Marketing Your Machine Shop
Marketing your Machine Shop As quickly as CNC machine shops are changing, so are the marketing vehicles to grow your business. An advertising campaign can range from $500 to $500,000, and vary from pay-per-click digital ads to television or magazine ads. Your niche market will dictate the marketing vehicle to some degree, but if you are just building your budget for marketing your machine shop there are some basic steps you can take. Here are some creative ways to promote your business without a huge advertising budget.
Technology
If you’re using tech and IIoT in your shop, and even if you’re not, you should be using it for your marketing. Marketing online is shifting and changing world. It’s a place you need to be. But it’s also a place you need to show up well or it’s not worth spending the time to be there. There are some simple steps to get you started and more advanced practices you can partake in when you’re ready to expand.
Website — Every business needs a website. A good website will engage customers with information, samples of your work, and show your business philosophy and specialties.
Search engine optimization (SEO) means your website needs to have new and changing information. One of the easiest ways to do this is through video or blog posts.
Vlogs or blogs — One of the easiest services you can provide to clients is an informative blog or video series posted on your site. These demonstrate your expertise, your effort to help and increase your rank in search engines due to the use of keywords and new data on your site.
Social Media — The next thing is getting traffic to your website. Again, a benefit of creating blogs is they provide you points to share on social media channels. Be sure to link each post back to your blog to drive traffic to your website.
Google — Each business should register with Google my Business Profile It’s free. No ads or SEO packages need to be purchased (but are available). This helps your Local SEO ranking.
Free Offer/ — Whether on social media channels or a form used at a tradeshow, a simple marketing idea to collect names and email addresses is to offer a download of helpful advice. Online, this can be facilitated with a simple landing page link that encourages the benefit of the download.
Funnels — Once you have email addresses you can opt for more advanced marketing like an advertising funnel. This is a series of emails that take the potential client through a short journey with you. Funnels should be interesting and informative just like blogs or social media, but much more focused on a particular service or type of client. Different funnels can be established for various needs, and even current clients can be added to funnels to stay in touch and keep them abreast of new services you offer.
Relationships
People are an important part of any business. Relationship building can become a great source of marketing. Creating partnerships could look like supply partners, equipment or service partners, or complementary industry referrals who know what you do and know you well enough to refer others to you. This is free advertising. And all it takes is good communication and support of their interests also. Create these relationships with your clients also. Inquire about their challenges to see how you can help with a referral or another connection.
Be engaged in industry chat groups also. This puts your name and expertise out into a wider circle. You can post a question or comment on LinkedIn industry groups, submit articles to magazines, or offer to sponsor or speak at an industry event or tradeshow. Building relationships leads to the connections you simply cannot pay for with advertising dollars.
