Ruby McKenzie
The manufacturing industry has already entered the digital age, with new developments arising every day. Alongside this, the digital age in manufacturing marketing will face both new opportunities and challenges. For anyone who’s a go-getter knowing these chances can help you both elevate your company and future-proof it.
Manufacturing usually entails several activities including sourcing raw materials, creating timelines, managing inventory, and even human resources. Digitization presents us with chances to improve productivity and monitor production in ways never done before.
In this article, we’ll explore the challenges and opportunities that you may face during digitalization.
Digital Transformation: An Overview and Why It Matters
Before we delve deeper into this topic, however, let’s understand what digital transformation is first. Digital transformation is a process where businesses integrate digital technology into their workflow. As a result, your workplace will experience huge changes in operating their daily functions. The daily functions can range from tasks conducted by your teams to customer experience.
Companies that embrace digital transformation become more future-proof. That means their effort in industrial marketing won’t get overshadowed by competitors. Companies that don’t adopt digitalization to their workflow are likely to fade. However, in order for them to catch up, they’ll need to use marketing strategies for industrial products to stay in the game.
Branding Challenges in Digital Manufacturing Marketing
Whenever your agency starts with its digitization process, you should expect challenges along the way. In this section, we’ll cover the most encountered obstacles during digitalization.
At the same time, we’ll discuss the best solutions to ensure smooth flow in your manufacturing marketing efforts. For this, let’s explore these obstacles one at a time:
1. Organizational Change Management
The first problem that industrial marketing faces during digitalization is managing changes in your company. In this case, it refers more to managing changes when your company is about to transition to a digitalized workflow.
When this process is underway, you will also need to need to also to tweak the culture, processes, and business models to suit digitalization better. Failure to embrace these changes may lead to your declining profit margins or in the worst case, even your company’s downfall.
A suitable solution here is to analyze current processes and work culture. To do this, you’ll need to coordinate with all essential stakeholders to develop new strategies. In doing so, you will have to disclose digital transformation goals and see how they can go along with your company’s goals.
One way to go would be to form a roadmap of the proposed plans and monitor and measure as you go.
2. Lack of Specialists or Experts in Digital Work
The second branding challenge that your industrial marketing efforts may face is the lack of experts. Your organization’s pacing might slow down without the right people.
Be aware that digital transformation strategies are complex so people with the right skills are crucial to success.
The best solution for this branding challenge is to upskill and recruit. Your company needs to step up and invest in bringing in the right employees. Employees with the right skills and knowledge ensure that you’ll face fewer issues during digitalization.
3. A Customer’s Needs Change From Time to Time
Ever since digitalization, customers have had higher expectations than previously. Their heightened expectations can be traced back to breakthroughs and developments. As a company owner, you will need to meet their expectations of your products. With this, you’ll need to develop intuitive and enhanced services that can keep them loyal to your brand.
Besides this, making the extra effort to know what the customer needs after digitalization can add immense value. To do this, stay updated with the latest trends and what clicks with your audience. By exploring new methods that can elevate the customer experience, customers will always look forward to something new from your company.
4. Resistance to Changes within your Company
Sometimes, the root of challenges in manufacturing marketing is caused by internal resistance to change. It is natural for us humans to enjoy comfort as it gives everyone a sense of security.
However, we’d be too hasty to react negatively whenever big and new changes arise. This is most notable whenever your company is moving into a digitalized workflow.
The best measure in dealing with internal resistance is to be transparent. Keep your employees engaged throughout the process. Don’t make the transition too quick, make it gradual so that everyone can embrace it slowly. Fast or spontaneous digitalization may cause a drop in your workers’ performance.
5. Security Issues and Concerns
Digitalizing your industrial marketing company does bring a few security concerns to the table. In particular, you’ll need to consider adding some layers of protection over critical company assets. If you fail to protect critical materials, your industrial marketing company may face big consequences.
To navigate through security issues without too much stress, you’ll want to invest more resources. Invest time and money in setting up a security parameter for your company. After this, hire specialists that can enhance your company’s protection against cyber-attacks.
Opportunities and Benefits in Digital Manufacturing Marketing
Now that we’re done covering the challenges of digitalizing your agency, let’s move on to opportunities and advantages. Let’s explore the benefits of digital transformation in manufacturing and how it helps your business.
Benefits of Digital Transformation in Manufacturing
1. Better Customer Insights and Experience
You can use metrics, personal customer information, and other data as a basis to improve your services. Your company can also create new strategies and experiences that have the customer’s best interest in mind. As a result, you can create more relevant and personalized content that your clients can enjoy.
2. Enhanced Connection with Suppliers and Regulators
Your business may likely form better bridges with suppliers and regulators after digitalization. That’s because you can automate processes and communications with your contacts in the supply chain.
You will experience fewer errors when acquiring the raw materials you need for manufacturing.
3. Product Customization
You can also consider product customization after you digitalize your company’s workflow. Certain products that you can manufacture can be given a personalized touch for your customers.
This will ensure that your manufacturing marketing company can extend its reach. As a result, you build better relations with customers and become known to more people.
4. Improved Work Communications
Digitalizing your manufacturing marketing company’s workflow brings a lot of benefits to the table. To start, it gives way to faster communication between your team members.
Your company’s departments do not need to be present in your office to help out. It is also possible that your key personnel can also operate processes and functions remotely.
On top of that, report sending has become more convenient. Your employees can share important real-time reports keeping everyone in the company updated.
5. Better Product Development
Enhanced product development becomes a possibility through digitalization. Your company can take advantage of customer feedback to use as material to form new ideas.
These new ideas that your company makes can give way to new products and experiences for your customers. As a result, your company has better odds of retaining customers and attracting new clients.
If your new products are starting to make waves in your customer base, you can consider making customized versions of them. Your clients could end up buying them.
6. Heightened and Controlled Productivity
Through digitalization, your manufacturing business maximizes output rates and lowers errors. This is very handy if your goal is to mass-produce your products for a large customer base. Another perk of this for manufacturing businesses is that you can control the number of produced items. For example, you can optimize your equipment to manufacture items in fixed batches.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What are the Desirable Skills for Potential Hirees in the Digital Age?
The skills that you’ll need to consider in a potential employee in digitalized workplaces are as follows:
- AI and Machine Learning
- Development of Mobile Apps
- User Experience Designing
- Cybersecurity
- Cloud Computing and Blockchains
2. Why does Digitalization Need to be Introduced Gradually?
Impulsive introduction of digitalization may cause your workforce to not accept it. The best approach is to announce digitalization first before introducing it.
You need to be transparent with your employees for them to accept it. Take your time and don’t rush to enforce digitalization. It’s the best approach to ensure that your employees accept digitalization.
3. What’s the Appeal of Customized Manufactured Products?
The main appeal of customized manufactured goods is that they’re personalized to a customer. They use color schemes or patterns that define the client’s aesthetic choices.
What makes it appealing to customers is that can draw their attention. For example, if the customer sees a custom water tumbler; they’ll likely buy it as they like its appearance.
4. What’s the Ideal Method to Make Organizational Changes?
You would want to start from the managerial level – and introduce the concept of digitalization there. Then you’ll slowly go down until you introduce the concept to employees.
Once everyone is oriented on digitalizing workflows; that’s when you make changes to processes and work culture.
5. Why is it Important to Know your Customers?
Customers are an unpredictable force. At one point, they’ll enjoy your products. Later on, they’ll start to look for something new. You’ll need to be ahead of your customers to know what they are looking for from your products. Otherwise, you’ll lose them and they’ll jump ship to your competitors.
Introduce, Implement, and Thrive through Digital Transformation
Making your organization future-proofed through digital transformation may take a lot of effort. However, the rewards in the end are what make the process worth it.
You could encounter resistance or obstacles during implementation. It’s best that your company navigates this path carefully for the best results.
Once the obstacles are out of the way, your company is set to thrive in the digital age.
