Having a great website is essential for success in manufacturing. An astonishing 78% of customers view the quality of a company’s website as being a reflection of the quality of its products and services.
Why a strong website is important for manufacturers
“We needed a new model and a new method to reach customers and we saw Farotech as a partner to help us find and interface with new customers.”
Jay Bachman
Vice President & General Manager at Wayne Automation
A Great Story
Customers need to know who you are, what you stand for, and what value you bring to them. Studies show that telling a clear, cohesive story is important for engaging customers. Stories provide a personal connection, which helps to create an emotional connection with potential customers. Stories are also great at reinforcing the brand message and values of a company.
A great manufacturing website should help tell that story by being visually appealing, easy to navigate, and user-friendly. A modern design and intuitive navigation will ensure visitors find what they need quickly, while a clear layout and uncluttered pages will help keep them engaged.
Here are three examples of how we’ve helped tell our clients’ stories by transforming their websites.
New Way Air Bearings
Challenge
New Way’s existing website had a UX that wasn’t bringing in or identifying leads. Additionally, they felt their website wasn’t effectively expressing their thought leadership in the air bearing manufacturing industry.
Solution
Farotech worked with New Way Air Bearings to revamp their sitemap for a new website built with a modern look optimized for digital marketing. Education, SEO, and a great UX were the driving factors behind this build.
Result
New Way over doubled their contact leads consistently year over year (68%) and valuable keywords landing on page 1 of Google Search (55%) year over year while also having the site built in a way to be massively scalable.
Wayne Automation
Challenge
Wayne Automation’s website was outdated and not bringing in leads. Poor navigation, slow page load, duplicate content, and more all led to a frustrating UX.
Solution
Farotech helped Wayne design a new, fully custom website optimized for UX. This included improvements to SEO, Lead Generation points, Scalability, Navigation and Mobile. Farotech found ways to highlight key features users were looking for such as videos on product pages.
Result
Overall users are up over 222% when comparing 2022 to 2020. Starting in Aug ‘21, leads from organic search nearly doubled to 13 per month from their previous 7. Before Farotech, Wayne ads were not returning any leads. We improved their ad campaign performance which generated 71 leads since Jan ‘21.
RMS Roller-Grinder
Challenge
Finding the best balance between voice and functionality for users to understand the overall message and quickly navigate to the desired end goal. Presentation was lacking, and they needed to combine their target industries into a single site.
Solution
Farotech developed a creative solution to unify rmsroller-grinder.com and rmsbrewingsolutions.com to create one beautiful website. Navigation improvements allowed users to find the exact industry/solution they were looking for with clear calls to actions.
Result
From August 2022-January 2023, there was a 158% increase in organic leads since launching the site and a 24% increase in new users comparing Q3 of ‘22 to Q4 ‘22.
What challenges did Wayne Automation face before Farotech? What problem were you trying to solve?
How did Farotech's strategy help Wayne Automation overcome these challenges?
How has Farotech's SEO strategy led to your growth and online visibility?
What is the process like working with Farotech?
What has exceeded your expectations since working with Farotech?
What was one unexpected benefit you experienced from using our product or service?
What was your main concern that would have prevented you from buying this, and what put your fears to rest?
Features of a Great Manufacturing Website
A great website for manufacturers should include several key features to ensure a successful online presence. Here, we discuss them in detail.
Homepage Video
A beautifully crafted homepage video tells your story best. This is for two reasons: 1.) it’s the first thing your customers will see when they visit your website and 2.) data shows that websites with videos have an average of 4 minutes longer session duration than those without videos.
Artful Core Pages
When you think of brands who create raving fans with stunning products and deep emotional connections, Apple is the king. Their immersive design speaks for itself, transforming hesitancy into impulse. For any product-focused company––including manufacturers––investing in core pages that showcase your products is crucial to the visual component of your site.
Branded Product Lines
Branded product lines are often more memorable than generic ones, which can help to boost sales and conversions on your site. Everyone from Microsoft, Nike, and PepsiCo to your favorite car company knows this well.
Great Navigation
There’s nothing worse than a cluttered website that is difficult to navigate. A website that is simple and intuitive helps your customer can find what they need quickly and effectively.
Searchable Database of Products
Being able to find the right products quickly and effectively is critical for potential customers. Your database should contain need-to-know information about your product’s features and benefits so customers can make sure it addresses their pain points.
Great Mobile Experience
We all know that a large majority of search happens on mobile devices. That’s why a great manufacturing website should maintain its consistency between desktop and mobile for a seamless user experience.
Marketing Automation
Integrating with HubSpot is important for a website as it allows manufacturers to track and measure performance, gain insights into customer behavior, and optimize campaigns. Additionally, HubSpot can help to automate processes such as lead generation and marketing automation, which can save time and resources.
Site Structure
Each page’s strength should be compounding the pages under it if you structure them correctly. Strategizing a hierarchy so you rank for topic as opposed to just keyword is key to a well-designed site that is scalable without destroying design, navigation, or UX.
Data & Statistics
People love data because it provides quick and digestible information. Data and statistics that act as proof points help establish thought leadership with data-driven arguments for client education. Adding a visual component such as infographics can also help.
Strong Visuals
Data suggests that people don't read, they scan. That’s why eye-catching visuals and infographics are better than text alone. Appealing visuals that tell your story in an engaging way that is both immersive and educational in nature can show the pain and how you help solve it.
Testimonials & Case Studies
Customer success stories help validate a brand with potential customers in your target market. Rather than a dedicated testimonials page, these are proof points that should be baked into the site, ideally on the homepage. Showing off companies you’ve worked with establishes validation, trust, and credibility.
About Us Page
Here’s where you tell your story, who you are, and what you’re all about. Brands are all about the “why”. A great About Us page makes users want to connect to the brand, have a relationship with it, and serves as a place to humanize your company.
Education
Blogs, eBooks, and other content offerings help to generate backlinks and awareness. If you have a good strategy in place, this should feed the structured content hierarchy by linking to other relevant content and synergizing your client education with other marketing efforts.
ROI
When done right, your website could be an ROI-generating machine that shows the value of your products and services in plain terms. The problem is that most companies don't know why website drives ROI, so understanding your investment in a website is critical.
Website Utility Tools
Building custom sales tools to create an interactive experience that gives specific info about your customers' needs helps empower users to take the next step.
Distribution map
It’s not enough to know who you are, you have to show your reach, where you work, where your serve, and any international distribution channels. This is often an overlooked step to establishing thought leadership, validation, and product availability.
FEATURES OF OUR STRATEGY
Our customized digital strategy paved the way for growth in organic traffic, brand awareness, and leads from organic search.
Expansive Blogs
Maintaining an effective digital presence is crucial for any manufacturer seeking to thrive in a competitive market. Manufacturing companies like Wayne Automation are traditionally associated with technical expertise rather than content creation. This is where we stepped in and recognized the need for informative content that speaks to Wayne’s buyer personas and keeps them engaged. From an SEO standpoint, this also increased their traffic and leads from organic search.
See Example
Case Studies
Highlighting success stories is a compelling way to attract new leads while establishing industry leadership and trust. In the example here with Wayne, we were able to showcase how they saw a challenge, developed a solution, and executed that solution to bring results for their clients. Potential customers want to know what kind of company they’re entrusting with their automation and packaging––a case study that drives home competitive advantages and relationships is a great way to do just that.
See Example
eBook
We set out to create engaging resources that potential leads can take with them to learn more about Wayne Automation’s products and process. eBooks offer enhanced accessibility and convenience for end-users, who can easily access digital content on various devices, such as smartphones, tablets, or e-readers, irrespective of their physical location. They are also great for data collection and analysis, allowing manufacturers to gather valuable insights on user behavior and preferences, which can be utilized to further refine products, improve customer satisfaction, and drive innovation in the manufacturing process.
See Example
Hubspot Integration
Our team seamlessly integrated HubSpot into the Wayne Automation website. This allowed us to track and identify potential clients, score their engagement based on a customized rubric, and notify sales if the lead was hot, warm, or cold based on their interactions.
