Manufacturing eCommerce Success – with Greg Mischio

Damon Pistulka  00:03

That was awesome. That was awesome. Curt, how many shows that we’ve done? This is like the first.

Curt Anderson  00:08

No, we’re our third.

Damon Pistulka  00:10

Yeah. Well, thanks everyone for being here. Once again, it’s Friday and what that means it is time for manufacturing ecommerce kicks up. We’re laughing hard because I was waiting for the thing just to go live magically. And I forgot that we had to push some buttons to get it done. But we’re excited today because we are going to be talking about answering a question with no they’re getting Greg Misha, but our manufacturing manufacturers missing a golden opportunity. Now I am one of the CO hosts Damon Pistulka. But that pre guy right over there, Curt Anderson is going to take it away and get this thing started. Man

Curt Anderson  00:49

Damon, thank you, dude. Happy Friday to you, man. How’s your week? Whoo.

Damon Pistulka  00:54

It’s going awesome.

Curt Anderson  00:55

Awesome. All right, good. All right, guys. Welcome to Manufacturing eCommerce success. My name is Curt Anderson. What an honor. What a thrill. What a privilege. Man. Are you guys sitting down out there? I know Greg standing up. Hey, we’ve got Greg miss you the one the only founder president of when bound in the great state of Wisconsin. Great, dude.

Greg Mischio  01:15

W for Wisconsin and for window. That’s right.

Damon Pistulka  01:20

There you go. Here we go. Got some people dropping in doing some comments, right. We’re trying to get them up while ago.

Curt Anderson  01:25

This is awesome, guys. Hey, drop a note. Let us know that you’re out there. Please do yourself a favor connect with Greg Mischio. Man. We have a lot of juice to cover today. Going over right. Let’s just dive right in. Dude, you are great, wonderful, incredible friend of ours, you and I go back aways to our friend from Chris Lukey for me, and happy hour who were like, We’re pre COVID Friends, man. So that’s like in dog years. That was like 100 years ago. So that was a long time ago. So Greg, just tons of respect, admiration, love for you what you’re doing for manufacturers. I’ve probably asked you this question before you’ve been on the show several times. You’re a repeat offender. But I’m going to ask you anyway, because I know. I’m hoping I think I know the answer. I’m hoping I think I know the answer. Okay, Greg. Mischio when you’re a little guy growing up. Who was your hero? Who is your hero is a little guy growing up.

Greg Mischio  02:16

Wow. You know, that’s, that’s a tough one. Of course flashing in my mind is my parents, my mom, my dad. But I this was totally involuntary. Swear to God, but Steve Martin flashed in my mind. Oh, I alright. And see, Martin. Let’s get small. I mean, I Oh.

Curt Anderson  02:48

You know, I got it. I got planes, trains, automobiles, the jerk. I mean, like, there’s just so much Steve Martin. Right. What was the one with Michael Caine? What they were. There’s so many great. Hi. So Greg, miss you a couple of things that I’d love to digest right there. Okay. Number one, you have an incredible story about your father. And if you I know we’ve got a ton to unpack with your research project. And I’m digressing a little bit about your dad for a second. Let’s talk about Steve Barton. I want to come back to your dad because you have a Your dad is an incredibly inspiring story. But real quick, Steve Barnes. So for everybody that’s under the age of us is asking Who on earth is Steve Martin? Greg machine who is Steve Martin.

Greg Mischio  03:28

He is a he’s kind of you know, what I like about him is he kind of transcends because he’s he’s one of these guys who came on the scene as kind of this. A comedian with its kind of experimental theme based comedian. He had like all these crazy skits, super creative, super funny. And he was big on Saturday Night Live when it first started and then he went on to become a movie star. A musician. He’s a writer,

Curt Anderson  04:00

right father, the bride might as my friend my best friend’s daughter is getting married and so I’m now referring to him as father the bride. Remember the wild and crazy guys remember those two are inaccurate in the wild. Okay, so hey, Whitney says Are you kidding? As Millennials we certainly know Steve Martin. Well,

Damon Pistulka  04:20

he he’s in a He’s in a great series now about something murder in the building or in the building. The building?

Greg Mischio  04:26

Yeah. I’m in a condo building. And it’s like, oh, that that could happen here.

Curt Anderson  04:31

Yeah, at home. So that’s a great series and so I phenomenal answer. First time ever Damon Steve is going in a hall of fame answer right there. Huge Steve Martin fan. And oh yeah, King Tut, Whitney, man. How do you remember King Tut. I was like in third grade. I used to play I used to play the low record in my class so I

Greg Mischio  04:52

could have won a Grammy buried in his jammies.

Curt Anderson  05:00

Dude, I was so depressed with the answer, man, you made my weekend with that one. That was awesome. Whitney, thank you. Thank you for chiming in with King Tut the link in there. That way we could go on and on all sorts of great incredible Martin Short Movies just I mean, what a what a epic answer that was great this we have a big research project everybody curious minds are dying to know, can you give me just for my own sake, you? I love your dad, your dad has a great inspiring story. Just give us a little nugget about about that if you would please another hero of yours. Yeah,

Greg Mischio  05:32

so my father is a well, he’s he’s a retired professor of special education. So but he got it. It’s interesting how he got his start. He he started out. When he was in his teens, he took a kid he lived in New Jersey, took a kid to a summer camp, a neighbor, kid, and you went along as kind of like the friend of this kid. And the counselor really liked him who ran the camp and he’s like, Hey, I’m going to open up this camp. Would you come and be a counselor there? It’s four. In those days, they refer to them as the mentally retarded, or people with disabilities. So cognitively disabled kids. And my dad’s like, Sure, I’ve never had any experience with him. But it sounds great. And this guy’s like, well, I don’t know what I’m doing either. I’m just, you know, I’ve never had an experience with them either. So but we’re just going to try this. So my dad went along was like the first of its camp of its kind. And he went there. And they, they brought all these kids up. And he loved them. He didn’t really they treated them just like normal kids. They didn’t really course they had to make some, you know, physical accommodations. But he really loved the kids. And he had a great time. And he told me that at the end of the camp, they, the kids were leaving, and they all got together, and they were crying and hugging, you know, and saying goodbye. And my dad said, he realized at that point that these kids because back in those days, they were really segregated out. And they never got to go to they didn’t go to regular schools, they really didn’t have any events. So they, this is the first time they get together with other kids. And my dad’s said, he felt the magic of it right there. And he loves working with his kids. So he said, I’m going to make a career out of this. So he went to college, and education is studied, you know, kids with disabilities, and, and at that point, there wasn’t even special ed. So when he went on to grad school, he, he started to, he started training under one of the innovators in special ed, a guy by Kirk was his name, blanking on his first name, but very influential. And that started the whole mainstreaming of special ed in schools. And I think that the big takeaway, and then he went on to pursue a career and he he always applied what he learned from those early days and working with those kids, to his teaching of grad school teachers. So whatever he learned in the field, he applied in the classroom and I thought, That’s so great. Even just like what I’m doing with sales and marketing, like the marketing is kind of this we have this kind of theoretical view of how things should work. And the salespeople are like out there in the field if you can ever kind of bring those two together. But I my big takeaway, and again, comes back to what my dad said is I can I kind of infer this it’s like, he saw the value in people and if we can reach out and I we always talked about this with sales and marketing alignment, if you can see the value marketers in your sales people or just other people in your organization, they might not know as much about marketing as you do, but boy, do they know a lot about the customer. You can bring that integrate that into your approach. It will do wonders for for everybody. Really.

Curt Anderson  09:33

Thank you. That is I tell your Yeah, I find your father I wish I’ve met him. Such an inspiration. You put out a great blog post about your dad very detailed. You met he met I believe he met your mother at camp right? Yeah, he did. Yeah. I mean, it’s just we could go on and we can spend the whole episode just on that. But you know, what is matter of fact, you know, go to Greg’s website, go to Winbond we’re gonna dive into inbound next. And just, you know, he puts out an amazing, incredible content. He’s a on content, right, are we always talking about a demo, you know, the cobblers kid with no shoes. Like there’s so many marketers that are focusing on their clients. They don’t mark it for themselves. Greg does an amazing job. He’s constantly propelling others. He’s competing propelling competitors. He’s putting out all sorts of great information. So if you go to when bound, check out Greg’s. But website, there’s just an enormous amount of wonderful information to help you with your marketing journey. And he has a great family story on there. So Greg, thank you for sharing that. What’s your dad’s name, please?

Greg Mischio  10:28

George. George, is still around. So if you want to come out to Madison, he will he’ll be happy to talk to you as much as you’d like to hear.

Curt Anderson  10:37

I think I see pictures. Did you guys go to the kitchen of whiskey game? Or did you guys post a picture of going to the Wisconsin game or Oh, yeah,

Greg Mischio  10:45

yeah, we’re at the Badger game. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  10:47

Awesome. Cool. Hey, big shout out to George, God bless him what an inspiration he is in a couple of takeaways. And then we’re going to dive in and win Unbound, but like, you know, found that passion at a very early age and dedicated an entire career. You’re talking about, like, you know, a group of folks that you know, maybe misplaced or like how they longed for community and your dad brought that magic together. I mean, there’s just, there’s so much, just, there’s so much beauty in that story right there. So Greg, thank you for sharing that. We Ingres here today. Inger Happy Friday. She says that’s just beautiful. Yes, I just love people. So thank you for sharing that. Greg, let’s dive in. Because we’ve got a family fair going on at wind bounce. So just share with the folks who is wind bound? How do you make the world a better place.

Greg Mischio  11:31

winddown is a digital sales and marketing agency. We work primarily in the manufacturing field, but I think our framework applies to any b2b company with complex sales. We provide content and help you create the content that you need. And then we distribute it through marketing channels. Not any not very different from many other agencies that are out there. What makes us a little bit different is because we you know, we are so focused on manufacturing, which is a sales driven industry, we really believe that the content has to be completely interwoven with sales process. And we like to say, we generate me, you know, I think it’s like 80% of sales interactions are occurring in digital channels, or will be by 2025. And there’s all kinds of stats out there, like 57% of the customer journey is completed before a meaningful interaction with a sales team. So what we’re trying to do with winbind, as we understand, it’s a sales driven industry, we’re not in any way, taking away from the sales team, what we wanted to do is recreate that sales presence online in the form of content, digital content, blogs, videos, everything like that, so that when customers are searching online for solutions, your content is there, and it’s acting like your sales team. So in essence, we’re saying, We want your content to be a digital twin of your sales team. And for that we follow the sales process. People only do business with you if they know you, like you and trust you and create we create content for each one of those stages. You guys have heard this so many times you both could have recited that.

Curt Anderson  13:36

That’s not true my friend and so that I you know what, Damon in, though we may have heard it a couple of times dropped the mic every single time. It’s just how you’ve simplified it and what you do for your clients and the results. I think like similar companies like spun cast my tech, you know, like you, we’ve done webinars together, I’ve seen these case studies, you have these case studies on your website. And again, it’s just it’s very exciting on how you’re, you know, again, just like your dad, just like George, you’re making an impact for these companies to better themselves, stop being the best kept secret get themselves out there. And I know you’re partnering with our buddy Jeff Long you’re doing videos, all sorts of top level content. So it’s incredibly inspiring. I want to I want to before we’re gonna dive into your research project, you scratch the surface on that digital twin for folks out there like Hey, I heard sales marketing digital twin, how, like, take us home on that bring, like talk about how you really simplified that process for people. We’re like, again, like, you know, some sales reps, they they’re intimidated by digital, they feel threatened by it. And what you’ve done is like you’ve really embraced it. Can you just just go one step deeper if you could there?

Greg Mischio  14:42

Yeah, I think there’s a fella named Drew Crowe is out there. He’s building what’s called the manufacturing renaissance and he’s trying to bring manufacturing to disadvantaged communities and just spread the word about it in general and When he goes into to meet with young people who aren’t familiar with manufacturing, he takes out his cell phone and his smartphone and be like, Okay, you guys, show me your smartphone and tell me what you’re doing. And they’ll be like, well, we’re there like, showing them some graphics they’ve come up with or something like that. And he’s like, that’s awesome. See what you’re doing. That’s, that’s like, you’re pushing buttons, you could come over here to this machine, and do the same thing and make a lot of money. And so what he’s doing is he’s meeting them halfway, right? What we’re trying to do with our content, is meet the sales team halfway. And in that, look, we know you have a sales process, we want the content kind of mirror to that sales process. So tell us what you’re doing. Tell us what messaging is working. And and we’re storytellers, we can help craft it and help you craft your story for the digital age. And I think a lot of it is, you know, that online presence is taking place. So we start there with strategy. We’ve, we’ve read a lot of sales strategy books, we know a lot of different approaches. So we’ve got that mindset going in. And then we’re just trying to get everything down to that handoff to the real people. Because I don’t know, guys, I there’s a ton of AI out there, there’s a lot online. But you know, in complex sales, at some point, the people are going to enter the fray. And so we really got to, we’re trying to just work with the sales team to integrate internet, integrate them. And we also want them to be a channel a distribution channel for the content and do things like online with LinkedIn. I mean, you can have a company page online, but man, it says individual profiles that really make those connections with people. So we want to help them get better at that and build their own personal brands as well. And give them the content, the ideas and the tools and the training to do that. I

Curt Anderson  17:06

love that. Hey, Brian. Just to comment, Brian, thanks for joining us. Happy Friday to you my friend. Great, great, great, great way to say it. Again, we’re here with Greg Mischio when bound and a fierce advocate for US manufacturing marketing guru. And so, Greg, is it true? There’s a rumor on the street Damon, have you heard this rumor? There’s a golden opportunity just waiting for manufacturers? Have you guys heard this rumor going around?

17:31

I’ve heard it talking about that.

Curt Anderson  17:35

You know what, let’s let’s just head first dude, let’s just go ahead first, Greg, let’s, we have a little presentation here that we’re going to pull up for everybody. So Greg, let’s dive in. You did an amazing, incredible research project. We’re calling it the manufacturing content Benchmark Report. Series clients would love to know what inspired this and then let’s dive into the results.

Greg Mischio  17:57

Okay. Let’s see. Yeah. So there’s research out there that saying that, you know, I gave out some of those stats earlier, where I said that, you know, so much of this content journey has taken place online. I’m sorry, so much of the sales journey has taken place online customer journey. I’ll get it right, sooner or later. And there are manufacturers who say that, yes, once we put out content, we’re getting positive results. So we wanted to see, okay, well, how many manufacturers are actually out there and sharing content and using the tools that’s proven to be effective. So we we went out and spearheaded by my son, Sam Misha who joined the company back in July, we went out and he we analyzed over 400 manufacturing websites, and we look to see what pieces of content are out there. And we, we went through all different sizes of you know, we strayed away from under 5 million, but really went. I think that was our cut off. But we went from there and then segmented it out. When you download the report, you can see the segments, I think it was under 25 million, then 25 to 100 million. And then above that. And we looked at the three types of content corresponding to the sales funnel that I mentioned earlier. Content that lets people know you like you and trust you and you can think about this. You know, it’s kind of like people talk about awareness, interest action, that kind of, there’s all different terms and in terms of like, what do you do create to generate an actual lead or engagement? We think of it as know you like you and trust you. And so we looked at those three specific types of runtime. Okay. And I’m just going to share a few slides here you can, you can download the report to see the results. But, you know, sales and marketing, or I’m sorry, manufacturing tends to lag behind other b2b arenas in terms of what they’re generating, and you know, marketing especially. So we were expecting to see a little leg in comparison to some other b2b industries. But we were a bit surprised, but what we actually found. So, when we looked at the percentage of manufacturers are actually using social media and that lumps in YouTube as well, as well as LinkedIn, found that 39% of them actually have no social media 9% are inactive on social media. And there are 51% that are active on social media. Now, this is not just specific to the lower Echelon in terms of revenue of manufacturers, it was really surprising. There’s people just aren’t out there. And in buying that, you know, people are on social media, and they’re, they’re looking for resources and information. And I think our good friend, Jay Cole, the manufacturing millennials, sums it up, do trade shows and meet people exchanging information. But if you are not, if you are only doing that and not using social media, you’re wasting money and losing customers. And he base that on the fact that he went to a trade show. And he he walked around and looked at all the booths. And he saw that he went and looked at all the booths at their, the company’s websites and found a staggeringly no low number. We’re not even mentioning that they were at the trade show, doing any kind of marketing to try and generate response and get people to their booth. So that’s a slide about social media. So a lot of people are not out there and YouTube and LinkedIn. Next slide I want to bring up here is the percentage of manufacturing websites with a blog. So a lot is said about how important video is in manufacturing. And it is extremely important. But also content and written content is very useful and very important in search engine optimization. And SEO is still critical. For for manufacturers in this blog content, informational content that helps answer people’s questions, provides information and data and insights on your products or just solutions. In general, this is critical. So you need that complimentary texts out there. So Google can see that you are an expert in this field, and you have semantic content in addition to your YouTube that will help you rank for your product or services terms. So this was pretty eye opening 74% had no blog on the room. Only 21% had an active blog and 4% had inactive blogs on their website. Right.

Damon Pistulka  23:45

74% Without blogs, right eight? We’ve

Curt Anderson  23:47

got a couple of comments here. I’m gonna grab Yeah, yeah. Whitney saying hey, the bar is low for Mark. Manufacturing doesn’t take much to stand out. Chris gives a round of applause great point, he says. And Whitney once again, Whitney Happy Friday, manufacturing leaders often don’t understand marketing at all. You know what, in their defense, they just never needed it. You know, it was word of mouth. It was trade shows. It was like, hey, you know, the owner is going to jump in the car drum up a bunch of sales come back and they’re busy. You know, like, it was just a totally different life. And so, you know, unfortunately, they’re a lot of them are our age. Right. And this whole digital thing is new to them. So tons of opportunity. Greg, keep it going. Yeah,

Greg Mischio  24:28

I think Curt that’s the point of all this research. This is not to point fingers or to say anybody’s doing anything wrong. Right. You’re exactly right. Currently, you know what has worked in the past? Hey, of course you want to do what’s working and a lot of manufacturers out there. They might still be sitting pretty and things Yeah, continue work right Damon? Yeah. But that’s not to be said that. There’s a lot of opportunity today. And it’s gonna get, it’s going to increase. I mean, just think how we all shop, I don’t care, you know who you are, you’re you’re going online first and foremost when you’re looking for products. And you’re doing research. So just that idea of you could grab search engine traffic. And I think even with some of these things that are coming out with Chat GPT. I don’t think that this is going that they’re still going to be search engines. And whether it’s Chat GPT, people have always looked for online content in one way or another, not how it gets synthesized, whether it’s a search engine or a chat TPT. It’s got to be produced by someone in the first place in order for to get source. So Right. Yeah, you got to get out there. And and if you’re not, this quote by Andy is great. Andy is runs orbit media, and he’s a great content marketer, you are deliberately letting your competitors win that huge amount of visibility and traffic if you don’t seize this golden opportunity. Yeah, I couldn’t

Curt Anderson  26:11

agree more. And Whitney, I love this comment here. Yes. At least, you know, they can see they have knowledge gaps, and I and hopefully, I think that’s changing. You know, I think that, you know, there’s an evolution. Greg, if you did this a few years ago that that 74% might have been 90%, right? Or 90 Some percent. So I mean, thankfully, there are 20% that are in that space. But I love what you’re saying here. What do you like, hopefully, that they’re starting to get it in as the younger, you know, buyers and or I’m sorry, owners and buyers are getting younger, younger? I think they’re realizing that Damon, what do you what do you what’s your takeaway?

Damon Pistulka  26:44

Yeah, I think completely, you see this now. And in the companies that we’re working with, they at least understand that they need to be marketing, they understand that content is part of that. And some are not consistent at it. But the ones that there’s virtually no one that doesn’t think they don’t need it anymore. But I think like you’re saying, Greg, you know, some of these companies are still doing really well. So it’s like, well, we’re still doing really well. So yeah, I’m not at the top of my list, right? I think it’s, it’s one of those things like, Yeah, we should really clean that back part of the shop out too, but Right.

Curt Anderson  27:23

And, you know, I think with with COVID, when, you know, we had a lot of labor shortage and challenges. You know, a lot of manufacturers like, you know, what, I couldn’t take on another customer at the moment. So, you know, like, but where they miss, where you always point out Damon, is they’re like, alright, well, you’re not just recruiting and marketing to customers, you’re recruiting and marketing staff. And so once again, like to Whitney’s points your point, right, like, if you’re not blogging, if you’re not putting out content, you know, people are going to, they’re going to want to work at somewhere where they’re talking about their culture and what they’re doing and all these other great things, you know, so, Greg, keep it rollin, dude, what else you got?

Greg Mischio  28:01

Okay, so, we talked about YouTube, and how manufacturers are reporting that in the Content Marketing Institute does a study on manufacturers who are doing content marketing, and they say that videos are one of the the most effective form of content? Well, lo and behold, 65% of manufacturers do not have a YouTube channel. Can you say those numbers again, please? 65% of manufacturers don’t even have a YouTube channel. I think it’s worth noting too, that they might have them have a YouTube channel, but a 22% are inactive on YouTube. So that means that maybe they’ve put up a product video, you know, five years ago or something, we’re very generous with our definition of active and inactive. It was like You posted once in the last three months, you know, definitely cut you some slack. Right? Um, do you know everybody’s rolling out new products continuously? Those should be you should be posting new videos out there. Right? So and even if you’re not rolling out new products, there’s plenty of times to plenty of ways to demo them. We’re working with a client right now who is using demo videos in tandem with their content marketing, to drive people to come to the trade show. And they’re showing them what they’re going to demo in the booth. Yeah, very simple tactics that you can use out there to leverage that YouTube channel. Yeah. And our dear friend, Curt Anderson. Do you recognize this guy, Curt Anderson, for such a simple statement, but it’s also so True. provide all the necessary information to help your ideal prospect make a buying decision. So if you guys read, they ask you answer by Marcus Sheridan. Yeah. Okay, Marcus Sheridan used to own a swimming pool company. And this is back in the early days of content marketing. And what he did is he wrote down all the possible objections and questions that customers might have about doing business with him or just questions in general, about swimming pools. And he posted that stuff online. And he would even talk about on his website, he, it’s a great book, I highly recommend it anyway. But he talked a lot about to like comparisons, like he would write comparisons between his company and other companies. And he was why you should use other companies versus himself, where’s their strengths versus ours, right. And we actually have a comparison page on our website, feel free to take a look at it, it’s compares us versus like demand gen versus other agencies, it’s actually the most visited, except for our homepage, it’s the most visited page on our site, I never realized it would do that well. And once we, since we put out people go to it a lot, people want to compare you so and as they’re trying to make a buying decision. Give them all the information you need. I mean, we even post pricing for ourselves, online, and how much we cost. It builds trust, they trust you, you know, it’s, they see you have nothing to hide. And so even if you can’t post a price, post as much as you can about what goes into your pricing, so you can you can build that bond.

Curt Anderson  31:57

Okay, another drop the mic right there. That was fantastic, Greg, and I know, so many manufacturers push back on that there’s, there’s a you know, and I get it, and sometimes, especially for our custom manufacturers, where it’s a very complex situation, or they’re making something for somebody else. But there’s a lot of things that can be done to help nurture and satisfy that. And I love what you’re saying here, Greg, and Damon, we talked about that all the time, you know, how do 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, or at least just have enough information? To for that know, like trust that you constantly preach, Greg? So I love it. All right, let’s keep the party rolling. What do we got next? All right, I

Greg Mischio  32:36

think we’re just about Yeah. So that’s what I brought because there’s plenty more to talk about. In that report. You can go ahead and this is takes you to a blog post where we actually share some more insights. In at the end of the post, you can download the report. There’s there’s no email signup required to download it, scrap it if you want. There is a signup form if you want to sign up for our newsletter, where we release insights like this, as well as some of the content Kurt was talking about on a regular basis. And if you sign up for our newsletter, you can also get all our resources that we provide some the reports and guides we’ve done in the past. Nice, I think in the report, also, we talked about like case studies and testimonials and how few manufacturers are out there publishing those. We talked about that middle of the font that’s bottom of the funnel content that trusts your content. We also talked about the middle of the funnel content, which would be what we call like you content and that’s white papers. configurators on like configurators are hard, good friend Christine Harrington is produces great online configurators with her company, Gen alpha, for example. And she’s quoted in the report. And we talked about that middle funnel content, like who those are the insights that are helping people make those buying decisions, and providing them with some clear guidance and how they can improve their business because is, as we’ve all we’ve talked about before, when you’re talking to a b2b buyer, with a complex buying decision. They’re very resistant to change. And they are not going to change unless you can prove to them that that because change is painful, right? changing over to Option B is a painful process. There’s no getting around it. It’s like moving you know, it’s just painful. But you have to prove to them that the pain of staying where they are in the Status Cisco is greater than that change, and you have to provide the insights that prove that to them. And that’s, I mean, that’s kind of what we’re trying to do when we say, Look, your, look how many buyers are online, if you want to stay with your current method of sales and marketing, and just realizing the trade show and the golf courses, you know, only you’re going to be missing out in this golden opportunity to get out there and in get into the digital territory, to what we call it and claim your state.

Curt Anderson  35:40

phenomenal, absolutely. Oh, Greg, Greg, if you don’t mind, we’ve got a couple of minutes Do you can you just share like you’ve really gone all in on video yourself I know you’re doing a great job with with Jeff Long our dear friend from true focus media, Dayton, Ohio, check out Jeff lungs website. He and I just did a webinar recently together just last week together. And so he’s doing amazing work talk about like some like you’ve gone all in on videos, your customers have gone all in spod cast, you know, just talking about like, what are some of the results that you’ve seen going that video, Rob?

Greg Mischio  36:14

Well, we definitely see it performing better on social media. I would say we’ve gone all in in terms of we’ve tried to add it as an omni channel in to try and get more of an omni channel approach, because people will send content in different ways. So we’ve tried to use it as just another tool to add to the mix. And I think it’s definitely, like I said, the organic social, without a doubt it has, those are typically the most popular video, social posts that we put out there. So it’s great to us. It’s great, we create the posts or the videos, and then we embed them in our blog content as well. And you know, that’s another signal to Google in the search engines that you’ve got multimedia on your content. And if you’re you know, you created a post that is ranking that can help. And I tell you what we’re also doing is putting it on our key buying pages in terms of demonstrate getting product demos, or just getting a short intro explaining the product. And that is definitely helping on conversion rates. So there’s just so many uses for it. And it’s it’s just so ubiquitous, it’s it’s, you know, you

Curt Anderson  37:40

can’t ignore it can’t ignore. So Greg, let’s go here as we wind down, folks out there. So for our manufacturers that are falling in that 74% on blogs, or maybe just you know, they they finally realize yes, I can see Greg Miss Chu, I need to start my my digital marketing journey. tips, suggestions, where does that manufacturers start that really starting at Ground Zero? Like what would be like a good place for them to get going?

Greg Mischio  38:07

Well, any process is going to begin with little research, obviously, you’re going to you’re going to have to assess your own resources. What do we have in the house? What can we do? What kind of time commitment can we make? How much are you spending for a new salesperson, so if you, you figure you want to grow? Look, we need to we know we have to get to digital, we know we need to get to the digital territory, you know, think about it in terms of like is you’re allocating your budget. Think about it your training, you know, we everybody thinks in terms of geographical territories right with their sales team. Or you’re in the digital territory. Do you have anybody in that territory? You know? And if you don’t you think of whatever you you’re spending on a salesperson and maybe should allocate that to marketing and get into the digital territory. So I mean, that’s just like a couple ideas on how to assess your resources then it’s strategy you know, it’s creating the strategy and how are we going to get out there? How are we going to align sales and marketing and then finding the people in the in the resources to actually implement and execute the strategy

Curt Anderson  39:33

well said my friend that was phenomenal Okay guys let’s start winding down Damon takeaways thoughts words of wisdom that you want to share from this dynamic conversation is incredible. I’m

Damon Pistulka  39:42

just soaking it in man. I’m just soaking it in because it’s always when when you can get Greg on the stage you can listen to him and just learn from him. There’s so much good just been writing notes like crazy because, you know, back even when you were talking about I remember one of the very first conversations Greg how you articulate the difference between top, middle and bottom, funnel content, make it simple to understand. And you know, and then you know how you clearly articulated the opportunity here for manufacturers to get going, least get going, just get going. Because when you got when you’ve got what the heck was it 74% With no blog, put something up, start with something that’ll help 65% of manufacturers don’t have a YouTube channel. Heck, everybody’s got a damn cell phone that can that can do a video, dude, like you said, do some product videos, do some demos, do some something, and start posting it for your company on the page and start doing this. Because just by doing that, if your blog, you do a few blog, if you get a little, just a little bit activity on your blog, you’re ahead. You’re one of 20 some percent that do that. Right, right, the right blogs will will drive tons of potential traffic to you the same thing on YouTube, you can be one to 35% right now that are actually using it. And like you said, this is not just a huge manufacturers medium, this is across all of them. So that I would guess I’m just hypothesizing here though, that smaller manufacturers are even worse than that. So you’re sitting here with what like Kurt and I like to talk about this 25 person manufacturer in in Ohio, I bet you you’re, there’s 10% 15% of the people that are doing these kinds of things. And just by you doing it, you’re going to light your head

Greg Mischio  41:38

and think about to take a manufacturers perspective to marketing because I feel like there’s this kind of mentality where it’s like, Well, we tried that and it didn’t work. Well look, you are going to fail, as you are starting your marketing. As a quick quote here from Teddy Roosevelt. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who airs who comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming. And he goes on to say, you know, those who do that at the best know in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails at least fails while daring greatly. So you got to get out there you got to dare greatly. And it’s a process you will air time and time again you will learn you will grow. You guys even though you had a huge setback when you started the show because Damon forgot to turn on the turn on the feed. You learned how to deal with that kind of adversity and you picked it right up. So I mean, I’m kind of joking around here but flawlessly, learn so much more when mound is so much further ahead than we were three years ago. And I’ll show it and manufacturers. As you embark on your journey you will learn and grow. You got to dare and cut a dare greatly. You got to put yourself out there and get past that fear factor that everybody has.

Damon Pistulka  43:38

Amen. That’s all I’m saying.

Curt Anderson  43:40

Dude, moment of silence one of my favorite quotes of all time, my dog, my dog FiO was named after Theodore Roosevelt. So that was that is one of my absolute favorite of all time, Greg. Thank you. God, what a great episode. Ready run through a wall. We got yours out, everybody. You’re dead. George, you’ve brought in your son Sam, you’ve made it a family affair. It went down. You’ve just your relentlessness. And you know, you didn’t have to do this research project. I mean, like there’s a lot of time and energy in cost and expense of winning something. Gail is here today. Gail? Yeah. My friend. His research is so much great info and so love that big fan of his work. So Gail, thank you for stopping by. So a Whitney jumped another point. Thank you, Whitney, about how important it is to market for staff, not just for new customers. So we always appreciate your support here. Greg, that was phenomenal. That was what a great, great, great way to wind down the week and wrap up the weekend. Let’s go here one more time, Greg, Greg, best place to find you. Of course, you’re on LinkedIn. Where else can folks find you get that research report? I know let me I’m gonna pull it back up. Just share your website with everybody. Yeah,

Greg Mischio  44:52

and you can go to when bound.com It’s when as in when the game is As in packers Win, win bound.com You can visit us at anytime.

Damon Pistulka  45:11

Anybody wants to throw that in there?

Curt Anderson  45:14

So good. So I hate speaking of sports. Let’s go here. Damon let’s, let’s take it all right, Greg, you’re ready. So are you a brewers fan by any chance? Or was baseball your baseball game?

Greg Mischio  45:23

Yeah, sure. I cheer for the brewers. Okay,

Curt Anderson  45:26

so brewers are playing the Cubs. Bottom of the ninth tie score. Guy on second base. Two outs. We need it we got to win we need a hit to win the game. Okay. Manager just left to go to the Cubs but the manager the Milwaukee Brewers looks down the bench says Hey, miss you. Grab your bat. Get your helmet on. Get up to the plate hit in the winning run for us. Will you please grab your helmet? You grab your bat you’re walking to the plate to hit into Winnie run into battle and knife with two outs. What song is is Zen a loudspeaker. What is your walk up song

Greg Mischio  46:13

Alright, climb every mountain climb music

Curt Anderson  46:24

with who? Who wouldn’t play Broadway for upside right? Right. Right so I got Damon I was on a podcast yesterday I was asked that same question. I threw out Baby shark that was I went with baby that Baby shark. Baby shark. I mean one off you I’m gonna warm up or demean him one up your Greg But alright, we’re gonna go with sound rodeway There you go. We’re going with Sound of Music. Julie your best Julie Andrews.

Damon Pistulka  46:50

We got to put this comment at there. Are that shout out to dad

Curt Anderson  46:55

a Sammy jam. Nice. I didn’t see that one. Shout out

Damon Pistulka  46:59

to gay man. That’s awesome, man.

Curt Anderson  47:01

Thank you for your research. Thank you for joining dad. Manufacturing.

Greg Mischio  47:05

What stamen song?

Damon Pistulka  47:09

My song? Oh, uh, you know, I’ve got to though because if I was the pitcher walking out, it’d be Ted Nugent Stranglehold and I still am trying to figure out what my walk up song would be about batting. So I don’t eat but we

Curt Anderson  47:22

had a good one recently remember? Put me in coach. Remember that? Put me in coach. That was a good one. Somebody somebody needed? No. The question was coming to the job. That one that was a great answer.

Damon Pistulka  47:31

Then like that. They dropped it in length it so all right.

Curt Anderson  47:35

Greg, miss you. Thank you, my friend. We appreciate your support your friendship, everything that you’re doing. We wish you George Samuel your entire family. Yeah. Amazing, wonderful holiday. Merry Christmas. What do you got to?

Greg Mischio  47:46

Can I just say one more thing? Can I say shout out to you guys. And thank you very much for all you do for the manufacturing industry. You guys have been doing this for how many years now?

Curt Anderson  47:57

15 333 and a half, three and a half? I think

48:03

there we go something like that. Yeah, well,

Greg Mischio  48:05

for 23 years, you guys have been on the air. Giving, allowing people to share their stories, giving voice to people that you know, maybe even on on LinkedIn or you know, I don’t know where you find some of these guests that are amazing that you bring here week after week. So thank you to you guys for all you’re doing for the industry. And you guys helped so many people. That’s the beautiful thing. Well,

Curt Anderson  48:33

thank you, Greg. Appreciate it. And then just you know, having this this jam session right here was just so powerful. And that’s why zoom and I do this week in week out, Damon we’re taking a break on Monday, so I’m going to be traveling and so we’re taking a little breather on Monday. We’re gonna be back here next Friday. We have Joe Sullivan, when the AVI and Adam we’re gonna be talking about the industrial marketing Summit. So a shout out to our friends. Greg, you are a sponsor of the industrial marketing Summit. So I finally get to meet you in person way way. But Mary Keo was on the program this past week. We’ve got Eddie Saunders coming up next month. Jordan Yates coming up. Luke, he’s gonna be on the show. All these guys are at the industrial marketing Summit, Greg Misha was going to be there. So again, if you want to be where other cool kids are hanging out, you want to go to the industrial marketing Summit. I’ll be there. Damon, we got to get you there. Dude, we got to get you down in

Damon Pistulka  49:26

Austin. So see we can make it happen. All right, guys. Have

Curt Anderson  49:28

a great weekend. God bless you and hate. David just like we like to always say just be someone’s inspiration just like George just like Greg just like Samuel Damon. Take it away, dude.

Damon Pistulka  49:41

Well, Kurt, I am so excited whenever we had talked to Greg because he came and he threw down such great information that manufacturers need to soak up today. We had all these great guests are great. Listeners, give me the Bazzi. I couldn’t start it can’t finish it. Yeah, but we had all the great listeners coming in and drop Any other comments? Thanks so much for being here every week. We really appreciate it. And I will just say, go back and go over this. Listen to the video again, go to inbound, download their report, they’ll show you a lot of good things about getting your manufacturing company where it needs to be in the digital digital age. Thanks, everyone. We’ll be back again next week. Thanks so much. See you