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.

Hey Sales and Marketing Professionals!

I’m sure you can agree that driving more quality visitors to your website is important, but it can also be very difficult when you’re starting with very low numbers, and you don’t want to rely on pay-per-click advertising.

But what if I told you that by strategically beefing up the Attract stage of your Online Marketing Plan for Manufacturers, you can drive more quality visitors to your website?

In this post, I’m going to show you how pillar content, your blog, SEO, social media, and PPC can work in unison to attract visitors to your manufacturing website.

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.

Today, to new and potential customers, a good business website is often the face of a company. It represents your business to a worldwide audience, answers customer queries, and should help generate leads. A great-looking website isn't enough if it can’t attract adequate traffic to it. The best manufacturing websites have mastered several ways to increase traffic on their sites.

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.

By now, you’ve probably heard social media is supposed to be this treasure trove of free and cheap advertising. But if you’re like a lot of manufacturers and other folks who frequent trade shows, you’re still waiting for the evidence. Well, don’t give up just yet. And, don’t assume what you’ve been doing up until now hasn’t been working -- you just need a few more trade show ideas that connect with modern buyers.

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.