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Content marketing for manufacturers

Content Marketing for Manufacturers: What Makes It Different and Why It’s Challenging

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Content marketing for manufacturers is very different from regular B2B or B2C marketing. Manufacturing companies face unique challenges—long sales cycles, highly technical products, and multiple decision-makers—making traditional marketing tactics less effective.

Unlike industries with shorter sales cycles, manufacturers must build trust over time through educational and technical content that speaks directly to engineers, procurement teams, and executives.

Yet, many manufacturers struggle with implementing a strategic content marketing approach. Without a clear understanding of what works in the industrial space, efforts can lead to low engagement and poor-quality leads.

In this blog, I’ll share insights from my 35+ years of working with manufacturers and industrial companies to highlight why content marketing for manufacturers is different and the challenges that come with it.

Why Content Marketing for Manufacturers is Important

Manufacturing content marketing has become a pivotal strategy for raising brand awareness, generating leads, and driving sales. The proof of its effectiveness is clear, with 74% of companies reporting an increase in lead generation due to their content marketing efforts. (Source: Forbes).

For B2B brands, the top marketing channels resulting in ROI in 2024 were:

  1. Website, blog, and SEO
  2. Paid social media content
  3. Social media shopping tools.

(Source: HubSpot).

Approximately one in four manufacturing marketers reported that their organization spends 25% to 49% of their total marketing budget on content marketing. (Source: The Content Marketing Institute).

These findings should convince you that a well-executed content strategy attracts potential customers and nurtures them through the sales funnel, ultimately leading to increased sales.

How Content Marketing for Manufacturers Differs from General B2B

Content marketing for manufacturers works at a different level of complexity than general B2B marketing because manufacturers often sell custom-engineered and highly technical products with multiple configurations, materials, and specifications.

While product datasheets and technical specifications are essential—especially for design engineers—successful manufacturing content must go beyond that, providing real-world applications, problem-solving insights, and industry expertise.

Unlike many B2B industries with relatively short sales cycles, manufacturing sales take longer and involve multiple decision-makers, from engineers and procurement teams to C-suite executives. Each of these audiences has unique concerns, requiring targeted content that moves beyond marketing fluff to deliver credible, data-backed insights that influence purchasing decisions.

Translating technical expertise into engaging and customer-centric content is another major challenge. Many generalist marketers struggle with this, which is why a deep understanding of the engineering and manufacturing buying journey is critical.

My experience as a Marketing Engineer—bridging technical knowledge with strategic marketing—has shown me that industrial content must speak the language of engineers while still being engaging for decision-makers who need non-technical content. It doesn’t mean you should pack your content with technical jargon, nor should you dumb it down.

While thought leadership plays a role in all B2B marketing, in manufacturing, it’s a key differentiator when companies offer similar products or solutions. When there’s parity in value propositions, positioning a brand as an industry authority through expert content—such as whitepapers, application notes, and case studies—can create a competitive edge and establish trust with skeptical buyers.

Manufacturers must also rethink traditional SEO strategies. Standard keyword research tools often fail to capture niche, long-tail search queries used by engineers and procurement teams when searching for solutions.

This is where intent-driven SEO combined with Generative AI can help uncover these specialized keywords. Read my blog, Could Generative AI Revolutionize Your Industrial SEO Strategy? to explore how AI can refine industrial keyword research.

Challenges in Industrial and Manufacturing Content Marketing

Many manufacturers struggle with content marketing, not because they aren’t creating enough content, but because they face unique hurdles that general B2B marketers don’t encounter.

Here’s a unique challenge—your content must address the different needs of two types of buyers. On the one hand, you have the specifiers, usually design engineers. They need product specs, performance characteristics, configurators, CAD drawings, etc. On the other hand, you have functional buyers—the purchasing department. They need content about delivery time, logistics, warranties, vendor background and credibility, after-sales service, etc. One-size-fits-all content is not going to cut it.

According to the Manufacturing Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends: Outlook for 2025 report from the Content Marketing Institute, only 20% of manufacturing content marketers say their strategy is very effective, while 67% rate it as only moderately effective. Only 13% admit their content marketing strategy is ineffective.

The challenges don’t stop at strategy. The report highlights the top obstacles manufacturing content marketers face:

  • Creating the right content for our audience (45%)
  • Differentiating our content (44%)
  • Repurposing content effectively (42%)
  • Optimizing for SEO (34%)
  • Creating high-quality content (32%)
challenges in content marketing for manufacturers

Another major hurdle is measuring content marketing ROI; without clear attribution models, it’s difficult to tie content marketing efforts to revenue growth, making it harder to justify budgets and prove effectiveness.

Measurement challenges in content marketing for manufacturers

These challenges underscore the importance of having a well-defined content strategy that aligns with the industrial buyer’s journey, incorporates SEO best practices, and ensures content is engaging and technically accurate.

I’ll cover these topics in more depth in a future blog post, but for now, the key takeaway is clear: manufacturing content marketing isn’t just about producing more content—it’s about creating the right content that speaks to the right audience.

Building an Effective Content Marketing Strategy for Manufacturers

For manufacturers, content marketing isn’t just about getting found online, which is challenging enough—it’s more about converting traffic into real opportunities and guiding technical buyers through complex purchasing decisions. Engineers and procurement teams rely on informative, problem-solving content rather than promotional messaging.

That’s why a structured, strategic approach is essential to ensure content delivers real value at every stage of the buying process.

The key takeaways are:

1. Align Content with the Buyer’s Journey
Manufacturing buyers go through multiple research phases before making a decision. Content must address each stage—from educational blogs for awareness to technical whitepapers and case studies that support evaluation and purchase decisions. Mapping content to the buyer’s journey ensures it remains relevant and impactful.

2. Leverage Thought Leadership for Competitive Differentiation
In an industry where products often have parity in value propositions, thought leadership content can be a key differentiator. Blogs written by Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), industry trend reports, and application-based insights help manufacturers establish authority and build trust with engineers and decision-makers.

3. Make SEO More Intent-Driven
Traditional keyword research tools often fail to uncover niche, long-tail search queries used by engineers and procurement teams. A more intent-driven SEO approach and Generative AI can help manufacturers identify and optimize for specialized search terms.

4. Track Performance and Prove ROI
Manufacturing sales cycles are long, making measuring content marketing ROI a challenge. Manufacturers can track lead nurturing, engagement metrics, and conversion rates using marketing automation and CRM integration to tie content efforts directly to outcomes.

A successful industrial content marketing strategy requires a well-planned roadmap that aligns content with business objectives, sales processes, and customer needs. If you need a structured, data-driven approach, explore our Strategic Roadmaps & Fractional CMO service to build a content strategy that drives measurable results.

Partner with an Industrial Marketing Agency that Understands Manufacturing

A well-executed content marketing strategy for manufacturers is essential for building trust, authority, and long-term customer relationships.

At Tiecas, we don’t take a one-size-fits-all approach to industrial marketing. With 35+ years of experience working exclusively with manufacturers, distributors and engineering companies, we know what it takes to create content that resonates with engineers and technical buyers.

Let’s build a content strategy that turns technical expertise into a competitive advantage that attracts, nurtures, and converts high-value industrial leads.

Contact us today to discuss how we can strengthen your manufacturing content marketing efforts.

Achinta Mitra

Achinta Mitra calls himself a “marketing engineer” because he combines his engineering education and an MBA with 35+ years of practical manufacturing and industrial marketing experience. You want an expert with an insider’s knowledge and an outsider’s objectivity who can point you in the right direction immediately. That's Achinta. He is the Founder of Tiecas, Inc., a manufacturing marketing agency in Houston, Texas. Read Achinta's story here.
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