Does email marketing work for manufacturing companies?

Email campaigns can be used to keep customers up to date with new capabilities, products and company developments, as well as re-establishing relationships with ex-clients and new clients alike. In fact, many of our customers currently use email campaigns to help engage with those in their targeted industries.

How effective is email marketing?

Well, this is almost entirely dependant on the quality of the data. Buying email data is notoriously risky as it will often include out of date information, incorrect emails and irrelevant businesses that rely on SIC codes (Standard Industrial Classification) which can also be incorrect or too generic. Most email campaigns use ‘bought in’ data, but we find this to have very little impact.

The companies we find that have the best interaction with email marketing have built up their own database of email addresses over a long period of time as this guarantees the data quality. Generally, we do not recommend using ‘bought in’ data as it’s rarely effective and the ROI, compared to other industrial marketing options, is minimal.

 

Email Marketing - Does it Work for Manufacturing?

 

What are you looking to achieve from email marketing?

This is a great question to ask yourself. If your aim is to keep current and ex-customers up to date, then building up your own data is always the best option. If it’s generating new business, then there are far more effective ways than email marketing to do this.

What other options are available?

Our primary method of generating new customers for our clients is using ‘Search Marketing’ like pay-per-click and SEO. These methods target companies that are actively looking for your products/services, so in essence, you’re striking while the iron is hot!

This method can be very quick to implement and is extremely effective. Email marketing for new business’ is more of a ‘shotgun’ approach, relying on a high volume of data, that’s questionable in quality, in hopes you’ll catch someone at the right time. Although not all email campaigns are the same and some may get a good response, our experience is that Search Marketing is the most effective and flexible option of generating new business for manufacturers.

For more information about our industrial marketing services speak to the team on 01271 379 270.

AMI – Marketing for Manufacturing