Lead Generation Strategies for Manufacturers

Yesterday’s trade shows, referrals, and direct sales are no longer the only aspects of today’s marketing mix. The competitive landscape and digital-first buyer behavior have shifted significantly, and it’s imperative to keep up with the change to online strategies.

Today's buyers prefer to research independently before engaging with a sales team. In fact, 90% of B2B buyers say online content has a moderate to major effect on their purchasing decisions. If your business is not set up for success online, you’re missing out on a large percentage of your potential customers - and your competitors will gain the leads instead.

Generating leads is not just about increasing website traffic. It’s about finding the right users who are actively searching for a solution or product and encouraging them to convert. That’s where a strategic mix of search engine optimization (SEO) and paid media comes in.

This guide provides digital marketing lead generation strategies to optimize your efforts and attract high-quality, purchase-ready leads.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is not just for users at the start of their purchase journey; you can target any stage of the marketing funnel. A successful SEO strategy helps you target potential buyers for a long period through organic search.

Niche Keyword Research

All types of SEO require a moderate understanding of the industry and business, but manufacturing SEO demands deep knowledge of the product and how buyers search for it. It's important to research what people are searching for, how they're searching for it, and the intent behind their keywords. Look at short-tail and long-tail keywords to ensure you are targeting the right users at the right stage of the funnel. Part of this process is conducting keyword research to figure out where the search volume is and what people are looking for.

Don’t underestimate the power of optimizing for SKU numbers! This provides an opportunity to appear highly for low competition, high intent keywords. People searching for SKU numbers are in the decision stage of the funnel and are close to making a purchase; why would you not want to appear for those?

💡 Tip: Run a crawl of your metadata (page titles and meta descriptions) to see how your product pages appear in search results. Do they include SKU numbers? Are they targeting people who are close to making a purchase?

Website Health & Performance

You’ve gotten the user to your website through keyword research and optimized metadata. Technical SEO helps them have an easy journey through it. It’s important that users (and search engines) can navigate through the site easily. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• User experience: If a user cannot submit a form or make a purchase quickly, they will probably leave the website and find a competitor.

• Mobile-friendliness: 50% of B2B buyers search on their phones, so it’s imperative that your website is set up to appear well on mobile screens.

• Site speed: A slow website can negatively affect traffic and, therefore, conversions. Use Google’s Core Web Vitals tool to pinpoint issues and find solutions for any site speed or Core Web Vitals issues.

Local Targeting

There may be customers in your own backyard: Are you optimizing your site for them, too? Local SEO helps you connect your business with local customers, many of whom may be ready to buy. For example, if someone searches for “interlock kits near me”, chances are they are getting close to buying one, and you want to be in the top positions to get that click and purchase.

💡 Tip: Make sure your Google Business Profile is fully optimized. This feature from Google allows you to provide more information about your business when it appears in local search results. You can also add specific products and services to your listing so that when people search for them, you have a better chance of appearing.

Build Authority

It’s also important to build trust and authority online, which can be done on and off your website. Google is continuing to prioritize thought leadership, and it is a strategy that can boost your organic visibility and drive trust with your audience. For example, if an industry expert posts about one of your products, people trust that expert and, therefore, will trust their recommendations.

💡 Tip: If another website mentions your company in a news article, blog post, etc., ask them for a link back to your website. It is an easy way to gain backlinks and build authority on search engines.

Another key component of a strategic digital marketing mix is paid media. While SEO drives long-term growth and leads, paid media provides immediate visibility across various digital channels. Search engine ads, like Google Ads and Microsoft Ads, ensure prime placement at the top of search results, helping you capture important keywords while your organic rankings develop. Beyond search, PPC includes display ads, video advertising, and social media ads, which allow for more visual engagement and brand awareness alongside direct response campaigns.

Targeted Campaigns

Paid media enables you to create highly specific campaigns that reach the right audience at the right time. With targeting options such as demographics, location, time of day, and more, you can connect with key decision-makers in your industry.

For B2B manufacturers, platforms like LinkedIn allow you to target professionals based on job titles, such as Plant Managers or Procurement Officers, ensuring your message reaches those who influence purchasing decisions.

Optimizing Ad Spend for ROI

One of the key advantages of paid media is the ability to adjust your ad spend based on performance and market trends. If your business experiences peak demand in the summer or slows down in the winter, you can easily scale budgets up or down to maximize results. This flexibility ensures your marketing efforts align with seasonal trends and business goals, helping you get the best return on investment.

Remarketing and Lead Nurturing

Not every B2B customer is ready to buy immediately—and that’s okay! Paid media isn’t just for attracting first-time visitors; it’s also a powerful tool for nurturing leads across multiple touchpoints.

An experienced paid media marketer should implement retargeting ads to re-engage visitors who have shown interest in your company and products. This includes users who downloaded a guide, viewed a product page, or even submitted a form. Follow-up ads on platforms like Google and LinkedIn keep your brand top of mind, guiding prospects through the buying journey until they’re ready to inquire or make a purchase.

💡 Tip: If you’re running prospecting campaigns alongside retargeting campaigns, be sure to exclude your retargeting audiences from prospecting campaigns to prevent audience overlap and ensure budget efficiency.

Not every visitor to your website is ready to convert—and that’s okay. What’s not okay is lacking a lead nurturing strategy to guide them toward a purchase.

Thought Leadership Content

We already mentioned the importance of building trust and authority, but you can also do that on your website through thought leadership content. Creating blog posts, whitepapers, industry reports, and more can help position your brand as the expert on your products or services. Once you publish these, focus on nurturing potential customers by sharing it through organic social media or through email with a strong call-to-action to move them closer to a conversion.

💡 Tip: Once you start building out your content strategy, ensure your internal linking is set up for success. Make sure users can find what they are looking for and can navigate the site efficiently to convert.

Case Studies & Testimonials

Another great way to build trust is by publishing case studies and showcasing real customer testimonials. Case studies provide a real-world example of how your products work and how they have helped others. Testimonials are also real examples of customers having a great experience with your products and team.

These content pieces are great to nurture users further down the funnel, as they provide examples of how your product or service works and how they have helped other companies like them.

💡 Tactic: Test out a reviews plugin such as GatherUp on your site to consistently show fresh reviews to users to prove trust.

Gated Content

Gated content is an effective way to encourage conversions. By offering a high-value guide or resource, you can require users to fill out a form or sign up for emails to access it. This helps you capture leads further down the funnel—those who are closer to making a purchase and worth following up with.

💡 Tip: Optimize your gated content pages for SEO. Since search engines can't access content behind a form, provide enough information on the page to clearly convey its topic and value.

Using Other Channels to Connect

An effective lead generation strategy may not just include your website. Potential buyers might be using other channels, such as email and social media. It’s important to not only use these channels but also to identify the best way to use them during your lead generation sequence.

💡 Tip: Set up automated email sequences triggered by specific user actions, such as downloading a guide or submitting a form. Instead of a generic follow-up, personalize these emails with relevant content, product information, or case studies that align with their interests. This keeps your brand top of mind and moves potential buyers closer to a purchase.

Once you have a lead generation strategy in place, you need to track the results and further optimize. A strategy is never fully “done”; there will always be continuous changes to make it more effective for your business.

Key Metrics

To start, I recommend looking at the main key metrics in Google Analytics 4, Google Ads, and any other tracking platform: sessions, conversions, conversion rate, top pages for conversions, cost per lead (CPL), and more.

Dive Deeper: Our blog post about B2B website metrics provides more in-depth information about what to look for.

Heatmaps

Another effective way to track results is through a heatmap tool such as Hotjar. This tool allows you to see aggregated heatmaps on specific pages to see how far people scroll, where they click, where they hover, etc. It also provides recordings of user activity so you can see real-life examples of how people interact with your website.

A/B Testing

For high-traffic pages or paid landing pages, A/B testing is important for improving performance and conversions. I recommended testing elements like CTA placement, button text, and headlines to determine what resonates best with your audience and drives more conversions.

Attribution Models

If you are combining multiple marketing channels for your lead generation strategy, it’s helpful to know which ones are churning out the most leads.

Google Analytics 4 offers Attribution Path and Attribution Model reports under the Advertising tab:

These attribution reports can help identify what paths people are taking before converting and how you can further optimize the user journey.

Generating high-quality leads within the manufacturing industry requires a multi-channel, strategic approach that aligns with your target audience’s journey. Digital marketing allows manufacturers to find users where they are searching to nurture and convert them.

Ready to optimize your digital marketing efforts and build a successful pipeline of leads? The right mix of digital marketing strategies can get you there. Contact us today to get started.