and understand one platform first. When that’s working to deliver leads, you know you’ve got what it takes to try another platform. 

    If your construction company is struggling to increase your brand awareness with social media, these articles can help you better connect with your audience. 

    Social Media Resources:

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    Paid Advertising to Draw in More of the Right Traffic, Right Now

    Okay, so your content marketing strategy is drawing people in. 

    Your social media strategy is amplifying your voice and expanding your reach. 

    Your website is optimized to convert leads when they get there. 

    And your local SEO is putting you front-and-center for relevant local searches. 

    What could possibly be left?

    Paid advertising. 

    Now, yes, this is technically not marketing, it’s advertising, but it’s still an important component of your construction company’s marketing strategy. 

    When implemented properly, paid advertising can give you that extra leg up against the competition. Paid ads: 

    • Put you ahead of the competition
    • Get you in front of ideal leads who are ready to buy
    • Can help deliver leads now, while your organic marketing strategies start to gain traction.
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    But, the kicker with paid ads is of course you’re paying for them. So it’s really important — no matter how big or small your budget — that you’re putting in the time to develop a solid paid ads strategy. 

    For construction companies in particular, paid advertising can be especially competitive. Many construction pros spend money on the same popular key terms and phrases, which can drive the cost of your campaigns up. 

    The hack here is to take the time to do a competitive analysis.

    Conducting A Competitive Analysis: A 10 Step Guide

    What keywords are your competitors bidding on? Are there long-tail keywords they might be missing?

    A competitive analysis can give you a great picture of what other companies like yours are doing to draw in more of the right leads. But, it’s important to remember that you shouldn’t bid on a keyword just because your competition is. Choose keywords that make sense for your company and your goals. 

    Construction companies also struggle to decide on a reasonable budget for their ad campaigns. How much should you be spending, and what should your results look like on that budget?

    EB Google Ads Benchmark Monthly Spend

    Check out our Google Ads Benchmarks By Industry article for real-life answers to those questions, based on the work we do for construction companies just like yours. 

    For more info on getting started with paid ads, from Google and paid search to paid social media advertising, check out these resources: 

    Paid Advertising Resources:

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    Email Marketing to Automate Lead Nurturing

    While most of these construction marketing tactics have been geared at drawing in more of the right leads, what do you do about those leads who are a good fit, but just aren’t ready to make a purchase?

    You email them. 

    Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing tactics your construction company has to reach out to people you know are qualified leads and help pull them through the buyer’s journey. 

    Inbound marketing is focused on the successful tactic of delivering the right message, to the right person, at exactly the right time. 

    Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to do that. 

    Everyone you have on your email list is someone who has given you their email address. 

    That means, to some extent, they are interested in your construction company. 

    You can leverage those leads successfully by implementing an email marketing strategy. Here are a few tips to help you build out an email marketing strategy that works:

    Email Marketing Resources:

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    How to Market A Construction Company: Bringing it All Together

    So there you have it. A complete guide to marketing your construction company. 

    I know we covered a ton of topics and tactics, so it’s worth a quick wrap-up. 

    No matter where your construction company is in the marketing process, whether you’re just now starting to transition away from traditional marketing, or you’ve been optimizing your website for the past month, remember that analysis and optimization are always the keys to your success. 

    You can implement every single one of these marketing strategies, but if you never look back to analyze your results or optimize future campaigns, you’re unlikely to reach those goals you set out at the very beginning of your marketing campaign. 

    Take a little time out of each month to look back on the previous month or quarter’s success. What worked? What didn’t? Are there improvements you can make? Is there a marketing tactic your construction company just can’t seem to make work?

    Just taking an hour a month to analyze your past results, and apply your findings to new campaigns can put you heads and tails above the competition. 

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    There’s a lot that goes into digital marketing, especially for construction companies. While starting a  brand new marketing strategy might feel daunting, just take it slowly, step-by-step, and you’ll start to see results that bring you closer to your goals. 

    Not sure if digital marketing is worth the work? Check out this case study:

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