Manufacturing Marketing World 2019: The Official Recap Blog

This year (on October 17, 2019 to be specific) marked the first year of the Manufacturing Marketing World conference in Jamestown, NY. 

protocol80, in partnership with MAST, the NWIRC, and the SBDC, worked to create the first educational conference geared toward helping manufacturers reach more prospects and generate more sales. This goal was achieved with the help of dedicated speakers, covering an array of topics throughout the day.

To say “you had to be there” would be an understatement. But, for those of you who couldn’t make it (or for anyone who wants a refresher), we’ve put together this recap guide with the key takeaways from each session, and a video glimpse of the day.

A Look at Manufacturing Marketing World 2019

The conference featured 9 speaking sessions total, with ample time for networking at lunch and during breaks between sessions. 

Each session covered a different sales and marketing topic, and had a lot of great takeaways for attendees. We’ve highlighted a few of the best ones from each session below.

How to Humanize the Sales Process -- Josh Curcio, protocol 80

Josh’s session focused on tactics that bring sales teams up to speed with the modern buyer -- specifically, those who are digital natives -- without losing touch of the human contact that makes sales work. 

The key solutions to the problem of outdated selling techniques that Josh highlighted include:

• Using tools like grammarly, Quickmail, and HubSpot to create personal experiences that are efficient for your sales team.
  
  
• Updating to a modern CRM. Remember, a spreadsheet is not a CRM.
  
  
• Developing a buyer first mentality while selling. Capitalize on this mindset by creating educational content that solves their problems, and share that content during sales conversations. 

Moving into 2020, it’s more important than ever to get legacy sales teams up to speed with digital native buyers, and to connect with them in more meaningful ways.

Lead Generation with Content Based Inbound Marketing -- Holly McCully, protocol 80

Holly’s session covered the “why” behind implementing content and an inbound marketing strategy, and the “how” to make it happen. 

Some of the crucial takeaways include:

• Producing some content is better than nothing. If this means your company can only produce one blog a month, two email newsletters, and four insightful social media posts, that’s better than nothing.
  
  
• Getting content working together is how to truly drive results. To see drastic increases, it’s important to leverage multiple kinds of content and produce them in tandem, as a part of a strategy.

• Marketing and sales should be actively communicating and supporting one another.

Making sure every piece of content you produce has the goal of being helpful to your prospective buyers is how to win with inbound marketing. After all, your buyers have pain points, and they’re searching for solutions. Let them come to you!

How to Stand Out at a Trade Show -- Donny Kemick, protocol 80

Donny’s session covered everything including standing out before, during, and after the show with unique tactics, both digital and conventional, to stay top-of-mind for your leads.

Here are some of the secret solutions to standing out:

• Begin planning 8 weeks ahead of the show. Establish and email calendar, research social media hashtags, get in touch with leads from last year.
  
  
• Get out of your comfort zone at the show. The truth is, to cut through the noise, you just might have to be a little bit weird.

• Plan follow up before the show. Your sales team will be swamped when they get back. Take some work off their plate and plan and /or automate ahead of time.

As Donny mentioned during his session, we have a whole guide for how to stand out at a trade show on our site. You can check it out here!

HubSpot & Other Software / Tools for Sales & Marketing Teams -- Ryan Daughenbaugh, protocol 80

Ryan’s presentation focused on the top tools that sales and marketing teams at manufacturing organizations can leverage to streamline operations and improve communication internally.

In addition to a wide variety of tools, Ryan also discussed:

• Cloud storage and the pros and cons of housing data and operations on the cloud.

• Design software tools, such as Canva, to create visually appealing graphics and CTAs to place on your website, in educational emails, and on social media.
  
  
• The importance of leveraging video marketing in the changing digital content climate, citing how 83% of marketing professionals think video marketing has good ROI.

Overall, Ryan emphasizes that making smart decisions with data and tools based on ease of communication, collaboration, and security is the best way to modernize your business.

Best Practices for Lead Generation on LinkedIn -- Mollie Kinney, protocol 80

Mollie focused on highlighting the tips, tricks, and tools on the LinkedIn platform that can be used to drive successful lead generation and make more out of business social media presence. 

She focused on things like:

• Making sure you’re writing to make the 2019 algorithm happy. This means making sure your content is more relevant than ever, and focusing on spurring engagement. 

• Ensuring your company profiles and personal profiles are optimized thusly. Test out actively utilizing your personal profile to add insight to company profile posts, and see how that helps engagement and retention.
  
  
• Developing thought leadership in your industry by sharing, commenting, and reacting to posts from other thought leaders and publications.

Overall, make sure that you are always posting with a purpose. Your leads will notice, and begin trickling in to learn more.

How Manufacturers Use Blogging to Boost Website Traffic -- Adam Vosler, protocol 80

Adam’s session focused on a deep dive into the importance of blogging for manufacturers. He covered everything from when you’re first starting a blog, to what success looks like, and how blogging fits into the bigger picture of your marketing and sales strategies.

Here’s what Adam’s main points were:

• Modern prospects are online and searching for educational information. They’re looking for the content that is stored in your team’s head -- so it needs to be translated to your website.

• Starting your blog starts with building your buyer persona. These are fictional but realistic profiles of your ideal buyer. In short, they are the audience you’ll be writing to.
  
  
• The more traffic you need for your site, the more important it is to begin blogging often. Focus on really awareness stage content topics, and populate your blog as much as possible.

Overall, Adam urged everyone to not be intimidated by blogging, or discouraged by thinking prospects won’t care about what you’re writing about. Leads and prospects will begin to find these crucial pieces of content, as soon as you start writing them.

How Blogging And Inbound Helped Falconer Electronics -- Curt Anderson, Falconer Electronics 

Curt not only talked about how blogging is a great way to build success online for manufacturing companies, but that eCommerce integration can be a crucial tipping point to stand out online as well.

 Here are some main takeaways from Curt’s session:

• The Google algorithm makes constant changes that are sometimes hard to stay on top of. Support your company through other efforts, such as eCommerce, and do not rely solely on organic means of traffic.
  
  
• Blogging can be fun. Just because your manufacturing company specializes in something dense or niche, does not mean you cannot mix in some humorous topics every now and then.
  
  
• Experiment with what works for your company, and what helps your customers. It isn’t ludicrous to place stock parts on Amazon if that’s where your buyers are searching for them!

Curt emphasizes that overall, blogging is a tool to get educational content out to your buyer. But, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have fun with it -- or incorporate other methods of soothing your buyers pain points, and solving their problems.

Inbound Marketing from a Manufacturing Company CEO’s Perspective -- Rob White, Dahlstrom Roll Form

Rob White and Dahlstrom have been implementing inbound marketing tactics since 2015. Because of this, Rob was able to show the audience the results that have been seen over the past 4 years, as well as the impact the strategy has had on his business.

Rob noted:

• A substantial increase in organic traffic, as well as leads, over the years.
  
  
• A combination of HubSpot tools and inbound marketing tactics was perfect in driving success for Dahlstrom. This included traditional inbound tools mentioned in previous sections , as well as workflows, sequences, and ABM campaigns.
  
  
• Marketing efforts supporting sales efforts is what truly helped move the needle.

Manufacturers and IP: Trademarks, Copyright, Social, and Advertising -- Beth Seals, Zippo

Beth discussed the nitty gritty of intellectual property law and manufacturing businesses, specifically when it comes to the sales and marketing / advertising spheres. She outlined some trouble areas that manufacturing companies can fall into at times.

This included:

• Understanding the difference between copyright, patents, and trademarks. Knowing the appropriate terms and understanding the key discrepancies can help protect your products and designs.
  
  
• Knowing what is and is not fair use. For example, just because you gave someone credit for their photo or image, does not necessarily mean you can use it on your site.
  

Beth highly recommends looking deeply into the topic of IP law, and exploring what rights your company has as well as areas to improve on.

What’s Next for Manufacturing Marketing World?

If you just can’t wait for more sales and marketing info to help set your company up for success in 2020, stay tuned for webinars and resources that will be coming soon.

Have an area in particular you’d like to see covered in a webinar, or in next year’s sessions? Fill out the form below and let us know! We’ll notify you when the topic is being covered: