Changes in Industrial Marketing Online
In 2012 Google introduced some major algorithm changes which shook up the organic rankings for almost every industry and major market. With many months of observations and industry analyst discussions we’ve learned what to do and what to avoid. This article will help business owners and managers make better decisions on strategies and tactics and has two main sections.
The first discusses significant changes and opportunities in industrial website design practices. The second discusses various types of search engine marketing practices. It is worth commenting that your particular industry and internal matters such as budgeting need to be considered when creating your overall internet marketing strategy. If you prefer to self manage your online marketing you may still want to consider paying for a few hours of consulting with an expert. Proper planning and execution can keep you from making serious mistakes and are essential for getting the most from your invested time and money.
Industrial Website Design
Business website design has really improved over the last few years. The old style small and cluttered look has been replaced with sites that have clean styling and user enhancements. Because industrial website users are typically very busy people it is important to develop a site architecture that makes it easy for a user to navigate your site. My personal recommendation for larger sites is to use silo website architecture. This form of site structure can enhance your on-page optimization and presents a very logical path to information. It can also eliminate or reduce the need for extensive drop down menus which can be problematic for certain browsers or users that may have javascript disabled.
To get the best possible site your web design and development company should now be basing all coding on HTML5 and CSS3. Not to downplay their importance through over simplifying, HTML5 and CSS3 allow for professional styling options and streamlined code for better loading sites.
Special features are used on many sites. Live Chat is a common feature and is especially useful on ecommerce sites. Live Chat on an ecommerce website is proven to reduce cart abandonment rates, present opportunities for add-on sales and improve customer satisfaction by assuring that buyers get the correct item.
Interested in saving money? Companies such as ThomasNet offer template websites which although appearing to offer value, carry an expensive “technology fee” every year and you never truly own the whole site. Your company is effectively locked in to this arrangement without end. And these sites are usually built using HTML tables which is very outdated technolgy. Using a table-less design with CSS (cascading style sheets) is the way to go.
There are internet marketing companies who will build you a custom industrial website and hand you the keys. Your only annual costs are to renew your domain name and hosting, often for as little as $150 per year. If you have an ecommerce website you will need to add on the cost of an SSL certificate.
Responsive Web Design
Responsive web design is relatively new and offers tremendous benefits. Essentially, a responsive website is built using percentages instead of fixed dimensions. This allows the layout to be responsive to the device on which it is displayed. As such, responsive website design eliminates the need for a separate mobile website. Responsive websites also have exceptionally good page load times which search engines strongly prefer.
A large percentage of web design companies do not understand how to develop code for a responsive web design, so it is important for you to find a company that has proven experience in this area. A small but important example of what many ordinary web design companies fail to consider, is that your phone number needs to be “tap to call” enabled for mobile users to call you with ease.
Searchable Catalogs
Searchable catalogs are a mainstay component for many manufacturing websites, especially those with a large number of products to sell. Often these searchable catalogs are also ecommerce enabled. Improving the user experience is proven to increase conversion actions so it may be time to redesign and launch a better online catalog. Old style catalog pages typically have very small text and thumbnail images that make it challenging for users to see important product details. Modern catalogs can provide expandable product images and new ideas on content placement help users to better evaluate your products.
Search Engine Marketing
There are many ways to market your business online. What works for one business may not work as well for another. If your company has a very small marketing budget it may make sense to exclude certain services or use them in only a limited and strategic manner. When you create an internet marketing strategy you need to carefully weigh how each element will interface with the other. You need to understand the purpose of each element and use it accordingly.
Advertising in Industrial Directories
Industrial directory advertising is a dead-end for most companies. The average person conducts an internet search from a search engine and then selects a company from the first search results page. Typically 65% of people do not venture past page one, and most contact one or more of the top five ranked listings. If you do searches for your type of products or services and no online directory sites are shown it’s hard to believe that they are going to deliver much traffic to your site. It’s also important for you to know that Google announced earlier this year a dislike of certain directory sites.
SEO – Search Engine Optimization
SEO, or search engine optimization, is how you get your site ranked well in the top part of a search engine results page (SERP). To achieve high organic rankings you must be very precise and deliberate in what you do and how you do it. Google in particular carefully measures metrics such as bounce rates, time on page/site, number and quality of internal and external links, page load times and content quality. There are numerous other factors which need to be managed and all kept within certain bounds.
Far and away, strong organic rankings are how an industrial company can get the best return for their internet marketing investment. It is extremely important to understand that the internet is full of organizations promising all sorts of miracle guaranteed results. The truth is probably less than 10% of self-proclaimed “SEO companies” really know what they are doing. Be careful who you choose to help you — employing the wrong methods can lead to penalties and serious long-term losses.
Pay Per Click Advertising
PPC, or Pay Per Click advertising can be highly effective for generating leads and building brand awareness. I believe Google Adwords is the best PPC advertising option. There are others such as Bing Ads and Yahoo Search Marketing; however utilizing only one PPC program makes it easy to manage and measure results.
There are some complex strategies and campaign refinements that can improve your PPC advertising ROI. Use of negative keywords can dramatically reduce irrelevant or low quality clicks. Clustering your keywords into small ad groups can improve Quality Scores. Implementing only phrase searches that indicate favorable user intent is yet another way to improve PPC results.
PPC advertising is a perfect option for having a presence where you lack organic ranking. Even with good organic ranking PPC is known to deliver additional leads for the same terms. PPC advertising is a good tool for testing new markets before you invest in organic SEO work. A great feature of PPC advertising is that you can turn-on or turn-off your ads whenever you like which gives you great cost control.
Social Media Marketing
How many times have we heard “my customers don’t use those social media sites”? I could argue the point; however let’s instead focus on verifiable facts. Search engine ranking algorithms consider “social signals” meaning they measure how real people interact with your brand. Your social media business pages are not designed to be a playground for hyper marketing people to pitch specials and such. Social media sites are venues to develop your brand identity and give consumers information that they will find useful. Social media interaction can include sharing funny commercials, discussing your company’s charitable or community involvement, announcing special events and generally making customers feel like part of your organization. The best social media sites for an industrial company are Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus. You need to make certain that you create “business pages” and take time to style them in a way that reinforces your brand message and visual style.
Industrial Internet Marketing Recap
Your company should be using the internet to find more customers. A well developed internet presence can bring you customers from virtually anywhere in the world. There are many ways to improve online visibility. With careful strategic planning and precise implementation your marketing efforts can deliver incredible results. Whether you manage this in-house or hire an industrial internet marketing company you need to make this work every day for your industrial business.
James Hobson is a published author and owner of an Atlanta internet marketing company. He specializes in helping small to medium businesses improve their internet marketing strategies, practices and results.
