In engineering marketing, one thing many marketers seem to underestimate is the power of combining two or more marketing tools into the same campaign, it seems to be a common misunderstanding that one campaign means one marketing tool.
Google Ads, LinkedIn, Facebook Ads and Instagram are popular choices for online marketing in engineering, and while they all have their strengths and weaknesses, sticking to one or two basic methods is not going to get you very far in the end.
Why not combine marketing tools, using their individual strengths, therefore strengthening your advertising? Boom. Lightbulb moment.
Google Ads – Google Ads is a ‘pay per click’ online advertising platform developed by Google, where advertisers bid to display advertisements, service offerings, product listings, or videos to web users
Facebook Pixel – Facebook Pixel is a tool that allows you to measure, optimise and build personalised audiences for very targeted advertising campaigns.
Facebook Ads – Facebook ads are the next step on from organic Facebook posts. Facebook ads are targeted to users based on their online history, location, demographic, profile information etc., and can be combined with the Facebook Pixel for extremely targeted advertising.
LinkedIn – Both organic posting and paid ads on LinkedIn can work very well for engineers, but it’s a pool that is heavily fished by engineers, so don’t fall into the same trap as many engineers and purely use this on it’s own, as the competition is huge. Use it as an engineering marketing tool, but don’t rely on it alone.
Here’s an example of when you may combine marketing tools… You have a product/service that isn’t getting enough traffic on your website. You’ve made a landing page that you think is pretty good, but it’s still not getting the number of visitors you want it to.
First thing to do: Check the product/service page on your website
- Is the information clear?
- Does the page look good?
- Does it have lots of information that’s easy to find and read?
- Is there a good call to action (see our ‘Call to Action Ideas’ post for some inspiration) on the page for visitors to ask for more information, buy your product, get in touch with you etc.?
Once the page is good to go and you’re happy with it (very happy with it), the next step is SEO. SEO is one of the best ways to get traffic to your page/website, by optimising the website for the search engines. The beautiful thing about SEO is that it doesn’t cost money each time someone clicks on it, and quite often they are the first results people go to when searching. But it can take time to build up SEO and get right. Not so good when you want an instant impact, but definitely needed rolling in the background.
So, what can you combine with SEO to speed up visits and sales?’
There are many tools including LinkedIn to bring awareness to the right people and you could use Twitter maybe? Another option here which is often overlooked is Google Ads, which can be combined quite nicely with SEO. Think about your target audience; the people who need what you’re offering. What search terms and keywords would they use on Google? These are the keywords you need to use in your Google Ads and your SEO. Now, this on its own is enough to produce sales conversions, but to really get the till ringing you need to think outside the box here, and that’s where the beauty of combining more marketing tools really comes into its own.
You can also bring in Facebook Pixel marketing to build an audience from the visitors you brought in via Google ads and SEO, from there you can then start to re-target them with Facebook Ads. Now you have yourself a completely targeted, specific marketing strategy that brings results!
You see, if you drive enough traffic to your landing page with Google Ads, SEO and other tools, you can then have a Facebook Pixel on your page. This will allow you to advertise on Facebook to only the people who have already visited your page/website through your Google ads.
You suddenly have a very targeted audience.
Bear in mind that engineers and buyers don’t always buy things the first time they see them, so no immediate sales or contact from your visitors doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t want to buy anything from you. How often do you browse products and services online, with the intention of going back to it later, but forget about it or get distracted by something else? By using Facebook Pixel marketing and Google Remarketing, you can show up as a graphical ad on other websites or as a Facebook Ad on the newsfeeds of people who have already searched for and looked at what you’re selling. Just watch your sales conversion rate sky rocket.
So to summarise this example; check your website, set up your Google Ads and SEO, apply a Facebook Pixel to your page/website, remarket to people who have already taken some kind of action on your website, then watch your sales increase. Simple, right?
For more information or help with engineering marketing, get in touch with our clever team of people at Brookstone Innovation.