Building a Marketing Department for a Manufacturing Company (10 step guide)

Traditionally, many manufacturing companies relied on word-of-mouth referrals. Today, if you run such a business, you can no longer rely on relationships to drive company sales. The current consumers will likely look up your manufacturing company online before contacting you.

For this reason, you must become agile and update your marketing tactics. Since inception, the professionals at Your Strategic Marketing Partner have been helping manufacturing companies create superior marketing strategies and plans leading to better revenues.

Here’s the thing, setting up a marketing department is key for an organization to guarantee success in its marketing efforts. So, if you’re running a small to medium sized business (SMB) and don’t know where to begin, you’ve come to the right place.

Let’s explore a step-by-step guide to building an effective marketing department for your manufacturing company.

Step 1: Understand Your Manufacturing Company’s Status

A few questions you must answer include:

• Do you wish to create a new brand?
• Is your manufacturing company just starting, or is it established?
• What’s your existing capital?

If your manufacturing company has yet to create brand awareness, it’s best to start by building a marketing department to put things in motion. This plan may require having more than one person for a single role—for instance, two or more data analysts. In comparison, if your company is not new, you will require less marketing effort to propel sales.

Step 2: Goal Setting

Before going further, you must determine your marketing goals and fit them into the overall business goals. Marketing goals will provide a clear structure to the marketing department and inform future steps. Examples of marketing goals include improving revenues by a specific percentage, or planning for a 15% increase in lead generation.

Step 3: Create a Marketing Strategy and Plan

This step is all about identifying and describing how you intend to reach your marketing goals. Your marketing plan should pay attention to key performance indicators. Moreover, you must identify your manufacturing buyer personas, whether B2B or B2C. These would likely include product engineers, plant managers, and distributing companies (if it’s the former).

Other activities include performing a competitive analysis and understanding content initiatives. Remember, your marketing department will continuously update its marketing plans based on progress, perhaps quarterly or annually.

Step 4: Determine Your Budget

Your company’s budget will define the final size of your marketing department. So what’s the ideal marketing budget for your manufacturing company? First, it’s worth noting that experts recommend against cutting your budget during a recession. Studies show that businesses that have recovered from earlier recessions did so by maintaining their marketing spending.

Secondly, your manufacturing company must evaluate the marketing budget for others in the same industry. The 2021 CMO survey found that companies set their marketing budget at 17.4% of their projected revenue.

Finally, your manufacturing company must identify the most effective marketing activities to determine which areas will yield a meaningful ROI. These results are an indication of which areas your marketing department should leverage.

Step 5: Identify the Crucial Roles to Fill

There are four primary marketing roles your manufacturing must fill as you build your marketing department:

• Content
• Analytics
• Customer acquisition
• Monetization

Based on your budget and business size, you’ll likely assign several core responsibilities to each team member. As your manufacturing company grows, you may realize the need for more team members. It is at this point that you should consider filling the following roles.

• Project Manager
• Analytics Specialist
• SEO Specialist
• Writer
• Brand Manager
• Creative Head
• Social Media Manager
• Marketing Innovator

Step 6: Create Job Descriptions

Now that you have a clear sense of the team members your marketing department needs, the next step is to prepare proper job descriptions. Consider working with a staffing agency to ensure your postings target the right candidates and that they match the latest industry trends.

Step 7: Ensure Diversity, Inclusion, and Equality in the Hiring Process

Studies show that having an inclusive and diverse team can increase a company’s bottom line. Diversity in the workplace improves customer-business relationships, employee engagement, and innovation. To accomplish a diverse hiring process, you must eliminate current biases, expand your hiring pool and set and monitor goals.

Step 8: Prepare a Clear Onboarding Process

Effective onboarding can significantly impact the success of your marketing department. It would help to have a designated onboarding team to train new staff. This form of structure will boost employee productivity leading to better business performance.

Step 9: Automate

Ensuring your marketing department has the necessary tools will boost results. Digital marketing has proven to be an effective marketing tactic. Therefore, it’s only right that your team has the right resources. These may include CRM software, email marketing tools, inbound marketing, and Analytics tools.

Step 10: Collaborate with Other Departments

Your marketing department must partner with others to succeed. The sales team will offer customer knowledge. At the same time, the product and sales team will offer product and sales knowledge, respectively.

Invest in Marketing Experts

Many companies tend to shy away from outside help for fear of costs, especially in the beginning. 

However, working with outside agencies can save you money and increase revenues in the long run. 

Your marketing department, while beneficial, may not be able to tap into all marketing opportunities. By partnering with the Strategic Marketing Partner company professionals, your team will receive specialized support to streamline your marketing processes, thereby promoting company growth.