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. 

Today’s manufacturing buyer is much more internet savvy than his or her predecessors, and, as a result, websites are becoming paramount to the decision-making process. Your website should be acting as a salesman for your business and a redesign of your website can result in a much needed boost for the performance of your business. You stand to gain improved search engine optimization (SEO), new web exposure and the ability to generate leads to diversify from your existing pipeline. Outlined below are five of the most common signs a website redesign is overdue.

Today, all you hear is about the importance of maintaining a strong presence on social media to promote your brand. You might be thinking to yourself, “Our business has never generated leads this way so why would using a social media platform work for us now?” Before we explore why having a presence on social media is necessary for your company’s success, we must first examine why social media for b2b business is a misunderstood marketing strategy.