Case Study: Manufacturer of Complex Machined Parts
Client Description
360 Direct began working with a precision machined parts manufacturer in 2017. This company specializes in machining, welding, and fabricating high tolerance parts used in agricultural, mining, and construction equipment. The machine shop has an international customer base, and has roots dating back to the early 1900s.
360 Direct designed this client’s marketing plan to focus on sustainable growth in various inbound marketing metrics that ultimately lead to growth in revenue. Metrics include web traffic and inbound leads. Additional goals included better name and brand awareness and a more diverse customer portfolio.
The client’s monthly program began with email marketing, social media, and blogs, alongside a new website build. As results began to show themselves and the value of marketing made itself apparent, the client has expanded their program to incorporate editorial writing and PR, case studies, internal signage, and digital advertising, as well as tackle additional projects like video and photography.
Strategy & Tactics
Website
This company began with an out of date website that they didn’t enjoy showing prospects. 360 Direct built a website that was much more modern, responsive to all screen sizes, and easy for users to navigate. The site features their company video and updated imagery. 360 Direct continues to update the website regularly with new blogs, press, and photos.
By using website and SEO best practices, their organic web traffic increased 50% from 2017 to 2018, and continues to grow year over year.
2017 & 2018 Comparative Analytics
PR and Editorials
360 Direct leveraged its relationships with various industry publications to feature the machine shop in many different manufacturing magazines including, Manufacturing in Focus, The Fabricator, Industrial Machinery Digest, Manufacturing News, and Advanced Manufacturing. These opportunities included press releases as well as printed editorials highlighting the company. This earned media resulted in exposure in a very targeted market at no cost to them. The cost to get a fraction of the space in each magazine would run tens of thousands of dollars.
Google Ads
The client wanted to get a little more aggressive in their marketing to capitalize on some of the attention they were getting from various industry publications. 360 Direct suggested the use of Google Ads as a cost effective alternative to traditional advertising with excellent results. Their CTR (Click Through Rate) for Display Google Ads is currently over three times the industry average.
The Client’s Average Display Ad Click Rate:
Social Media
Social media was activated and regularly updated as part of their marketing program. Over the course of two years, their Twitter was grown from zero to 534 followers, while Instagram topped over 100 followers in the first 4 months after activation.
Email Marketing
A monthly email newsletter is sent to keep customers and prospects informed of everything the company has to offer. Their team has made the most of these email newsletter campaigns by following up with recipients who click on a link. This maximizes their sales team’s time.
Photography
The client needed photography to include on their website, social media, and for editorial opportunities. Photos included featured machines, headshots of key employees, and action shots. Now, every opportunity they come across can be quickly enhanced by relevant imagery.
Video
This client wanted to take advantage of how effective video can be, but needed to keep projects cost effective. 360 Direct has edited videos taken in house, created no-frills training videos, and pulled out all the stops for more polished videos fit to present with.
Their company video was a few years old, and quite a bit has changed since then. They opted to shoot a new company video and an HR video for recruiting new employees. 360 Direct shot both videos at the same time to make the projects more cost effective.
Special Campaigns and Projects
There are some opportunities that don’t happen often, and this client is highly motivated in taking advantage of them when they come along. Part of having a scaleable, flexible marketing agency is being able to grab onto opportunities when they arise. Projects have included:
- Signage and collateral for job fairs
- Filming training sessions and creating internal signage and collateral for staff
- Photography, signage, and a press release when a federal-level politician chose the company as their site for a Town Hall meeting
- Print ads for local partnerships
Client Feedback
This company is always finding new ways to grow and positively impact the local community, and 360 Direct is honored to help them achieve success. With their newfound international business partnerships and their ongoing efforts to close the skills gap, they are an inspiring company to market.
Like many manufacturing companies, this client came to us knowing they needed more marketing, but unsure if anyone would actually be interested in reading about what they do. After we emailed them their first blog, they replied, “Wow- I just read this blog and it’s impressive because you have produced an article on machining that is interesting to read, not just an outpouring of facts and figures…. I like this!” With each editorial, blog, or web update we produce, the client is enthusiastic about the work we do and is consistently impressed by the results they see.
The machine shop is thriving and successfully growing into new markets with a marketing strategy tailored to their goals. In 2019, 360 Direct and the client have new projects and campaigns planned to take their business and their marketing to the next level and keep up the pattern of aggressive growth.
The Importance of Video in 2016
Why Video?
2016. It’s a digital age and if you don’t keep up with the times then you risk being left behind by the competition. Marketing has long been an important component of successful businesses and that is not going to change this year, however the focus and strategies may be shifting. You may have heard the term “YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world”, and this is nothing but the truth. It processes more than 3 billion monthly searches, attracts 1 billion unique monthly users, and is bigger than Bing, Yahoo, Ask and AOL combined. Yes, you read that correctly, COMBINED. 100 hours of video are uploaded every minute with 6 billion hours viewed every month. In fact if YouTube was a country it would be the third biggest in the world behind China and India. So what am I getting at? In 2016 video content is essential.
So why the focus on video? What benefits does it offer? Well other than the wider reach offered by being accessible by 1 billion monthly YouTube users, there are significant other benefits.
- SEO Enhancement 70% of the top 100 search listings are now some form of video content meaning using video is now more important than ever. Search engines are effectively rewarding video users with an increased level of traffic. Increased level of traffic = increased leads. You do the math.
- Become More Memorable Everybody has heard the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words”, well video could be worth even more than that. A well constructed video can leave somebody with a bigger impression than a block of text ever could. By reaching out with video you will become more memorable and as a result more likely to capture a viewers business.
- Showcase Your Talents Whilst pictures and text can do a good job of explaining your products and services nothing can demonstrate the true qualities quite like a video does. It gives a different dimension and really lets the customer see the full attributes. It is more interactive and exciting and will no doubt end up engaging more prospective customers.
Application in Manufacturing:
The application for video within the manufacturing industry is massive. If a customer can see your workshop skills and machines in action as well as the quality of your work they are all the more likely to go into business with you. On top of this if you make a particularly good video highlighting your qualities it is likely to get many more views online than any one picture would (think athletes highlight reel). It helps people understand the process more and helps to cultivate a relationship with potential customers. By watching your business at work they feel like they already know you.
If you take one thing away from this article, let it be this: video is the future.
The Video “Hook” and Why You Need It
Recently, I attended a business presentation on Videos being the new “Hook” and it got me thinking. If using video is “new”, then how come it’s been used to drive engagement for over a decade? Because it’s only recently that sharp marketers have begun to use it to their competitive advantage, see for example some of these spokesperson videos created by a video marketing agency for various clients. The lyrics from “Hook” by Blues Traveler, a song near and dear to my heart, were used to describe what marketers try to answer everyday. How can videos be used as a company’s “Hook?”
“Because the hook brings you back
I ain’t tellin’ you no lie
The hook brings you back
On that you can rely”
Videos are rapidly replacing text as the content strategy driving online engagement. Videos keep people on sites longer, have higher conversion rates and increase search rankings. According to HubSpot, using the word “video” in an email subject line boosts open rates by 19% with a whopping 65% increase in click-through rates.
But wait, there’s more. As a matter of fact, the statistical backing for why companies should use videos to increase engagement and get higher ROI’s keeps pouring in:
- By 2017 2/3rds of information sharing will be done in video form.
- 300 hours of video are uploaded every minute to YouTube according to a Google spokesperson.
- Sites that include video have on average an extra 2 minutes of dwell time compared to those that don’t.
- 52% of marketers name video as the type of content with the best ROI.
So what can companies do with that information? They can use it to inform and add to marketing ideas, like the following:
- Client Testimonials
- Website leverage
- Virtual tour of your company
- Product demos
- Company culture
These are standard, tried and true aspects of marketing, but adding video enables them to be more effective in a perpetually digital space. If building your own video marketing strategy seems like a daunting task, contact us to learn how we can help.
http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/video-marketing-statistics