The idea is simple: grow your B2B, industrial, or manufacturing business with inbound marketing tactics and some basic sales ideas.
These are straightforward, but in our experience, many of the companies we talk to are not doing them or, at best, only a few.
So if you are trying to grow your business, and who isn't, you should consider these easy-to-implement ideas before spending a lot of money on ads or other outbound marketing efforts.
This is an easy win for you regarding offering the types of engagement your site visitors want. They want to chat.
We recently ran a test with a large client, and they went from 100 contact us conversions a month to 60 contact us conversions and 400 chat conversations the next month. That is huge! That is fast!
Chat is what your visitors want and how they want to communicate.
Why? Right now response is the world we live in. Instant connection wins. Reduce the friction and layers between your people and those needing your help. Make it easy to reach you.
Chat is a winner for B2B and manufacturing companies.
If you want to start using chat but are concerned about the time and effort, let me know, and I will show you how to start chatting risk-free.
Regularly clean, review, and update your database. Ensure you capture all of your contacts from any source in one central database. Databases degrade significantly every year, up to 15% in some industries.
Ensure you remove old contacts, update customer contact records, and review who is active in the database. You do not want to keep sending messages to prospects that do not engage with your emails.
If you are not sure how well you are building and managing your contact list, then I suggest this be priority #1 if you want to grow your business.
Nothing is more important to your business than your contact list. Treat it as such.
Are you using a CRM to organize your contact information and manage your sales efforts? If not, call me at 407.406.3959 and I will recommend some free tools to get started. Nothing is more important to growing your business than managing your contact information.
Your website needs to serve two audiences now: human visitors and AI search tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews. The industrial buyers you want to reach are using these tools to research solutions, and if your content doesn't help AI understand what you do and who you help, you're invisible.
Start with understanding search intent. Before buyers knew your company existed, they had a problem to solve or a job to get done. What questions are they asking? What outcomes do they need? This is where your keyword research begins, but it's different than it used to be.
Traditional high-level keywords like "laser" or "manufacturing equipment" are still important for broad visibility, but they're terrible converters. They have massive competition and don't indicate buying intent. Someone searching for "lasers" is probably not ready to purchase.
But someone searching for "how to select fiber laser for medical device marking" or "air-cooled vs water-cooled fiber laser comparison" is much further along in their buying process. These longer, more specific queries tell you exactly what information buyers need.
Here's where AI search changes things. AI tools don't just match keywords anymore – they understand context, intent, and relationships between concepts. They're looking for comprehensive, authoritative answers to specific questions. That means your content strategy needs to shift from keyword stuffing to genuine expertise sharing.
Think about building topic clusters around your core expertise areas. If you manufacture laser marking systems, your core topic might be "laser marking for industrial applications." Your supporting content would cover:
Each piece of content should answer specific questions your buyers are actually asking. Structure your content with clear section headers that mirror how people phrase questions. Instead of a header like "Product Features," use "What marking speed can I expect for aluminum components?" AI tools extract these question-answer pairs to serve up in response to user queries.
The format matters too. AI search tools favor content that includes:
Create pillar pages that comprehensively cover your main topic areas. These are long-form resources (2,000+ words) that establish your authority on a subject. Then build supporting content pieces that go deep on specific aspects, linking back to your pillar pages. This signals to both traditional search engines and AI tools that you're a credible source on these topics.
But here's what most manufacturers miss: buyers don't care about your products. They care about the outcomes your products deliver and the problems they solve. Your website probably talks 100% about your company and what you do. There's zero content about what buyers get, what outcomes you help them achieve, why you're different than the thousands of other companies that do and say exactly what you show on your website.
The average industrial buyer touches your digital content 8-12+ times before they ever talk to you or your sales team. If your content isn't helping them understand their problem and potential solutions, you won't be in the consideration set when they're ready to engage.
AI search makes this buyer behavior even more pronounced. When someone asks ChatGPT "what should I consider when selecting a laser marking system for medical devices," the AI is pulling from sources that demonstrate clear expertise on that specific question. If you haven't created content that addresses these questions thoroughly, you don't exist in that conversation.
One more critical point: AI tools are trained to identify and cite trustworthy, authoritative sources. Generic marketing fluff doesn't cut it. You need technical depth, specific applications, real-world examples, and honest discussions of trade-offs. The manufacturers who win in AI search are the ones who share genuine expertise, not sales pitches.
Owned media includes your website, sales literature, social media channels, email, trade shows, sales team, lobby, and anything else you control. Many companies make the mistake of jumping into paid media before they maximize their owned media.
One way to think about owned media is to consider where to promote an e-book, to give just one example. Think of all the places you can share this e-book where people you want to influence would find it - the target audience could be prospects, customers, partners, vendors, connectors, or anyone else you think might be interested in this particular piece of content.
Make sure your messaging and content are about them and not about you. Pretty easy to say, but so few companies do this. Buyers don't care about you. They care about the job they have to do and how to get it done. Talk about them.
Maximize your owned channels first, and take full advantage of what you already have before you move on to paid and earned media.
Long-tail keywords can help you create new content that is highly focused and relevant to your ideal prospects. Long-tail keywords let you know the specific areas of your business that interest your prospects, so think of them as writing guides.
If one of your long-tail keywords is "air-cooled 20-watt fiber laser," brainstorm all the things you can think of having to do with air-cooled 20-watt fiber lasers.
You can use AI tools like ChatGPT for research and ideation, but don't use them to write your content. I dropped the above keyword into ChatGPT and asked it to list SEO keywords.
Here is the list:
Air-cooled fiber laser, 20-watt laser, Fiber laser technology, Laser cutting equipment, Laser marking machine, Industrial laser system, Laser engraving machine, High-power laser, Precision laser cutting, Fiber optic laser, Non-contact laser processing, Energy-efficient laser, Compact laser design, Laser system integration, Laser safety measures, Laser beam quality, Fiber laser source, Laser maintenance, Laser industry applications, Laser manufacturer
You could create compare and contrast articles, buying guide white papers, or best practice blog posts.
How do we go from keywords to an article, you ask?
Modify any of the above with terms like: cost of, the best place for, top company for, in <insert name of your city or state>, What is, Who needs
Again, back to ChatGPT for an outline. When I ask it for "a blog post outline titled Cost of fiber laser technology" I get a basic structure in seconds.
But here's the critical part: AI-generated content is mediocre at best. It lacks the depth, specificity, and genuine expertise that industrial buyers need to build trust. AI doesn't know your customer's specific applications, the nuances of your technology, or the real-world trade-offs buyers face.
You are the expert. Use tools like ChatGPT to help with research, outlines, and keyword ideas. Then create original content from your knowledge and experience. Answer each point in an outline as if someone is asking you these questions face-to-face. Record the answers. Transcribe the recording, clean it up, and you have an article with genuine authority.
Trust is the key factor today in an age where anyone can generate content with AI in seconds. Who can buyers trust? Answer that question with your content and you have a chance to gain the trust of targeted buyers and earn the opportunity to win the sale.
Whatever content you create will help you rank for long-tail keywords your prospects seek and, more importantly, will position you as a credible resource when AI tools are researching answers to buyer questions.
The key to growing your business is finding the best way to be in front of the people who need your product or service. Long-tail keywords are a great way to do that because they let you know what your prospects are searching for and allow you to create content that will allow you to rank for it. Long-tail keywords put your website in front of prospects.
Are your sales and service people using LinkedIn to connect with peers? Is everyone thinking about connections in your industry, your suppliers, partners, and trade associations to find ways to connect to your ideal prospects?
Use your great new content to educate and help them so they will consider you when they are ready to solve a problem.
74% of sales go to the first company that was helpful.
Are you being helpful with your marketing and content, or are you pitching features and products? Stop doing that, please. Buyers only want help, period. They need to get their jobs done, and you'd better be helping them.
In fact, they want you to find them as long as you're helping them. Prospecting does not fail because no one is listening. Prospecting fails because the prospector is selfish and just pitching a product, and is not being helpful.
Understand how to add more value and call them. Just staying connected and letting them know you care is valuable in this day and age. Be present and available regularly, not just when you want to close another order.
Pretty simple, but I am constantly surprised by how few companies do this simple thing.
Keep in touch with your customers, ask relevant questions, and listen so you can help them. Think about helping them more and not just selling them more. Help first, and the sales will follow.
Ask them if they know about all of your services. Tell them about your newest offerings.
Think about what they say when you drive-thru at a fast food place, "do you want fries with that?" And ask every single time you are on the phone with a customer. Make this a habit.
And when you talk to your customers, you can ask questions about their challenges, opportunities, new technologies, and markets, and turn these insights into great new content!
Have a plan, know how to ask for a referral (remind them of the value you bring), and make it easy for them to refer you. Write an email for them to send to a target prospect easily. Or write a great case study that they can forward.
You need to educate your customers about your ideal prospect and then ask them to refer you. If you deliver value to them, they will be happy to introduce themselves. Not only because they want to help you (the reciprocation principle), but because it makes them look smart (see how smart I was to buy from these guys, they solved our problems).
About a week after being promoted to my first VP of Sales job, my boss walked into my office and asked how the week was going. I said, "Great; we have done seven quotes this week."
He answered, "Son, we don't sell quotes here."
Like trade show leads that are never followed up, a quote that dies on the vine wastes everyone's resources. Do fewer quotes by targeting your ideal personas, qualifying more deeply, and using the quote to confirm what has already been agreed on, and you will not need to follow up as often.
When you follow up, ensure your quote follow-up is value-added and includes helpful information. Do not just call and ask when you are getting the PO or send an email wondering what's up with the quote. Be a pro and keep helping them with their issues; they will remember you when it is time to purchase.
Most manufacturers send sporadic emails when they have something to promote. That's not nurturing, that's interrupting. Your prospects and customers need consistent, helpful communication that keeps you top of mind without being pushy.
Build email sequences that deliver value over time. When someone downloads a white paper, don't just send a thank you email and then go silent. Create a series of 5-7 emails over the next 60-90 days that continues the conversation. Share related content, answer common questions, provide application examples, offer tools or calculators.
The goal is not to get them to buy immediately. The goal is to stay engaged so when they're ready to solve their problem, you're the obvious choice because you've been consistently helpful.
Segment your lists based on interests, industry, or stage in the buying process. Someone researching basic information needs different content than someone comparing specific solutions. Your CRM and marketing automation tools make this possible without manual effort.
Track engagement. Who's opening emails? Who's clicking links? Who's visiting your website repeatedly? These behaviors tell you who's actively considering solutions and might be ready for a sales conversation.
Email nurturing works because it respects the buyer's timeline while keeping you relevant. Most industrial purchases have long decision cycles. Email nurturing ensures you're present throughout that journey.
None of these cost much $; all they take are effort, focus, and attention.
Are you tasked with marketing manufacturing? Dig deeper here.