How to Write a Blog Post for Your Manufacturing Business

How to Write a Blog Post for Your Manufacturing Business

Each month we’ll be featuring a blog post from our friends at MAGNET (Manufacturing Advocacy & Growth Network). MAGNET’s mission is to support, educate and champion manufacturing in Ohio with the goal of transforming the region’s economy into a powerful, global player. You can visit MAGNET online at manufacturingsuccess.org.

Remember the feeling of being assigned an essay in school, when you knew what you needed to write about, but didn’t know where to start or couldn’t find the right words to string together? Blog writing can elicit those same feelings, with the added pressure of having to work within the confines of SEO, brand and purpose. Ya, blog writing can be intimidating.

But, great blogs can lend huge credibility to your business and areas of expertise. Further, blogging is a low-cost way to connect with existing, new and potential customers; offers a quick, valuable source of social media content; and builds your brand. Ultimately, your blogs can share how much you know about your manufacturing field and put you ahead of a competitor who’s not blogging.

Recently, someone who is not a marketer asked me how to write a blog and if I could document the process. I immediately realized that anyone in business could benefit from understanding the full process. Subject matter experts in manufacturing need to position themselves as industry leaders and provide educational, thought-leadership content to their current and potential customers. 

Here is the process I use when I write blogs for myself, my organization or clients.

  1. Brainstorm a list of potential topics.
  2. Organize those topics by top of funnel (awareness/educational), middle of funnel (consideration) or bottom of funnel (conversion/sales) content. This will help you create a balance of content to nurture leads along the buyer process, which will then keep them loyal and become your advocates.
  3. Identify keywords that you or your company want to rank for in a Google search and include those in the blog (optimizing it for SEO). These keywords are best identified by using a tool that can tell you what the most popular searches are for your industry or what keywords your competitors are ranking for.
  4. Make sure the topic you select is relevant for your audience.
  5. I do some online research to see what’s already out there; sometimes, that helps me focus my topic further.
  6. Some people do an outline, though I don’t. I just do a rough draft and then move things around. Back to the idea of a college essay, it has an intro, body and conclusion or a beginning, middle and end.
  7. Make the language conversational and engaging. Show “personality.”
  8. Keep sentences and paragraphs short.
  9. Often, I interview someone for the blog by either emailing them questions. Sometimes we’ll have a phone or zoom chat, and I’ll taking notes if they are the subject matter expert or can provide a quote for my blog that will lend it credibility.
  10. Create a headline that makes people want to read it. Often that is things like 10 tips, 5 ways, 3 things you can do.
  11. If the blog is longer than a paragraph or two, I usually write subheads to break it up into digestible bites and so people can scan and see an outline of what’s covered. You also can make phrases that are important bold, so it is easily scannable.
  12. People love lists; so, I usually use a bulleted or numbered list (see: this blog). That also makes it scannable and user friendly.
  13. As for length, search engines like long form copy, which is about 1,500-2,000 words. But minimum wordcount should be 400 to 500; otherwise, Google actually penalizes you for thin content.
  14. Check grammar!
  15. Use an engaging image that catches attention and use video when you can.
  16. Cite sources if you use outside info.
  17. Put a call to action at the end. What do you want them to do? How do you capture them?
  18. Promote it on social media.

Click here to read the original post.

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5 Ways Manufacturers Can Ramp up Marketing

by MAGNET (Manufacturing Advocacy & Growth Network) MAGNET’s mission is to support, educate and champion manufacturing in Ohio with the goal of transforming the region’s economy into a powerful, global player. You can visit MAGNET online at manufacturingsuccess.org. Maybe you already have and execute a marketing plan for your brand and products. Maybe you want to improve it. Maybe you have no marketing at all. However mature your company’s marketing plan is, successful efforts will always stem from a strong foundation. Refresh your knowledge or kickstart your marketing with these helpful tips.
  1. Realize the importance of marketing and create a dedicated budget for it.
The same way you invest in people, capital equipment, new technology and building improvements, you need to invest in your brand. A good rule of thumb is to dedicate six percent of annual revenue to your marketing plan. Not only will your campaigns maintain a connection with current contacts, it will build new ones–generate leads. If you aren’t sure how people can or are finding you, how your site ranks in a Google search or if you’re staying top of your customers’ minds with relevant, useful information (or doing any of these things intentionally), you’re likely falling behind to businesses that are. To the inverse, coordinated campaigns that focus on these goals are also ones you can measure and grow. Marketing is oftentimes the first budget cut during an economic downturn, albeit counterintuitive because this is when you need to do MORE marketing. When recovery happens, everything will be ready and working for you. Did you know that it takes about six to nine months for Google to rank and index you for a search? Then, you need to maintain that, and if you don’t, your ranking dips quickly. Your marketer will be back to square one when the economy ticks back upward. The same way you don’t waste time on rework on your plant floor, don’t unnecessarily rework marketing. (more…)
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Help Impact the Future of Manufacturing: 2020 Ohio Manufacturing Survey

Today we have a guest post from MAGNET (The Manufacturing and Growth Advocacy Network) organization that has a mission for helping manufacturers grow and compete in Northeast Ohio, especially the 98% of startup to medium-sized manufacturers that drive our economy. MAGNET rolls up its sleeves to provide hands-on support ranging from new product design to operations and brings education and business together to create tomorrow’s manufacturers. 

MAGNET needs your help. By taking 20 minutes to complete its survey before the end of the year, you can help impact future legislative decisions, offerings and services, as well as use the survey results to help your own organization.

At MAGNET, we’re inspired to drive regional impact by supporting small- to medium-sized manufacturing companies in areas of product design and development, process innovation and automation, operational excellence and engagement, and more. 

But for us to supply you with the right services at MAGNET, it’s imperative that we gain insight into the current Northeast Ohio manufacturing landscape. That’s where the survey comes in.

About the Ohio Manufacturing Survey

This year’s survey is your opportunity to impact how key stakeholders across manufacturing make decisions for our industry’s future. By giving us 20 minutes of your time, you can:

  • Impact how legislators and key stakeholders make future decisions
  • Shape the offerings and services of manufacturing support organizations
  • Use the results to benchmark how you compare to other Ohio manufacturers

And as a thank you for your time and responses, you’ll get the following upon submission:

  • Your choice of any one of 12 different business books
  • FREE admission to one of our report rollout events—Cleveland, Akron, or Canton in February 2020
  • $5 to Harvest for Hunger donation made by our sponsors for every response

The survey deadline is December 31, 2019. This survey is limited to businesses that produce physical goods, with production locations in Ohio.

Make Your Manufacturing Voice Heard

Every response creates a more powerful view of the state of manufacturing in Ohio. Submit your responses to the 2020 Ohio Manufacturing Survey.

Want to read another guest post from MAGNET?

Manufacturers: Avoid These Three Frequent Failures of a Product Launch

 

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Manufacturers: Avoid These Three Frequent Failures of a Product Launch

Today we have a guest post from MAGNET (The Manufacturing and Growth Advocacy Network) organization that has a mission for helping manufacturers grow and compete in Northeast Ohio, especially the 98% of startup to medium-sized manufacturers that drive our economy. MAGNET rolls up its sleeves to provide hands-on support ranging from new product design to operations and brings education and business together to create tomorrow’s manufacturers. 

Did you know 70% of all new product launches fail?

While manufacturers may feel a sense of urgency to introduce a new product or service to market, testing thoroughly before launch can mean the difference between success and failure. After all, simply launching a new product will not guarantee its success.

So whether you’re in the ideation phase of a new innovation, or zeroing in on your promotion plan, you’ll want to take into consideration these frequent failures of a product launch.

Lack of Market Understanding

Why do so many products fail? The answer is simple: failure to understand the market. Misunderstanding the market is equal to destroying a product before launching it.

We’ve all heard the old adage “If you don’t have time to do it right the first time, why do it at all?” Instead of rushing to get several products to market with incomplete research, sales support, or inventory, manufacturers should consider planning for a few, well-thought out products in a given time period for higher profit margins and faster growth.

Read more.

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3 Technology Trends Transforming Manufacturing

Today we have a guest post from MAGNET (The Manufacturing and Growth Advocacy Network) organization that has a mission for helping manufacturers grow and compete in Northeast Ohio, especially the 98% of startup to medium-sized manufacturers that drive our economy. MAGNET rolls up its sleeves to provide hands-on support ranging from new product design to operations and brings education and business together to create tomorrow’s manufacturers.

The widespread adoption of technology is indisputably transforming manufacturing operations. But before manufacturers jump right in and fight for technology implementation and adoption, it’s important to understand how certain techs can work, how they’re used, and what benefits they may reap.

MAGNET details three common technology trends that are impacting manufacturing processes:

1. Expansion of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)

2. More Emphasis on Cybersecurity

3. Continued Push for 3-D Printing

To read the entire post and download MAGNET’s 2019 State of Northeast Ohio Manufacturing Report, click here.

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