What’s your manufacturing marketing message? If you’re wondering what we even mean when we ask this question, you’re not alone.
Sometimes marketing experts lose sight of how unusual the terminology of the field sounds to CEOs and business owners. This post is here to help clarify marketing message strategy and why it matters.
First, let’s look at what a marketing message is. Then, I will cover why messaging matters to you as a manufacturer. Finally, I will take you through how to get started crafting your message content. So, let’s dive in!
A messaging strategy empowers you to greater marketing success. When you develop a strategic approach to your communication with prospects and customers you achieve far better results.
To be complete, a marketing messaging strategy needs to include the following components:
Your messaging strategy serves as a blueprint for marketing communications. A strong strategy will ensure that communication about your company gets built to the following specifications:
The best manufacturing messaging strategy will keep consistency, accuracy, and being memorable in mind. So let’s take a closer look at each of these components.
Consistent messaging fosters trust and credibility. When you follow a messaging strategy, you will describe your products and services the same way over time and across platforms.
Your strategy should outline what the most important aspects of your company are and how you will describe them. Then, follow the blueprint to stay consistent when you talk about your company.
Consistent messaging doesn’t mean using the same exact wording time and again, though. It means that you craft a variety of interesting content about your company while maintaining the core brand message.
What do I mean by “core brand message”? Your core brand message will contain the most essential information about your company.
What do you want every customer to know about your company? How do you describe what sets your company’s people, products, and processes apart?
When you answer these questions, you will know what needs to be communicated for buyers to understand the essence of your brand. Then, stick with that message. Check all marketing content against the core message and change anything that fails the consistency test.
Accurate messaging also generates trust over time. How you describe your brand, your products, your people, your mission, and your culture must all line up with reality.
To achieve this, your marketing team or agency partner must know your company so well that everything they create resonates with truth. That’s accurate messaging.
Likewise, strong marketing messages will be specific to your company. If something sounds too generic, it probably is. See what your top competitors say about their brand, and then make sure you’re saying something unique!
If you’re not sure what sets you apart, then a customer survey may help you see your brand through a fresh perspective. What made your customers choose your solutions? Why do they stay with you. Their reasons become your accurate, unique value proposition!
Memorable messaging means just what it says. A marketing message that resonates with buyers’ needs will be memorable.
Using a brand “voice” that conveys a unique company personality—whether that’s sincerity, humor, helpfulness, expertise—will also make your marketing more memorable.
Think about some ad or post from a brand that you remember right now. What made it memorable for you? Your company needs to build in something special to make your messaging memorable, too.
If you’re not sure where to start, begin with the authentic personalities of company leadership and others who will interact with customers. That way, your brand voice will flow consistently through marketing, sales, and customer service.
If getting better ROI for your marketing spend matters to you, then you need a strategic approach to developing your marketing message. Strong marketing communication requires the framework of a brand messaging strategy.
Besides the benefit of higher ROI, brand messaging delivers additional benefits:
Many manufacturers talk about themselves and their capabilities on their websites. Common content includes industries served, an equipment list, their plant size, specialties the company possesses, etc. All of this makes sense. And it’s good information to have on your site, but it’s not enough.
Today, you need to make it easy for a buyer to evaluate your company by getting right at the tangible benefits of working with your company.
Ask yourself, “What would I want to know right away if I were searching for a supply partner?” Then write that.
Write directly to the prospective buyer at your ideal customer company.
Think about it this way: You can deliver a monologue about yourself to someone. That would not be that interesting to a prospect. And that’s the mistake many manufacturing marketers make, talking about the company rather than talking about the buyer’s needs.
Figure out what the prospect is interested in, what problems they need to solve, and talk about that. This will allow you to connect with a prospect. Once connected, establishing a relationship becomes much easier.
So, for example, instead of starting out with listing your machinery, think about what makes your machinery a benefit to the customer.
The machinery list can still be available to them, but you don’t lead with it and assume they will find it compelling enough to give you a call.
If this section has been helpful, you may want to download our free whitepaper “Demand Generation: 3.1 Expanding Our Definition” at this link.
I hope this post helps you think productively about your manufacturing marketing message. If you have other thoughts and ideas, let’s talk. Or, you can connect with us on LinkedIn or Tweet us!
With over two decades of experience, Parin leads an expert demand-generation agency, StratMg, that helps industrial manufacturing clients achieve unambiguous and quantified organic sales growth across the US, EMEA & APAC.
Parin has built & positioned StratMg to be a value-added marketing services provider that strives to create a culture of quantified sales-driven marketing initiatives leading to sustained business growth through channel management, diversification, new customer acquisition and retention strategies and tactical execution.
