Last Updated on January 11, 2019 by Tim
Launching a startup in any industry can prove challenging. This is especially true for those in the machinery space. With manufacturing moving back to the U.S., there are definitely new opportunities in the machinery industry.
“According to advocacy group Reshoring Initiative, the number of jobs being reshored by U.S. companies has increased more than tenfold since 2010,” Evan Comen explained in a U.S. Today article. “Each company has its own reasons for consolidating manufacturing operations in the United States, and the number of jobs and size of investment involved in the reshoring projects also vary by company.”
If you’re looking to launch a machinery and manufacturing startup to help support the shift back to the U.S., it’s important to have some key tips under your belt for a successful business. Whether manufacturing auto parts or serving up used machine parts online, let’s take a deeper look at the anatomy of success.
1. Create an Expert Brand Image
Branding and having a strategic approach to your startup’s image is definitely critical to your business’ growth and success. If you can launch a startup with an expert brand image, you will be one step ahead from the get go. Chances are, you are not jumping into the machinery industry on a whim. You probably have key industry knowledge with years of experience under your belt. This is excellent, and you should leverage that expertise as much as possible.
For example, write industry articles, be an authority, and share your story with your target audience via interviews and your website “about” page. This is a brand image recipe for success!
2. Provide In-Depth Content on Your Website
While on the topic of websites, let’s take a quick look at content. First, you absolutely need a website, despite being in the machinery industry. If you’re not online these days, and visible to searchers, you may not get as much business as you want and need to pay the bills. This makes having a site with high quality content a critical tip in making your startup a success.
What is good content? Your aim should be to provide actionable and informative content for your target audience. This will showcase your business, your services, your expertise, and more. The other aim should be to have keyword rich, long-form content on each page in order to rank higher in search engine results pages. In fact, most web pages with 2000+ words rank better, and are on page one of Google.
3. Ensure Your Website is Accessible on All Devices
Did you know that there are more mobile searches than desktop searches these days? That’s right. This makes having your website and business easily accessible across all digital platforms critical. For example, if your website does not load under three seconds or looks strange on a mobile device, you need to make it better in order to net more customers.
To do this, first test your site speed on desktop and mobile using Pingdom or Google PageSpeed Insights, or both to get a clearer picture. Then check your mobile-friendly status with Google Mobile-Friendly tool. This can be an extraordinary leap into more business when optimized correctly, so look into it for your machinery startup.
4. Leverage Local Search
Having a local search listing is almost a must these days. Through Google My Business, you can get local coverage of your business online. With a Google local pack, you can also showcase your ratings and reviews, post ads and announcements, and much more. It is important, however, to follow the Google My Business guidelines for listing your startup locally. With a bit of know-how, you can be maximizing your startup’s exposure in just a few short weeks.
5. Partner with Your Community
This can be another beneficial, and critical tip when launching your startup. You most likely will have a presence in a local community, since your machinery facility will need to live somewhere. When you settle in, get out and network in your community. Join the local listing and get an online citation with the local government, sponsor events, and work your way into key community groups.
The reason behind this is that you never know who your new connections may know. You may very well meet a relative of a Fortune 500 company looking for a machinery startup just like yours.
Wrapping Up . . .
The above five critical tips for machinery startup success are only the tip of the iceberg. There are certainly a lot more that goes into a startup for exponential business growth, but the above can potentially get your startup moving in a powerful direction in a highly competitive industry. What’s your top tip for startup success? We want to hear from you.
