Before you start writing blogs, before you even start an inbound marketing campaign, you need to know who your audience is and how to talk to them. If you’re not truly speaking to them, you may as well be talking with a mouthful of crackers.

Where does a manufacturing lead come from? Like the age-old question a prepubescent kid asks his parent -- “Where do babies come from?” -- the question of how to get online leads as a modern manufacturer can be … uncomfortable.

Why? It seems daunting to grow from best-kept secret in the middle of nowhere to an industrial lead generation machine. And the truth is that many manufacturers and other B2B companies have websites that simply don’t give themselves a chance when it comes to generating leads. Or, if they do, they lack the email and social media marketing to supplement it.

What are 43 million Facebook Page posts telling researchers? That Facebook Page engagement is down 50%, and social media engagement strategies should be re-examined ASAP.

In a B2B climate, where most manufacturers exist, social media may not sound like a priority. Or, if social media is a "priority," it’s one that often gets pushed aside due to tight turnaround times and small staffs. That’s why we created this social media cheat sheet for the little guys and the underdogs -- like you.

You can’t just blindly do social media marketing because some guy at a business seminar told you to. Whether you’re running a Facebook business page, looking for leads on LinkedIn, or (hopefully) using multiple social platforms to spread brand awareness, you need to track what’s working -- and what’s not.

Quick: What’s the difference between a Facebook profile, group, and business page? If you don’t know, you’re in danger of missing your target audience. Creating a Facebook business page is NOT the same thing as making a profile or starting a group.

Over 79 percent of marketing teams say they were able to increase web traffic with as little as 6 hours per week of social media marketing, according to Social Media Examiner. Yet there are holdouts in manufacturing who either ignore social media altogether or don’t do it effectively. Using social platforms -- correctly -- is more important than ever to your B2B social media strategy.

Industrial email marketing is alive and well, despite what you may have heard or read to the contrary. Sounds a lot like manufacturing, eh? However, many industries are still unaware of the power of using email in their manufacturing marketing.

Are you manufacturing brand loyalty online? If not, you’re already behind these awesome manufacturing marketing teams.