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Assessing for Improved Performance: The Gap Assessment for Manufacturers

We explore the importance of undertaking a Manufacturing Gap Assessment in order to identify and address areas for marketing improvement.

 

If you are a manufacturer committed to growth and business performance, you should know how important a comprehensive marketing strategy can be. Unfortunately, it is easy (and common) to wake up one day and realize that you have never made a true priority of creating and executing a marketing plan.

Many of our clients come to us with only a few days’ worth of brainstorming that is summarized into some ideas, and then plugged into a generic marketing plan template. It often looks more like a wish list than an actual plan tailored for the needs of manufacturers.

But our plan is vastly different from a basic marketing assessment. Farotech knows that

marketing manufacturers require a dedicated, upfront commitment to research and analysis.

To ensure your business’ success, it is essential to start with a comprehensive marketing gap analysis. This requires you to take a close look at the current state of your marketing and operations. A thorough gap assessment should include an in-depth evaluation of both internal and external resources, processes, and performance metrics.

That’s where a comprehensive marketing strategy truly begins.

Why is a Marketing Gap Analysis Important for Manufacturers?

A manufacturing gap analysis provides a comprehensive view of processes, allowing for the identification of weaknesses and inefficiencies, and enabling effective action to be taken to make improvements in your marketing.

If you take a minute to honestly ask yourself these critical questions, would you find that your marketing plan is lacking a strategic edge?:

  • What are your three to five-year goals?
  • What are your short and long-term approaches?
  • How is your current analytics helping you make data-driven decisions about what to do next?
  • Do you have growth goals without a plan to get there?

If your action plan can’t answer these questions, you may be wasting time and resources on strategies that lack evidence-based support.

At Farotech, we don’t just provide a comprehensive marketing gap analysis to identify areas of improvement. Instead, we go further by helping you develop an actionable marketing strategy and detailed plans for implementation. Our team will work with your internal resources on every step of the process: creating a market analysis to developing a client profile and segmentation, setting up data tracking, executing campaigns, and measuring success.

While you’re working really hard, we’d rather you work really smart.

And that’s exactly why we offer our clients a Gap Assessment.

A Comprehensive Understanding of the Industrial Industry through Marketing Analysis

Rather than engaging in random acts of marketing (what we call RAM), a manufacturing gap assessment helps create a structured approach to generating leads, nurturing them through the sales process, and converting clients into brand advocates. This type of structured approach allows initiatives to build upon one another, resulting in more effective outcomes.

Digital marketing success requires a roadmap. Our Gap Assessment develops that map for you and puts you on track with a recommended three to five-year strategic plan to increase your business’ lead opportunities between by 5x to 10x based upon your aggression goals.

What Does the Marketing Gap Analysis Process Look Like?

  1. Our team conducts a customized study to identify specific performance gaps (opportunities) in your current marketing efforts. This process can take anywhere from six to ten weeks and between 45 and 105 hours of research from our team, depending on the level of assessment you request.
  2. We hand you an 80-100 paged customized report, which is an important tool that shows you (think graphs, tables, projections, and analytics) exactly what the road ahead looks like, and where you’ll end up if you take it. Request a sample Gap Assessment to take a peek inside!
  3. For those stakeholders at your company who need a more accessible reference, we also provide a summary of the key findings in a resource we call “the scorecard,” which includes all of the critical information at a glance!

We also help develop your editorial calendar template, including deliverables concepts that we have identified through the process along with prioritized ideas that should be developed throughout the 1st year.

Every analysis covers the following 5 categories:

Marketing Message: We’ll help you craft a compelling message that resonates with your target audience. It also covers a messaging analysis for the following:

  • Marketing Collateral
  • Branding & Design
  • Social Media
  • Paid Advertising
  • Value Propositions
  • Storyguide

Website Performance: We’ll analyze your website’s speed and user experience to ensure it’s performing at its best. This section it also covers a performance analysis for the following:

  • Security
  • Site Performance Overview
  • Page Load Speed (Mobile)
  • Page Load Speed (Desktop)
  • Internal Linking
  • Usability & Conversion
  • Sitemap Crawlability
  • Traffic Channels
  • Website Dream

Content Analysis: We’ll review your website’s content to ensure it’s engaging, informative, and optimized for search engines. This section also covers a content marketing analysis of the following::

  • Top performing pages
  • Content assessment
  • Video audit
  • Keywords
  • Editorial calendar

SEO: We’ll optimize your website for search engines, ensuring it’s easy to find and ranks well in search results. This section it also covers an SEO analysis of the following:

  • Citations & Listings
  • Reviews & Ratings
  • Backlinks
  • On-page SEO

Sales & Marketing Process Review: We’ll help you streamline your sales and marketing processes to drive more leads and conversions.

  • Sales CRM
  • Marketing Software
  • Client Retention

The Benefits of a Marketing Gap Assessment for Manufacturing Companies

Conducting a manufacturing gap assessment successfully can bring several advantages to your business, such as:

  1. Identifying inefficient process areas, providing the opportunity to make changes that could result in more efficient operations.
  2. Performing an analysis that can identify possible ways to enhance the process, resulting in improved product quality.
  3. Closing gaps in the process that can lead to improved competitiveness in the market.

What Does the Manufacturing Gap Analysis Include?

During our research phase, we will collect, analyze, and report findings related to all aspects of your marketing in order to achieve the following:

  • 10x your business leads and opportunities.
  • Identify critical gaps in your marketing approach.
  • Develop foundational marketing assets to scale campaigns.
  • Create and maintain a marketing scorecard.
  • Identify your quarterly priorities and goals in order to meet business requirements.
  • Review your industry competition.
  • Identify the lifetime value of your current and prospective clients.
  • Establish an ROI model that scales as your business grows.

Our manufacturing marketing gap assessment will provide a comprehensive report, an at-a-glance scorecard, and a final presentation. Additionally, we will offer a proposal for our recommendations on how to utilize the data to maximize your marketing efforts.

Reports are Good, Results are Better. It’s Time to Utilize Data to Your Advantage

We’re firm believers in starting with data if you want to do marketing right. The Farotech Gap Assessment is actually more than good—it’s necessary. But once you have all that critical data in one customized report (or your roadmap), it’s up to you what you do with it.

Easily keep track of your marketing to-dos with our Scorecard, which breaks down your priorities into red (critical), yellow (moderate priority), and green (to boost in the future).

If you think of the Gap Assessment as a roadmap toward major marketing goals, then the Scorecard is a day to day, week to week, and month to month playbook. We are committed to walking alongside our clients and helping them leverage insights from their manufacturing analysis and scorecards to achieve significant results.

Once you have the data, it’s time to start making changes. Our team can help you create a plan that integrates our gap assessment results and Scorecard into your current marketing strategy. We will provide guidance on how to optimize your campaigns and prioritize initiatives in order to maximize their ROI. This includes developing marketing plans based on the data points and insights from the report, as well as creating a strategy for how you will use this information to meet your business goals.

Research by McKinsey & Company shows that companies that use customer analytics extensively are more likely to generate above-average profits. Our Farotech team will be a source of guidance as you put in the work to make sure that your marketing efforts are successful!

What’s your revenue goal?

You answer that question, and we’ll provide the skills to get you there. We use a proven digital marketing system that will allow you to put wheels to the pavement and follow that roadmap toward transformative growth.

We’re going to 5x to 10x your lead opportunities, but that’s just the beginning. Our team will simultaneously be developing more efficient strategies for improving your conversion rate. When we take these two factors and also calculate your average lifetime value of a client, you can start to get a realistic picture of the fiscal gains over a time period from using our marketing system.

Our team will provide you with the necessary support and guidance to help you make the most of your marketing Gap Assessment and Scorecard. We have a deep and valuable understanding of marketing strategies in both B2B and B2C contexts, so we can evaluate your current system and make sure it’s optimized for maximum performance. Additionally, we are able to help you develop new tactics that leverage the data from your gap assessment.

At Farotech, we are committed to helping our clients reach their goals and exceed expectations. We understand that marketing is a critical component of the success of any business, so we strive to provide comprehensive support for our clients that extends beyond just the Gap Assessment and Scorecard.

We can help you create an effective plan for implementation that takes into account your budget constraints and resources available.

We believe in the power of data. With our Manufacturing Marketing Gap Assessment, you’ll have the insights and analytics necessary to create a strong marketing foundation that will help you drive your business to success.

Opportunities x Conversion Rate x Lifetime Value = Predictable forecasted Revenue for Your Manufacturing Company

Cast a Clear Marketing Vision

For manufacturers, if you don’t have a roadmap, you’re likely practicing reactive marketing instead of proactive marketing. According to a survey by HubSpot, companies that set goals are 10 times more likely to achieve success than those that don’t. Fortunately, with the right data and insights from your Manufacturing Marketing Gap Analysis, you can create a roadmap that will lead you to success.

Even if you have a plan in place, if it’s not rooted in data, then your team may be lacking a compass to guide their efforts.

The manufacturing gap assessment is just the first step in developing a successful marketing strategy. After we’ve identified any critical gaps, our team can work with yours to develop a comprehensive action plan for creating and implementing effective campaigns. We’ll provide guidance on optimizing key metrics, including cost-per-click (CPC), cost-per-lead (CPL), and return on investment (ROI).

The manufacturing marketing gap assessment provides the necessary data to create and maintain a clear, data-driven vision for your marketing efforts. This can help you make informed decisions, set achievable goals, and optimize campaigns with real-time results. With a comprehensive understanding of your industry competition, current clients, and potential buyers, you can create an effective strategy that will ensure long-term success for your business.

Many companies waste so much time and money trying to navigate marketing strategy on their own. Why not invest up front in a Gap Assessment to cast a clear vision and provide a practical plan to reach your goals?

Our team of experienced professionals is dedicated to helping you develop an effective marketing strategy and plan. We’ll work with you to determine the best tactics for reaching your desired outcomes, and we’ll provide guidance on how to measure the ROI of each tactic.

At Farotech, we are committed to helping our clients stay ahead of the competition and reach their goals. When you work with us, you can trust that your manufacturing marketing gap assessment will be used to create a powerful vision for success. Contact us here to begin a sample gap assessment!