Developing a marketing plan for a manufacturing company is crucial for success in the B2B market. The ‘marketing plan’ is a sheet of paper that clearly lays out a marketing strategy for your business in order to attract customers. Let’s start from the basics: Manufacturing companies form partnerships with other businesses that place orders – usually for large amounts of products. How do you know where to find customers ready to place huge orders with your company? Follow the 4-step process we’ve laid out below to know how to devise a marketing plan for your company.

The key to a successful manufacturing company marketing plan is to include all possible marketing avenues: Paid marketing and free marketing. The marketing plan for manufacturing company PDF has to include objectives such as sales targets you’re trying to reach and the budget – i.e. how much you’re willing to spend to get there. Instead of focusing all your efforts on one marketing strategy, you should employ a mix of different marketing strategies that will give you an advantage over your competitors.

Step 1) Develop An Edge

The first step is to become a thought leader in your industry by employing branding strategies that give you an edge over your competitors. While this method is free, you’ll have to put a lot of effort to stand out and highlight the differences between you and other manufacturing companies.

  • When a customer is looking to place an order with your company, they are directly comparing you to dozens of other manufacturers. How do you stand out? One word: Branding.

In order for customers to view your company as superior, you have to present yourself as a leader in your manufacturing industry.  Start by developing products that stand out and/or offering better deals on prices. The key here is to give an advantage that other companies wouldn’t and make concessions which make it more profitable to deal with your company than competitors. This is your brand.

Organize events in your industry that give you a platform to promote your products. Once the word gets out, you will become recognizable in your industry and get customers through word of mouth.

Step 2) Set Clear Goals                                                

As part of your marketing plan for manufacturing company sample, you have to set clear objectives about what you’re trying to achieve in the short term and the long term. These objectives can be revised based on performance, but it important to set them early on. For instance, you should have a 1-month target and a 12-month target.

  • The objectives should be marked down as sales or total figures. Example: You want to do $10,000/month in sales within 3 months or 10 new customers in 2 months.

Step 3) Develop Sample Marketing Plan For Manufacturing Company

To develop a marketing plan, the strategy has to be based around your marketing objectives. For instance, at the start you may want to spend more on paid advertising (Google AdWords, Instagram, YouTube Ads) that will give you exposure in front of new customers and later you may want to invest in free advertising such as SEO that will drive new customers to your business over the course of many years – all while developing your brand.

Utilize all marketing avenues at your disposal. As a manufacturing company your target market is the B2B market – make sure you have a presence on all large B2B trade websites like Alibaba where customers from all over the world are looking to buy directly from manufacturers.

Step 4) Revise Performance

The marketing plan is never set in stone – you can expect your marketing plan to change significantly within the first month. Always be prepared for revisions in the long term. If the marketing campaigns turn out successful – double-down on them and spend more on those campaigns while cutting out low performers.

Don’t get attached to marketing campaigns: If they don’t end up performing the way you expect them, cut them out of the marketing plan. The key here is to remain objective and focus on the performance metrics that give you a clear overview of where you get the best ROI. Once you’ve accumulated the data based on a number of different marketing techniques, you can start making revisions to the marketing plan.