With costs up along with orders, manufacturers and suppliers will benefit greatly from intelligent spending and strategic planning to ensure they are poised for receiving their share of the new business pie. “Rapidly rising material costs,” stated a representative from Food, Beverage & Tobacco, “are putting extreme pressure on profits.” A Plastic & Rubber Products representative similarly commented, “Customers are rebuilding safety stock levels of inventory, and also trying to buy ahead of material price increases.” As a result, the “market continues to get stronger month over month,” stated a Transportation Equipment representative. He added, “Recovery is faster than anticipated.”

To keep up with the unexpected pace and effectively manage costs, savvy global industrial marketers and local industrial and commercial manufacturers, suppliers, and service providers, are engaging in search, website updates or complete redesigns, local marketing, direct marketing, and paid online advertising initiatives in order to take advantage of opportunities to generate revenue, particularly new business.

With the growth of social media, mobile, and local marketing in particular, along with the algorithmic alignment of search, social media, and third-party websites to identify and rank web pages, manufacturers like Autoswage and industrial suppliers like Woodward Compressor Sales are seeing lower costs for lead acquisition and greater return on investment with strategically planned and closely managed internet marketing initiatives. Having implemented website expansion and redesign respectively in conjunction with search engine marketing and social media, these companies are leading the pack in their industries with page one Google Rankings for their principle business terms. Combined with strategic internal business initiatives, companies who act in a timely fashion and invest wisely are seeing great returns.

For information about internet marketing or website design contact an Industrial Web Solutions web marketing specialist at 1-800-399-9859.

Although 14 manufacturing industries reported growth in February, including Apparel, Leather & Allied Products; Petroleum & Coal Products; Transportation Equipment; Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components; Machinery; Chemical Products; Fabricated Metal Products; Computer & Electronic Products; Textile Mills; Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products; Printing & Related Support Activities; Paper Products; Wood Products; and Miscellaneous Manufacturing, the continued weak dollar is being blamed for the high cost of components and raw materials, particularly those obtained overseas. Representatives from Transportation Equipment stated “It is going to force us to increase our selling prices to our customers.” A similar statement was made by representatives from Chemical Products: “We continue to see significant inflation across nearly every type of chemical raw material we purchase.”  Nonmetallic Mineral Products, which is one of the 4 industries to experience contraction last month, along with Plastics & Rubber Products; Primary Metals; and Furniture & Related Products, stated, “Prices continue to rise, while business limps along at last year’s pace.” Plastics and Rubber reported, “Overall demand is off 10 percent.”

While the weak dollar has adversely affected the purchase of components and raw materials overseas it has had a positive impact on exports, which experienced a growth percentage point change of +0.5% with a PMI of 62.5%. Right alongside that of the overall economy, exports have experienced continued month-over-month growth at a faster rate of change for the past twenty months. Both Production and New Orders are up as well. Production experienced an increase of 2.8 percentage points from the January reading of 63.5%, registering a Production Index of 66.3% and continued growth for the 21^st consecutive month. Demonstrating a 20 month growth trend at a faster rate of change, New Orders were up 0.2 percentage points from January.  Thirteen industries reported growth in New Orders, including Apparel, Leather & Allied Products; Petroleum & Coal Products; Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components; Wood Products; Printing & Related Support Activities; Machinery; Transportation Equipment; Chemical Products; Paper Products; Fabricated Metal Products; Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products; Computer & Electronic Products; and Miscellaneous Manufacturing, while Primary Metals; Nonmetallic Mineral Products; Furniture & Related Products; and Plastics & Rubber Products reported decreases.

Despite a +0.5 percentage point rise in Prices, and increases for the past 20 months at a faster rate of change, manufacturing and the overall economy continue to expand. And that is good news. Companies are challenged to find cost saving ways to attract new business to offset any decreases in orders from existing customers that may occur as a result of rising Prices. To manage marketing budgets set aside for new business development, industrial marketers must consider the changing landscape of search, social media, and lead/sales generation that occurs online and offline. Content presented on blogs, websites, text ads, emails, industrial directories, map sites, search engines, relevant 3^rd party sites, Twitter, Facebook and other social media websites, as well as all direct mail letters and brochures, must be current and highly focused on the specific interests of your target audience groups. Market research may need to be done to understand those interests and to uncover the specific language used by your target audiences to search for what you offer. Through careful research, planning, and implementation budgets can be intelligently and carefully managed to nurture leads, sales, and overall business growth, particularly as you strategize to offset the impact of increased prices.

For help with your marketing research, planning, creation and implementation speak with an Industrial Web Solutions marketing expert. Call (800) 399-9859.

Paper products reported that even though business continues to improve “rising material prices are eroding [profit] margin.” Chemical Products also expressed concern that there are “increases in chemical prices that seem to be driven by supply/demand imbalance.” Transportation Equipment has noticed international markets are expanding rapidly while “domestic market is slowly rebounding.”  With capital projects being released, Computer & Electronic Products are seeing improved sales. Machinery expressed concerned that they are “starting to see capacity at suppliers become an issue.”

Only 10 of the 18 manufacturing industries reported growth in November. They are: Computer & Electronic Products; Petroleum & Coal Products; Apparel, Leather & Allied Products; Machinery; Fabricated Metal Products; Plastics & Rubber Products; Transportation Equipment; Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components; Chemical Products; and Primary Metals. The six industries reporting contraction include Printing & Related Support Activities; Furniture & Related Products; Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products; Nonmetallic Mineral Products; Paper Products; and Miscellaneous Manufacturing.

November marks the sixteenth consecutive month of economic growth in the manufacturing sector and the nineteenth consecutive month of growth in the overall economy. Although employment within the manufacturing sector has shown growth for the twelfth consecutive month, it is down slightly from last month, registering 0.2 percentage points lower than October.

Boost online search ads are created directly within your Google Places account. Although Google states that “no ongoing management is needed after the initial set-up,” this is not advisable. No matter what form of advertising you engage in, you must always check to see that what you are doing is cost effectively bringing you the results you need. Eligible to appear in the “Sponsored Links” section of Google.com and Google Maps, just like AdWords ads, the format works well for both desktop and mobile search. Your ad includes your company name, address, phone number, and website. Additionally, it may also include the number of reviews you have received, average ‘Star Rating,’ and a link to your Google Places page where customers can learn even more about your business. You can help your ad to stand out by using Google Tags, which are “yellow markers that help business owners to promote important aspects of their business.” Right now Google is offering 30 days of free advertising with Google Tags as a special promotion.

Creating your ad within your Google Places account requires you compose a short business description, select the business categories that best fit your business, and set your monthly budget. Unlike Google AdWords, where you get full control to manage the keywords that will generate your ad, Boost ads are automatically generated by Google’s system based on what it determines as a relevant search. You will only be charged when someone clicks on your ad. Your Google Places Dashboard will display basic ad performance data. Listing placement depends on a variety of factors such as your ad’s relevance and quality.

Google is still testing the Boost format so it remains available only to select businesses in San Francisco, Chicago and Houston. You can receive notification when Boost becomes available in your area by filling out this form.

Fourteen of the eighteen manufacturing industries reported growth for October including: Apparel, Leather & Allied Products; Primary Metals; Petroleum & Coal Products; Machinery; Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components; Miscellaneous Manufacturing; Fabricated Metal Products; Paper Products; Printing & Related Support Activities; Transportation Equipment; Computer & Electronic Products; Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products; Plastics & Rubber Products; and Chemical Products. Only two industries reported contraction in October: Nonmetallic Mineral Products; and Furniture & Related Products.

Higher costs for materials and “havoc with commodity pricing” have resulted from the weakening US dollar. Chemical Products reports that “business is slowing down but still double digit over last year.” Supply planning is a challenge for some, like Machinery, that reports “customers remain cautious, placing orders at the last minute.” Fabricated Metal Products, on the other hand, reports that auto manufacturers are “expanding capacity and making major investments,” which as Ore points out, is one of the key drivers of growth in October.

The New Orders index registered at 58.9 percent, 7.8 percentage points above September. October represents the “sixteenth consecutive month of growth in the New Orders Index and the largest month-over-month improvement since January 2009.” The Production Index also increased during October, registering at 62.7 percent, an increase of 6.2 percentage points from September and the “largest month-over-month improvement since January 2010.”

The manufacturing sector continues to improve month-over-month, leaving many cautious but hopeful for the coming New Year.

For help with your 2011 industrial marketing strategy and initiatives, call (800) 399-9859 to speak with an Industrial Web Solutions website and marketing specialist.