Mainstream marketing has gone almost completely digital, and it’s moving faster than ever before. Do you ever feel like it’s hard to clear your mind, really connect the dots and communicate things effectively? You might also feel overwhelmed due to the fast production, the constant demand for more, filtering through so many e-mails, all the loose ends you have to put together each day and the overall poorly defined processes available to follow in your career as a marketer. Believe it or not, there are actually great things digital marketers as a whole can learn from the manufacturing industry.

1. They Spend More Time With Their Customers

Some of the best sales reps out there aren’t selling anything at all. They are spending time with customers and taking time to understand their perspective of what’s important. You should try it, too. The primary focus of the marketing function in B2B manufacturing companies is on customer retention and loyalty - when compared to other B2B marketers emphasizing their marketing efforts towards generating more brand awareness and thought leadership (source).

2. They Are Required to Test

This is one of the biggest differentiators in the manufacturing industry. With more product liability requirements and associated risks than any other industry, things that are manufactured must prove the concept before they are sent to be produced on a massive scale. Why not take the same approach with your marketing? Get superb A/B testing tips for beginners from our friends at HubSpot here.

3. There is Quality Assurance and Even Quality Control

An easy way I like to associate the difference between these two things is quality assurance=quality input assured (we feel great about it) and quality control=quality output ensured (it’s guaranteed). Quality assurance is a test on the efficacy of the process and making sure you are doing the right things, the right way. The real testing of your product and making sure it came out how it was supposed to happens during quality control. Marketers can learn by this by challenging the purpose and input/output of products and services.

4. They Pay for Their Mistakes

Everything we use to get by in our day-to-day lives is a product of manufacturing. With the safety and even people’s lives at risk - there is no room to make mistakes. Design defects and product recalls are no joke - and the blame falls completely on the manufacturer for not catching these mistakes. Marketers can learn something from this. Don’t defend your errors, take the blame, apologize and learn how you can prevent it from happening again. See some of the most expensive and terrible product recalls in history on Bloomberg Business.

5. They Have the Best Training and Onboarding Programs

Along with the ways manufacturing companies keep all of their processes, liability, quality assurance and quality control programs organized comes great documentation and knowledgeable people to onboard new employees. AKA, if you work at a manufacturing company, you aren’t going to get fed to the wolves on day one or be expected to figure out how you will do everything on your own. The expectations are stated upfront, roles are clearly defined and employee growth is inevitable at a solid manufacturing company.

6. YouTube is Their Go-To Social Media Channel

81% of marketers in manufacturing are on YouTube, not only that - it’s reported as the most effective channel they use in their content marketing (source). We’ve recently talked about why B2B marketing needs more video and even shared some great B2B video marketing tips. Manufacturing companies stick to educational industry content in video format, what's stopping you from doing the same?

7. Their Products Continue to Sell, Even with Some of the Most Confusing and Outdated Websites

For as smart as every engineer we know is, we still can’t help but question their ability to organize information. Meeting particular design specifications for manufacturing products vs. designing information that people can consume are on complete opposite ends of the spectrum. Manufacturing websites are rarely friendly to the eye, today's mobile audience and are next to impossible to find what you’re actually looking for. Even though many manufacturing websites have looked the same since 1995 - their products still continue to sell, and their customer lifetime values are much higher than yours too.

8. Manufacturing Companies Constantly Improve

Six sigma, is a DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve, control) data driven approach to eliminate waste and defects and it’s commonly used in manufacturing companies. It shouldn’t be a surprise that people with six sigma black belt certifications (and that’s not even the highest certification level) make an average salary of $100,000 per year across the United States. Why so many marketers continue to ignore data at their own peril is beyond the control of you and l. With big plans and the current trend for digital marketers to produce more and more content, marketers struggle to keep things running on schedule and don’t look back at the facts often enough.

Related Article: 70% of B2B Marketers are Producing More Content, But Only 21% Are Able to Track ROI

In conclusion - I have one simple question I want to ask you. Have you ever bought something because it looked nice and then found out it wasn’t everything you thought it would be? Me too, and it sucks. The key takeaway here is - make sure the purpose or your marketing today is driven by the result of making a great product or service. The foundation of a good product or service is what will drive the result you are looking for from your digital marketing efforts. Functionality over fancy 100% of the time. It's true - visuals and looking pretty on the outside might drive the sale. Working smarter and meeting the quality your customers demand and expect from you will keep them loyal and coming back for more.