Why should industrial manufacturers and distributors start to think like a media company?
It's hard not to notice that video content dominates our daily lives nowdays when it comes to communication strategies. Content, in particular video content, plays an important role in any marketing strategy and can have a dramatic effect on the sales cycle. In an industry that relies a lot on demonstrations, trade shows and word of mouth to acquire business, manufacturers and distributors of Industrial equipment stand the most to gain through producing content.
Content can be leveraged to do everything from building brand awareness, educating consumers, and even helping your sales reps sell more. In fact there are so many uses for video content in this field the possibilities are almost endless. At the least video will help improve your website, make your company a thought leader, differentiate you from the competitor and provide a new medium to communicate information to your consumers. If done right, video will also help you build rapport and relationships with customers, enhance your creditability in the market and make you friendlier with consumers by humanizing your company.
Producing video for your company will also have the added benefit of actually engaging the entire company, from the engineering, technicians, sales staff and top management. They all share the knowledge they have, engaging the whole company.
However, this is all stuff you’ve probably heard time and time again – show me the good stuff. Showing is where it’s at. If I were a customer or potential customer what would I want to see?
Forget about the same old marketing spiel of mission statement and why you’re the best company. Consumers want to see the product, what it does, how it works, how it makes their life easier, what they can do with it.
Tap your whole team for this - sales, customer service, ask clients for their input. Think product demos, how to videos, installation videos, educational presentations, customer testimonials, interviews with experts, 3D models and animation. Make the product the star of the show. Produce valuable content which can be shared on social media, shared on web sites and used to provide customers with utility, while also serving as marketing tools.
Put quality at the forefront, having no video is better than having poor videos. If someone comes to your site and sees poor quality video that’s a direct reflection on your company’s standards. They’ll see your company a someone not interested in quality – ruining your reputation.
