Your brand is more than just a reflection of your business.

It’s an asset, and an incredibly valuable one at that. Before we can discuss best practices, allow me to break down what a “brand” is, exactly.

Social media for business can be daunting when you're tasked with creating relevant, engaging posts that will draw your audience to your site. We all know the feeling of sitting in front of an empty Facebook post composer, not sure where to go next!

When you get stuck, use this checklist guide to keep your gears moving, and your leads flowing.

Content marketing for manufacturers: Good. Hastily implemented content marketing with no strategy: Bad.

If you haven't heard of marketing automation, you probably don't actively market your business.

Marketing automation typically consists of software and technologies that allow marketers to automate repetitive tasks through a variety of channels such as social media, websites, and email.

Many marketers opt to use MailChimp for their marketing efforts, and rightfully so! MailChimp offers great tools including list and audience management, social media integration, data driven insights, and marketing automation. The last of which will be the tool we're focusing on today.

Do you have an internal marketing team? How about an internal sales and marketing team? Is your "team" or "committee" 1 person? 

If you don't have anyone in-house that's working on marketing your business, you're not alone. I'm always astonished at the number of decent sized companies that we work with that don't have a dedicated staff for marketing. When a company doesn't put thought into the nuts and bolts of how they get new clients, who they are, and how to best reach them, it creates a challenge for companies like ours.

According to Software Advice's Marketing Automation Buyer Report, 85% of manufacturers cited the need to nurture leads due to a relatively long sales cycle associated with their product. 

You may believe that your inbound marketing tactics will be over at lead generation --  but, you're wrong. In order to carry out a lead during the marketing funnel process, you need to nurture it. Lead nurturing is a vital role for all inbound marketers in order to gain valuable and sustainable relationships.

Manufacturing has a long buying cycle -- which is why lead nurturing is especially essential for this industry. B2B companies should be making consistent contact with prospects at all stages of the buying cycle to receive all of the awesome benefits of lead nurturing.

What does every successful marketing strategy have in common? If you look closely, you'll find these five traits in every aspect of the campaign:

1. Pertinent
2. Profitable
3. Practical
4. Provocative
5. Plugged-in

Everything you create, post, publish, and share should follow all of these P's to make your manufacturing business strategy more successful.

(Editor's Note: The following is a guest post by Deb Calvert, founder of People First Productivity Solutions, on the "why" and the "how" of driving employee engagement.)

Employee engagement matters in the workplace. In order to encourage and promote engagement, you need to have the right leadership.

You’ve finished a beautiful new video and you’re ready to share it with the masses on YouTube.
If you’re like me, this is when your workflow is derailed by a daunting blank “description” box.

So I’m getting you back on track with some tips and best practices for getting the most from your video’s description.

Finally manufacturers, the spotlight is on you.

October 5th is Manufacturing Day in the United States. The intention of the day is to celebrate modern manufacturers and inspire the next generation of manufacturers. As the founders of the day put it:

“MFG Day is designed to amplify the voice of individual manufacturers and coordinate a collective chorus of manufacturers with common concerns and challenges.”  

What are these challenges that manufacturers will address?

• Skilled labor shortage they face
• Connect with future generations
• Take charge of the public image of manufacturing
• Ensure the ongoing prosperity of the whole industry

Pretty cool, right? Here’s how to participate.