Marketing for manufacturers: more enquiries from your website

Make your website answer the questions an engineer or buyer asks before they’ll contact you, then make it easy to request a quote, and follow up every one.

Most manufacturers we meet get their work from long-standing customers and word of mouth. The website is a brochure: a home page, a vague “our services” page and a contact form. It brings in the odd enquiry, usually the wrong kind. Meanwhile the buyers you want are searching for exactly what you make, and finding someone else.

How buyers choose a supplier now

An engineer with a part to make doesn’t ring round any more. They search for the process, the material and the standard they need, shortlist two or three companies whose websites answer their questions, and only then pick up the phone. Increasingly they ask ChatGPT or Google’s AI for a UK supplier first. If your website doesn’t say clearly what you do, for whom, and to what standard, you’re not on the shortlist, however good your work is.

1. One page for each thing you make

“Precision engineering” is not a page. CNC machining in aluminium, injection moulding, carbon fibre parts, sheet metal fabrication: each process and material you offer needs its own page, written for the person who buys it. That’s what “SEO for manufacturers” actually means. It isn’t tricks, it’s being findable for the specific things you make.

2. Show what engineers need to see

• Tolerances, materials, batch sizes and typical lead times
• Certifications and standards, such as ISO 9001, with the certificate itself where you can
• Photos of real parts and the shop floor, not stock images
• The sectors you serve and the names you’re allowed to mention
• Short case studies: the problem, what you made, what it meant for the customer

This is the proof that gets you shortlisted. It’s also what the AI tools quote when someone asks who can make a part like yours.

3. Make quoting easy

A buyer with a drawing wants to send it now. Give them a request-a-quote form that takes a file, a direct phone number, and an instant reply that says when they’ll hear back. Then hit that time. Most buyers send the same drawing to three suppliers, and the first useful reply usually wins.

4. Follow up, and track where work comes from

Quotes that go quiet are the biggest leak in most manufacturers’ sales. A simple CRM chases each quote at the right intervals and shows you which enquiries turned into orders, and where they came from. We saw what that does for DCRS, a two-way radio supplier: a rebuilt hire page, lead magnets and a CRM took them from about 20 website enquiries a month to a record 79.

5. Get recommended by Google and the AI tools

Keep your Google Business Profile complete, collect reviews from customers, and publish plain answers to the questions buyers ask: minimum order quantities, lead times, which materials suit which jobs. Clear, specific answers are what Google’s AI overviews and ChatGPT draw on. See how to get recommended by ChatGPT.

6. Use ads for the searches worth paying for

Google Ads work for manufacturers when they target exact, high-value searches, like a specific process and material, exclude everything else, and land on the matching capability page. They’re a top-up for a website that converts, not a substitute for one.

What it costs, honestly

A manufacturer’s website built this way starts from £7,500 + VAT. Ongoing SEO starts from £1,200 + VAT a month, and the whole system run for you, our Enquiry Engine, from £1,800 + VAT a month. Start with a free Growth Audit: we’ll check your website, your Google rankings and what ChatGPT says about you.

Common questions

We get all our work by word of mouth. Why change? Because word of mouth can’t be turned up when you need it. A website that brings in enquiries runs alongside your referrals and gives you a say in how busy you are.

Google or LinkedIn? Both, but for different jobs. Google catches buyers at the moment they need a supplier. LinkedIn keeps you in front of them in between.

How long does it take? Capability pages and a better quote process change things within weeks. Search rankings build over six to twelve months and keep compounding.

See how we work with manufacturers and engineering firms, or get your free Growth Audit.