Content marketing in manufacturing: real-life content strategy tips

In this post, we’ll detail the content marketing strategy we implemented for a paper straw manufacturer and machine developer. This client was starting their content marketing from scratch, so you’ll learn about what put them on the map in a niche industry.

There’s a lot of room for innovation in the world of packaging. With environmental laws forcing brands to take action quickly, Tembo Paper developed machinery to mass-produce biodegradable paper straws that perform to the same standards as their plastic counterparts. 

They sell these paper straws in bulk to brands, and set up custom production lines for their partners. These partners include Capri Sun, Refresco, and the biggest fast food brands.

Tembo Paper already has a strong word-of-mouth reputation in the consumer goods industry, with the team having cultivated relationships in this sector for some time. But it’s a growing market. They also want to increase awareness about what they do, and build new partnerships.

Jos Veldwijk, Head of Marketing at Tembo, asked KYO to develop and execute a content strategy.

The content marketing goals:

• Establish credibility and trust to reassure big brand partners;

• Publicise Tembo Paper’s technology to the industry, and;

• Drive new enquiries for the sales team to convert.

This demanded a mix of different tactics and content types, which we’ll detail in this blog.

Boosting credibility by sharing news and interviewing influencers

Paper straws reduce the negative impact of packaging on the environment. That’s something to shout about. But first, we needed to demonstrate to the world that the Tembo Paper team is genuinely engaged with the issues driving the global shift towards sustainable products. 

To build this connection, we started a simple news feed. Here, we published timely news updates, which also got shared across Tembo Paper’s organic social channels:

These types of posts don’t typically move the needle in terms of traffic or conversions. They often bubble away without much impact. Their function is to feed social channels, and to show you’re active and engaged in a topic. In the long-term they might remain part of your content mix, but you shouldn’t expect them to perform in terms of your most important metrics.

We also interviewed environmental influencers about the devastating impact of plastic pollution, including Maria Westerbos, the founder and director of Plastic Soup Foundation and Nina Goodrich, director of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition. 

Here, we got to the heart of the problem that Tembo Paper tries to solve, and explored the challenges involved in doing that. These influencers shared our interviews with their networks.

Building a six-figure lead pipeline through a PPC landing page

Alongside our organic content marketing strategy, Tembo Paper also kicked off a direct-to-enquiry lead gen campaign. Hats-off to Accuracast here, who expertly handled the international Google Ads and LinkedIn Ads strategy. The results were outstanding. 

Tembo Paper’s return on investment far exceeded expectations. Within three months, the sales team was running consultations and speaking to prospects about six-figure deals. 

Iain Gorman, chief copywriter at KYO, worked on this campaign. He created the landing page copy, which was subsequently translated into multiple languages.

“The challenge was to get multiple messages across in one landing page,” Iain says. “New EU rules on single-use plastics meant that we needed to shout about legislation. But many companies are actually being driven by consumers who are demanding sustainability. So we had to balance the two, while being clear about what made Tembo Paper’s products and machinery unique.”

Improving SEO performance and boosting organic traffic volume

We did two things to improve SEO performance for Tembo Paper: 

1. Audited the website copy and expanded the site structure, and;

2. Scaled up blog content production, targeting relevant keywords.

After putting our content strategy into action, the organic traffic graph looked like this:

What you’re seeing above is a 400% increase in organic page views over 12 months. 

But what was the process for achieving this?

We wanted to focus first on improving Tembo Paper’s rankings for search terms with buying intent – phrases like “paper straw manufacturer” and similar variations. To do this, we:

1. Rewrote all website copy and meta titles/descriptions for key pages, and;

2. Created new pages and restructured the website flow.

The site was given a general health-check, and we also improved the internal linking between various pages and posts. The results?

• Ranking 1st position in the search results for:

  • Paper straw manufacturers

  • Biodegradable straws manufacturer

• Ranking 2nd position in the search results for:

  • Paper straw

  • Paper straw machines

  • Paper straw making machine

And we also created location pages, to make sure Tembo Paper appeared for valuable (high buying intent) searches in different countries. Over 12 months, despite the search volume being low-to-zero for individual locations, these pages attracted more than 3,800 organic page views.

It’s worth remembering: these are people who are searching for things like “paper straw manufacturer in the Netherlands” — i.e. people who want exactly what Tembo Paper offers.

The next phase was to go after some top and middle-of-the-funnel keywords through the blog. So we did a batch of keyword research to find some of the best opportunities.

Then, we interviewed Tembo Paper’s internal subject matter experts, and produced blog articles that address a range of consumer queries and industry topics. Within a 12 month period, these blog posts drove more than 50,000 organic page views. 

What can we learn from this manufacturing industry content strategy?

When we look at the mix of content types that benefit Tembo Paper, we can learn a few lessons:

1. Different horses for different courses. You can use news pieces to feed your social media output, build keyword density on the site, and show you’re engaged with the matters of the day. But they won’t get you much traffic or drive many conversions.
   
   Meanwhile, landing pages (PPC and SEO) and/or bottom-of-funnel blog posts will do the heavy-lifting. (For Tembo Paper, it was landing pages, alongside top-of-funnel blogs).
   

2. Low (or zero) volume doesn’t mean you should ignore keywords. Our location-based landing pages (e.g. paper straw manufacturer in Germany) have been driving thousands of visitors, despite SEO tools telling us these keywords had no volume whatsoever.
   
   Important note: This is an emerging market, which is developing rapidly. Tembo Paper knows for sure that their prospects need to switch away from plastic, but the SEO tools (e.g. Ahrefs, SEMrush) are way behind this curve. The market demand outpaces the data gathered by even the best software out there. Insider knowledge is invaluable.
   

3. If you want to build authority, align yourself with authority. Speak to reputable people, interview industry influencers, and cut through the noise with real-world expertise.
   

4. A great PPC strategy can drive qualified leads, even for big-ticket industrial tech. The industries that are “networking-based” still contain decision makers who begin their journey with a Google search. This is especially true in consumer goods, where there’s a rush for sustainable packaging. This involves working with new unknown partners. 

Jos Veldwijk, Head of Marketing at Tembo:

“KYO was instrumental in helping us put together our content strategy from scratch. The use of multiple types of content made complete sense, and the mix of articles they produced for us was really impressive. We’ve been happy with the growth, and it feels like Tembo Paper has been put on the map.”

Flory Huaccan, Online Marketing Specialist at Tembo:

“The continued support of KYO has been really helpful for our marketing efforts. We now have a wealth of content that’s driving thousands of visitors every month. This takes some of the pressure off paid channels, and gives us a steady stream of enquiries for the sales team.”