Our Websites Generate Quality RFQs
Sometimes we get asked, "What kind of leads do your websites generate?" Great question! We're glad you asked!
Our clients get awesome RFQ leads from the lead-generating websites that we create for them. Our websites bring them great RFQ opportunities every month from companies ranging from Fortune 500 manufacturers to small local and regional companies needing contract manufacturing. In addition to big and small companies, the RFQ leads include universities, military, and government entities across the spectrum. Examples include NASA, Argonne National Laboratory, Raytheon, Harley Davidson, Swagelok, Honeywell, the US Navy, the Laboratory for Laser Energetics at the University of Rochester, and even Chick-fil-A.
We add great, technically sound written content to client websites. We add authentic photos of their facility and the work they do. Sometimes we add video that showcases their production facility. And we always have high-performing search engine optimization (SEO) built-in.
We include call-to-action buttons that you can't miss when looking at a web page. And we funnel site visitors to your contact form. But it's not just any contact form. It's a smart contact form that has immense capabilities for any information-collecting need you can think up. Your contact form leads arrive in your email inbox, and they're stored in a database as a backup and as a rich source of future marketing potential.
These "request for quote" (RFQ) form submissions come from well-known, large companies and hundreds of other smaller companies nationwide. You should check out who is submitting RFQs on our client websites! You can reach this RFQ opportunity level too!
We Know Industry
We understand more about industrial companies than most web designers, and that makes us a much better fit for your contract manufacturing company. We know what shearing, punching, and roll forming are. We know what tolerance means and what “id” and “od” mean. Most web designers would be baffled by these terms and would have no idea how to write good, SEO-rich content with them.
We know what wire harness and cable harness assemblies are as well as PTFE seals, millwrighting, heat treating, metal plating, and much more. We’ve seen EDM machines, CNC lathes, laser and waterjet cutters, and plastic thermoforming in action. And our personal favorite is seeing press brakes and roll forming machines in action. Maybe we’re dorks, but watching steel plate or sheet metal get bent like it’s cardboard is really cool.
At Baer Web Design, we are fascinated by industrial processes. We always want to learn more so that we can present your company accurately, fully, and in an interesting and compelling way. So if you're tired of never finding the right website design partner, then look no further. We are ready to partner with you and use our vast industrial marketing experience to start boosting your online game.
How Industrial Marketing Is Different
More Substance, Less Fluff
A great visual presentation is essential for any website. But an industrial website is far different than a consumer-oriented website.
Industrial websites often have complex, technical information that needs to be presented in a well-organized, easily accessible manner. Your audience is very specialized; engineers, technicians, and professional industrial buyers. Unlike consumer-oriented websites, this audience wants technical, and even highly complex details.
If you're considering a website designer that has mainly done retail websites, church websites, ice cream shop websites, an insurance agency website, etc., then think again. You need a website partner that understands and has experience with industrial clients.
Press brake bending a wire form component.
Products
The “products” presented on your new website design are usually custom manufactured parts, components, or sub-assemblies made for a very narrow audience of OEMs or other higher-tier industrial suppliers that directly supply OEMs. So they’re not really “products” like on a consumer-oriented website, but rather examples of the kind of work your shop can do. Since most industrial B2B companies don’t sell off-the-shelf items, a shopping cart is usually not advisable. Watch out for those who try to convince you otherwise.
Services
Industrial services are also more specialized, complex, and focused on a narrow B2B industrial target market. Whether the industrial service is indoor air quality solutions, machine calibration, lubricants, safety equipment, ESD protection, or any other number of industrial services, the companies we work with for industrial website design don’t sell anything directly to consumers.
Order Size
Quantities from a few prototypes to large-scale,, ongoing production with multiple releases per year.
Your target audience might be looking for just a few prototypes. They might be seeking a low-volume fabrication partner or a long-term, high-volume ongoing relationship. So if you do prototypes, then your website should talk about that. If you mostly do small-batch manufacturing, then your website should make that clear. If you're only looking for mass-scale production, then your site should make that clear. If you do all of those, then your site needs to clearly explain that.
Websites for industrial and manufacturing companies are totally different than websites for selling to a consumer audience. For example, you probably don't need a shopping cart, as each of your clients has customized and often proprietary parts or components that they need. Your website cannot be built like a consumer-oriented website and you need a website designer that understands that.
Social Media for Industrial Companies?
Why Social Media Doesn't Work for Small Industrial Companies
- Engineers seeking a fabrication partner who can help with design for manufacturability issues aren't going to look on Facebook for that partner.
- A small component manufacturer needing a heat treating partner for the steel components they're making for a larger manufacturer is not going to look on Twitter (X) for a heat treating company.
- A company needing specialized circuit board assembly services or PCB repair services will not look for that on Instagram.
Social media is mostly useless to B2B industrial / manufacturing companies. The only exception might be LinkedIn, but unless your company is extremely active and tied into the appropriate groups, even that is pushing it. Why? Engineers, technicians, and industrial buyers don’t use social media to find suppliers! And your company shouldn’t spend significant time, resources, or money on it. But you can use social media to promote new blog entries... if you automate the updates so that it is not a time and resource-intensive endeavor. That might be good for search engine optimization, but it won't directly get you new customers.
Be aware, however, that your run-of-the-mill website designer might try to push costly social media programs on you. When that happens, run away and call Baer Web Design!
Website Photos
We won’t fill your website with generic “industrial” pictures found on stock photo sites. There are hardly any decent images of industrial products, machinery or processes to be found online anyway. The only common “industrial” photos readily available on stock photo sites are guys wearing hard hats and pictures of a guy welding, with lots of sparks flying around. Cool, but generic and probably not appropriate for most industrial websites nor representative of your company.
We’ll work with you to get pictures of the things you actually make and pictures of your facility. We’ll give you lots of tips to take your own great pictures or we’ll arrange for a professional photographer to visit your facility to take some truly great shots, no matter where you are in the USA!
Generic Welding Photo - Very inauthentic... Doesn't represent a business well.
Authentic Industrial Website Photo - A real employee using a press brake for heavy gauge steel forming.