I see a lot of manufacturing leaders give up on their marketing efforts because they’re not seeing immediate results. Imagine if Henry Ford had operated in the same manner.

It took Henry Ford five years and 19 different models before he created the Model T in 1908. It was called the Model T because the “T” corresponds to the 20th letter in the alphabet.

The vehicle was regarded as the first mass-affordable automobile, which made car travel available to middle-class Americans.

Ford succeeded because he continued to improve, model after model. He laid the groundwork for the philosophy of Continuous Improvement, which was developed by Japanese businesses after World War II, and is most notably linked to Toyota. It has many variations and nuances, but the basic idea is to continuously make incremental improvements based on data.

Considering this is essentially the lifeblood of modern manufacturing, it also begs the question: Why don’t manufacturers apply that Continuous Improvement mindset to marketing?

You don’t just manufacture a product and call it a day. You manufacture a product, you sell it, and then you figure out how to make it more efficiently.

But that mindset doesn’t seem to apply to marketing. I often hear manufacturers say they tried a marketing approach, it didn’t work, and so they cut marketing entirely.

Really? That’s like Ford quitting after the first model.

The idea of kicking marketing to the curb is probably easier considering many manufacturers have built their success on the efforts of their sales teams alone.

Look, you obviously need sales. But with 57% of the customer journey occurring before a meaningful interaction with a salesperson, you also have to rely on your digital marketing to meet customers online, where they are doing their research and comparing products and services.

You simply don’t have the luxury of quitting on marketing anymore.

Ironically, the industry that seems to be the most resistant to digital marketing is also the one that should be best equipped to take advantage of it.

That’s because digital marketing allows for measurement in so many areas. You can tie your marketing efforts to a specific quantitative goal, and then generate data to see if the marketing processes, strategies, and tactics are helping you reach that goal.

For example, at Winbound we run ads that generate a metric called impressions, which are a measurement of how many times people have the opportunity to view the ad. The more impressions you get, the more likely a prospect will click on the ad, which will lead them to your website, and eventually turn into a lead.

But when we see those ad impressions aren’t generating leads, we can apply incremental changes. We can choose a different advertising channel, or modify the audience we’re targeting. We can alter the message in the ads, or choose video over text.

We don’t give up just because an ad doesn’t hit. We modify the ad and try again.

What we’re talking about in this article should be second nature to manufacturers, but it will require not only a change in mindset but also in methodology. You’ll need to take the following steps to integrate Continuous Improvement into your marketing:

Get leadership support: Meet them halfway

Manufacturing leaders tend to be skeptical of marketing. C-level executives typically have some sort of engineering or operations background, and they can’t relate to the marketing world with its buzzwords and qualitative nature.

Meet them halfway. Explain to management that you will be leaning into the principles of Continuous Improvement with your planning and execution. You’ll be taking an approach that is familiar and comfortable to them.

You have an approach designed for Continuous Improvement, and as long as they see that mechanism in place, they’re more likely to trust you. 

Focus on the customer: Make the customer the baby

Companies are like families. Many people have different opinions on different things, and this can lead to disagreements and siloed thinking. However, there’s one thing that brings the family together: a baby.

Everyone rallies around the baby. They love to hold the baby. The family is unified in its support of the baby and will do anything for it.

Your job as the marketer is to make the customer the baby. Keep everything focused on what it takes to make the baby happy and healthy. Always remind the team that is your goal, not just talking about your capabilities on what makes your company great.

Rely on employees’ ideas: Integrate them into the process (especially sales)

Kaizen, which is part of Continuous Improvement, is the Japanese term for taking feedback from frontline employees and using it to improve your process. Do the same when you are generating your marketing materials. Involve the entire team in the process. 

From holding an all-inclusive kick-off meeting to build your strategy document to integrating subject matter experts into your content, draw from your team for ideas and insights.

Management relies on them to drive revenue, and everything you do should focus on helping them succeed.

Use data-driven methods: Tie them back to the plan

As a digital marketer, you have all kinds of measurement tools at your disposal. You can use them to test all types of marketing, but first and foremost, you should be testing assumptions and strategies tied to your plan.

For example, in our plan you’ll see we focus on “pain points” of our personas. You can use digital advertising to test which pain points generate the highest response from the customer, and then adjust your plan accordingly.

As much as possible, tie qualitative strategy to some type of quantitative metric, so you can determine if the strategy is working. The idea to use a particular media, such as video, can be measured and compared to other methodologies.

Apply incremental changes: But stay true to your overall strategy

When we work with our clients, we have an overall goal: use content to create a Digital Twin of your salesperson. With so much of the customer journey taking place online, without the help of a salesperson, we need our clients’ content to perform the sales function. 

That’s our overall strategy. With that in mind, we can apply incremental changes and improvements to the execution of the plan, but the Digital Twin will always be your true north.

It truly helps this type of overarching, big picture strategy as you move forward. If you know what your ultimate goal should be, you can make the incremental changes to get you there as efficiently and effectively as possible.

“The only way you lose is if you quit”

I repeat that statement to myself, almost every day. I remember it when I read about people like Henry Ford and his Model T.

But you don’t want to be bullheaded in refusing to quit. You want to approach it with the same intelligence that you use to manufacture your products.

Every day, incrementally, you will improve your marketing performance. Every day, you will learn something new, and get better at telling the world about your products and services. Every day, you will meet more and more customers online, and you will generate more leads for your sales team.

Digital marketing may be new to manufacturers, but Continuous Improvement is not. It’s time you applied both approaches to your operation. Your customers won’t settle for less.