Branding Strategies that Drive ROI for Manufacturers
Live with Alaska MEP
Join us as we interview marketing and branding expert, Allison DeFord as she shares insights on ways to improve branding that attracts customers and increases revenues.
Live Summary
Join Sami Jo Lewis from the Alaska MEP and eCommerce Evangelist for Manufacturers Curt Anderson - Founder of B2Btail as Allison DeFord from FELT Marketing for Manufacturers shares insights on ways to improve branding that attracts customers and increases revenues.
To learn more about how the Alaska MEP can assist your business, connect with us online: https://alaska-mep.com
Key Highlights
• Why is branding and marketing important for manufacturers? 0:05
• Connect to the heart of your ideal customer. 7:52
• Make your ideal customer the hero of the story. 13:47
• How can you remove friction in marketing? 17:10
• Why less is more. 20:48
• Do some research and listen. 24:05
Transcription
Sami Jo Lewis 0:05
All right. Hi, everybody. Happy Thursday. Thank you so much for joining us for another live. We have a great session today we're gonna be talking about all about branding strategies that drive ROI for manufacturers. I have my lovely co-host Curt. How you doing her?
Curt Anderson 0:25
Sami Jo Happy Thursday, my friend has just such an amazing, incredible glorious day and you know why it's such a glorious day right? Because this loving lady rate so Hey, I am honored. It is a privilege on introduce my dear friend, my boy partner in crime here, founder and CEO of felt marketing the one the only Allison DeFord Allison how are you?
Allison DeFord 0:56
I'm great. And I'm excited to be here.
Curt Anderson 1:00
We have so much to cover you know it's Amy Jo. lets you know what it's all seriousness today when Alison afford is on stage, not really. But let's let's kick it off. Let's hit these questions Fast and Furious.
Sami Jo Lewis 1:11
Perfect. So thank you so much for being here. Allison. I'm super excited to get to interview you and he has some good questions and talk all about branding strategies. First question I want to talk about is why is branding and marketing so important for manufacturers? I
Allison DeFord 1:27
love that question. I want to break that into two, a two part answer. I think a lot of times, manufacturers may be confused, branding and marketing and they lump it into one thing. So I want to be really clear to uncover brand, right is about you and your promise and what you mean to the people who will care. So what does that look like? Many manufacturers that I meet are lacking that strong brand foundation so the way that you can prove that is pay attention to your unique value proposition. Do you even have one? What does it look like? Is it can somebody come to your website and ascertain in five seconds? What's in it for them? What's that promise Do you have a personality, a brand voice? Like do they recognize your content when they see it? And you know what your culture like? Like all of this is branding. So I would say be mindful of maybe shoring up your brand infrastructure first. And second marketing. Why would we want to market as a manufacturer? Well, the old way of thinking about marketing is that it's at people, right? Interrupt. Let's get their attention. They need to know about us. And the truth is, they don't give two shits about you. They care. Can I cuss on this I probably shouldn't help themselves. Right and what's in it for them? How can accompany make their life better make their job easier. So think about marketing as this is your Mega opportunity. Right? It's like not just a megaphone, but a way to connect and communicate. And listen. Yes, I said listen, I think a lot of us get caught up with how are we going to market at people instead of going, Wow, maybe we could spend some time on LinkedIn listening, right? Being mindful paying attention to what our audiences have been talking about. So that's the most important reason to build a strong brand and then mark it on behalf of and for the people who will care. So and today's marketing is like you can you can create one conversation and turn it into 15 pieces of content. So you can mark it at scale. And it doesn't cost you term analytics. I hope that wasn't
Curt Anderson 4:12
too Oh, that was fantastic. Man. We have so much in the pack right there. So now let me get this straight. Allison, if I have this correct. So people really other than our moms people really don't care about us is that what you're trying to say? Is that the ad read that note rate they're so sorry, Joe. I don't know. If you knew about this or like in the past few years. There's like this little thing going around the globe. It's like this awful dreaded disease. It was it was just awful. I don't it was like it was almost like a pandemic. Do you guys I'm Alaska. La. Did you guys catch me this? So Sami Jo What do you have another question coming up about the dreaded disease. Can we can we go there please. So I think I do care. I think I know what you're talking about. The Oui oui. Oui oui. Oui oui syndrome. So now
Allison DeFord 5:03
Alison, now what you might think everyone, can you
Curt Anderson 5:06
please enlighten everyone. What? What is the Wii Wii syndrome from a manufacturer standpoint?
Allison DeFord 5:14
Well, I thought about this. I forgive me Curt's heard this a million times, but it's it's relevant. So I grew up in Indiana. And I had all these male cousins, right. So when we were little, it's hot and humid there. They're running around with no shirt on. And I was jealous because I couldn't do that. And a couple 15 years ago, I found this picture on Shutterstock and it's this little boy with no shirt on and he's he's fascinated with his own belly button, his own navel and he's making it talk. And my cousins used to do that. And I thought, oh my gosh, and then it was a click. It's like, Wait a minute. We as manufacturers do this too, right? We get so caught up with our own navel. I've done it. We've all done it. So I'm not pointing fingers at what we've learned is so the wheelie syndrome is take a look at your website. Take a look at a bunch of manufacturers websites and do the five second speed test. How many times you see the word we then look through their social feeds. We won an award. We have this new product that's so great. We have 300,000 square feet of manufacturing space. We have a new machine and what I want to impart on manufacturers and I've seen this work, so I'm not just you know, talking out of my butt. I have real results to back it up. If you flip the script, this is how you solve this problem. It's easy. You can do it today without hiring anybody unless you need help tweaking your website or your social. Flip the script and replace we with you. So why is that important? Well, that kind of goes back to the thing I was talking about a minute ago right with marketing so if you and some manufacturers gonna say well, aren't we supposed to talk about ourselves, don't we? How would we do that? And I love doing before and afters. So I'll take you know like an opening, unique value proposition or an About Us About Us should lead with you. Right, that you are why we do this thing in the first place. You're why we build these parts for aerospace and why you know how we build these these amazing beautiful pieces of parts and machinery that go into the automotive industry. Why? That's the thing people care about. So if you flip the script, and you lead with you, and trust me, you're going to connect faster with people because this is all about emotional connection. The old mindset was that we we need to tap into the rational side of the brain. Right? Well, what we've learned is that people don't make decisions that way. It's like, oh, what? We've been doing this wrong all this time. What 80 or 90% of the time they make decisions based on emotion. And most manufacturers look at me and they're like, What does that even mean? What do we do with that? And I said, what you're trying to do is connect to the heart of your ideal customer, right? So in years past, we've always want to be want to be seen, we want to be heard. And now we also need to be felt. So when you make that emotional connection, you make sales easier. You help people make a decision faster. And like our buddy Greg Michio talks about all the time. You want them to know you like you and trust you. That's the chemistry that's the secret sauce. That's what makes it so that's why we want to get rid of the Wiedemann syndrome sign that just worked out my answers. Oh,
Curt Anderson 9:13
my goodness. Sami Jo was at Sami Jo. I just had a call with your team a couple hours ago, Dr. Alyssa and we just talked about a book called predictably irrational to great book New York Times bestseller, and it's exactly what Allison is talking about, like we really don't make rational decisions in though in manufacturing, we might think that they do but they it's a lot of emotional decisions. And so you know, again, for folks listening out there whether you're catching us live or on replay, think about your LinkedIn profile. Think about your website. I was totally guilty of the way we syndrome until I met my dear friend Dr. Alyssa. We do this we do that we and exactly what else and what you're saying is so powerful when you see someone make that transformation on their LinkedIn, on their social platforms, in their content with their blogging on their website of like, Hey, see me Joe, what challenge are you facing today? How can I help you be better at what you do? So Alison, as always, this is just a blockbuster TV job. Let's keep this party rolling. What else? What next? Do you have on the docket for us?
Sami Jo Lewis 10:21
No, Can you excuse explain, moving at the speed of culture and how that will help manufacturers with branding
Allison DeFord 10:29
Yes, and it doesn't just help them with branding. I think it's really important to remind your audience and any manufacturer watching this, that it makes sales easier and leads to sustainable growth. So what do I mean by that? moving at the speed of culture means which today by the way, is one of your greatest assets speed, right speed to market speed to communicating speed to responding. In the past, I think manufacturers typically adapted at their own speed, right or when they had or budget or you know, maybe at the beginning of the year when you get all excited and you you you put your goals in, you know in a document and everybody meets and we get all excited and we start and then it kind of Peters off. Right. So that's how everybody adapted for many, many years. I've been guilty of it myself. So I like to always point that out right? If we're not doing this, we're doing this. So what does it mean adapting at the speed of culture? Well, I was doing a manufacturing masters podcast recording yesterday with Lisa Ryan. By the way, if you all are not connected with her, please connect with her on LinkedIn. She's incredible. And she said, you know, like we used to say, hey, it's not your granddad's you know, manufacturing business anymore. Well, she said something and literally it was like Curt always says mic drop moment. She goes not 2019 anymore people and it was kind of a break to the head. And she said things have changed in four short years and they're never going to go back to the way we work. So today if you're taking months, right to update your website, if you're taking a couple of weeks to get literature out to somebody or answer a question or address a negative comment on your website, right? I just did a WT MEP newsletter and social clubs, Hug Your Haters immediately. You can't wait anymore. So if you wait, you're way behind. So I like to encourage manufacturers to use me to that whole Wayne Gretzky skate to where the puck will be. Stay ahead one step ahead of your audience. Be the guide like that's the whole point right is helping them reach their hero state. That's the transformation they're looking for. So you're the guide. So guide them with them. What are you doing on a regular basis so that they know like I know if I want any kind of ecommerce information, research thoughts, best practices. I know where to go. Right. I need to be to go look at dmg digital. Is partner cool. I know where to go because they're adapting at the speed of culture. So I know I can trust them. I know they're watching out for me. And I think that's the point is faster. And don't wait till it's perfect. And I have been so guilty of that. I cannot even tell you. My team has busted my actions so many times and said it doesn't have to be perfect. So start somewhere but starts right
Curt Anderson 14:21
I love this this my gosh the speed or culture you know be the guide and you know on top of you educated me, you know this, this saved me from that horrific disease of the week syndrome. You also taught taught me you know, make your ideal customer the hero of the story. That is such a powerful statement. And it's just it's really kind of like I'm getting chills even think about Allison like I can't tell you what a mentor friend and you know, guide that you've been for me and you just think about like make your ideal customer the hero of the story and how powerful that is. I know we have a lot more to cover. Say me Joe, what's next in our docket?
Sami Jo Lewis 15:07
So I feel like we can kind of tap into this a little bit but like, dive in a little bit deeper. What does that mean to be seen heard and felt?
Allison DeFord 15:17
Great question. One of my favorites, by the way. Like I said, I think people mindset was, you know, manufacturers would come to us and they would say, you know, how do we how do we create buzz? How do we get people to hear what we're talking about. And so in the past, it's always been, you know, you want to be seen and you want to be heard. And when we rebranded our company about a decade ago. That's how we came up with the name felt. We wanted to lead with your hero state. That's what you're going after. So if you and again, what does that mean to be felt? You have an emotional connection with your ideal customer. So the people who will care, they know that you get them. Right they see the words in your website and they're like oh my gosh, it's like they're in my head. No. And so that's the important part of and then to remember we talked about emotional people make those buying decisions emotionally, most of the time. So if we're tapping into that right side of the brain, we are making sales easier, making the decision easier. So that's why I think it's so important. You know, when I first meet with the manufacturer, we sit down and talking about strategy and I like to get to know them and I'll say okay, so you want to market better, and you want to make sales easier, because that's the whole point. of marketing right? And also to support your customers nurture them, cycle until the next purchase. So that's another important thing to think about. And I'll ask the room, how do you want your customers to feel and I get crickets.
Curt Anderson 17:10
Allison, we you in this sort of slide into you came on. You're a frequent guest in our live show, and we had a great jam session in January we're going to dig in, you have like six great points that you want to share. And you know, our co host Damon always talks about like that frictionless purchase, how can you remove that, you know, that friction? You know, we talked about how can that that ideal buyer, especially in manufacturing, okay, you know, you don't you're dealing with different time zones. You're doing engineers that are working 24/7 Now people are remote, and we'd love to talk about how can you help that ideal buyer make a buying decision on a Friday night at midnight, without having to wait for you to open up your doors on Monday, whether it's ecommerce, whether it's blogging, information, configurators, whatever it might be, all of it ties in with the speed of culture. Right? Like how can you caught up with your, your competitor, but I know like we're, we have so much more to cover, Sammy Joe, like what, how about for you at the Alaska MEP? Can you chime in on that? And the answer was like think of like what friction How can you remove friction for your customer as the last MVP I
Sami Jo Lewis 18:21
think when it comes to removing friction I think like one of our goals like like you you said Allison so good. How do you want them to feel and it's just like that just kind of makes you like think like are we really putting it out there like what we want them to feel because I feel like we want our manufacturers to feel inspired and innovative and kind of like they have this isn't the right word but like like but they have like a Reese like a hand like a like a partner in this plant lead that they're not alone. I feel like those are like the things that we want them to make them feel and so are we are we utilizing the Wii Wii syndrome, you know, like, I need to go back and like double check that I'm doing all that and really speaking to our customers. So it's been really insightful to me to listen and take us home and can you share some strategies to avoid being to step up your branding game specific for manufacturers?
Allison DeFord 19:13
Yes. I feel like and this may surprise some of you. Less is more. I really did just say that less is more. We even have that on our website which is under under major construction to improve it so that I practicing what we preach. But it says less marketing, more sales. Because people don't want more marketing. They want more sales. So what is that what is the less is more me. Too many goals? Too many things on your marketing plate, and it can get overwhelming really quickly because the majority of manufacturers that we work with are small to midsize so most of the time they don't have an in house marketing person. If they do, they probably don't have a team. And so they can it can be overwhelming. Plus, most of the people I work with don't have a million dollar budget, you know, annually. So I like to look at okay, what kind of budget are you able to allocate? And what are your goals? Why are you spending this money? What is it that you're trying to create? What are you trying to build? Are you trying to attract 500 new customers most manufacturers look at me and laugh. They're like no, I said I know, right? Like that just this year and they're like, Yes, please. So with that in mind, you know, it's like let's look at the budget. Let's look at your why. And then let's create something like a strategy. That's reasonable. That makes sense. And you don't have to spend gobs of money on paid social and you don't have to be on every social platform. So that's why say less is more like just get into the ring. Right and show up and show up with a plan. Start there. And then you know, you can scale from there.
Curt Anderson 21:25
So much impact right there. And I love what you're saying you know, we talk frequently about the fatigue, you know, decision fatigue, so software fatigue, and what you're hitting is social media fatigue. You know, it's, you know, again, saving job. We were on a call earlier with a team and you know, gee, should we be on Pinterest? Should we be on Instagram? Should we be on LinkedIn? Should we be on YouTube? Should I do a podcast? Should I be on a live stream? It is daunting, it's overwhelming. And so Ellison let's take it a step further. So less is more you're practicing what you preach. Preaching. And I love what you're saying. I'm shamelessly stealing that plug from you. How many customers do you need? 500? No, like maybe two. Like two would be good. You know not even if I write like a two could be like a total game changer. What are some tips like how do you discipline yourself? How do you like really determine because it's like oh, no, what if this was going to be you know what if I pass on a silver bullet I chose, you know, Pinterest when I should have done LinkedIn. How do you help people decide to make those decisions?
Allison DeFord 22:25
Excellent question. You need to go do a little research. And and you know, so many manufacturers will say, I don't have time for that. Well, my response would be then find somebody who does money, right. It doesn't have to cost a lot and have them do the research and come back to you and say, Okay, where are your customers spending time? Right, and what we find are like procurement people, those are usually one of the audience segments. distributors, engineers, where are they spending? Time on social media? Is it tick tock? How do I find out go search for hashtags. Go see how many people are following hashtag engineering or hashtag you know, whatever is appropriate for you and your audience. On Instagram, on Facebook, on Twitter, just go take a look and then pay attention to some of the conversations that are happening from the people that you're trying to talk to. And that's how I encourage people to make that decision. You know, tick tock isn't for everyone but I'll tell you what, awful big opportunity. And for years and years, I had manufacturers tell me Oh, our customers aren't online websites. And I said okay, you may not think they are now but they're going to be then it was social media. Oh, are people are contractors, architects, engineers, they're not on Instagram. Until they are. So I say do some research. Do some listening. Very important.
Curt Anderson 24:12
You mentioned your newsletter. I want to make sure that and I want to say me Joe I want to I look forward to Allison’s newsletter. It comes out every other Sunday. And I just I always I have to give a little warning. Right Allison I do this every time I introduce your newsletter, you if you're at your computer or you're on your phone, you cannot do it Allison's doing right now. You cannot be taking a drink. You can have no liquids in your mouth because you're going to be spinning them out on your keyboard or on your phone. It's one of the funniest, it's snarky, and it is spot on. It's tough love with Allison. You hit home. Dude, how do you do it? How do you come up like I read those things and just total all of you I might praising you. How do you how do you come up with such a brilliant every other Sunday?
Allison DeFord 25:02
In all honesty, sometimes it's a crapshoot. Sometimes I have no other idea what what I'm going to talk about. And what I've learned is first of all, making the commitment to show up, forces you to create forces you to follow through. So that's the first most important thing with that. Secondly, I am always inspired by everything around me. So I'm always consuming, carefully consumed, by the way because I get really overwhelmed. Social media myself. Older, but it's just me it's too much. It's usually mentors that I follow education self help, which I have a PhD and by the way, self help. So I'm constantly you know, looking at consumer brands, I'm looking outside of manufacturing as well as inside. And a lot of times it'll just spark an idea. And I'll say, You know what, like last week I talked about hooking your haters. And I featured something that I got from Jay Baer er if you're not already following what he's doing, he's incredible. And he has a book, Hug Your Haters instead it's his most popular book because it's a really important and he pointed out the beverage brand, they actually have an f ck Sorry oatley.com to address their haters. They really went all in. And so anyway, it just kind of hit me and I thought manufacturers are just waiting. Any negative comments, they don't know how to deal with them. Have a plan. This is important. And then it really just flows from there. And I think the whole point of it it's more about the news. It's about connecting with people like me talking to you. Not from my company is from and it's really I want you to feel like it's personal for you, and I want you to walk away feeling something I want you to feel like oh my god, I needed that. Laugh today. Oh my gosh, I needed to go look at that inspiration. Wow. Oh, that's a really good strategy. I'm going to I'm going to use that. So
Curt Anderson 27:28
before we wind down Sami Jo i love that you have Allison if I'm not mistaken, it looks like you have something behind. You share looks like manufacturing masters. Could you please share what is manufacturing masters with the folks?
Allison DeFord 27:44
Oh, I would love to and fortunate to have helped build the brand with Darren Mitchell and I'm an expert platform, along with 130 other trusted battle tested as Darren calls us manufacturing experts across every possible niche or topic you can think of to help manufacturers learn best practices and share it with their team. That's what's so incredible is that a subscription gets access to your entire team. You don't have to pay for everybody. And it's literally everything they never taught you in school. It's an It's short. It's to the point there's no fluff. It's I think it's the most amazing thing to happen in manufacturing in years. And it's Darren calls it the Netflix of manufacturing. And so instead of entertainment, it's education, best practices training, and it's that support and it's experts that you could reach out to should you want to that have already been vetted that already understand your audience. So it's a really, it's an amazing community. Well,
Curt Anderson 28:55
you're taking the charge you are leading the pack and just you know such such inspiration, what you've done with Darren Mitchell, and again manufacturing masters in Seoul CME Joe will wind down guys first off if you if you just came in or you miss anything you might have to replay you want to catch us over over because Alison is just a powerhouse. She is a dynamo. You can find Allison on LinkedIn, we will have her LinkedIn in the show notes here you can find her at fault marketing.com And man, I encourage you I invite you I'm for you. I'm begging you. Do yourself a favor sign up for Elsens newsletter you will thank us later. So Allison AC Mojo. How about a big round of applause for awesome to for today for just absolutely hitting the ball apart. Amy Jo once you take us home for the Alaska MEP coming at us live again. Thank you very much.
Sami Jo Lewis 29:46
Yes, thank you so much, Allison. I know I learned so much. I really enjoy that actually taking the time to sit there and listen, I think that is something that I'm gonna just start utilizing personally and on our marketing capabilities. Because sometimes it's all about just getting out there. And it's really about like, how can we how can we make them feel something that's really inspiring. So that is what I'm gonna be working on moving forward. And thank you so much for being a guest and everyone. Please continue to join us and if not, you can catch replays on our website and we'll be doing this every other Thursday. Thank you so much.