Content marketing plan for manufacturers: A 90‑day template

A successful manufacturing marketing strategy relies on creating and publishing relevant content that appeals to your “buyer persona” through the different stages of their buyer’s journey. 

So what exactly is content marketing? And how can you use it to build your brand, nurture relationships with your prospects and convert those leads into customers?

Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach that involves creating and sharing useful and engaging online material that informs, stimulates and inspires your target audience.

Well-crafted content can be used to build and reinforce brand awareness, to encourage lead conversion, to move your leads through the buying cycle and to create long-term value for your customers.

Identify your audience

The first thing to consider when putting together your manufacturing content plan is to identify who it is you’re writing for.

The goal of any content marketing strategy should be to make your reader your number one priority by being helpful, educational, insightful and informative about the issues that matter to them.

Let’s say your target audience is Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) who are looking for outsourcing solutions.

It could be that they’re considering outsourcing part or all of their manufacturing operations and need advice on next steps.

Perhaps their company’s had a change of ownership or a shift in priorities? Or maybe their in-house operations are at full capacity and they need additional support?

The key in creating your content marketing plan is to put yourself in your ideal customer’s shoes and to consider their pain points and their challenges.

What’s driving them? What are they asking? Where and how are they seeking answers to their questions?

And how can you help?

Choose your content type

The next step is to think about the kind of content that will best suit the needs of your target audience.

Again you’ll want to consider who you’re writing for and where they are in the “buying” process.

If they’re at the start of their exploration, then simpler items of content such as How-To’s, infographics or industry reports may provide useful initial “signposts” for their research.

If they’re further through the process and are at the stage of considering their options or making decisions, then they may be drawn to more substantial pieces of content such as eBooks, case studies or webinars that dig down more deeply into a topic.

So what’s the best strategy for coming up with ideas for content?

When brainstorming ideas, remember that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Often the best material is right under your nose.

Look for inspiration in your existing resources - your eBooks, pillar pages, white papers, case studies, customer testimonials or videos.

Online brainstorming tools such as Feedly and Buzzsumo can also help you to identify popular and high-performing content by monitoring and analysing social media shares around topics that are important to your sector.

Create (and stick to) a schedule

Another vital element of successful content creation is having an editorial calendar.

This stage involves thinking about the different forms of content you’re looking to produce and the frequency with which you’re looking to publish those items. And most importantly, it’s about sticking to the plan.  

A typical month’s work of content creation for example could well comprise a weekly blog post, several daily social posts and the curation of your blog articles into a monthly newsletter.

You can then plan larger items of cornerstone content such as eBooks, pillar pages or videos to be completed over a period of three or four months.

Practical implementation frameworks

The 90-day content marketing plan template

This template moves your team from abstract strategy to measurable execution, focusing on the essential steps required to launch a system that proves ROI.

Content planning RACI chart

Content strategy success depends on clear accountability across typically siloed departments. This RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) chart ensures smooth handoffs and necessary input, particularly from technical experts.

Example content KPI ladder

Your content plan must move beyond activity-based metrics (impressions, clicks) to commercial outcomes that justify investment to the C-Suite. This example KPI ladder tracks progression from basic traffic to provable revenue influence.

When to consider outsourcing

A final but equally important step is to delegate the creation of your content.

Who’s going to do what and when? And do you have the in-house resources to see these goals through to completion?

A common challenge for a busy manufacturing company can be to identify subject-matter experts who have the ability (and the time) to convert their knowledge into accessible and engaging content.

If you think you’re going to struggle to maintain that capacity in-house, then it may be worth considering outsourcing part or all of your content creation process to a content marketing agency.

Conclusion

Content marketing for manufacturing can play a hugely valuable role in helping you to connect with your ideal audience, to build trust, to convert leads to customers and to retain customer loyalty.

And by taking a structured, customer-centric approach to your marketing you’ll continue to prove yourself as an authoritative and trusted thought-leader within your sector.

FAQs

What content-sharing cadence works for resource-thin teams?

For resource-thin teams, the goal is to prioritise quality, repurposing, and strategic distribution over high volume.

1. Prioritise Pillars (quality over quantity): Focus on producing one high-value, long-form 'pillar' asset (a whitepaper, a comprehensive guide) every 4–6 weeks. These assets drive the most long-term SEO and conversion value.
2. Repurpose ruthlessly (efficiency): Take that single pillar asset and break it down into 4–6 micro-pieces (social posts, videos, email snippets) over the following weeks. This ensures a consistent weekly publishing cadence without continuous heavy creation.
3. Gate high-intent assets: Use your owned channels (like email and blog) to nurture leads, ensuring you only spend limited resources on nurturing prospects who have shown high intent (e.g., downloading a compliance guide).

What content work is good to outsource?

Outsourcing is strategic when it provides specialised skills and speed that your internal team lacks, or when it addresses a resource gap. Good content work to outsource includes:

• Strategy & frameworks: Defining the ICPs, building the core messaging, and establishing the technical attribution systems (CRM integration, RevOps setup). These require high-level, external expertise to ensure alignment with commercial best practice.
• High-end technical writing: Content that requires deep technical fluency (such as ISO standards, GxP validation, or specific process guides) can be outsourced to an agency specialising in engineering and manufacturing narratives, ensuring accuracy and authority.
• Creative production & repurposing: Tasks such as professional video production, graphic design, and managing large-scale content repurposing (e.g., converting a whitepaper into a carousel series) are excellent candidates for outsourcing. This frees up the internal team to focus on core responsibilities and SME input.

Editor's note: This blog was first written in April 20218 and has been updated in December 2025 for relevance and accuracy.