Integrated Digital Marketing for Manufacturing

By Sepideh “Sepi” Zandieh
Digital Marketing Manager
ANCA Group

At its core, digital marketing involves promoting a company’s brand and product using various online channels. This is what Sepideh does on a daily basis at ANCA, an Australian manufacturing company, with a global footprint.

Working in the digital realm at ANCA for the past five years, her role encompasses website projects, digital campaigns and strategies via email marketing, social media, web advertising, as well as monitoring and reporting.

She enjoys collaboration stating, “We work across teams in a global company. It is really interesting to tailor digital strategies for different regions and come up with new solutions to promote ANCA in the global digital space.”

Sepi relishes identifying new digital trends, challenging the idea that B2B companies -- especially those in the manufacturing space like ANCA -- are behind the curve. For example, there is a noticeable trend taking over the digital marketing activities globally for e-commerce solutions. Last year, ANCA launched an e-commerce project to sell machine parts and accessories for customers in the U.S. Using ANCA’s successful Cyber Monday campaign as a foundation, ANCA built the e-commerce function in six months.

 The first thing Sepi learned about digital marketing was that:

“Anything that can be applied in B2C can also be applied to B2B. Today’s B2B clients expect a more personalized buying experience, which has resulted in many B2B organizations leveraging common B2C tactics to meet their expectations. Companies cannot communicate with companies. Communication happens person-to-person. So rather than focusing on what type of marketing to use, it is more vital to have a certain target group in mind to target experiences and product offerings.”

Sepi believes ANCA’s goal is to provide greater education to their customers, as the company, which manufactures sophisticated tool grinding machines, is dealing with innovative, high-tech products.

Helpful and informative content such as Tool Tip Tuesdays and ANCA Academy are both delivered through ANCA’s social media channels, with the aim to teach customers how to get the most out of their machines and software. ANCA’s industry-first customer competition, Tool of the Year, brings cutting tool manufacturers together to showcase talent and tap into the passion of an industry.

The annual social media contest is fun, engaging and customer-driven, and just one example of the significant opportunities for manufacturers in the digital world.

An advantageous aspect of working in B2B is that it’s a very niche market, making it easier to reach audiences. It can be a challenge dealing with compliance issues for privacy and data sharing, which can be very different across parts of the world.

Due to the nature of ANCA’s business and its global footprint, an integrated marketing approach is the most feasible solution. It is common for consumers to research products online before purchasing and ANCA has leaned into this trend by revamping its website to improve user experience and enhancing its branding and content strategy. The result is engaging, tailored and easy-to-consume content that is available in nine languages to communicate with the company’s global audience.

Trade shows continue to be a big part of the industry, as customers want to talk to someone face-to-face and see how the machines work in-person. To complement this need, Sepi highlighted how ANCA uses digital communication to showcase capabilities and technology beforehand and gives customers a chance to ask questions.

Digital materials are mixed with more traditional marketing collateral such as brochures or magazines, as these remain the preferred marketing channels for some customers.

In the early days, digital marketing consisted of only a few social media channels and limited capacities within website platforms and marketing automation. From 2008, the use of social media sky-rocketed and mobile commerce took off.

To respond to the growth of online and mobile commerce, marketing automation began to evolve. Consequently, the way customers engaged with brands changed and gave marketing teams greater access to insights and data.

Looking to future trends in digital marketing, Sepi notes the power of data. The pandemic has shown every industry the need for and importance of existing online sales channels. As a result, companies have seen a surge in digital sales channels, especially in B2B and manufacturing, which has complex requirements.

Additionally, there is going to be increased usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and high-definition technology-based programs including chat bots, apps as well as virtual reality and augmented reality.

Anything related to data, how to combine and integrate it to benefit customers, will also be at the forefront in coming years.

She concluded, “The future is about integration of data, getting analytics on visitors, campaigns and using this information to create more personalized content online that’s delivered in a more meaningful way.”

Need more information?
Sepideh “Sepi” Zandieh
Digital Marketing Manager
ANCA Group
+61 439 316 131
Linkedin
 

About the Author

Sepideh “Sepi” Zandieh

Sepi is a Digital Marketing Manager of ANCA Group. She joined ANCA in 2017 after graduating with a master’s degree in integrated marketing communications from Swinburne University. With a decade of experience as a digital marketer in both B2C and B2B markets, Sepi has led the delivery of multiple websites and digital projects such as the redevelopment of ANCA group sites and industry-first eCommerce platform for ANCA CNC Machines parts and software.