Categories: BlogTransforming Business Through Software

Hand-Picked Digital Marketing Platforms for Manufacturers

Platform: HubSpot

Where It Shines:

Email marketing – easy to use email lists, automation, and campaigns
Contact lists – straightforward contact management
Reports and analytics – convenient out of the box and custom reports
Website forms on WordPress – natural go-to for any new website forms

Not So Great:

Customizability – simple fields and workflows are no problem, but any complex customizations require creativity to implement
CRM – might be good for really simple sales teams, but it’s a fight to deliver 100% sales team solutions on the platform
Integration performance – API isn’t as mature as other platforms leading to many workarounds and inefficiencies

Best Used in Manufacturing Marketing:

Increasing product awareness and interest through email
Simplifying management of customer and prospect lists

Reference Websites:

Hubspot – platform website
Hubspot Infor Integration – ERP integration to increase platform value

Platform: WordPress

Where It Shines:

Websites – most widely used content management platform in the marketplace
Customizability – “can I do do X on WordPress?” – I don’t ever remember saying no
Pre-built plugins – most site enhancements have more than 1 option for plugins that can get the job done
SEO – AI SEO and other SEO tools greatly simplify SEO inside WordPress

Not So Great:

ECommerce – Woo Commerce just isn’t the first option I’d consider if you’re looking for a true eCommerce solution
Plugin management – functionality overlaps, interference, and versioning mean you need to be testing in sandbox with any plugin changes
Plugin performance – website performance is critical for SEO, and a single bad plugin can easily be a train wreck for site performance
Email – there are better options for emailing than using your Content Management System, especially on a large scale

Best Used in Manufacturing Marketing:

Attracting new web leads
Raising brand awareness
Collecting digital lead conversions

Reference Websites:

WordPress – platform website

Platform: Shopify

Where It Shines:

ECommerce – it’s easy to be up and selling products lightning fast
Themes – variety of themes to choose from
Shopify apps – most common scenarios have a quality solution available and costs are usually reasonable
Out of the box wins – options and configurations are often just a toggle to turn features off or on

Not So Great:

Complex customizations – the platform has a lot built in, but when things get complicated enough to require development, it’s probably easiest to reach out to a team with experience
API gaps – surface level integration or API tasks are easy enough, but the deeper you look, the stranger the workarounds get

Best Used in Manufacturing Marketing:

ECommerce shop on a budget
Online product catalog

Reference Websites:

Shopify – platform website
Shopify Integration – ERP integration to increase platform value

Platform: Magento

Where It Shines:

Customizable Ecommerce – you can change basically anything you want with the platform
Complex product configurator – various ERPs use Magento as the front end for their part configurations because of the platform flexibility

Not So Great:

Dev-heavy platform – expect to bring your PHP developer along because code customizations are almost always required
Expensive – because developer involvement is required so frequently, getting the eCommerce site the way you want it tends to be more expensive than other options
Difficult to troubleshoot – logs require technical understanding to troubleshoot issues

Best Used in Manufacturing Marketing:

Tailored eCommerce application
Product configurator integration with ERP

Reference Websites:

Magento – platform website
Magento Integration – ERP integration to increase platform value
ERP Evaluation – exploring ERP options with product configurator

Platform: Google

Where It Shines:

Search Engine Optimization & Pay Per Click – it’s nearly impossible to determine effectiveness of SEO and PPC without Analytics and Search Console
Website analytics – all the data your marketing team needs to understand website interactions and website funnel metrics
Surfacing website issues – after your website gets to hundreds or thousands of pages, it’s impractical to detect issues without a platform to help

Not So Great:

Data overload – the diversity of data is useful, but can be overwhelming if you don’t know what to do with the data

Best Used in Manufacturing Marketing:

Increasing web visits
Increasing web conversions

Reference Websites:

Google Analytics – website analytics collection and reporting
Google Search Console – visibility into Google search engine for your website

Choosing Manufacturing Marketing Platforms

There’s no reason to over-complicate your platform mix. Make sure you’ve nailed down your annual marketing strategy, clearly identifying your target audience and how you’re planning to attract audience attention. With clear goals, pick the platforms that best align, measure, tweak, and re-measure.

Datix Marketing