How to sell to Heads of Marketing at Manufacturing companies
Heads of Marketing in manufacturing are primarily measured on lead generation effectiveness. They respond to outreach that demonstrates an understanding of their specific challenges, such as optimizing marketing spend for industrial products while navigating long sales cycles. Showing knowledge of their recent product launches or market expansions can spark their interest in a conversation.
Written and maintained by the SoloRiff team, who build outbound software and run outbound with it. The figures below are our own: we measured 552 manufacturing company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- long sales cycles
- limited marketing budgets
- ineffective lead generation
- difficulty measuring ROI
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent product launches
Search for press releases or news articles about new product launches in the manufacturing sector. Filter for companies that have announced these launches within the last 30 days. This indicates they are likely ramping up marketing efforts and may be open to new strategies.
- 02
Target companies with increased marketing budgets
Use industry reports or surveys that highlight marketing budget increases in the manufacturing sector. Focus your outreach on companies that have reported a 10% or more increase in their marketing budget this year, as they are likely looking for new solutions to utilize these funds.
- 03
Engage with their recent marketing campaigns
Review the social media and website content of your target companies to identify their latest marketing campaigns. Craft your outreach to reference specific elements of these campaigns, such as themes or messaging, demonstrating your awareness of their current marketing focus and challenges.
- 04
Address common objections about ROI measurement
Prepare to address concerns about ROI when discussing marketing tools or services. Heads of Marketing often worry about proving the effectiveness of new strategies. Be ready to discuss how your approach can provide measurable results or enhance their existing analytics capabilities.
- 05
Follow up after industry events
Keep track of major industry events or trade shows in manufacturing. Schedule follow-ups with prospects shortly after these events, as they may be reflecting on new ideas and solutions. Reference specific sessions or speakers from the event to create a personal touch in your outreach.
Can manufacturing companies even receive your mail?
We measured the DNS of 552 manufacturing companies, sampled evenly across company sizes, to see how many authenticate their own email. It matters in both directions: a domain that does not authenticate is a domain whose team is used to mail going missing — and if your own domain is in the gap, yours is the mail going missing.
Publishes a DMARC policy of quarantine or reject — the domain actually asks receivers to act on failures.
The gap is the finding: 24.3% of 1–10-person companies against 83.1% of the largest — 59 points apart. Small companies are where the unauthenticated domains are, and small companies are who most cold outreach is aimed at.
Where does your domain sit?
Same three lookups, run live against your domain. Nothing is stored and nothing is emailed to you.
How this was measured
Company domains were sampled within employee-count bands, then queried over public DNS for SPF (TXT at the apex), DMARC (TXT at _dmarc.) and MX. One domain per company, deduplicated. Anyone can reproduce any single row of this with dig.
DKIM is deliberately absent. A DKIM key lives under a selector that cannot be enumerated from outside the domain, so a company with flawless DKIM under a name we did not guess would be counted as having none. That would measure our guess list, not the industry.
Domains with no MX record are excluded rather than counted as failures — parked and redirect-only domains would otherwise drag every figure down and make the result an artefact of the sample.
Sampled within bands, so this describes the population of companies, not of employees: a 10-person company counts once, as does a 10,000-person one. Each band is at least 60 domains; bands below that are not published. Figures are percentages of the sample, not of the whole industry, and we publish no company names — only counts.
Measured 2026-09-03. Re-measured monthly.
The full census across every industry — sortable, with sample sizes, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0.
Subject lines that fit
- Boost your lead generation
- Maximize your marketing budget
- Insights from recent product launches
Questions
- Why do Heads of Marketing in manufacturing ignore outreach about digital tools?
- They often feel overwhelmed by the number of solutions available and may prioritize proven methods over new, untested tools. If the outreach does not clearly demonstrate how the tool can directly address their specific pain points, it is likely to be overlooked.
- What challenges do Heads of Marketing face in lead generation?
- They struggle with attracting qualified leads due to the long sales cycles in manufacturing. Additionally, they may find it difficult to effectively communicate the value of complex industrial products to potential customers, which can hinder their marketing efforts.
- How can I make my outreach more relevant to manufacturing marketers?
- Tailor your messaging to reflect an understanding of the manufacturing industry's unique challenges, such as compliance regulations and market fluctuations. Highlight case studies or examples from similar industries to demonstrate your knowledge and relevance.
- What metrics do manufacturing Heads of Marketing prioritize?
- They typically focus on metrics like lead conversion rates, customer acquisition costs, and marketing ROI. Understanding these priorities can help you frame your outreach in a way that aligns with their goals and demonstrates how your solution can impact these metrics.
Or have it run itself
SoloRiff does every step above on its own — finds the companies, finds the people, writes each of them individually, and handles the replies. Drop your URL and watch it work before you sign up for anything.
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