From a marketing point of view, the manufacturing industry looks very different from a retail or service industry. The marketing of a Textile business, especially for MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises), is a far cry from visually rich promotional materials or catchy copies that we see as a consumer. Textile Marketing, like the marketing of many manufacturing-oriented businesses, is highly goal-driven. The focus areas are price, product, and sales.
When you are an MSME, all you want to do is boost your customer base, get high-quality leads, generate revenue and expand your business across different markets. But we all know how hard it is to acquire new customers today. Many businesses are operating online, making the competition tough. Digital Marketing can play a crucial role in helping Textile MSMEs increase their reach, gain new customers and compete.
With Digital Marketing, Textile MSMEs can meet their objectives better and position themselves as industry experts.
Digital Marketing Challenges
From attracting potential customers to generating quality conversions, Textile Marketing has evolved into a whole new journey where digital marketing can drive the vehicle forward.
However, there are a few challenges that Textile MSMEs face with Digital Marketing activities.
1. Budget: Digital marketing involves marketing through digital channels like search engines, social media, email, or websites to connect with current and prospective customers. Each of these digital channels demands a unique set of capabilities and also budget. In most cases, Textile MSMEs don’t have the means to fund a large-scale Digital Marketing exercise. And truth be told, digital marketing can sometimes be heavy on the pocket.
2. Content Generation: Content/creative expertise is essential for successful Digital Marketing. But some Textile MSMEs may not have the resources for an in-house marketing team with content/creative expertise.
3. Right Social Exercise: Managing Social Media channels and optimizing it for promotion is not something that everyone can do. Textile MSMEs are too busy with routine operations and logistics work to focus on Social Media Marketing. Also, with constantly changing user dynamics and Social Media platforms’ algorithms, it is impossible to stay on top of things, unless you delegate it to an expert.
Opportunities in Digital Marketing
If digital marketing poses some challenges for Textile MSMEs, it also brings a host of benefits. The idea is to marry your business priorities with newer techniques, use technologies, and achieve the best results. Let’s look at some opportunities.
1. Better Reach and Market Expansion
With an increased number of customers online, you have higher chances of expanding your audience base in a single attempt. Suppose you are a local Textile Supplier or a Textile Manufacturing Unit, limited to selling in your city. Digital marketing can help you go beyond your city and sell to the entire country or even other countries at the same time.
2. Smart Spending Options
Yes, as we said earlier, the budget can be a significant constraint for Textile Marketers. But if you can allocate the marketing spend in the right activities, then you can make it worthwhile. For example, if you are a Textile Manufacturer and only want to sell to industry buyers, your focus should be on Search Ads or promoting on Online B2B Marketplaces. Most B2B marketplaces openly display a category for the Textile listing category.
3. Increased Visibility for the Business Unit
One way to build influence in the business community is to position yourself as a leader and an expert in the textile business. With Digital Marketing, you can achieve just that. For example, as a Textile Manufacturer, you can become an industry expert, join trending conversations in business forums, help other community members or aspiring entrepreneurs with knowledge about textiles, trends, business dos and don’ts and so on. This will not only help you become more visible within the community but also in positioning your brand.
4.Real-time Results of your Marketing efforts
With the help of online analytics of all the marketing efforts, you can easily get an idea of what’s working and what’s not. It also gives a forecast of what you should do well. You can redirect your budget, plan, and activities without losing time or money.
For example, you start your social platform and try to run a campaign for a month but it doesn’t bring any results. Without wasting a minute or a penny, you can stop it immediately and look at other promotional avenues, like online classifieds. They are not only cheaper than social campaigns but also more useful since you can connect with buyers who are specifically looking for your products.
5. Better Connect with Customers
Tools like email marketing can always connect you to your prospective buyers, current customers, new leads, or even past customers. It helps you maintain a long-term relationship through regular business updates, latest offers, industry insights, etc.
When done right, Digital Marketing can help textile businesses boost their conversion rates and become the most effective marketing tool. The best way forward is to partner with B2B marketplace sites like Tradeleaves.com and make your business and products easily discoverable online.
