Here's a question that should keep you up at night: When a prospective buyer asks ChatGPT or Perplexity about solutions in your industry, does your company get mentioned? Or are you invisible to the fastest-growing discovery channels in business?
The rules have changed dramatically. Having a decent website isn't enough anymore. In 2025, your digital presence needs to work on two fronts: traditional search engines AND the AI tools that an increasing number of your prospects use to research solutions before they ever contact you.
The stakes are higher than you might think. According to the 2024 Buyer Experience Report from 6sense, B2B buyers are nearly 70% through their purchasing process before engaging with sellers, and 81% already have a preferred vendor at the time of first contact. If AI tools aren't surfacing your company during that critical research phase, you've already lost the deal before you knew it existed.
Walk into most manufacturing company websites and you'll find the same thing: product specifications, part numbers, maybe a few generic capability statements, and a "Contact Us" button buried somewhere. That's a digital catalog—essentially your print brochure converted to HTML.
A marketing engine is something fundamentally different. It's built around answering the questions your prospects are actually asking, positioned to attract buyers at every stage of their journey, and structured so that both traditional search engines and AI tools can understand, cite, and recommend your expertise.
The distinction matters because buyer behavior has shifted permanently. Research from 6sense confirms that 90% of buyers have prior experience with at least one vendor they considered before ever reaching out. They're doing their homework without you, and AI tools are increasingly part of how they do that homework.
Traditional SEO focused on ranking for specific keywords in Google's list of blue links. AI search works differently. Tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews generate synthesized answers by pulling from multiple trusted sources. They don't show a ranked list—they provide a direct response, often citing only the sources they consider most authoritative.
This shift has major implications. According to research from Semrush and Ahrefs, top-ranking organic results can lose up to 45% of their traffic when AI Overviews are present. The clicks that used to flow to the first few results now often stop at the AI-generated summary.
For manufacturing and industrial companies, this creates both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is obvious: if your content isn't structured for AI to understand and cite, you become invisible to a growing segment of buyers. The opportunity? Most of your competitors haven't figured this out yet.
Consider this scenario. A plant manager needs to solve a production bottleneck. They don't pick up the phone and call vendors anymore. Instead, they type a question into ChatGPT: "What are the best solutions for reducing cycle time in CNC machining operations?" Or they ask Perplexity: "How do I evaluate laser cutting systems for tube fabrication?"
The AI tool searches the web, synthesizes information from multiple sources, and provides an answer—potentially naming specific companies, technologies, or approaches. If your content is authoritative and structured correctly, you get mentioned. If not, you don't exist in that buyer's consideration set.
One of our clients experienced this firsthand. They manufacture capital equipment for the tube fabrication industry. At a recent open house, the president of a large existing customer walked up to the owner and said they had narrowed their search for a new laser cutting system to two companies. They had eliminated three other vendors entirely through online research—never talking to a single salesperson. This was for a purchase exceeding $500,000.
That's not an anomaly. That's the new normal. The buying process for industrial equipment is now majority-digital, and AI tools are accelerating that trend.
Honest assessment time. Your website is functioning as a catalog rather than a marketing engine if most of your content describes what you make rather than what outcomes you help customers achieve. If your pages are primarily specifications, part numbers, and capability lists with minimal context about applications or problems solved, that's catalog thinking.
Other telling signs: you haven't published new content in months, your site has no mechanism to convert visitors into leads beyond a generic "Contact Us" form, and your design hasn't been updated since before smartphones became the primary browsing device. If you can't make content updates without calling a developer, you've handcuffed your ability to compete.
The most damaging indicator? Your website talks exclusively about you—your company, your products, your capabilities—without addressing what buyers actually care about: their problems, their goals, and how you help them get from where they are to where they want to be.
Here's a reality check that surprises many manufacturing executives: 80% of B2B buyers now use mobile devices at work, according to research compiled by RevenueZen. More than half of all B2B search queries happen on smartphones. Your engineering manager prospect is researching solutions on their phone during lunch, on the plant floor, or while waiting for a meeting to start.
The consequences of ignoring mobile are severe. Research from Google and Boston Consulting Group found that mobile interactions now drive or influence more than 40% of revenue in leading B2B organizations. More than 90% of B2B buyers who report a superior mobile experience say they're likely to buy again from that vendor. On the flip side, 53% of mobile visitors abandon websites that take longer than three seconds to load.
Not having a mobile-optimized site isn't just an inconvenience—it's the equivalent of putting worn-out furniture in your reception area and making your best prospects sit there for thirty minutes before you meet them. Your site screams that you're not paying attention to how your buyers actually behave.
Mobile-first design isn't about shrinking your desktop site to fit a smaller screen. It means designing for the thumb: tap-friendly buttons, streamlined navigation, above-the-fold calls to action, and content that loads fast on cellular connections. If your navigation menus require a needle to click on mobile, or your pages take more than three seconds to load, you're losing buyers before they see your value proposition.
Your products do things that are hard to explain in text. A CNC machine running through a complex operation, a custom fabrication taking shape, a capital equipment installation—these are visual experiences. And your buyers increasingly expect to see before they buy.
The numbers back this up. According to Wyzowl's 2025 State of Video Marketing Report, 93% of marketers say video gives them a good ROI—the highest figure since they started tracking this data. When asked how they'd most like to learn about a product or service, 78% of consumers say they'd prefer to watch a short video, compared to just 9% who prefer text-based articles.
For manufacturing specifically, video serves purposes that other content simply can't match. Product demonstrations break down complex features in ways that prospects can digest at their own pace. Technical whitepapers have their place, but a two-minute video showing your equipment solving a real production problem communicates more than a twenty-page PDF ever could.
Video also moves the needle on concrete business metrics. Sites with video have an average 4.8% conversion rate compared to 2.9% for sites without video, according to research from Yans Media. That's a 65% improvement in turning visitors into leads. Videos can increase landing page conversion rates by up to 80%, and companies using video experience 41% more web traffic from search than non-users.
The good news for manufacturers is that you don't need Hollywood production values. What you need is authentic content that shows your expertise and your solutions in action. Application videos, product tours, customer testimonials, and even shop-floor walkthroughs all serve to build the trust that text alone struggles to create. In an age where AI can generate any written content, video of real people, real equipment, and real results becomes a credibility differentiator that's hard to fake.
The foundation remains solid technical SEO and user experience. Mobile responsiveness isn't optional—it's expected. Page speed matters. Broken links and dead pages signal neglect. These basics haven't changed, they've just become table stakes.
What has changed is the content strategy required to compete. Modern marketing engines are built around helpful content that answers real questions your target buyers are asking. Not content that talks about how great your products are. Content that demonstrates you understand the problems your prospects face and can help them navigate toward solutions.
This principle applies whether you're optimizing for Google or AI tools. According to research compiled by Demand Gen Report, 74% of sales go to the first company that was helpful. That's been true for years. What's new is that "being helpful" now means being the source that AI tools trust enough to cite.
Strong traditional SEO and AI optimization aren't competing strategies—they're complementary. Companies that have invested consistently in quality SEO perform better in AI search because they've already built the authoritative content base that AI tools look for. SEO forces a customer-first perspective. You can't optimize effectively without understanding what your buyers are searching for, what questions they're trying to answer, and what language they use to describe their problems.
AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity favor content that's clearly structured, authoritative, and easy to summarize. Unlike traditional search where you could sometimes game rankings with keyword density, AI systems evaluate whether your content genuinely answers questions with depth and expertise.
Several practices improve your visibility in AI search. Use clear headlines that match how users phrase questions—AI tools are looking for direct matches between queries and content. Structure your content with logical organization so AI can extract key points. Include specific, verifiable information rather than vague claims. And critically, build topical authority by creating comprehensive coverage of your areas of expertise rather than scattered, disconnected blog posts.
Q&A formatting works particularly well. When your content directly addresses common questions in a clear, concise format, AI tools are more likely to surface and cite that content in their responses. Think about the questions your prospects ask during sales conversations, and answer them prominently on your website.
Getting found is only half the battle. Your website also needs to convert visitors into leads you can actually talk to. And here's where most manufacturing websites fail—they offer nothing between "browse our product specs" and "contact us to speak with sales."
Think about how your buyers actually research solutions. They're not ready to talk to a salesperson on their first visit. They want to gather information, compare options, and build internal consensus before they're ready for a conversation. Your website needs to support that journey with conversion opportunities at every stage.
For early-stage researchers, offer valuable content they'll exchange contact information for: application guides, ROI calculators, technical comparison tools, and specification worksheets. For prospects further along, provide ways to engage without committing to a whole sales conversation: request a quote, schedule a demo, download CAD files, or chat with a product specialist. Research from Onexcell found that 44% of B2B buyers leave websites without contact information displayed—make sure yours is visible on every page.
Every page on your site should have a clear next step. Not a generic "contact us" buried in the footer, but a relevant call to action that makes sense for someone viewing that specific page. Someone reading about a particular application should see an offer to download an application guide. Someone on a product page should see a way to request specifications or a quote. The goal is to make it easy for interested prospects to raise their hand in whatever way feels comfortable to them.
Lead nurturing matters too. Most visitors won't convert on their first visit. According to research from Lead Forensics, 63% of B2B leads take at least three months to decide, and 20% wait over a year. Marketing automation lets you stay helpful and visible throughout that extended buying process, delivering the right content at the right time based on what each prospect has shown interest in.
Start by testing your current visibility. Ask ChatGPT and Perplexity the questions your prospects would ask about solutions in your space. Does your company appear in the responses? Are your competitors mentioned instead? This simple test reveals more about your digital competitive position than most analytics dashboards.
Next, pull up your website on your phone. Can you navigate it easily with your thumb? Does it load in under three seconds? Can you read the content without zooming? Can you tap buttons without accidentally hitting the wrong link? If you struggle with any of these, your prospects are struggling too—and leaving.
Audit your existing content through a buyer's lens. How much of your website addresses what you do versus what outcomes you help customers achieve? How many pages answer specific questions a prospect might ask during their research phase? If your site is 90% product specifications and 10% helpful content, you know where to focus.
Then build a content calendar that prioritizes the questions your sales team hears most frequently. Those questions represent real buyer needs that your current digital presence isn't meeting. Answer them well—ideally with a mix of written content and video—and you create opportunities for both search engines and AI tools to surface your expertise.
Here's the reality of competitive timing. Your competitors who figure this out first will build advantages that compound over time. AI tools tend to favor established, authoritative sources. The longer you wait to build that authority, the harder it becomes to catch up.
Research from 6sense shows that by the time buyers reach out to vendors, 81% have already picked their preferred choice. If AI tools aren't mentioning your company during that anonymous research phase—when buyers are building their shortlists—you're not even getting the chance to compete.
I've been doing this work for over twenty years, and I've watched companies that delayed digital transformation lose ground they never recovered. The shift from print advertising to websites. The move from cold calling to inbound marketing. The rise of mobile. Every transition created winners and losers, and the difference was almost always timing and commitment, not capability.
The old approach was to wait until a lead appeared and then try to sell them. That approach is increasingly ineffective. The new reality requires building visibility and trust before prospects identify themselves—and AI search is accelerating that requirement dramatically.
Your website is either working as a marketing engine—attracting prospects, building trust, and positioning you as the helpful expert in your space—or it's sitting there as a digital catalog waiting for visitors who may never arrive.
The shift to AI-powered search doesn't eliminate the fundamentals of good marketing. Being helpful, building trust, and demonstrating expertise still win. What's changed is how and where that helpfulness needs to appear. Buyers are researching in new ways—on their phones, through video, via AI tools—and companies that adapt to those behaviors will capture opportunities others miss.
The best time to build a marketing engine was five years ago. The second-best time is now. But here's what I know from working with manufacturing companies for decades: the ones who say "we'll get to that" rarely do. The ones who make this a priority—who allocate resources, commit to the content, and hold themselves accountable for results—are the companies that grow while their competitors wonder what happened.
So which are you going to be?
6sense. 2024 B2B Buyer Experience Report. Available at: 6sense.com/science-of-b2b/2024-buyer-experience-report/
Demand Gen Report. 80% Of B2B Buyers Initiate First Contact, Once They're 70% Through Their Buying Journey. October 2024.
Wyzowl. Video Marketing Statistics 2025. Available at: wyzowl.com/video-marketing-statistics/
Google and Boston Consulting Group. Mobile B2B Revenue Impact Study. As cited in Kevin Harrington: kevinharrington.com
RevenueZen. 148 Actionable B2B SEO Statistics For 2025. Available at: revenuezen.com/b2b-seo-statistics/
Yans Media. 100 Video Marketing Statistics for 2025. Available at: yansmedia.com/blog/video-marketing-statistics
Lead Forensics. 29 Must-Know B2B Marketing Statistics. 2025.
Semrush and Ahrefs research on AI Overviews traffic impact, as cited in Concord. The Evolution of Search in 2025: What AI Means for SEO.
Onexcell. Website Design Statistics 2024. Available at: onexcell.co.uk/web-design/statistics/