ManufacturingMarketing

ManufacturingMarketing

DESIGNING GOOD SITEMAPS

DESIGNING GOOD SITEMAPS

GOOGLE IMAGE UPDATES

GOOGLE IMAGE UPDATES

AMAZON’S PROJECT ZERO

AMAZON’S PROJECT ZERO

Mar

ch 12

-25

2019

Mar

ch 12

-25

2019

Overcoming Common E-Commerce Objections Overcoming Common E-Commerce Objections

GROWING YOUR BUSINESS GROWING YOUR BUSINESS

BUYERSFIRST

BUYERSFIRST

COVER:

Designing websites for buyers first takes strategy and careful planning.

FROM THE EDITOR | March 12—25 2019 | Issue 25

1 | MANUFACTURING MARKETING

Buyers have always looked for ways to shorten their research and buying process.

ManufacturingMarketingIssue 25

ManufacturingMarketing

ManufacturingMarketing

DESIGNING GOOD SITEMAPS

DESIGNING GOOD SITEMAPS

GOOGLE IMAGE UPDATES

GOOGLE IMAGE UPDATES

AMAZON’S PROJECT ZERO

AMAZON’S PROJECT ZERO

Mar

ch 12

-25

2019

Mar

ch 12

-25

2019

Overcoming Common E-Commerce Objections Overcoming Common E-Commerce Objections

GROWING YOUR BUSINESS GROWING YOUR BUSINESS

BUYERSFIRST

BUYERSFIRST

Editor Dianna Huffdianna@huffindustrialmarketing.comDesigner Rachel Cunlifferachel@cre8d-design.com

Contact Manufacturing MarketingManufacturing Marketing is published bi-weekly by Huff Industrial Marketing and cre8d design. ISSN 2641-0214 (online).37 Plaistow Road, Unit 7-245Plaistow, NH 03865(603) 382-8093inquiries@huffindustrialmarketing.com

Subscribe to Manufacturing Marketinghuffindustrialmarketing.com/magazine

Magazine Archiveshuffindustrialmarketing.com/magazine/archives

Sponsor Manufacturing Marketinginquiries@huffindustrialmarketing.com

© 2019, All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

I’VE BEEN COVERING how the Internet has changed the buying cycle for manufacturers for over a decade. In fact, I wrote my first piece on the topic for MarketingSherpa in 2006.

Thirteen years ago, it was all about having a modern website that provided information buyers needed so they wouldn’t click the dreaded “back button.” Today, it’s about providing a seamless method for buyers to purchase from you.

In this week’s issue, you’ll find two articles that help you do this. In his piece, contributor Ben Chafetz talks about the objections his agency hears when it comes to moving from sales-by-phone to an e-commerce website.

In a related piece, Rachel Cunliffe discusses why creating a sitemap before you begin the website design process is so important (hint: it’s all about your buyers and their needs).

Have a fantastic week.– Dianna Huff, Editor, and Rachel Cunliffe, Designer

Eastec May 14–16, 2019Held in West Springfield, MA, the Eastern States Exposition is where you’ll discover the latest manufacturing trends and technologies, while meeting suppliers and hearing new ideas to advance your expertise. (MMM will be there!) Register now.

THIS WEEK’S SPONSOR

B2B E-COMMERCE

2 | MANUFACTURING MARKETING

Overcoming “My Sales People Will Hate It” and Other E-Commerce Objections By Ben Chafetz, Contributor

B2B e-commerce is huge – and continues to grow. According to data from Statista, manufacturing and merchant wholesale revenue in the U.S. in 2016 amounted to $5.79 trillion dollars in B2B e-commerce sales – growing at an average rate of about 200% per year for the previous 10 years.

The reason for the growth is easy to identify: research has shown 93% of business customers prefer to buy online when they’ve decided what to buy and simply need to make a purchase (Forrester, Death of a (B2B) Salesman).

In addition to allowing people to easily purchase products, the benefits of a well-

designed e-commerce website also include an increase in the average dollar amount of purchases, as well as purchase frequency.

Despite these benefits, however, the path to e-commerce implementation can be tough – especially with regard to overcoming internal objections.

The three most common objections we hear are: 1. “Our sales process is

too complicated and no e-commerce system can handle it.”

2. “We’re going to lose customers.”

3. “Our sales people will hate it.”

IN BRIEF

• Manufacturers’ optimism is high. 91.8% positive about their own company. View data

• DuckDuckGo continues its growth. “We don’t track you” message resonating. Read

• Women choosing careers in manufacturing. Great recruiting content! View

• Amazon launches Project Zero. Initiative to help brands fight counterfeit products. Learn more

• How to get on ‘Shark Tank.’ Advice from the casting producer. Start planning

• Love this! The top 15 brands over the last 19 years. Watch now

B2B E-COMMERCE

3 | MANUFACTURING MARKETING

Let’s look at each one.

OBJECTION #1: “OUR SALES PROCESS IS TOO COMPLICATED”

A manufacturer makes replacement parts, widgets, consumables, etc. and sells directly to end-users as well as through distributors. Pricing is based on various choices (color, size, volume, etc.) and parts are shipped domestically and internationally from various locations.

“No e-commerce system can handle the dozens of scenarios with our sales process,” a sales VP might say.

A robust e-commerce system can handle these scenarios plus many others. Buying wizards – tools or widgets within the e-commerce platform – can be configured to help online customers choose the right product by asking the same questions your sales team asks over the phone.

Specific rules can dictate that if a customer in Territory 1 is ordering 100 widget Xs to be shipped to their plant in Territory 2, then the parts need to be shipped from location A by a specific date.

The key to making the system work seamlessly is to spend the time with sales personnel – many of whom have a great deal of tribal knowledge in their heads – to map out the various processes

and rules before beginning the e-commerce implementation.

OBJECTION #2: “WE’RE GOING TO LOSE CUSTOMERS”

Many companies believe that having someone answer all incoming calls is what sets them apart – especially when it comes to sales.

For family-owned manufacturers, “high touch” customer service has been baked in: Old school owners and salespeople are often on a first-name basis with their contacts and pride themselves on providing personal service – because this is what keeps people loyal and coming back.

For this reason, moving to a “faceless” online ordering system can bring up fears of losing customers, since salespeople won’t have that constant touch.

The benefits of e-commerce, however, often outweigh this fear. The in-coming generation of people within purchasing, sales, and procurement are used to doing things online versus over the phone (and often prefer to do so).

It’s 9:00 PM, for example, and the customer had to leave work early to attend a child’s school activity, and is now catching up on work. If the customer has to call the supplier to place an order, he or she will have to wait until the next day to

conduct business – or place the order with a competitor.

It’s not that the customer doesn’t value the relationship, it’s simply that making the decision to place an order online is far easier than waiting until the next day to call it in. By ordering online, from the competitor, the customer completes the task and moves on to the next thing without having to remember to place the call the next day.

The research, by the way, backs up this scenario. According to the Forrester report, “68% of buyers prefer doing business online versus with a salesperson, and when they engage with sales, they want that experience to be in a more problem-solving, consultative manner.”

OBJECTION #3: “MY SALES PEOPLE WILL HATE IT”

For salespeople, the most common fear regarding e-commerce is that they’ll lose sales commissions.

Salespeople often look at an e-commerce system as competition. If a salesperson works on a deal, but then the order is placed online, why should the company pay sales commission?

In reality, a robust e-commerce platform, with an integrated CRM, is the manufacturing owner’s and salesperson’s friend. Consider

B2B E-COMMERCE

4 | MANUFACTURING MARKETING

the following scenarios.SALES ACCOUNTABILITY – With a CRM in

place, owners can see which salespeople have been hustling and/or which accounts have been languishing. If a sales person hasn’t spoken with an account in over six months, and then an order is placed online, the owner can make the case that no commission is due.

Conversely, if the salesperson has been in contact with the customer who places a large order, and has been keeping the CRM updated with regard to sales calls, emails, etc., this history is easily viewable by both owner and salesperson.

CUSTOMER TRACKING – When a salesperson puts together an RFQ using a PDF or print catalog, he or she has no clue if the customer is interested in the product because it’s next to impossible to track website visits.

With an e-commerce and integrated CRM platform, salespeople can provide RFQs through the system and then track whether the customer visits the website and/or views other products.

The system can include rules about abandoned shopping carts, too. For example, a customer places 100 units of a specific SKU in the shopping cart but doesn’t complete the purchase. Sales can call the customer to say, “We have a deal on this product,” in order to help close the sale.

RELATIONSHIP BUILDING – When salespeople are tied up taking orders by phone, they’re not free to resolve customers’ special requests or urgent issues (e.g. customization, shipping/routing, or other issue).

By allowing customers to place orders online, an e-commerce system frees salespeople to focus on high-value relationship building activities – including solving problems and re-activating languishing accounts.

Ben Chafetz is the CEO of 121eCommerce, a B2B and B2C Magento e-commerce development agency based in Cleveland Heights, OH. Visit the company website at 121ecommerce.com

Full-service marketing for

manufacturers who want to grow.

We’re the experts at helping you

solve business challenges that can

impede growth through:

• Short- and long-term strategic

planning and implementation

• Marketing that consistently

delivers high-quality leads

• Actionable messaging and

branding to attract prospective

customers and employees

If want to get your business to

the next level, take a look at Huff

Industrial Marketing. From custom

designed websites to ongoing

marketing, we focus on one thing:

your success.

Boutique Team

Integrated Services

Industrial Expertise

603-382-8093

inquiries@huffindustrialmarketing.com

WEBSITE STRATEGIES

5 | MANUFACTURING MARKETING

One of the early steps involved with designing a website, whether e-commerce or not, is to consider the sitemap.

Simply explained, a sitemap lists all the pages that will make up the site, organized into some type of hierarchical diagram showing main pages, subpages, subsubpages, and so on.

However simple it sounds, the sitemap is incredibly important as it’s the foundation or blueprint for the website designer and the marketing team.

The sitemap allows you to address many questions before the website is built – saving you considerable time, money, and effort. The questions

Creating a Sitemap Designed to Meet Buyers’ Needs By Rachel Cunliffe

include navigation, content, and user flow.

NAVIGATION

Designers use the sitemap when putting together the website navigation such as main menu(s), submenu(s), and footer menu(s).

CONTENT

Marketing teams use the sitemap to determine what content needs to be created, repurposed or reorganized, and which can be kept as-is – especially for website redesigns rather than new websites.

USER FLOW

Designers and marketing teams can use the sitemap for understanding how people will move through the website, and how website sections and content pages relate to each other.

The sitemap, for example, can show at a glance that important content is buried many levels deep – meaning, a user would have to click many times to get to it (even if it’s “logically” arranged).

By seeing this glitch in the user experience now, versus after the website is built, you can easily reorganize the sitemap or work with your designer to ensure this content is highlighted prominently within the design of pages.

Before creating your draft sitemap, I recommend the following steps:

STEP 1: PLAN

DETERMINE YOUR GOALS – What do you want people to do on your website? What are the key actions you want them to take?

PERFORM A CONTENT AUDIT – What information do buyers need to make an informed decision and then take those key actions? What questions do buyers have and does your content address them? What problems do you solve and does the content provide that information?

STEP 2: LIST

Next, list out the pages which address these questions. Use plain, concise language for every page name.

For example, instead of “About us” or “What this means for you,” use “About” and “Benefits.” You can still use the longer titles within page content, but for navigation purposes, you want the least amount of reading possible so people can make quick decisions without thinking too hard.

Avoid using vague names, such as “Information,” which don’t explain what content is contained within the page.

Once you’ve listed everything you can think of,

WEBSITE STRATEGIES

6 | MANUFACTURING MARKETING

look through the following list of common pages to see if any of these are missing and apply:

• Home• About• Testimonials• Services• Products• FAQ• Clients• Careers

• Case Studies• Press• News• Events• Industries• Company

History• Support

• Login• Register• RFQ• Contact• Terms • Privacy Policy• Warranty• Returns

• Shipping

As an extra step, talk to clients and others outside the company. They might be incredibly helpful in telling you what information is needed to do business with you. Your customer support or front desk staff will also have information about common customer queries – information that can be turned into content.

STEP 3: GROUP

Once you’ve come up with the initial list of pages, begin grouping related information together under main page sections.

For example, list all your product categories, including individual products, together under Products, and list all Careers-related pages together under Careers.

Group related pages together, too. Legal pages, such as Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy, Warranty, etc. should go into a footer menu; User-related pages, such as Login, Register, Support, RFQ, and Contact may up end up in a user menu that’s separate from the main menu.

STEP 4: ORGANIZE

Look at how many top level pages are left for the main menu. If your list has more than 7-9 items in it, you’ll end up overwhelming people.

Consider how to reorganize this list to better

WEBSITE STRATEGIES

7 | MANUFACTURING MARKETING

suit your users’ needs and then prioritize the important things that must reside in the top level of the main menu.

For example, if case studies are incredibly important for people to read to help make the decision to begin a conversation with you, put Case Studies in the main menu.

If reading case studies is important, but not a high-level priority, place the Case Studies page under About – while highlighting the page within the design of the site. For example, you can feature individual case studies in the footer of the homepage and on relevant Services or Products pages.

You may have some pages, such as standalone landing pages for ad campaigns, which sit outside of the main menu, user menu, footer menu, etc. This is fine.

While compiling your sitemap, you’ll shift things around quite a bit as you figure out how to make sure the important content is easily accessible and that people are not overwhelmed with too many choices.

To help you make these decisions, keep referring back to your goals and how you’d like people to move through the website.

I find it useful to use SlickPlan at this step (slickplan.com). You can create and share one sitemap using their free plan.

STEP 5: CHECK

Once you’re happy with how your sitemap is looking, determine that you have enough content available for each of page on the sitemap.

A rough rule of thumb is at least 300 quality useful words of content per page. But, don’t be afraid to use more if that’s what you need to help buyers make a decision.

If pages lack content, consider combining a set of pages together into one, with a paragraph or section for each.

Often a client will want to create an About page, with subpages for Team, Company History,

SITEMAP DOS AND DON’TS

• DO create your sitemap before you begin the website design process. Having a draft sitemap also allows designers to provide more accurate quotes.

• DO consider the actions you want buyers to take and design the user flow around these actions.

• DO conduct a content audit in order to determine what’s needed, what can be repurposed, etc.

• DON’T forget to consider all parts of your website, from the main nav to the footer to stand-alone landing pages.

• DON’T leave it to the website designer to create your sitemap. While designers are quite knowledgeable, they don’t know your business or customers as well as you do!

• DON’T short-shrift the sitemap process. The sitemap is your website’s foundation and requires careful time and planning.

Press, and Testimonials. However, when it comes to creating the content for the About page, they’re unsure what to add as everything has been put into the subpages.

In this situation, it can be tempting to say to the designer, “Just make the About page non-clickable,” or “Have the About page link to the Team page.”

WEBSITE STRATEGIES

8 | MANUFACTURING MARKETING

Both of these suggested solutions are problematic: Having some top-level menu items clickable, and some not, is confusing to website visitors. To create a smooth user experience, you want pages to link exactly as site visitors expect they will.

A better option, in this type of situation, is to consider the key information you want people to see when they click on About. If it’s an overview of the company and why one should choose to work with you, put that information on the page. If it’s an introduction to the management team, add the information to the page and delete the Team subpage.

Google Testing Expanded Image Grid

When it presents images for a search result, Google generally displays four to five images arranged horizontally on a single line.

However, we recently came across the above expanded image grid for a search result.

STEP 6: SHARE

Get final input from others both inside and outside the company in order to confirm you’ve included the info buyers need from you – and that your navigation will help visitors quickly find this information.

Rachel Cunliffe is the Designer and Creative Director for Huff Industrial Marketing clients. She draws on over 16 years of expertise in designing and building WordPress websites from scratch for companies around the globe.

The expanded grid features 12 images – and it was located at the top of the page! (Often, the smaller grids appear mid-page.)

We saw this same expanded image grid for mobile, too.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR MANUFACTURERS:

To have your images appear in Google’s image search results page, and by extension, its main search index, they need to be properly optimized. It also helps if the pages on which they reside are optimized, too.

In addition, high-quality photography is key. Blurry, DIY photos detract from your brand and present your products in a less than favorable light.

To learn more about optimizing images, view our piece: Three Ways to Improve Google Image Search Results

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

9 | MANUFACTURING MARKETING

Question of the Week

Google Analytics allows you to view data by filtering between Users and Sessions. What’s the difference?

A USER is someone who visits your website. Over the course of a month, you can can have hundreds or thousands of Users.

A SESSION is the period of time in which a User interacts with your website: e.g. reads pages, watches a video, or fills out an RFQ form.

By default, a Session times out after 30 minutes. This means that if the User is viewing a page, gets called away for something, and comes back 39 minutes later and resumes interacting with the website, the initial session stops and a new one begins.

Users can have multiple sessions per site visit – and multiple visits over a week, month, or year.

The screenshot below shows how one website user had multiple sessions over two site visits – as

What’s the Difference between Users and Sessions?

well as the number of pages viewed within each session. (You can find this report in Google Analytics under AUDIENCES / USER EXPLORER.)

The person also completed a Goal, an action indicated by the blue flag.

To determine if your website marketing is working, do not use number of Users or number of Sessions as stand-alone metrics.

To have a more complete view of your website’s performance, it’s good to view pre-determined KPIs, based on your objectives, using data from Analytics, Search Console, Ads, and other tools.

For example, your question might be, “How many users from organic search completed a goal last month, and how does this compare to the previous month or the same period last year?” Then, use the data to determine if Goal Completions are up or down and why.

ManufacturingMarketing

ManufacturingMarketing

WHY YOU SHOULD AVOID USING WIX

WHY YOU SHOULD AVOID USING WIX

RESPONSIVE SEARCH ADS

RESPONSIVE SEARCH ADS

NEW GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE

NEW GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE

Febr

uary

12-2

5 20

19Fe

brua

ry 12

-25

2019

Pros and Cons of Google Ad Rep Advice Pros and Cons of Google Ad Rep Advice

GROWING YOUR BUSINESS GROWING YOUR BUSINESS

ManufacturingMarketing

ATTRACTING SKILLED LABOR

WEBINAR

DECLUTTER YOUR WEBSITE

WHAT IS ONGOING SEO EXACTLY?

Janu

ary

22-F

ebru

ary

11 2

019

Google PageSpeed Scores: Do They Really Matter?

GROWING YOUR BUSINESS

ManufacturingMarketing

ManufacturingMarketing

LET’S TALKAPPRENTICESHIPS

LET’S TALKAPPRENTICESHIPS

HELP WANTED SIGN TIPS

MADE IN AMERICAHOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE

MADE IN AMERICAHOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE

PRODUCT OF THE YEAR AWARD

Nov

embe

r 27

-Dec

embe

r 10

201

8

Using Your Website to Attract Skilled Workers

GROWING YOUR BUSINESS

ManufacturingMarketing

ManufacturingMarketing

GORILLA MARKETING GORILLA MARKETING

ATTRACTING SKILLED LABOR

GOOGLE WEBSITE UPGRADES

GOOGLE WEBSITE UPGRADES

LAB RATSBOOK REVIEW

Nov

embe

r 12

-25

2018

Creating an Edgy Brand

GROWING YOUR BUSINESS

ManufacturingMarketing

ManufacturingMarketing

E-COMMERCE FOR MANUFACTURERS

E-COMMERCE FOR MANUFACTURERS

CHOOSING THE RIGHT PLATFORM

INTEGRATION WITH YOUR WEBSITE

INTEGRATION WITH YOUR WEBSITE

MANUFACTURING TAXONOMIES

Oct

ober

22-

28 2

018

Moving Print Catalogs Online

GROWING YOUR BUSINESS

Catch up on recent issues:

ADVERTISING

Showcase your product or service to manufacturers with an ad in Manufacturing Marketing.

AUDIENCE: Small and mid-sized US manufacturers

WHO SHOULD ADVERTISE: Manufacturers, consultants, software providers

MEDIA KIT REQUESTS: inquiries@huffindustrialmarketing.com

ManufacturingMarketing

ManufacturingMarketing

GOOGLE’S MANUFACTURER

CENTER

GOOGLE’S MANUFACTURER

CENTER

LANDING PAGE DESIGN

LANDING PAGE DESIGN

DATA-DRIVEN CREATIVITY

DATA-DRIVEN CREATIVITY

Febr

uary

26-

Mar

ch 11

201

9Fe

brua

ry 2

6-M

arch

11 2

019

Migrating from Paper to Digital: Custom Sales CRMs Migrating from Paper to Digital: Custom Sales CRMs

GROWING YOUR BUSINESS GROWING YOUR BUSINESS

EXPERIENCESMATTER