Top 10 Takeaways for Manufacturing Companies

Content Marketing World 2014

Bruce McDuffeePrincipal, Knowledge Marketing for Industry (KMI)

#CMWorld @brucemcduffee

#1 Place educational content ahead of product to win.

Those manufacturing companies able to embrace the concept of content marketing by engaging with educational content and putting product second will kill it in their competitive markets.

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#2 It’s about authenticity.

Your content must be authentic. Don’t pretend to educate when you really want to promote your product. Be blatant and authentic. It’s ok to promote your product. It’s great to educate your audience. Don’t mix the two together.

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#3 Cover the basics first.

Build a strong, solid foundation before you go off and start creating content. Write a proper marketing plan. It’s hard, but it will pay tremendous dividends.

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#4 Express and agree on a Content Marketing Mission.

Content should focus on a stated and specific objective. The objective should be from the perspective of the people in the target audience. They want to know “what’s in it for me?” and “why should I care?”. Answer with your mission statement.

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#5 Find your content sweet spot.

Your sweet spot is the intersection of a pain or passion common amongst your target audience with the particular expertise of your firm. It is best if this expertise is not the production, but is the supporting knowledge of the experts.

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#6 Product marketing fails where educational marketing sails.

Product marketing (promoting the features of your product) does not work to engage with your target audience. Test this yourself. Promotion of educational content will always do better than product content.

#CMWorld @brucemcduffee

#7 People don’t care about your product, your company or your CEO.Even the people who will eventually buy your product don’t care about the product. They care about what it means to their situation. When you unlock the answer to what they care about, you’ve unlocked the secret code to getting their attention, trust and most likely their business.

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#8 Become the ‘go to’ resource.

If you are able to position your firm as the ‘go to’ resource for a problem plaguing your audience, you win. It’s that simple. Give the people in your target market what they want, when they want it and how they want it.

#CMWorld @brucemcduffee

#9 Get TOMA and go to the bank.

Educational content marketing gets you TOMA (top of mind awareness) and credibility. With TOMA and credibility, when the day comes around and a person in your target audience is ready to buy, they buy from you and might even pay a bit more.

#CMWorld @brucemcduffee

#10 The window of opportunity for manufacturers is wide open.Manufacturing executives are laggards when it comes to adopting modern marketing ideas like ‘content marketing’. The manufacturing companies who support educational content and who elevate marketing to a strategic pillar of the business will take market share from the laggards. The question remains, will it be you or the other guy who seizes the opportunity.

#CMWorld @brucemcduffee

Resources• Content Marketing

Institute

• MFG Industry Benchmark Report

• Essentials of CM Strategy – 36 Qs

• CM Playbook – 24 Epic Ideas

• David Meerman Scott

• Gobbledygook Manifesto

• Bruce McDuffee - KMI

• Webinar Toolkit

• The Manufacturer’s Growth Manifesto

• Velocity Partners

• B2B CM Strategy Checklist

• B2B Marketing Manifesto

• Crap – Single Biggest Threat

• Trew Marketing

• Marketing to Engineers

• Marian Burk Wood

• The Marketing Plan Handbook

#CMWorld @brucemcduffee

I can help you get TOMA in your business.

Knowledge Marketing for Industry (KMI) is a freelance consulting firm where I help manufacturing companies achieve top of mind awareness and credibility in their market space by educating the people in their target audience. Manufacturing companies I have been able to help have achieved as much as 30% annual growth rates.

Please contact me if you would like to discuss educational content marketing, generating TOMA & credibility and taking market share from your laggard competitors.

www.knowledgmktg.com

bruce@knowledgemktg.com