Effective marketing for manufacturers: Take your audience on a tour

For companies that manufacture and sell to other businesses, rather than dealing in consumer products, there are a few things their marketing must do:

• Provide technical information quickly and clearly - In manufacturing, measurement is king - How fast is it? How big is it? Will it melt at 1000 degrees?
• Show off accreditation - As in many industries, accreditation can be the difference between either landing a contract or not.
• Deliver clear messaging - A lot of people don't like the phrase 'unique selling point', but there it is again. What do you want to be known for amongst your customers? In manufacturing, they want to know most about your processes, levels of automation, and accuracy.

We were delighted to put this into practice when we were asked to produce two videos for CCPI Europe, a company whose expertise lies in temperature measurement and manufacturing of thermocouples and refractory materials (those which retain their strength at high temperatures). Their lab in Sheffield is fully accredited and they are world leaders in their field.

CCPI Europe wants to reassure prospective clients about the accuracy of their measurements and processes, and show that this results in products of the highest quality. Our brief was to give CCPI's prospective clients, which include companies in aerospace, automotive and steel industries, a tour of their lab and an in-depth look at how they manufacture their mineral insulated thermocouples. These demonstrate their expert approach and the benefits it brings.

How did we do it?

The success of this project was due in no small part to a little extra time in pre-production. CCPI provided us with scripts, which Ember then edited. This worked well because although we had to include various figures, industry standards, and technical information, we also had to make it easy to listen to.

Alongside the script, we were also given photographs of the different parts of the lab and factory. These were ideal as it served as a storyboard and allowed us to think about how we would shoot each piece of equipment. Having a final script before filming was vital as I was able to tell my camera operator exactly how long I needed each sequence to be.

For these videos, we got nice and close to our subject, and either moved the camera or pulled focus on just about every shot. We did this to emphasise the quality of the facilities and the precision of the equipment, as well as making the videos visually pleasing. We made sure to capture all the digital displays in the lab because the focus was on the high-quality standards and remarkable levels of accuracy.

We got the staff at CCPI Europe to use the equipment in order to better demonstrate how they are used and to provide more movement and interest. It was really satisfying to be able to do justice to the high standards CCPI set as well as the skill of their employees.

Related content:

• What we've learnt about manufacturing and content marketing
• How to match your content to the client journey
• 7 tips for creating video content that will transform your industry

Author: Sam Willet

Sam is a Producer and Client Manager at Ember Television. He has worked in online media since graduating with an MA in Film and TV from the University of Birmingham, and loves a good human interest story. You can contact him at [email protected] https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=294919697&authType=name&authToken=k-zK&trk=prof-proj-cc-name https://twitter.com/ember_samw