While the Past Year Has Brought New Challenges for the Plastics Industry, One Thing is Clear…

Plastics manufacturers aren’t going to sit around and deal with it. According to research from the Plastics Industry Association, global trade volumes, exports, and overall industry growth are on an upward trajectory — demonstrating a unique resilience and an opportunity for manufacturers to better compete and win their share.

One of the challenges above is the fact that plastics manufacturers often don’t have the resources in-house to execute this competitive push, or current teams are too small and lack the needed capacity. Fortunately, outside resources are available that can help — and before you leave because we’re recommending outsourcing, consider this: the cost to outsource plastic industry marketing services is vastly less than hiring experts in-house.

Marketing capabilities aren’t the only shortfall for manufacturers today. Explore more business development challenges and their solutions.

Here, we’ll explore a few key plastic industry marketing services and how they positively enhance competitive advantages and drive stronger revenue growth.

Four Must-Have Plastic Industry Marketing Services

  1. A Strong SEO Program — Manufacturers historically are behind the curve when it comes to a strong online presence. Even if a website is in place, we find that it was often made by an in-house team member just to get something in place, or it was built years ago by a third party. In both instances, the site hasn’t been updated or kept lively with fresh research. SEO is a foundational plastic industry marketing service because the investment of time and resources continues to pay dividends for months or even years if done correctly. SEO helps to passively drive inbound leads, which are highly qualified because they’re actively looking for your products and services. Learn more about SEO for manufacturers here.
  2. Nimble Web Development — It’s important to understand that websites are living things. They need to be maintained and kept healthy in order to perform. But as mentioned above, many manufacturers lack this skill set in-house, relying instead on third parties for updates and maintenance — or no one at all. Outdated websites show their age and lack of care, if not visually then when visitors experience 404 errors, broken functionality, and other frustrating interactions. Having a reliable, responsive partner to keep your site functional, clean, and operable goes a long way in supporting revenue growth goals, especially as more and more prospects rely on websites for quotes and research.
  3. Content Marketing — Sure, you could stand up a website and call it a day. It would continue to pull traffic in over time and perhaps even generate some decent inbound leads. But you’ve likely heard the saying “standing still is dying” — well, the same goes for your site. Search engines prioritize sites that provide value for searchers, and one of the best ways to achieve that is through ongoing content marketing. Providing site visitors with educational content that answers their search questions and helps them make decisions is key to success. If you don’t have in-house copywriting or content marketing experts, working with a partner to keep these assets flowing onto your site will ensure your visitors keep coming back.
  4. Front-End Nurturing and Qualification — While technically a sales function, front-end teams allow core sales teams to focus more on what they do best while new leads are carefully qualified. There is a marketing benefit here as well in that this is often where nurturing efforts shine. Nurturing plays a key role in keeping your business top of mind and helps to move leads forward in the sales cycle. It does require some setup, and without a strong marketing automation and CRM system is virtually impossible. This is where working with a partner can help. You and your team focus on closing deals, and your partner manages setting up nurturing, CRM deal stages, and marketing automation workflows.

Learn more about the advantages of a more structured front-end sales process. Get our free guide here. 

Experience a Proactive, Holistic Approach to Plastic Industry Marketing Services

At Athena, we partner with plastics manufacturers of all types — from injection molders and rotomolders to plastics machining, thermoformers, and high performance polymer developers — to help them strengthen their new business development practices and achieve their growth goals. We’ve helped numerous plastics manufacturers across the company achieve significant results — see some of their stories here.

Our approach consists of a structured front-end sales solution that takes a variety of critical yet time-consuming tasks and reallocates them to our team. This allows your core sales team to spend more time doing what they should be doing: closing deals. Along the way, we implement a holistic marketing strategy that combines outbound marketing and inbound marketing, allowing us to proactively pursue target companies while also strategically positioning your business in search engines.

If you’ve been looking for ways to accelerate current growth, or if you’re experiencing challenges with your sales team, we’re here to help.

Connect with us today to learn more about our approach in a private overview.