Join Lisa every Tuesday at 7pm Eastern for her live show on Facebook & YouTube.

Advanced Manufacturing isn't a targeted niche

Advanced Manufacturing isn't a targeted niche

According to manufacturing.gov, Advanced Manufacturing is the “use of innovative technologies to create existing products and the creation of new products.” That's a broad definition, but oh so safe to market within.

When an economic developer says they're a great location for Advanced Manufacturing, that's a bit like a restaurant saying they have great food.

You'll never see a restaurant promoting “food,” though. They'll communicate to you things like ethnicity (Mexican, Indian, Thai, Japanese, Italian, etc.), atmosphere (casual dining, fine dining, outdoor, fast food), origin (local, imported), and type of service (buffet, coffeehouse, tabletop cooking, cafeteria). If they just marketed "food," nobody would know what they really mean so customers would go on to the next restaurant.

Just like those restaurants, you need to narrow your niche to market to the prospects who are most likely to be attracted to your location. There's no use courting a food processing company that uses advanced automation control systems if you don't have the water capacity to support them, a car manufacturer if you don't have enough land for the facility, or an engineered wood manufacturer if you're not in close proximity to wood sources.

By being honest with yourself about the types of companies your community can feasibly support, you can more easily target the right prospects. Precise targeting will save you time and money, and increase your project closing rate.

It's hard to not go after every project out there but, in the end, all that does is keep you busy, wasting your valuable time on projects that you have no real chance of winning.

It just takes that one perfect prospect to land a great deal for your community.

Stop being distracted by the glitter and start working towards refining exactly who you should be trying to attract, how you can reach them, and how you can communicate more effectively with them in your marketing.

What Advanced Manufacturing niche should you really be pursuing? Make the move to differentiate now and reap the rewards.

1
21 little known things you can do with marketing a...
How investing in your website increases the value ...