Most manufacturers know they need to have a website and presence on social media. They know they need email marketing and content. But how do you make all of the pieces of your online marketing mix fit together so it actually drives sales? I’m seeing more and more manufacturers dive deeper into digital marketing to help them grow leads and sales, but often they are missing gaps and executing incorrectly. Moving Your Online Presence From A Checkbox To A Revenue Generator Your online presence has the ability to become a 24/7 sales person that is scalable and measurable. Typically, manufacturers view their website and digital marketing efforts as checkboxes to complete, instead of seeing the big picture - how it can drive leads and, ultimately, sales. The problem is that most manufacturers don’t understand how these pieces fit together to grow sales using their online presence. They don’t know what their website should do, what they should be doing on social media, and how things like marketing automation fit in. What I’m going to show you is the exact process, in 4 milestones, that you can take to drive traffic, leads, and ultimately sales from your online presence - all without you needing to redesign your website. Growing Sales Using The Building Materials Digital Marketing Funnel The best way to think about your digital marketing is by visualizing a funnel. Your audience should enter through the top and exit the bottom as a customer. To do this effectively, you must meet your audience’s needs at each milestone in the funnel. If you’re ineffective at any one of the milestones, it can seriously impact the results of your online marketing. Milestone 1: Traffic It’s no secret that you need to grow your traffic online. Your online presence is driven by people searching for and finding your products. If people can’t find you online then you’re fighting a losing battle. Most manufacturers utilize some mix of SEO, online advertising, social media, and other means to generate traffic, but where they fall short is driving the highest quality traffic. Quality traffic consists of visitors who are likely to become a customer. In order to find out how to drive more quality traffic, you need to assess two things: your website and your competitor’s website. Look your website’s current performance using analytics tools like Google Analytics. By digging into the data you should be able to see what traffic sources are bringing you the best return. You should also look at your competitors’ efforts by using online tools that can spy on their efforts. Once you’ve looked at these two avenues you can find out where you need to devote resources, in order to gain greater traction with potential customers. Milestone 2: Trust Don’t Miss the #1 Live Event for Building Products Sales & Marketing Leaders! Building Products Customer Workshop December 3-4 | Nashville, TN - Only a Few Seats Left" Grab Your Ticket Before It’s Gone The biggest mistake manufacturers make after driving traffic to their site is trying to get visitors to convert to become a lead right away. I have a saying when it comes to building materials digital marketing: your traffic won’t commit until you prove you’re the right fit. Once you get potential customers to your site, your goal is to build trust. The only way they’re going to increase the number of leads you’re generating is if you build TRUST with your audience by being the Go-To Resource for their specific needs. You build trust by answering their questions, helping them with their problems, and delivering as much value as possible. This is primarily done by creating valuable content on your website like case studies, videos, white papers, and any piece of content that helps them without pushing your product. Milestone 3: Convert Once you’ve built trust with your audience, then you can offer opportunities for them to go to the next milestone: convert. This is where someone takes the step from being a passive online viewer to an active potential customer. You can introduce opportunities for someone to convert by offering incredibly valuable content and tools to help your audience thrive in their jobs and solve common pain points: Product visualizersProduct calculatorsCase studies Expert interview videos When you do get your visitors to convert, you'll start feeling like your site is working for you. This is were a lot of manufactures miss out - because this feels like the last step, but there is still one more critical step in winning over a customer. Milestone 4: Nurture Once you’ve identified that potential customer and captured them as a lead, you now have to nurture them to the point where they are ready to purchase. This is where your digital and online marketing goes full circle. This is the holy grail of digital marketing. You nurture people by giving them valuable content via email, social media, and other forms of online communication. And you do this in a way that organically moves them further through the funnel, to the point that they buy from you, spec your product, and/or reach out to one of your sales reps. By nurturing and building rapport with them, it makes it easier for your audience to say “yes” when you reach out to them to purchase your product. Are You Ready To See Growth Through Your Online Presence? The web can drive leads and sales for you if you focus on these four milestones: Traffic, Trust, Conversion, and Nurture. The beautiful thing about this process is that it's scalable and measurable - and you can start doing it now. I've given you the process to start seeing an impact from your digital marketing efforts. Taking these steps today will have long term impact on the performance of your online presence and, ultimately, sales. If you are tired of settling for the current performance of your digital marketing growth, I'm ready to be your guide. I am offering a 30 minute Mini-Review of your Digital Marketing & Online Presence. On the call, I'll look at your website and online efforts, as well as your competitors’ online presence and share my recommendations with you. Due to my busy schedule I only have a few slots open each month for this complimentary call, on a first-come-first-served basis. Email me at [email protected] or call me at 800-285-3994.