1. ZOG Digital, Inc.
www.zogdigital.com
+1 480 281 7579
Learn More at www.zogdigital.com/learn
THE MANUFACTURER’S GUIDE TO
DIGITAL MARKETING:
4 Steps to Drive Sales and ROI

2. Manufacturers of consumer goods have the opportunity today to
dramatically impact sales, both directly with consumers and through retail
partners by employing digital marketing. Spending for digital marketing has
been growing at a steady rate for years because of its ability to produce
results and higher ROI than traditional marketing channels. Forrester
Research, Inc. predicts digital marketing spending will reach more than
$76 billion in 2016, with growth occurring in every single industrial sector.
Forrester Research, Inc. also projects that within digital marketing,
spending is expected to increase across every platform, including search
advertising, social media, display ads and mobile marketing.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Digital marketing, including search engine and social media marketing,
has the ability to improve the bottom line for manufacturers. With the
following steps and best practices, manufacturing brands can increase
brand awareness, drive sales, reduce cost-per-acquisition and increase
the overall return on investment.
“What is interesting and valuable about digital – and social media in particular – is its
unique quality of providing ‘social context,’ which essentially is an endorsement of our
brands from our fans to their friends. Therefore, we see TV and digital as complementary
– not necessarily in terms of reaching different audiences, but rather to engage with our
consumers in different ways.”
– Unilever Senior VP-Global Media Luis Di Como
“The ROI work that we’ve done so far has demonstrated that digital is better than TV. While
you can still get very broad reach from TV that to an extent dilutes some of the ROI.” Digital
still has “a smaller range of reach, but it’s more targeted, and that’s what gives it a higher
ROI.”
– Proctor and Gamble Global Brand-Building Officer Marc Pritchard
01
THE MANUFACTURER’S GUIDE TO
DIGITAL MARKETING:
4 STEPS TO DRIVE SALES AND ROI
ZOG Digital, Inc.
WWW.ZOGDIGITAL.COM
THE MANUFACTURER’S GUIDE TO DIGITAL MARKETING 4 Steps to Drive Sales and ROI

3. A thoughtfully designed website will help manufacturers convert online users into sales, either online or through a third party retailer. While new
technology gives every manufacturer the ability to create a unique experience, the best practices for building a consumer-centric website have
mostly remained the same.
Better user experiences with strategic web development and design: Navigating a website
should be instinctive for the user. While making the most visually appealing website possible is
an attainable goal, it’s the structure; features and content on the website that will help convert
consumers into sales. For manufacturers that sell products directly to consumers, this means
optimizing the ecommerce process as much as possible by creating an internal search option,
allowing consumers to personalize products and making the answers to frequently asked
questions easy to find.
For manufacturers that sell products exclusively through third party retailers, the website should
be infused with research materials that are easy to sort through and explicit instructions on how
to find retail partners to purchase the products. Other features that all manufacturers should implement are product review sections, education
content about the industry or product category, as well as easily found information about how to contact the company offline in case of
additional questions or an emergency.
Making the Most out of the Mobile Experience: Consumers now spend more time on mobile devices than watching television or using a
desktop computer, making mobile marketing more crucial than ever. Because there is a large increase in mobile usage
for consumers in every stage of the decision process – from awareness to decision – manufacturers should make
sure their websites are optimized for mobile devices. Google specifically recommends responsive designed websites
to businesses, because doing so means the site will automatically adapt to any device, while maintaining the same
overall look and branding. For a consumer, responsive designs are easy to
use because there is no learning curve when moving from a desktop site to a
mobile site. According to Google, 67 percent of users say they are more likely
to make a purchase from a mobile-friendly website. Also, manufacturers
should know that mobile users demand different content than desktop users
such as product comparisons and product reviews. Manufacturers should
research what mobile users are demanding and ensure that content is easy
to find or read on the smaller mobile screen.
Local Searchers are also Buyers: According to Google, 34 percent of local searchers
who use desktop or tablet devices made their way to a store and more than 50 percent
of local searchers on smartphones did the same thing. Once they get to a store, local
searchers are more likely to make a purchase. Google’s research shows that 18 percent
of local searches lead to a purchase within a day, compared to just 7 percent of non-local
searches. Manufacturers that sell products exclusively through retail partners can still
impact local searchers and buyers online. Specifically, this subset of the manufacturing
sector should provide searchers direct access to retail partner locations the same way
the retailer would online by utilizing local SEO techniques such as dedicated local
landing pages.
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1. BUILDING A DIGITAL MARKETING
FOUNDATION WITH RESPONSIVE WEBSITES
THE MANUFACTURER’S GUIDE TO DIGITAL MARKETING 4 Steps to Drive Sales and ROI

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Consumers are turning toward search engines to research the world around them, including products they’re considering to purchase. By
making their website as visible as possible on search engines, manufacturing marketers can maximize the visibility to these search engine users,
garner more web traffic and increase the changes for sales. SEO is the process of moving up specific webpages up in search engine rankings,
making that page more visible and more likely to be clicked. A manufacturer that is able to move from being ranked second to first can expect
to see thousands of additional customers and substantial revenue gains over time. Research has shown that 32.5 percent of searchers click on
the top organic result when searching online; that number drops to 17.6 percent for the second result and less than 11.4 percent for the third.
Give Users What They Want: Creative Content based on Keyword Research: Brands should begin their SEO efforts by optimizing the
website itself through keyword research and technical optimization. Keyword research is the process of building websites based on the content
desired by consumers. Brands looking to build a website with the ultimate goal of high search engine rankings should focus on creating the
type of content that helps improve rankings. Search engine updates like Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird have made quality content essential
rather than allowing some SEO quick fixes to keep working. Manufacturers should be informative, open, engaging and not overly technical with
content—helping to inform customers about their products through reviews, how-to articles and product instructions. Brands should research
and listen to the types of content that users are reading and would like to have available, and then focus on building out those sections. Each
manufacturer may find different results, which is why the research into consumer wants and needs must be done to ensure the highest possible
results.
Start by Building Off on a Solid Foundation: On-page technical SEO is based on the optimization of the website’s code, the building blocks
on which the site is built. Search engines “crawl” through websites’ code, picking up on indicators that tell the search engine about the focus
on the page, the quality of the content and dozens of other important factors. By optimizing the code, brands can give search engines a clear
indication about the focus and authority of the website, which in turn can help improve a business’ search engine rankings. Some examples of
ways coding can be optimize for SEO purposes includes using metatags, using clear title tags, making sure every link goes to a functioning page
and staying away from coding that search engines can’t index, such as JavaScript.
2. INCREASE BRAND VISIBILITY WITH
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)
THE MANUFACTURER’S GUIDE TO DIGITAL MARKETING 4 Steps to Drive Sales and ROI

5. Make Your Presence Known Across the Internet: Eighty-six percent of manufacturing marketers say they are using a content marketing
strategy right now. Content marketing can include everything from sending regular email blasts, videos, as well as more in depth white papers
and case studies. Beyond that, content marketing is making sure that the right content is put in front of the right audience at the right time,
which will increase the odds of that audience being impacted by the content and then making a purchase.
The goals of a content marketing strategy differ from business to business, but every effective content marketing strategy has the ability to
improve search engine rankings. Manufacturers should focus on creating content that is interesting enough that the readers will want to share it.
Each time a new website publishes content and links back to the manufacturer’s website as a reference, it helps improve rankings. This is because
search engines use links as a way to determine the popularity and authority of a website. Manufacturers with the goal of improving search engine
rankings should strive to create content that industry
leaders, industry publications, news organizations
and other online experts will want to source, quote
and share. They should also focus on doing research
and testing to ensure that potential consumers are
shown the most effective content during their path
through the purchase process. Sometimes the right
content for someone in the research phase may not
be effective for a consumer who is ready to make a
final decision.
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THE MANUFACTURER’S GUIDE TO DIGITAL MARKETING 4 Steps to Drive Sales and ROI
Figure 3 Figure 4

6. 05
ZOG Digital, Inc.
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Paid advertising campaigns have the ability to enhance SEO efforts by putting a brand’s message and voice in front of users who may not be
specifically searching for the brand. Manufacturers looking to invest in paid advertising campaigns should focus on two main platforms; search
platforms like Google and Bing, and social platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook. In 2014, businesses in the U.S. are projected to spend $16.85
billion on paid search advertisements and another $6.23 billion on social media ads. Each platform, which has its own unique audience and user-
set, has its own advantages.
Another main reason manufacturers should take a hard look at paid advertising, even if they don’t have an ecommerce or direct-to-consumer sales
model, is that it allows the brand to control its image. Manufacturers that rely on retail partners to advertise products are giving away control of
a brand’s voice while allowing the advertising to be diluted between all of the products that retailer sell. Manufacturers that go this route should
coordinate bids with third party retailers to avoid bidding against each other for target keywords, unnecessarily increasing the cost of the PPC
campaign.
Bidding on branded keywords, such as the company’s name, has the ability to protect businesses from competitors. It is a common tactic for
businesses to bid on branded keywords of competitors, which could sway a searcher from one brand to another. Brands should spend money on
branded keywords to protect that valuable space on top of search results from being monopolized by competitors.
Maximize the Most Widely Used Internet Resource: For paid search advertising, manufacturers
have the ability to put their ads on top of organic results, creating a level of visibility that rivals the
best SEO strategies. Paid search ads can be modified to impact searchers in specific locations,
on specific devices, based on their past browsing history and the keywords they use. Because
of these targeting options, manufacturers can help sway large audiences who are searching for
countless keywords that relate to the brand’s products or retail partners, by putting specially
designed ad copy in front of them that aims to create conversions.
Making an Impact and New Friends using Social Media: Social networks allow brands to target based on a variety of factors including
the users’ self-listed likes, activities, demographic information, education level and job
title. This data and targeting ability is one of the unique aspects of using social media
advertising platforms, because with this retail buyers or consumers. Choosing the right
social network to focus on is arguably the most important step for businesses looking to
capitalize on social media advertising. For manufacturers that are B2B focused, LinkedIn
might be the best choice because of its business focused users. For manufacturers that
are focused on B2C, platforms like Facebook and Twitter may yield the best results.
Move Closer to Consumers and Business Partners with Custom Audience
Targeting: Search and social paid advertising allows businesses to get closer to the
consumer than ever before. With custom audience targeting, which uses data from both
search and social channels to create very specific target audiences to push advertising
content to, manufacturers can create an efficiency in advertising that was unavailable before
now. Using this information, manufacturers can create very specific and individualized
content that is directly geared toward moving these consumers farther down the purchasing funnel and toward a conversion. As manufacturers
evaluate and update paid advertising strategies moving forward, the use of search and social data to create custom audiences and audience
specific target should be at the forefront of discussions.
3. SUPPLEMENT ORGANIC TRAFFIC
WITH PAID ADVERTISING
THE MANUFACTURER’S GUIDE TO DIGITAL MARKETING 4 Steps to Drive Sales and ROI

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ZOG Digital, Inc.
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Social media marketing helps spread the brand and message of a manufacturer directly to consumers. Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn are the
three most popular sites used by manufacture ring marketers according to the Content Marketing Institute.
The reason those social networks are popular with marketers is because they allow
for direct interaction between manufacturers and target audiences. Social media
accounts also allow for a level of comfort to be built between manufactures and
clients, both in a B2B or B2C setting. That comfort level, which can be built through
interaction, openness, responsiveness or the revelation of unknown information,
can assist businesses in moving target audiences toward a buying decision. It’s
important that manufacturers don’t focus all of the social media attention on directly
promoting products. Instead they should make sure to incorporate posts that
promote the culture of the brand, show behind the scenes information about how
the products are made and sold, as well as directly engage fans. By doing this,
manufacturers can improve brand awareness and brand recognition, two factors
which can be directly tied to sales.
4. CREATE BRAND LOYALTY WITH
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
THE MANUFACTURER’S GUIDE TO DIGITAL MARKETING 4 Steps to Drive Sales and ROI

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ZOG Digital, Inc.
WWW.ZOGDIGITAL.COM
CONCLUSION
The opportunity is there for manufacturers to build customer bases
and improve sales through the use of digital marketing. While each
digital marketing technique has the ability to improve visibility,
brand awareness, conversions and eventually sales, manufacturers
have the ability to exponentially improve the benefits. When used
in tandem, search engine optimization, website design, paid
advertising and social media marketing have the ability to build off
of each other, creating measurable impacts on sales, and in turn
provide a positive ROI.
www.zogdigital.com | +1 480 281 7579