I meet with managers from manufacturing businesses and brands in Taiwan regularly and many of them are not yet taking advantage of the great benefits that digital marketing can bring to their businesses.

The rapid changes in digital marketing can be very confusing for managers, so it is hard for you to make the right choices for your businesses. Many managers also struggle to find the right marketing companies that can deliver the services they need.

In this series of articles I will cover the main areas of digital marketing that each manager should know about. I will then provide guidance, tips and strategies to help you make better marketing decisions and get a better return on investment for your company.

These articles are written to give you an overview of digital marketing. They will not be too technical or try to teach you how to do the marketing yourself, but will hopefully give you enough information to make more informed decisions. In each article i will also provide links to other articles I have written so that you can find more in depth information about a topic if you need it.

These are the main areas that I will cover in these articles:

1. Your company website and content
   Choosing a supplier, focusing on customers needs and making sure it is built right and maintained for you.
   Tip: Cheap template websites attract cheap customers…..
2. Search Engine Marketing
   Making sure that your company website can be found by potential customers on search engines and also making sure you have data to help you make decisions on marketing direction.
3. Social media marketing
   Why all companies need to be doing this, especially if you are investing in exhibitions
   Tip: Stop paying for print ads at exhibitions or on the main exhibition website, they are not good value..
4. AI In Marketing
   Lots of people are trying to sell AI related products to companies at the moment, be very careful before you sign up for anything as most of them don’t deliver value.

Your Company Website & Content

Your company’s website is the foundation that all of your digital marketing activities are built on, so it is vital to get it right. In this guide I will help you with tactics for choosing the right supplier, getting the website and content created, and then making sure that it is properly maintained and you can capture the data you need to make the right decisions for your business.

1. Choosing the Right Digital Marketing Supplier

As a manufacturing manager, selecting the right supplier for your company website is crucial for creating a professional online presence that attracts and retains customers. Here are the key considerations and strategies to ensure you choose the best partner for your website project.

Should You Hire a Web Design Company or a Marketing Company?

Web design is only one part of the work in building a company website, it requires great content, images and video as well in order to be successful. This requires a team with a range of talents to produce and web design is only one part of that.

A marketing company should be able to provide consultancy to help you make decisions about what you need in order to make your website a success. They should be responsible for all aspects of the website: Planning, Keyword Research, Content Writing, Page Design, Web Hosting, Maintenance and your Advertising.

Splitting these services between different companies is a recipe for disaster as they would blame each other for any issues that occur. Keeping them all with one company creates a single point of responsibility and reduces your workload by only having to manage a single supplier.

If you would like to find out more on this topic, please have a look at these other articles on the topic:
What’s the Difference Between a Web Design Company and a Marketing Company?

Are You Being Sold or Served? The Two Types of Marketing Companies You May Meet

Make Sure Your Marketing Company Does Not Work With Your Competitors

You should make sure that your marketing company is not working with your competitors. This situation can create all sorts of issues about confidentiality and it will be difficult for you to guarantee that your business information will not be leaked to competitors, especially if you stop working with that marketing company in the future.

If you would like to read more about this topic, then please read the full article that explains why you should not work with the same marketing company as your competitors.

What Do Existing Customers Say?

Before you even contact a marketing or web design company, you can have a look at their portfolio of work and find customers that they have worked with. You can then contact them to find out about their experiences of working with that marketing company.
Also asking business contacts about the companies that they are using for their marketing and the results they are achieving is a good way of finding a better marketing supplier.

Service and Support

Ensure that the supplier offers comprehensive service and ongoing support. This includes website maintenance, updates, and troubleshooting. A reliable supplier will provide continuous support to keep your website running smoothly and up-to-date. This ongoing support is crucial for handling any issues that occur post-launch and for keeping your website secure and functional over time.

2. Creating Content for Your Website That Attracts Customers

To create great content you first need to have a good understanding of who your customers are and where they’re located. In digital marketing we call this your customer profile. A customer profile contains information about demographics such as gender, location, age, education, and interests. This is very useful especially when used to target digital advertising effectively and to create content for your website. Forbes Magazine has written an article about customer profiles that explains how to do this in more detail.

Your marketing company should ask you questions about your customers and their demographics as a part of the research process before they start creating your website content for you.

Professionally Written & Well Researched Content

Any professional marketing company should take time to research competitors, ask about your customer profile, perform keyword research and get a clear understanding of your market and your products. These are the most basic areas that need to be addressed in order to start the content creation process.

Just because someone can speak a language does not mean that they are a good writer. Too often in Taiwan web design or marketing companies hire native english speakers with little marketing or writing experience and have them translate and write content for your website. If you do not have the chance to meet and interact with the person writing your website content, and verify their experience, the content will probably not be effective enough to help you attract new customers.

Key Points

• A professional marketing company should research competitors and understand your market and products, not just rely on your company catalog.
• Native English speakers aren’t always good writers. In Taiwan, companies often hire any native speakers, resulting in poor quality content.
• Content creators should be marketing experts who can craft well-written, keyword-researched content for better website success and visibility.

I have written a more in depth article about

Great Images and Some Video Too

Once you have a plan for the written content, you can plan your images and video. These images should be current and should accurately reflect the company and your capabilities. The best way to decide the images that you need is to think of what you would show a visiting customer and also what they might ask to see. This should give you a good starting point for creating your visual content.

You Don’t Need to Make Expensive Videos

Most customers would like to see some images from within your factory so they can see the actual products being manufactured, they would also like to see some video of the manufacturing and quality process.

This can be shot in a simple documentary style that can be easily shot with a good DSLR, no specialist cameras or large filming teams are needed for this type of content. Also make sure that as a part of any photography or filming contract you get a copy of all of the original unedited images as these can be very useful for your marketing in the future.

3. Maintaining Your Website and Capturing Data

You should use the same company for website hosting and maintenance that you use for designing and building the website. This ensures a single point of responsibility for all issues and reduces the time you need to spend managing suppliers.

You need to make sure that there are daily backups of your website and that your website can be quickly restored when issues occur. Many websites are targeted by hackers at the moment, especially here in Taiwan, so testing whether your website can be rapidly recovered is important.

Website hosting is a whole separate subject, but I have written all of the basic information you need so just click the link to read more detail about website hosting and the things you need to know.

Data Set Up & Collection

There are also several basic data tools you need to make sure are set up for your website. Your marketing company should set these up for you as soon as the website goes online.

• Google Analytics
• Google Search Console
• SSL (Security)
• GDPR (For Compliance with EU Data Requirements)

The role of these tools is to capture data from visitors to your website so that you can see where they’re coming from, what keywords they use to get to your website, and also to help you track marketing efforts so you can see what’s working and what isn’t. You need good data to make good decisions and having these tools correctly set up will provide you with the data you need.

There is no reason for any marketing or web design company to deny you access to Google Analytics and Google Search Console. What they should do is to give you “view-only” access to these tools so that you can verify the information that you’re being provided in reports. If a company refuses to give you access this is a red flag and indicates that they may not be the right business partner for you.

Key Points

• Use the same company for website hosting, maintenance, and design to ensure a single point of responsibility for all issues.
• Ensure daily backups and quick restoration capabilities for your website to protect against hacker attacks, which are common in Taiwan.
• Set up essential data tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to capture visitor data and track marketing efforts. Ensure you have “view-only” access to these tools to verify report information, and be wary of companies that deny access.

I have tried in this first article to share information that I have gained from over 20 years interacting with B2B manufacturers and brands in Taiwan. Each of your businesses has unique digital marketing needs and I hope that the information in this first part of my digital marketing series will give you the tools to start making more informed digital marketing decisions.

There are many more articles in our website blog which cover in-depth many of the digital marketing topics that I have started to cover in this article. If you have the time please read some of them as they were written for you specifically to help you do better with your digital marketing.

If you do have questions or comments or would like to speak to us about your digital marketing please do contact us.