Whether you have ambitious growth goals, or business has slowed in a particular location or industry, or you have just identified intriguing opportunities, there are a variety of reasons manufacturers may consider expanding into a new vertical or territory.

Building brand awareness in uncharted territories is no small feat, especially for those marketing for the manufacturing industry. Fortunately, today's digital marketing landscape makes breaking into new regions and verticals easier than ever before.

Here’s a look at some of the most effective digital marketing tactics that you can leverage when expanding your manufacturing company:

Content Marketing

From the moment you identify a new target vertical or market, beginning to create content centered around the expansion should be one of your first steps.

For example, let's assume that you are an industrial manufacturer looking to break into the food and beverage processing industry. Implementing content that targets keywords related to food and beverage processing equipment and provides valuable information will signal to search engines that your business is relevant to that topic.

A great start would be to create a specific page dedicated to your new industry or territory detailing all of the services or products that you offer for this new market.

This will allow you to begin driving website traffic to these new pages and build anticipation before expanding.

Creating buyer personas

When expanding to a new vertical or territory, you will likely encounter new challenges compared to a market that you are already familiar with.

Creating an in-depth, accurate persona representing your ideal customer in this new vertical or territory will ensure that you are creating content–whether it be educational content or sales collateral–that resonates with their unique needs or interests.

Some information that you should consider when creating these personas are:

• Background Information (job, career path, family)
• Demographics (gender, age, income level)
• Identifiers (demeanor, communication preferences)
• What are their goals?
• What are their challenges?
• What can you do to help them achieve their goals and resolve their challenges?

Moreover, noting actual quotes and common objections that you hear from prospects in this new vertical or territory will help humanize this persona even further and give you an abundance of new content creation ideas.

Digital Advertising

The targeting capabilities of digital advertising alone make it an exceptional opportunity for manufacturers to build awareness about an upcoming expansion into a new target market.

One platform in particular, LinkedIn, allows you to target based on specific job-related information, making it extremely effective at reaching prospects in a new industry.

Do you have a list of companies you would like to pursue in your new industry or region?

You can upload these lists to LinkedIn, and have your ads displayed only to people who work at these companies. You can further target your ads to people who have a specific job title or seniority, and many other criteria. This is a great chance to promote videos, case studies, or other content that would be relevant to prospects in your new market.

Local SEO

If it’s a new territory that you are after, then you want to signal to search engines that you are relevant in this area. This will help you establish authority and ensure that your website is served when someone searches for your product or services in the designated location.

Google My Business

First, suppose you are opening a new physical location in the area. In that case, you should start by creating a new Google My Business listing and fully optimizing it by including all of the necessary details, images, services, etc.

Create a location page

Next, create a page on your website dedicated solely to the new territory you are expanding to.

This page should be linked to your Google My Business listing – if you created a new one – and include a fair amount of content including your business name, NAP, the services you provide to the area, and localized photos and videos, and more.

You’ll also want to implement some technical SEO best practices, including optimizing your title tag, meta description, and URL to signal to search engines that the page is meant specifically for the target area.

Additionally, adding schema markup–microdata that helps search engines read and understand web content–will further solidify this page’s authority in the area that it’s intended to target.

It is not necessary to have a physical location in a new market for this approach to work. Creating pages on your website for each area that you serve can be just as impactful.

Email Marketing

Remember that prospect list that you used for LinkedIn Advertising?

Well, if you have emails for these prospects, then email marketing can help you build familiarity with your company as you become more and more involved with your new territory or vertical.

A monthly cadence promoting helpful content on your website is a good start, but you can take your results to the next level with more personalized content and lead-nurturing strategies if you choose to invest in marketing automation.

Expanding Your Manufacturing Company

Is expanding into a new vertical or territory something that you are considering for your manufacturing company? If so, you should utilize a combination of these tactics, as well as other marketing strategies, rather than a select few. Want to talk about the right combination of tactics for your business? We are always happy to chat.

By beginning these tactics before your expansion has fully launched, you’ll have already established brand familiarity and generating valuable traffic to your website from your new territory or vertical, allowing you to hit the ground running once the expansion is in full effect.

For more information on effective digital marketing tactics for manufacturers, head over to our manufacturing marketing resources page.