My opinion: Marketing advice has become too complicated for owners of smaller manufacturing companies. Concepts such as “top of funnel” and “customer journey” are hard to comprehend and implement.
Manufacturers are B-U-S-Y. They put out fires all day long. They barely have time to respond to an email let alone sit down to work through their customers’ journeys.
How do I know? I work with them.
It’s been a year since we introduced our Conversions Report to our clients. We send these reports out every week showing our clients where their conversions come from, their ad spend to date, and their goal progress.
We’re really big on goals and achieving them. With one client, we’ve already surpassed this year’s RFQ goal and will hit the stretch goal by the end of the month (November).
The important things I’ve learned from compiling the data for these reports every week:
- There is no silver bullet with regard to sales and marketing
- Consistently tracking conversions every week provides actionable insights that lead to more conversions
- Your own data is 100x better than anything a guru can tell you
During a meeting, a client reported his team had received a signed PO. Yay! I immediately asked for the company name so I could match it back to the conversion report.
We couldn’t find it. “Hold on,” said the client. He checked the CRM. “Ah, that guy called in on this date at this time.”
Bingo! Found it. The call came from a Google Ad — a $5.00 click that became a significant sale. 🙌
Moral: Keep things simple
- Set goals and track your metrics religiously.
- Figure out what’s working and what’s not — and fix what isn’t.
- Don’t break what isn’t broken.
- And most importantly, answer your phone!
