Manufacturing has been one of the few industries to quickly and successfully adapt to the digital era. And, by all indications, the industry isn’t slowing down in its adept use of digital tools. According to a recent PwC survey, 72% of manufacturers say they’re planning to dramatically increase their overall level of digitization and expect to be ranked as “digitally advanced” by 2020.

This is a smart approach. Increased digital competency means manufacturers can swiftly react to market forces, coordinate efforts more easily and drive more pipeline and business.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve investigated the key areas manufacturers need to focus on to improve their digital efforts. These suggestions focus on using digital tools, such as webinars, to build better relationships with partners and distributors.

We’ve also surveyed our manufacturing clients to see how they’re using webinars in their digital efforts, and what successes they’re seeing. You can read what they have to say in our report, “ON24 Webinar Benchmarks Report: Manufacturing Trends,” or check out our infographic at the end of this blog post for high-level takeaways.

So, how exactly can manufacturers improve their digital game? Here’s a brief recap of what we’ve found:

Build Better Relationships Faster

Manufacturers have to contend with a massive ecosystem. Partners, clients, distributors and more need the latest information to act on, understand trends and connect with new potential clients.

To coordinate all of these disparate elements, manufacturers are increasingly turning to digital tools. This is a wise decision. By using digital distribution tools, manufacturers can — at any point in the supply chain — provide critical partners with the latest information they need to take an appropriate or corrective action.

But these newfound digital abilities do more than just share information. They also open new business opportunities. Tesla, for example, is famous for using its digital channels to sell directly to consumers, bypassing car dealerships entirely. But these tools can also enhance relationships across a broad spectrum of partners.

Move Distributor Relationships From Tactical to Strategic

Distributors are a critical link in the manufacturing process. But the manufacturer-distributor relationship is a complicated one, at best. Manufacturers are increasingly turning to Amazon Business to distribute their wares, putting smaller distributors at a disadvantage.

While Amazon Business may be convenient for manufacturers, ignoring smaller distributors is a strategic mistake. Manufacturers would do well to view the distributor relationship as a strategic one where all parties can benefit by creating and nurturing revenue streams with a two-way conversation.

To transform this transactional relationship into a strategic one, manufacturers can use webinars to provide distributors with a reliable forum with the latest information. Webinars also provide distributors with the opportunity to ask questions, get clarity and provide a two-way knowledge transfer.

Fuel Pipeline With Educational Opportunities

Manufacturers need to fundamentally reassess how they market online. According to recent research by Content Marketing Institute, a slim majority of manufacturers (51%) say they prioritize promotional messaging over an audience’s informational needs when creating marketing content.

This is a backward approach. Modern marketing content must be made in the service of a well-defined audience. Manufacturers would do well to create and maintain educational content, or outright courses, for clients and prospects.

Doing so will help accelerate the overall buyer’s journey. Creating educational content for clients keeps customers informed of the latest trends and methods, builds brand trust and, finally, creates a community that engages with a manufacturer that has earned their loyalty. A successful engagement program, like those facilitated by Procore and Jackson Systems, generates pipeline and fuels recurring revenue.

Check out the infographic below to see how manufacturers are using webinars to improve their business and check out our report, “ON24 Webinar Benchmarks Report: Manufacturing Trends.”

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been exploring how marketers and professionals in the manufacturing sector are adapting to an always-on digital age. We’ve taken a look at the challenges and opportunities the industry faces in a digital world and how manufacturers can use digital tools to nurture relationships.

This week, we explore how and why manufacturers ought to consider providing educational resources for prospects and clients — and the tools they may use in doing so.

Research conducted by the Content Marketing Institute suggests most manufacturers are failing to put their audience’s informational needs before their sales or promotional message.

While around two-thirds of manufacturers surveyed claim they have used content marketing successfully to educate audiences (69%) and generate leads (66%), just over half (51%) say they ‘always’ or ‘frequently’ prioritize their promotional message over the audience’s informational needs when creating content for marketing purposes. Additionally, only 47% use their content initiatives to nurture leads.

ON24 Tip: Use educational content to ensure a steady flow of sales qualified leads.

It might sound counterintuitive, but sharing your expertise instead of pushing products will help you bring your lead generation efforts to the next level, particularly at the early stages of the buying process. Use our white paper to learn how you can use webinars to shift focus from ‘more leads’ to ‘better leads’.

Even in the B2B world, customer experience is the new battlefield. Content that is insightful and engaging is the foundation of any lead generation and nurturing program. It can become a strong competitive differentiator, particularly when properly distributed with clients and partners.

Manufacturers should use content to ensure a steady flow of qualified leads that they can either nurture themselves or share with their distributor network. Overcoming the traditional sales mindset was identified as a key challenge, along with creating content that appeals to multi-level roles and types of decision-makers during prolonged sales cycles. Addressing these issues takes time, and requires a comprehensive content strategy, but the results are worth the effort.

Encouragingly, the commitment is there. Fifty-two percent of manufacturers report that their organization is ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ committed to content marketing and two-thirds have increased their use of audio and visual content, such as webinars, in the last year. The future is rife with opportunities for manufacturers that understand and prioritize the information needs of their audiences.

A Deloitte study highlighted that manufacturing frontrunners – defined as organizations that “strongly believe in the business value of adopting new technology for digital transformation and are ready to use the new technologies” – exhibit a distinctive trait: they use the power of the broader ecosystem. They are 2.3 times more likely than stragglers, who are behind on adoption readiness, to seek out ecosystem relationships that create new value for customers.

In order to reap the benefits of their investment in digitization, manufacturing marketers and enablement teams can extend their reach through the new data-driven, engagement model to ensure that information is relayed to every part of the ecosystem instantly. Whenever new product insights are available, any point in the supply chain, product teams, sales, channel partners and clients can access the information and take appropriate action without delay. This shift to the information-based economy enables manufacturers to take collaboration with their partners to a whole new level.

ON24 Tip: Build a digital engagement program to set your distributors and channel partners up for success.

Provide ongoing support by creating a series of educational webinars that cover anything from technical documentation and training to current industry issues and best practices. Your partners (and your bottom line) will thank you.

ON24 Tip: Use webinars to strengthen your brand and establish credibility as a thought leader.

Instead of pitching products, share best practices and insights from subject matter experts in your webinars and use strong, cohesive and recognizable branding. Read our Webinar Console Branding Guide to learn how you can set up a fully branded, customized webinar console.

Roles within the traditional supply chain are also changing because more end users are purchasing directly from manufacturers. Direct-to-end-user models (the equivalent of direct-to-consumer models in the B2C world), which enable companies to manufacture and ship their products directly to buyers without relying on distributors or resellers, are becoming more common.

For example, Chinese electric car start-ups are often selling directly to consumers or attempting to create ecosystems that encourage customer loyalty. Tesla is another automaker trying to bypass car dealers and shift a portion of its sales to online. This move has received mixed reviews, but is inherently a customer-friendly proposition according to Rosemary Shahan, president of the advocacy group Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety: “It gives you more of an opportunity to take control of the action, and you’re not on the dealer’s turf.”

Owning a larger part of the customer journey also provides the opportunity to capture more customer data, which can feed back into new go-to-market strategies.

This post is a part series on how the manufacturing industry has adapted to the digital world. To learn more about how the manufacturing sector has changed, check out our report, “ON24 Webinar Benchmarks Report: Manufacturing Trends.”

Manufacturing is one of the most important value-generating sectors worldwide. In the US alone, for every $1 spent in manufacturing, another $1.89 is added to the economy – the highest multiplier of any economic sector. But the industry is at an inflection point, being reshaped by digital transformation across all divisions, and the outlook is upbeat.

The vast majority (89.5%) of manufacturers surveyed by NAM feel either somewhat or very positive about their company’s prospects. Manufacturing is ripe for change and leading players are investing in automation and digitization to pursue a different model for driving growth.

Nearly three-quarters (72%) of manufacturing companies surveyed by PwC said they are dramatically increasing their level of digitization, and are expecting to be ranked as digitally advanced by 2020 compared with only 33% today.

With so many market variables at play and technology trends converging to drive significant change, the bar for success in the manufacturing industry keeps going up. Demonstrating knowledge and leadership will help position your firm as a trusted partner to work with.

Create mutually beneficial relationships with distributors and channel partners

Developing long-standing relationships with distributors and channel partners can help manufacturers maintain their competitive edge in the Industry 4.0 age, unlocking significant value from the supply chain. Distributors handle a significant proportion of the industry’s revenue, so they represent a crucial component of manufacturers’ channel strategies.

The manufacturer-distributor relationship has historically been complicated (or downright antagonistic), and market pressures haven’t made it any easier. For example in the eCommerce sector, research revealed a third (33%) of distributors consider Amazon Business to be the most significant threat to their business, more than double the proportion for the next most cited challenge of economic instability (15%).

Manufacturing Needs to Evolve Its Distributor Relationships

All too often, manufacturer-distributor relationships are tactical and purely transactional in nature, not extending beyond a focus on driving sales and margins. At its core, each of these relationships should be a strategic partnership where the two parties share mutual goals and invest accordingly. Adopting a more collaborative approach can create a wider range of dependable revenue streams for both sides as they capitalize on insights they wouldn’t be privy to if they worked separately. This two-way knowledge transfer helps foster stronger relationships with existing customers and win business from new ones.

To build a mutually beneficial partnership, manufacturers need to establish a reliable channel to provide partners with the information they need and  create meaningful, two-way conversations. A lack of support is one of the most common complains distributors have about the manufacturers they work with, so it’s essential to provide all channel partners with appropriate support and ensure they have everything they need to help meet and drive further demand.

This post is a part series on how the manufacturing industry has adapted to the digital world. To learn more about how the manufacturing sector has changed, check out our report, “ON24 Webinar Benchmarks Report: Manufacturing Trends.”