For busy engineering entrepreneurs, marketing can fall down the list of priorities due to the hustle and bustle of activity that comes with serving your existing customer base.
However, it's wise to take the time to consider what you can do to broaden your reach, grow your business and attract more customers, and that's where online marketing comes into play.
There are all kinds of tools to try and strategies to implement to promote your organization on the web, so here are a few examples to explore as you seek growth.
Get Started with Social Media Marketing
With billions of active users, having an active presence on major social media platforms can help drive brand awareness and engagement.
To attract potential customers, it makes sense to create profiles for your business on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Once they're live, start regularly posting content that resonates with your target audience . This could include informative articles or videos about your engineering services, as well as engaging stories of projects completed for existing clients.
Track how many followers are interacting with each post to learn what works best for your audience. This way, you can achieve organic growth and also establish your brand authority in your industry niche.
Develop a digital advertising strategy
As you grow your online presence, it's important to think about the best way to reach potential customers. Developing an effective digital advertising strategy can help you reach the right people with the right message at the right time.
Start by researching which platforms are most popular among your target market and then decide where to allocate budget accordingly. This can include conventional options like Google Ads, as well as paid ads on the social media channels mentioned above.
It's also worth investing in A/B testing in all the campaigns you run, to know what suits each platform before investing more resources in them. With careful planning and monitoring results, digital advertising can be an invaluable tool that complements your organic growth efforts.
Have your own website – the essential tool for online visibility
Having your own website is essential if you want to market your small engineering business online. It provides a platform where potential customers can learn more about what you do and contact you directly.
Investing in effective design will help ensure that visitors have a great user experience, which encourages them to stay on the site and learn more about services. Combine this with award-winning hosting solutions and you'll provide a consistent, smooth experience for your visitors, even as the amount of traffic your website manages increases.
Additionally, having regularly updated SEO-friendly content will also help increase visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs). This means more people discover your business through organic searches, thus improving brand awareness and expanding lead generation opportunities.
Identify and reach potential customers through email campaigns
Email marketing is a great way to directly reach potential customers for your small engineering business.
With software like MailChimp, you can create targeted lists segmented by different criteria, such as location or previous involvement with your business. Once you've identified who you want to target, create an engaging message that speaks directly to them about the services your company offers, while also highlighting any special offers or discounts to further attract them.
Track response rates and use this data when creating future campaigns so that each one is more successful than the last.
Maximize the benefits of video content
Video content is becoming increasingly popular as a means of engaging prospects and communicating complex information quickly and easily. So, investing in creating high-quality videos for your small engineering business can help bring it to life online.
In commissioned clips, you can showcase your services, highlight customer testimonials, and even produce tutorials that explain how things work. This will show visitors that you are an expert in the field.
Additionally, by optimizing each video with relevant keywords, descriptions, and tags, you will also be improving visibility on social media platforms as well as SERPs.
Ideally, you'll be able to produce video content in-house, which is easier than you might think thanks to the quality and affordability of modern hardware, as well as the accessibility of editing software . And of course, if you decide to outsource this, you can go all the way by moving all of your content marketing to an agency if you wish.
Packing
Online marketing for a small engineering company doesn't have to be complex or time-consuming. Once you have everything in place, it should be easy to manage and monitor over time, and the results should speak for themselves.
