In the age of Google and AI, a manufacturing and industrial marketing strategy is incomplete without a blogging strategy. We will first share several good reasons why manufacturers must include blogging in their marketing mix.

Why manufacturers should blog?

While a blog does require some time and effort, it is well worthwhile for these five reasons:

1. Provides the fresh content that Google and Bing rewards with page one rankings.

2. Significantly cheaper than annually paying third parties for links.

3. Conveys subject matter expertise, which buyers reward.

4. Builds topic authority, which Google and Bing reward with higher rankings.

5. Expands website real estate which grows your brand impressions and reach in the age of Google, Bing and AI.

Best practices in industrial blogging

Next, we’ll share eleven best practices we’ve seen work for many industrial companies.

1. Goals: Could be a combination of communicating subject matter expertise, reputation building or humanizing your company.

2. Name: A good blog name should be memorable and help your SEO objectives.

3. Design: Make it consistent with your website design and ensure it resonates with the target audiences.

4. Target Audience: Speak to engineers, buyers, partners and talent you are trying to attract.

5. Keyword Focus: Know the keywords you want to be ranked for and choose them carefully around your highest margin products and services.

6. Content Focus: Every post should be focused on one or two related keywords. Link back to your products and services. Here is a short list of ideas for blog content:

• Interview of customers, subject matter experts, or employees with specialized know-how
• A story about how you solved a challenging problem for a customer
• Trends you are seeing in your industry
• Industry best practices
• Feature a partner
• Interesting events you are planning to attend or just attended
• An infographic you created or found that is worth sharing with your customers
• A video you produced about your product working in the field
• A how-to-story
• A planning checklist

7. Voice: Be positive, real, helpful, accessible, insightful, professional and knowledgeable. Avoid jargon.

8. Length: Limit the length of blog post to less than 500 words. Break a blog post into two if necessary. Occasionally, you could write a mega blog post. Google loves and rewards both kinds.

9. Engagement: If you have the time to respond, encourage questions and comments on the blog.

10. Reach: Share your blog posts on your company’s official social media channels. Boost posts to expand reach. 

11. Metrics: Measure the number of views, shares, likes and rankings.

Until your team develops its own blogging muscle, an agency partner with talented brand journalists can be a vital resource. They can help offload some writing, coach your team, SEO-optimize and promote your blog posts.

If you are seeking a manufacturing marketing agency partner who can get you going, contact us.