Unveiling the Power of Off-Page SEO for Manufacturing

In a previous article, we discussed the importance of off-page SEO for industrial and manufacturing companies. Check it out here to get a more in-depth look at the different types of off-page SEO and how to get the most out of them.

Today we’re going to hone in on social media marketing, one of the most powerful types of off-page SEO for manufacturers. When we say social media marketing, what we mean by that is utilizing popular social networking websites to ultimately drive conversions. As far as B2B marketing goes, at MFG Tribe we have observed the two most popular avenues to boost off-page SEO to be YouTube and LinkedIn. They are commonly used in tandem with each other- companies plug their LinkedIn in their YouTube videos and descriptions, and plug their YouTube channel and videos on their LinkedIn posts.

When these social networking tools are utilized properly, there are three benefits that your business should see. First, off-page social content should establish an identity for your industrial brand that your audience can recognize. Consider putting together a social template or brand guideline document to keep a consistent look and feel to your posts.

Second, your off-page content should help your company build a social following. When your company’s story and brand identity resonate with your audience, and when they get something useful out of the content that you share, you will grow a following or even a community with a sense of authority and trust.

Finally, each post you make on social sites gives you a chance to lead traffic directly where you want. A call-to-action (CTA) can be so simple yet so powerful to drive viewership, subscriptions, website visits, and any other kind of engagement that you would seek from your audience.

Of course, using social networking as an effective marketing tool isn’t exactly intuitive. There are a lot of intermediate steps along the way between developing a social concept, initially sharing a piece of social content and closing a new deal. So long as your actions are guided by a data-driven content strategy, you will have a much greater chance of success utilizing social networking as a marketing tool.

 

Crafting a Strong Industrial Content Marketing Strategy

Before you start posting, you need to develop a strong content marketing strategy to appeal to your audience. The most effective way to begin developing your content marketing strategy is to conduct research on your audience using data analysis tools. Some of our favorites are:

• LinkedIn Analytics. LinkedIn is equipped with a variety of analysis tools. You can evaluate the performance of individual posts, see the reach of your page, gain insights into current followers and page visitors, compare metrics with your competitors, and more.
• Semrush. This program is your one-stop-shop for all things SEO. It is especially helpful for evaluating targeted keyword performance, which can give you an idea of what your content should focus on to boost your website’s visibility.
• Google Analytics. By implementing a small snippet of code for each web page, Google Analytics can provide invaluable feedback on how visitors are actually navigating your website. Learn which pages people are most commonly visiting, where they spend the most time, and what kind of device they’re browsing on.

A point that we cannot drive home enough is that you should ALWAYS create with purpose.

Ideally, your content should feature keywords that your audience is searching for to get more eyes on your brand, and it should provide value to them as well. Keep your content relevant to what you do and informative to your audience. This is a great way to build E-E-A-T, another facet of off-page SEO that we’ve discussed in a previous blog post.

At MFG Tribe we place a big emphasis on making sure your content marketing strategy includes both video and written content. Don’t get us wrong- video content has experienced explosive growth over the past few years and shows no signs of slowing down. However, it’s also true that some people just prefer written content over video. By giving attention to both markets, you ensure that no part of your audience gets overlooked.

Content creation can be overwhelming- but not for us. Our video production team and technical writers are ready to start telling your brand’s story.

Social Media Marketing for Manufacturing Professionals

We understand that there’s a significant barrier to entry when it comes to getting started on YouTube, especially for a manufacturing or industrial company. Producing high-quality video content requires a ton of knowledge regarding video editing, filming best practices, storyboarding, general aesthetics- it can be a massive undertaking if you’re starting from scratch. If you need a boost to get started in producing awesome video content to help grow your YouTube following, consider working with a marketing agency that has a dedicated, professional video team like MFG Tribe.

While it makes sense to stay away from some of the more casual social media platforms, there is absolutely no reason for any industrial company in the modern age to not be using LinkedIn to its full potential. It’s a network full of industry professionals, from technicians to sales reps to company CEOs. If you know how to properly leverage your social media connections, it’s only a matter of time before they all know your company by name.

When people browse LinkedIn, they’re looking for what the businesses in their network have to offer- so show them what you’ve got. Remember all that high-quality content that you worked so hard to develop a strategy for? This is your chance to show it off to demonstrate your business’ expertise in your field.

It’s important to post regularly, but not too frequently. If you follow our advice of always creating with a purpose, then it should be easy to avoid posting too often. While there is technically no minimum amount you should be posting, from our experience we recommend sharing a new post at least once every weekday. Check out your own page’s analytics to learn more about your followers’ online activity and develop a posting schedule around that.

Speaking of followers, let’s talk a little bit about how to gain a following.

Actionable Steps to Grow Your LinkedIn Following

Naturally, the key to success here is to develop an online presence that people want to see more of. Share your data-driven content that provides value to your audience; post visually interesting and informative graphics; use engaging post formats like polls and slides. These practices will organically drive engagement, and with consistency you should see an increase in your audience size.

One of the nice things about LinkedIn page management is that the admin console allows you to target your audience based on criteria like company, role, industry, and more- all for free. As long as you’re properly targeting your audience, your posts should reach the right people. Another thing you can do to reach the right audience is make sure you’re using relevant hashtags on your posts- these should be related to your industry, your ideal client’s industry, your product, or your service. LinkedIn recommends using no more than 3 hashtags per post to maximize visibility.

To supplement your page growth between posts, you can take advantage of LinkedIn’s page invitation feature. If you run a LinkedIn page for your company, you can share a direct invite to anybody on your list of first-degree connections. Each page super admin is allotted a set amount of page invites per month. The monthly limit has a little bit of flexibility to it; if one person accepts an invitation and ends up following your page, you then regain that invitation to send to someone else. With this in mind, prioritize sending invitations to connections with a high likelihood of showing interest in the type of content that your page posts. Encourage your coworkers to do the same if they have the appropriate page permissions needed to send out invitations.

 

MFG Tribe is dominating the social media marketing scene for industrial businesses just like yours. Join the best of the best by contacting us today.

 

 

To sum it all up briefly, remember these three key takeaways:

• Use the right social platforms to increase brand recognition with the right audience.
• ALWAYS create content with a purpose.
• Make the most of your connections.

If you found this article helpful, be sure to give it a share below on your platform of choice. Thanks for reading! We’ll see you on the next one.