6 Internet Marketing Strategies for Engineers

Online marketing is the best and most cost-effective way to reach people looking for engineering assistance. When your potential clients begin their searches for businesses to work with, many of them start with search engines like Google. Your goal should be to come up first in the search results, and the best way to do that is with Internet marketing strategies like search engine optimization (SEO).

As an experienced marketing firm, we can help your business reach the right people at the right time. Plus, Internet marketing is far more cost-effective than traditional methods, and can generate a higher ROI. This means you can appeal to more potential clients than ever, without even picking up a phone.

On this page, we’ll discuss the best ways for marketing an engineering company online, including SEO, email newsletters, social media, and other approaches that can improve your reach and bring in more leads for your business. Keep reading if you want to learn more, and give us a call at 888-601-5359.

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Why Choose Internet Marketing for an Engineering Firm?

Traditional advertising is expensive and, in our increasingly Internet-driven world, outdated. The smartest marketing plans for engineering firms rely heavily on online methods, because that's where people begin their searches for information and businesses.

Think about your own recent searches for businesses. When was the last time you reached for the phone book or Yellow Pages when you needed to find a service? Instead, you most likely went to Google and performed a search. You typed in the keywords for what you wanted, and clicked on a few search results until you found what you needed.

Internet marketing is crucial because this is how most people find information now: They turn to the Internet for virtually everything, including companies to work with. So if your engineering company isn’t well-represented or easy to find online, you may struggle to attract potential leads. Not only that, but you'll be losing them to your competitors.

Here are a few actionable tips for marketing your engineering firm online.

1. Utilize Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is one of the best ways to improve your engineering company’s online visibility. When developing your overall marketing strategy, it should be one of your top priorities.

If you're new to SEO, it's essentially a collection of best practices used to improve your engineering firm’s visibility in Google searches for relevant keywords. For example, if you wanted your website to rank highly for something like “engineering company in Dallas TX,” you could use SEO to ensure that your website shows up in searches for that phrase and others like it.

SEO involves making changes to several elements on your website to increase the likelihood that it will rank well for the phrases you are targeting. These changes may include adding keywords to the titles of your pages, updating and adding to your site copy, making your pages load faster, improving your site's appearance, and so on.

For those who are new to online marketing, SEO can be challenging to learn, but it's absolutely essential in today's competitive online landscape. You can learn more about SEO and why it’s important by reading our CEO’s guide to SEO.

2. Pay-per-click advertising (PPC)

If you’re looking to quickly boost traffic and revenue, pay-per-click advertising (PPC) is a great option.

PPC advertising allows you to select which keywords and phrases you want to trigger your advertisements. For example, you can set your ads to display when people search for “engineering firms in Denver” or “engineers in Minneapolis.”

Then, if your bids are the highest, your ads will display above organic listings in search engine results pages (SERPs).

One of the main advantages of PPC advertising is that you don’t have to wait for results. As soon as your ads are clicked to go live, they can start sending relevant, targeted traffic to your website.

3. Create quality content

Both search engines and human website visitors love quality content, which can include everything from blog posts and videos to marketing guides and ebooks.

By creating and publishing valuable content, you can reach your most qualified prospects where they’re already searching online. And people will be more likely to want to find out more information about your engineering company after discovering helpful content published by your company.

They may even share your content with friends and family members who might be in need of your services.

4. Start an Email Newsletter

Email newsletters are a great way to make contact with potential clients, keep in touch with current clients, and strengthen your relationship with both groups. Whereas past email marketing methods may have involved making hard sales pitches, and you may think of ecommerce emails as being all about sales specials or coupons, engineering email marketing is all about adding value.

You can use an email newsletter to:

• Explain important engineering concepts to your non-engineer clients
• Provide links to news articles or blog posts you find interesting
• Discuss upcoming events and milestones within your company
• Offer potential new clients discounts on future services

Newsletters should be a source of useful information for your clients, as long as you don’t turn them into commercials for your services. You want to engage people and get them to read voluntarily, without getting turned off by sales-speak or hard sells.

You can create an email newsletter for free, or for a very low cost, by using any number of email marketing platforms you find online. Just remember that you cannot send emails to those who have not explicitly opted-in to your list to receive them! If you send emails to people who have not subscribed, you may be reported for spamming.

5. Social Media

Many B2B businesses wonder why they should start social media accounts. But regardless of your industry or business model, social media offers a great way to communicate with current and potential customers.

The kind of direct communication you can only get with social media is invaluable to any company, and sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ give you a chance to talk directly to your clients.

If, for example, you decide to switch office locations or add a new engineering service to your company, you can explain your reasoning on social media or answer any questions people may have about the change. You can also use these platforms to ask questions directly of your followers, share special projects, or provide links to engineering articles and updates you find interesting.

6. Online Reviews

Online reviews are an increasingly important aspect of marketing an engineering company online. Reviews are the modern-day equivalent of word of mouth, and a good review can help attract new business to your firm. On the contrary, not having reviews can hurt your chances of attracting new clients.

You should be monitoring online reviews of your company and responding to the concerns people voice on them. Try to take the criticism constructively and work to improve any areas of your service that are lacking. Pay particular attention to Yelp and Angie’s List, which are among the most popular review websites.

Instead of becoming frustrated by any poor reviews you may receive, concentrate on motivating others to post good reviews that counteract the bad ones. Ask satisfied customers to visit these sites and explain in their own words why they had a good experience. This can improve your reputation and drown out any negative reviews, increasing the likelihood that those who find you in searches will see you in a positive light.

Need Help Creating a Custom Marketing Plan for Your Engineering Company?

We hope these tips for online marketing for your engineering company have been helpful. With a little practice and some experimentation, you can combine a variety of Internet marketing methods into a comprehensive plan that improves your firm’s visibility and reputation, attracting more leads and motivating more potential customers to choose your company for their engineering needs.

If you need help putting any of these marketing plans into motion, we can help! As a full-service marketing firm, we'll create a custom plan to increase your company’s exposure on search engines, start your social media profiles, redesign your engineering website, or do anything else you may need to reach more potential customers online.

For more information, contact us today to discuss what we can do to make your online marketing a success. We’d love to hear from you!

Call 888-601-5359 or contact us online today to see how WebFX can improve your online performance.