According to the National Association of Manufacturers 2018 Second Quarter Manufacturers’ Outlook Survey, more than 95% (an all-time high) of manufacturers expect to experience highly elevated levels of activity, including an increase in sales.  

Wow! What a great honor to be named one of the recipients of Inc. magazine’s Best Workplaces award. To be recognized on a national level for being a great place to work has me in a state of awe.

How do B2B companies plan to generate more leads and grow revenue now and in the year 2020?

That was the topic of recent discussion at Cleveland State University’s Afternoons at Ahuja panel discussion, which we attended. Topics discussed included:

The results are in!

The 2018 Northeast Ohio Regional Manufacturing Survey recently revealed its findings and showed that the region’s manufacturing industry is booming.

More than 400 companies representing 76,000 Ohio manufacturing workers were surveyed, and of those surveyed, about 86% of them expect gross revenues to increase this year, while nearly 59% plan to make capital expenditures.

As the owner of a marketing firm that specializes in growing manufacturing companies, I often get asked, “How much should my manufacturing firm spend on marketing?” My typical response is, “Well, it depends.” As you can imagine, this isn’t the answer most people are looking for. The challenge for many small- to middle-market industrial companies is that they have never budgeted for marketing. For them, the budget is zero. I often hear, “I don’t have a formal marketing budget, but if you can make me money, I will spend money to make money.” I always like a challenge, but I’m always left asking the same questions: “How much marketing budget is enough to garner the results the manufacturer demands and how much is too much?” It’s a chicken or egg scenario. One that plays out every day at my company.

Marketing budgets are always a sensitive topic—particularly for manufacturers who depend on a pipeline of projects that can ebb and flow throughout the seasons. During revenue downturns, it seems as though marketing is always the first budget to be cut when in reality it should be the last, especially when you want to continue pipeline growth.

Almost two years ago, SyncShow created the We Manufacture CLE initiative to highlight the large community of manufacturers in the Cleveland area and the important work they do. Cleveland manufactures help create everything us Clevelanders—and people around the world—see every day, from the infrastructure we rely upon, to the products we use.