Creating Content that Converts

Damon Pistulka  00:03

All right, everyone, welcome once again it is Friday and you know what that means? It is time for manufacturing ecommerce success. I am one of your co hosts here, Damon Pistulka. That pretty gentleman right over there is Curt Anderson, and today we’re gonna be talking about creating content that converts with Lori Highby awesome. Curt. Take it away.

Curt Anderson  00:26

Dude. Man. I’m just so fired up for this. No doubt, man. Dude

Damon Pistulka  00:32

out there. Good

Curt Anderson  00:33

sleep last night. Did you?

Damon Pistulka  00:34

I did your best.

Curt Anderson  00:35

I sent you the text. Hey, man, I want you to bed by eight o’clock. Yeah. Okay. All right. Let’s dive in man, because all right, we have the one. The only Lori Highby in the house. Lori how are you?

Lori Highby  00:48

Great. It’s Friday, who’s gonna complain about that? Who’s gonna

Curt Anderson  00:51

complain about Friday’s game and let’s just you know, it’s been it’s been a little it’s been a hot minute as my daughter loves to say it’s been a hot minute since we’ve had the one the only Laurie Hi be on the show. And so let’s just give a little quick introduction for friends and family out there that needs to know Laurie Hi be so relentless entrepreneur. Just I’m I just got chills saying that. Laurie, you just I mean, this rebound, my feeling the chills. You are so inspiring to me. So founded your company Keystone Click in 2008. You are the founder and the big cheese. Now since you’re from Wisconsin, I had to say the big cheese. Right? Okay, you were good. They’re the big cheese of Keystone Click. You are just a fierce advocate for US manufacturing. You’ve got a fun event we’re going to be talking about coming up on May 13. With women in manufacturing in Wisconsin. You are an incredible educator, you universities you’ve we’ve taught classes together. We have a really fun workshop coming up at Purdue University at the Purdue MEP. That’s Thursday, that folks do not Miss Lori, how on earth you do, how do you manage all these things? And then on top of it, you’re just as ferocious hockey player, how do you how do you do all this?

Lori Highby  02:08

I often ask myself the same question.

Curt Anderson  02:13

And I left out that you are the one you’re one of a trio of V broadcasts the just one probably the best manufacturing podcasts out there. Three Three broads. Right Is it? Can I use that word? Well, yeah,

Lori Highby  02:27

no, I say that all the time. It’s called the broadcast for manufacturing. There’s three broads and we talk broadly about manufacturing and it’s great and everyone chuckles when I say that, so

Curt Anderson  02:41

that the broadcast now no Daman what I call www right? You remember that one? Lori? The wild women of Wisconsin. Like to really

Lori Highby  02:48

you’re gonna throw in whiskey in there and make it four w’s.

Curt Anderson  02:52

So, I know what it’s been a while since you’ve been on the show. So I’m gonna go here first. Okay. I don’t think I asked you last time if I did. Forgive me. Lori, entrepreneur, fierce advocate for manufacturers just just extraordinaire. When you were a little girl growing up? Who was your hero? Who was your hero as a little girl growing up that just created this wonderful, amazing human being that we’re talking to? Yeah,

Lori Highby  03:18

I mean, honestly, I would say my dad is probably the the one person that I spent the most time I spent a lot of time with him and following him and just looking at what he was doing. And you know, he he was in manufacturing. He worked at today’s shops, he worked in quality. He was the vendor, he was the client. He basically wore all the hats and he ran his own quality company for quite some time as well. So just being close to that, I think that’s where my love and passion for manufacturing came to be. Well,

Curt Anderson  03:50

I Damon, what answer do we love the most being grilled as that we are? Right? So we just that that warmed our heart Lori, what’s dad’s name, but it was dad’s name. Joe cocking, Joe Well, hey, big shout out to Joe. And so lots of love to him. And just for you know what he did in the imprint that he had on you just so you know what you’ve done. So let’s go here. We have a ton we do. I could probably keep you for hours. But I won’t do that. But we have a ton to unpack, we have a lot to uncover. Now. We’re not going to give away any secret sauce for Thursday. So the folks have to come to the webinar at the Purdue MEP on Thursday. But we’re going to talk about content that converts before we go there. Give us a little background on yourself. So he just said dad was a hero, big manufacturer and kind of in your DNA. But what inspired you to be this fierce marketer for manufacturers? Let’s let’s start there first. Yeah,

Lori Highby  04:39

I mean, it’s been quite an evolution. I didn’t just wake up one day and be like I want to do marketing for manufacturing. I started going to school actually for commercial art and graphic design and when I was in a sociology class of all classes, I really understood how messaging positioning culture environment has an impact on people’s buying decisions. And that was really fascinating to me. And I decided then to continue further exploring that path. And that’s where the marketing, you know, education came in. So I ended up getting my bachelor’s in marketing and a master’s in business, worked at two advertising agencies, a traditional and a digital shop. So I appreciate that I got, you know, a full circle experience, and really understand how the two worlds can kind of combine together. When I started my agency in 2008, you know, like most entrepreneurs, I’ll take whatever I can get whatever kind of business comes my way. And over time, you know, you start learning that riches are in the niches, but really finding something that I was passionate about. And I found that manufacturing was really near and dear to my heart, especially, you know, because of my dad’s background, but I’m always fascinated by seeing how things are made. And that was one of my favorite things about visiting my dad when he when I was younger, at different plants. And I got to see like, how the pen caps of the smelly markers were made, and then how the assembly line like he was building the assembly lines for pens to be put together. And I’m just like, oh, cool, you know, yeah, there’s so many neat things that that are untold stories that manufacturers are doing that really make our world function. So I found combining my passion of marketing, and love of manufacturing was like a great marriage for me to help these manufacturers tell these amazing stories? Well,

Curt Anderson  06:40

I absolutely love that. And, you know, in Daymond, I don’t know what you’re doing in 2008. Was there anything? I don’t know anything particular going on in 2008? Like a perfect year to start a business? Why not learn? Was there a particular event that like lit the fire that had you take that leap of faith and entrepreneurship right now, in the midst of 2008?

Lori Highby  07:03

I’ll tell the short story. The condense story. So the the agency that I was at, there was three, three business partners I had four fingers on for some reason. There’s three business partners, it’s Friday. And the gentleman who I was working directly under, got into a motorcycle accident and long story short, I stayed there for probably another two years, and then decided that I wasn’t really on the same page as the other business partners. So I decided to look for a new job. And yeah, it was 2008 there was not a new job to be found. Unless you could literally do everything in the world of marketing under you know, in one person wearing that hat. Yeah, I was. So I decided I was just gonna take a leap of faith and give it a shot and see what happens. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  07:55

love it. Absolutely. Yeah. And, you know, the cool thing is Damon, I think we love talking about this, you know, I’m not a math major, but 2008. That was 16 ish years ago. And we always talk about Laurie is, you know, you know, on average, right, you always hear that cliche that number four out of five businesses that get that right, Daymond did I do four out of five businesses fail in the first five years, and then it perpetuates every five year cycle goes down again, another four out of five film another four out of five fail. You’re going into your fourth I got that right, right. Fourth, five year cycle. Yeah, you know, I don’t know if you ever do to ever sit back and appreciate I know, you’re a woman of great humility. But you ever sit back and say like, wow, like, I’m like, I’m doing it. Does that ever sink in? Like, Oh, yeah.

Lori Highby  08:43

It goes both ways. Like, how did I do this? And, wow, I’m doing this, you know?

Curt Anderson  08:49

Yeah. Yeah. So I one more question, then we’re gonna dive into context. I could, I could just and you know, so for folks out there, have a job. Want to be an entrepreneur, it’s just great when we have a wonderful, wildly successful entrepreneur on the show, just kind of like, you know, success leaves clues, as we’d like to say, and so you’re leaving some great clues. Was there a moment in time where you felt like, you know what? I’m, you know, maybe that day isn’t coming up, but have you? Did you hit a time where like, boy, I’m really building a company. You have a great team, we know Whitney Houston, you know, you have pictures of your team on your website. We’re going to talk about your website later, but just was there a moment in time where like, you know what, I really might my child has matured any thoughts? Yeah, I

Lori Highby  09:33

do remember having that little like light bulb turned on going, Oh, this isn’t just a random fun project anymore. Like this is a real a real thing. I don’t exactly have like the pinpoint of when that happened. But I do know that there was a switch that turned that I’m like, Oh, this is this is legit. Like I’m, I’m here. I’m real. People respect me. People are seeking out to work with us. Like, that’s amazing. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  10:02

well, I love it and a few things I want to chime in and then Damon Well, we got to we need to get some folks in the chat box here. But, uh, you have a great newsletter that goes out. I love reading it all the time. You also do a thing on LinkedIn. What I was asked this week if I have that correct, yep. So strongly encourage, invite everybody follow Lori on LinkedIn. She puts out just some wonderful, incredible content. Sign up for her newsletter. I just love it. I love reading what you’re doing every week. It just great tidbits. Lots of help. And your Website is off the charts. We’ll dive in Daymond let’s give a shout out a few friends. Yeah, we got

Damon Pistulka  10:35

hairy. Hairy. flairs is in the in the room today? It is Friday. Yay. Happy Friday. We got Mr. Bigger in the house today. Holy purple. Couser is Lori. Highby.

10:50

Oh, that’s great.

Damon Pistulka  10:52

Yeah, we got to talk to Dan a little bit over the weekend Ron Higgs and I got together and Ron Ron always makes it a point to text Dan.

Curt Anderson  11:00

Nice when you guys are right. You know, just a little jealousy not you know, alone time with Damon right that Ron gets to hang out with Damon. So but you know, Harry dropped an awesome comment today. Harry. We need to get we need to get Harry on the show. Sometime. He I’ve been working on it, dude. Yeah. So he, he shared a little thing about Harvey Mackay today guy that wrote swimming with the sharks. That was a great book way back in the day. So alright, Laurie, let’s dive in. We want to talk about content that converts you work with tons of different manufacturers? What’s 2024? What’s it look like? How’s it going? What’s What are the latest trends from your person? Yeah,

Lori Highby  11:35

it’s been an interesting time. Last year was an interesting year. This year is an interesting year. And I see and hear a lot of this across the board that there’s more movement happening this year than last year. But it’s slow. Like it’s yeah, there’s people want to do things. There’s some reservation and, you know, I blame the media for the fear of the recession. You know, they’re just kind of pushing that in everyone, but but I do see progress being made. So I’m glad that there’s movement, it’s just moving slower than I think we’re used to.

Damon Pistulka  12:10

Okay, yeah. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  12:12

Awesome. Damon, what do you what do you see in boots in the street? Well, I

Damon Pistulka  12:15

see. The one thing I want to hit the lorry said, the media only lives on hype, right? And they’ve been talking about the year economy driving fear, it’s gone. It’s gone. It’s gone. So listen, if it comes, we’ve lived through it before we will live through it again. In business, you cannot make those decisions based on that fear. Right. And I see what I see the same thing at Laurier saying people are moving slower than they should be. But they’re missing out on opportunities, because they’re not moving like they should. And I’ve got clients that are moving, and they are taking advantage of the offer. Totally.

12:51

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So anyone’s?

Lori Highby  12:55

Oh, yeah.

Curt Anderson  12:58

You know what, we’re Damon. You know, we’d like to we’re like in a little Utopia here and manufacturing ecommerce success. There’s, there’s no bad economy, there’s no bad thing.

Damon Pistulka  13:07

We make luck. Worry, let’s we make

Curt Anderson  13:11

things. So let’s dive in. Let’s talk about like, what are some strategies that you’re really digging into? And like, your clients? You’re just seeing great results. Let’s start talking about what are some content strategies that can work for you? Yeah,

Lori Highby  13:23

absolutely. I mean, there’s so many different things when it comes to content. But the one thing and I know that you speak to this all the time, is make sure that you’re addressing the pain that the customer has, that is the most important message point. And, you know, I don’t want to get too much into the mistakes that we’re going to talk about with Purdue, but I am going to bring this one up. Oftentimes, it’s the these are all the things we can do instead of saying, I understand the problem that you have, and I have proof that I can solve your problem. That is really the most critical message that needs to be said.

Curt Anderson  13:59

All right, Laurie, can you for for your friends that are over 50? Why don’t you can you repeat that again?

Lori Highby  14:07

I understand the problem that you have. And here’s the proof that I can solve your problem.

Curt Anderson  14:15

Okay, let’s just let’s let that sink in for one minute. That was phenomenal. Okay. Keep it going. Yeah,

Lori Highby  14:22

absolutely. So, when think about that, when someone’s going to Google or if it’s a paid ad that you have, the message needs to be relevant to whatever that pain or challenges that that that your ideal customer has. And if you’re not speaking to them, and if the message isn’t resonating with them, they’re gonna leave they’re gonna hit the back button and go somewhere else. The other thing that I find is a is a big challenge is clarity. Like we’re giving too much. We’re overwhelming. Clarity is always going to trump any sort of persuasive message. All right, clarity, Trump’s persuasion, one of my favorite things To say, yeah, go, keep it simple. Get right to the point, and make it easy to digest the information that you are sharing nowadays, we’ve got tools to help us do that, right? If you’ve got this really long message that is on your website, go throw it in the chat or Gemini, or whatever your favorite AI tool is, and say, make this into six really strong bullet points. Keep it simple, right?

15:27

Yeah, yep.

Curt Anderson  15:28

I love it. Damon, let’s grab a couple of hey, we’ve got Whitney Houston’s in the house.

Damon Pistulka  15:32

He’s in here. Whitney, we got Dan. Keep moving forward. That’s. And you hosted the USA manufacturing our Oh, yeah. shaylen here today got somebody else. We can’t see who you are. But that’s we might be Brian Higgs. Oh, might be wrong. Awesome. That’s good. So and then Dan said he was late because he was ordering new business cards. There we go. Nice. That’s awesome. Awesome stuff.

Curt Anderson  16:07

All right, Lori, let’s let’s go here. So I want to I want to break this down into two. Right? I learned a long time go don’t ask two questions at once. Let’s talk a little bit about some content strategies. And then we’re going to come back to you mentioned AI can’t have this conversation without AI strategies, right. And it sounds like that you and your team? Are you finding some really efficient ways to use AI? Let’s talk about let’s talk to that manufacturer out there that maybe they’re finally thrown in the towel. They’re like, You know what? You’re right. I’ve been putting off Delaine kicking and screaming, I didn’t want to do so digital marketing thing, but I don’t have a choice. Lori, where do I start? Take me on like a one on one or baby steps? What’s a great place to start my content journey?

Lori Highby  16:50

Yeah, absolutely. The first thing I would highly recommend is actually starting with research, because you’re gonna get a better understanding of that ideal customer and figuring out what is the pain that they really have, but more so how are they talking about that pain, because you may be making assumptions or using the industry jargon of your workspace, but knowing how they actually bring that pain to light, whether they’re searching for it and Google or, you know, whatever talking to individuals about it, you want to make sure that it’s relevant and pays it aligns with what they’re messaging. The other area that you want to take a look at, then is your competition to figure out from a digital standpoint, how are they positioning themselves? Are they actually in the right spot? Because when you’re looking at your customer, you want to figure out where they hang out online. But the reason it’s good to look at your customer and your competition is to really figure out where’s the opportunity where you should hang out where a customer is in your competition? Isn’t that goes with the message and the positioning as well. Right.

17:59

Now their job will be

Curt Anderson  18:02

doubleroom there’s another drop the mic Hey, I’m grabbing Whitney’s comment here. Clarity, Trump’s persuasion. That’s right. And again, if you’re just joining us, we’ve got Lori Highby here from Keystone click founder Big Cheese connecting Laurie on LinkedIn. She’s just just amazing. Take my word for you to sign up for her newsletter, all sorts of wonderful things going on, Laura, you just you love it. Right? So

Lori Highby  18:24

I mean, but it’s fun.

Curt Anderson  18:27

Let’s, let’s go here. I love what you’re saying. Because, you know, checking out your customer. What’s What’s the language that your customer you know, understanding our customers customer delivers a ton of value. Okay, I’m gonna go here for a minute. And Bill, you I learned so much from you. So just for a little segue for folks, we did unite. We did a Damon we did a little cohort jam thing. A couple years ago, I learned a ton from you. And I still shamelessly use your strategies. I want to start I’m gonna start with a content strategy. You introduced to us a thing called hub and spoke. Yep. If this is brand new for our friends family out there that this is brand new, what hub and spoke what does it have to do with marketing?

Lori Highby  19:09

Yeah, the hub and spoke I mean, that’s, you’re thinking about like a bicycle wheel, right? And the hub is that central point. So if you think about what is the biggest pain that your ideal customer has, like the number one thing that’s going to draw them in to start working with you, that’s your hub, that is the central point of the information that you should be really be focusing on. And the spoke is kind of like all those offshoots of the type of content that leans into the hub. But it also gives you that central point of this is our like pillar content piece or a big focal point. So let’s say for example, your pain, your customers pain is getting your products manufactured in a timely fashion. So if you know that you can expedite the speed of getting some Some your some equipment you widget, we’ll just use widget widget done. Then you can talk about the widget, your process, the timing, the efficiency, the quality as like, as both pieces. But really that help piece could be a mega piece like a white paper or webinar or you know, a show like this. And then you can pull segments in, you know, for example, like I talked about clarity in this show, like we could have a whole offshoot just about clarity, right, but today, we’re talking about content that converts is the hub. But every little like five minutes segment could be a spoke of content that you can repurpose in other different areas.

Curt Anderson  20:37

Yeah, I absolutely love that, you know, so a client comes to you all right here, we’re talking about content marketing content that converts, hey, for spoke, let’s talk about pay per click ads. Hey, what’s, uh, what are Pay Per Click ads? Well, let me explain it to you here, right? And a what’s SEO, here’s this and then you know, what’s LinkedIn? What social media, what’s a YouTube video? So I mean, those could be your spokes. So now for our manufacturers just apply it to your product, you know, you have your manufacturers circuit boards. There’s, here’s your guide for circuit boards, maybe here’s components, here’s Made in USA, here’s benefit, you know, so I love what you’re saying. Do you have any without any secret sauce? Do you have any, you know, real, anything proprietary for clients? Do you have some success, like success stories in your mind of a client that walk through that process with you? Well,

Lori Highby  21:23

one of the my favorite stories to share, when we did some research for the customer actually, was they thought in their mind. And this, the company has been around for 50 years, something like that, that people always bought from them, because they were the low cost provider. But after doing the research, we found that it was the customer support, is the reason that people came to them. Were in our recent research that we conducted, price isn’t as important people want solid communication and high quality product, right? That’s what people want. But doing that research allowed us to then reposition the content around the high level of customer support communication that was taking place, and align with the quality of the product that they were creating.

Curt Anderson  22:10

That is Matt Damon, what I’m losing track with what dropped the mic was that was that number, I

Damon Pistulka  22:16

don’t know, I’ve got a page of notes already. And I’ve

Curt Anderson  22:21

got a page of notes. Lori, let’s go here. So when you’re working with say that that example is fresh in mind or another client, again, our new manufacturer that’s, you know, their LinkedIn is new to them, social is new to them. So it’s one thing to build the content. But now we’re still kind of the best kept secret. We need to get the content out there. Yeah. How do you what are strategies, tips, advice for folks who have like, where to start putting that content out?

Lori Highby  22:44

Again, it goes back to the research and really understanding where is your customer hanging out? You know, we did some research for our client once where they they wanted to go on LinkedIn, because in everyone’s mind, LinkedIn is the b2b channel, right, which makes sense. But what we learned in our research is that the more majority of their right, fit clients, listen to podcasts. So then that changes the whole strategy. They’re not spending their time on LinkedIn. They’re listening to podcasts. So we decided, hey, let’s do a podcast tour with the leadership of this organization. And or start our own podcast. So again, it’s really understanding where is that ideal client hanging out? Where are they getting educated? who’s influencing their buying decision and educating them? And then kind of align yourself in that path?

Curt Anderson  23:33

That is phenomenal out just out of curiosity, how did you find out when you say research, we’re actually interviewing clients?

Lori Highby  23:40

They knew two things. Specifically, we do we leverage technology, obviously, to get some data, but we have our clients introduce us to their right fit clients. And then we do about an hour phone call interview with them to really, as a third party, were able to get, I would say, more insightful information than they if they were to ask some of these questions directly. And then we also host a virtual focus group that kind of has a defined this is the ideal customer persona. And we kind of gather some insights from that. So that gives us tons of information.

Curt Anderson  24:15

phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal. So manufacturers out there, you’re just getting a little taste of what the benefits and just rewards that go with working with Keystone click, love it. Lori, do you find are any of your clients were any the customers? Are they kind of a little resistant of like, Wait, who are you? What questions am I like, what is this? Like? Is there any skepticism or not so much?

Lori Highby  24:38

Um, I would say What do you mean like the client is when we’re asking to get the introduction to their customer?

Curt Anderson  24:44

But on both sides like do you have when so see when you start working with a client so your customer is there any resistance or like hey, wait a minute, you’re gonna be talking to my customers and then when you get past that, is there any resistance for the your clients cost?

Lori Highby  24:59

I mean, In the sales process, I’m very transparent, and that this is part of our research research process. So I even tell them at that time, you know, I want you to start thinking about who would be the person that you’d want to introduce us to, so that we plant that seed right away. Sometimes we do get some situations where that when we they make the introduction to the customer, it’s either hard to find time to get on their calendar, because that’s a big ask, right? You know. And sometimes that it’s, we get no response at all, which can be challenging, but other times, you know, and I guess it’s somewhat depends on the relationship with the client and the customer. If it’s a positive, you know, good, strong, trusted relationship, they’re more than happy to do it. But if it’s a little sketchy, then they don’t necessarily want to give us the time. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  25:47

Well, I love that. And kudos to you for having the stamina and the persistence to get through that. And I love a lot of things Damon. And I’m taking, you know, the communication with the customer, setting the expectations right up front. And how you open it up, you have this pain, this problem, I have this solution. And just trust me, this is what’s going to happen. So I just I love with your 15 years experience. Damon, what’s your with your two pages of notes so far? what’s your takeaway?

Damon Pistulka  26:14

I’m just, I can’t believe it. Okay, I think, first of all, as I said, you’re running through my head about I’m thinking about companies I ran in the past, I’m thinking about current clients, I’m thinking about, you know, you talk about customer research. And we’ve said it, how many gazillion times, we really kind of suck at knowing what our customers really their pain points are, why they did business, you had a great example of it. So why the heck aren’t we doing this customer research? Right? Why isn’t everybody doing it? Because you talk to manufacturers, right? If you’re doing what your manufacturing or product you’re doing contract manufacturer doesn’t matter. You’ve got good customers. And having a third party, just talk to them to understand that is a simple process that gives you this, I’m just thinking it’s just like dumping gold bars into your pot.

Lori Highby  27:04

Oh, it really is honestly, because I’m hearing the exact words language, how they’re thinking how they’re processing. Instead of making assumptions. Yeah, yeah, right.

27:17

Yeah, I’m

Lori Highby  27:17

confident like, wow, I heard the exact way you say what I know my my client does, but you’re talking about it completely differently than they’re telling me what it is right? It’s so powerful.

Curt Anderson  27:30

You know, I couldn’t love that more. Lori, and Lori, you remember this? I have a goofy thing. And I don’t know if you were part of the cohort when I do this. It’s like if we’re manufacturing Kleenex, and people have never heard of that before, right? They’ve never had like, they know, the problem. My problem is I have a runny nose. Yeah, I don’t know the key word Kleenex or tissues. I’m going to Google. How do I stop my runny nose? I don’t know what a Kleenex or a tissue is. Right? Yeah. And I think as manufacturers so often, we’re so glued to, you know, I manufacture this little, you know, this, whatever this cloud, we’re thinking of the name. I’m just thinking, hey, I need this little rubber tip thing at the end of this micro, this, you know, yeah. And so I love what you’re saying. What you’re describing here.

Damon Pistulka  28:16

Yeah, Harry’s got a great question here. What are you Lori, do you have a favorite discovery question you liked? Oh,

Lori Highby  28:23

wow, good question. I mean, it’s interesting. We have some like canned questions that are more. How did you find the company? Why did you start to find why did you decide to work with them? But then we just kind of go and actually peel the onion and be curious. So there isn’t like a set like this question is always the goldmine. It’s really just being genuinely curious and focusing on listening as opposed to like having a conversation with them. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  28:52

absolutely. Love that. Any other comments? We want to grab here Damon? Oh, yeah, we

Damon Pistulka  28:57

got a tire saying after I was talking about why they wouldn’t it’s time you know, and that’s this time they don’t they don’t have time to do that research, but it’s it’s so worthwhile that I think it’s it really it’s it’s an investment in your future. Yeah, really. 100% and Dan said the same same thing about it’s time and cost manufacturers companies only think one spending on production. Marketing is like an alien to them. And this is the deal. Oh, yeah. I mean, because honestly, let’s let’s just let’s just be real about this. Most manufacturers still have salespeople jumping in the car hoping to go see customers. And they don’t realize that what they can get from this and we got Timothy coming in from across the pond across

Curt Anderson  29:43

the pond eight Timothy, happy Friday, dude. So he comes to us from Amsterdam, Laurie, so great, guy. Thank you guys. Keep those comments coming in. You can let us know where you’re coming from. If you have any questions around, you know, marketing, industrial marketing. We have the experts onstage I know we’re over the top of the hour. So if you’re just joining us, we have Laurie HyVee. Here, CEO from Keystone click, Lori, let’s dive into a AI, right? Just I mean, it is anywhere it is everywhere. changing our lives and changing our world, how’s it Changing your world?

Lori Highby  30:18

Oh, it’s significantly changing our world. And you know, in full transparency, we were using AI within our agency before it was really made available to the general public through chat GPT. And it was more, I was well aware of it coming to market soon, and that it was going to be a major disrupter. So I intentionally set out to start researching it. And I’ve spoken on it a handful of times recently, but it’s changing the game. It’s definitely changing the game. And it’s allowing for efficiencies, but it’s also a distraction, because there’s something new and shiny every single day that’s coming out. So we have to be realistic about what is it that we’re trying to achieve, what problem are we trying to solve? Right? And then finding a way to implement it into the organization that allows for you know, it’s saving us time, it’s saving us money, it’s creating efficiency. And that’s what I think is important, because I instead of getting distracted by like, Oh, look at these cool things I can do now. No, yeah. How is it going to help me do my job better? And if folks are stuck, I would say, look at a repetitive tasks that you have, there’s likely something within AI that’s going to create a level of efficiency within your your process.

Damon Pistulka  31:37

Yeah. All right. Yeah, we’ve got clients that are using it now for one thing, and I think it’s absolutely fabulous for and it’s document summary when you can when you can drop 50 different documents into it, and it comes out. And it’s not just the general kind of GBD thing. Yeah, this is highly customized solutions. But it’s an IT can provide a summary that would take someone eight hours to do in matter of minutes. And it’s better than you could actually do. It is amazing.

Lori Highby  32:09

Oh, it’s been we’ve been using it for our podcast. So you know, I’ve got the two shows. And we use a tool called descript. So editing pod tap podcasts has been the time investment has been significantly reduced because of this tool. And that’s where I think the opportunity for AI comes into play. When folks are using it for content creation, there’s definitely lots of concerns. And personally, it’s obvious to me when someone is copy and pasted something from chatting to me or something else. So there’s but I also feel that a number of folks is very early adopter stage, people are trying to figure it out. But leaning into your own personal brand and your voice is what’s really important. And you should be leaning into these tools for an ideation as opposed to it’s gonna write all of my LinkedIn posts, my blog posts and whatnot now,

Damon Pistulka  33:04

yep, yep. And it’s just that’s so true, you know, and the the custom GPT is you hit one thing, it, you can screw around with this for a gazillion hours. But really do have to have something that you need to automate. And you need to have it and you need to try it. And if it’s going to work great. If it’s not, it may be you need to invest in more development, maybe you got to do other things. But keep focused in on how it can make your practice your company whatever better. And it’ll it’ll do a lot of nice work for you.

Lori Highby  33:39

But don’t we got it? I got another little mic drop. If you’re ready.

Damon Pistulka  33:43

Let’s do it. Let me

Lori Highby  33:49

there’s an AI for that.com.

Damon Pistulka  33:53

There’s an API for that.com. Yeah,

Lori Highby  33:57

you basically type in what it is you’re looking to try to do. And it’s gonna give you tons of recommendations. There’s free tools, there’s paid tools. And then if you subscribe to their email list, you’re gonna get notifications on the latest greatest tools that are out there. But it’s also learning the types of things you’re looking for. Because it’s, you know, AI, and it’s going to keep pushing you towards you know, here’s a new tool that does this specific thing that you asked about previously, right?

Curt Anderson  34:25

That’s funny. And how about about Timothy’s comment, Damon?

Damon Pistulka  34:29

Yeah, use AI or sorry, I bumped on it, and you were did AI to amplify your own awesomeness.

Lori Highby  34:36

Love that 100%?

Damon Pistulka  34:38

I do too, because so many people don’t you know, you want to talk about something, but you don’t know how to say it. Right. And if we can get you started and go oh, there’s kind of the gist of what we want to say. That’s great. So

Curt Anderson  34:54

about the dank. Dan Biggers got a good guy out here.

34:59

Yeah, Was it?

Curt Anderson  35:02

Let’s see. He says, Yeah, I’ll wait a bit until this figured out. See I like to write my own and add humor to it does ai do jokes and what he summaries? Dan AI will never be as witty and funny. We got to read that last comment Damon the very last one. She called her shot like Babe Ruth man, she pointed rate. Yes, he did put it to the short porch and just said I’m gonna

Damon Pistulka  35:26

get ready for this mic drop moment. That’s awesome. First of all time.

Lori Highby  35:34

Today, I guess.

Damon Pistulka  35:37

First time, I’m fairly certain that’s the first

Curt Anderson  35:39

time I hate God bless her. I absolutely, yeah. So we’re, let’s dive in here. So we have a fun program coming up again, if you just join us, it’s in the chat. We have a webinar if you’re not getting enough a Laurie and my goodness gracious, how could you she is doing a webinar. We’re doing it together at the Purdue MEP this Thursday 12 o’clock Eastern, I dropped the link in the chat box, I strongly encourage you guys sign up for that we’re going to have a great time. And we’re going to be diving into a lot of mistakes that you want to avoid in Marketing. Today. We’re talking about conversions and how to convert. So Laurie, I’d like to talk I’d like to pick your brain for a minute on paid ads. What are you seeing any trends? There are LinkedIn ads, Google ads, how is AI impacting this? What are you seeing with paid ads?

Lori Highby  36:25

Yeah, paid, there’s definitely been some shifts happening in that. I mean, Google is really leaning into it, trying to leverage AI to just have ADS automatically created for you. But I would say what I’ve observed and just even chatting with other folks in the industry that hasn’t really been performing as well as probably Google would like, if anything, we’re seeing better results on the social media advertising side of things. LinkedIn is so expensive. But it can be extremely beneficial. One of the biggest mistakes, sorry, the jump ahead with in is everyone wants to go for the sale. But we know in b2b, especially manufacturing, it’s a long, slow nurturing process. And you have to start with brand awareness when it comes to paid advertising, especially in that b2b space. So I know everyone’s hungry for new business right now. But if you’re doing it right, it is going to be a longer roll. But it will be done the right way. And you’ll have better results at the end of the day. Had oh one other thought one other. An area we’re seeing a lot of success in is actually doing competitive ad campaigns. So we’re buying up the names of our competitors company so that if someone’s searching for that competitor, then our clients names show up in the top of the results, and great successes with that recently.

Curt Anderson  37:51

Awesome. Okay, so I am in hate this is for me Damon. So I’d like to dig in a little bit further. We’re for folks out there that maybe have yet to dip their toe with LinkedIn paid ads. Where are you? So we won’t steal anything from Thursday, but we’re so not so much where are you seeing mistakes? Where are you seeing some successes on LinkedIn. So you’re saying like a longer slow nurturing with

Lori Highby  38:14

brand awareness. If you go straight for that lead gen, it’s not going to convert and think about your own experiences on LinkedIn. Are you clicking on ads of companies and messaging that you have not seen before already? That are it’s obvious, it’s a sales pitch. So really focusing on the brand awareness approach, but also they have a new offering where, like I could my personal profile could be a sponsored post as aligned with my business profile. Because before you can only do like sponsored posts with the business page. But now you can do that with personal profile pages as well. Okay,

Curt Anderson  38:53

yeah, that’s a that’s definitely a powerful tip and eight girls in house yield in the house today. She said, an award IB, my goodness gracious, who’s not a big fan of Lori gal. Happy Friday. Thank you for covering Gail covered for me last Friday. Thank you.

Damon Pistulka  39:09

Makin super valuable advice. Awesome. And then Gail was talking about you just post about today. long game? Yes.

Curt Anderson  39:17

Good. Yeah, that’s right. She had a great

Damon Pistulka  39:21

it is a long game. And that’s been a that’s been the way it’s been on on LinkedIn for years. I mean, because he just can’t everything I’ve heard and just coincides with what you’re saying is, hey, get brand awareness, then move in slowly, moving slower yet a little about videos like building building that relationship over time. Yeah,

Lori Highby  39:44

yeah. Well, and if you do it right, by creating valuable content, which is the premise of the show here, valuables the most important part you’re adding value which I’ve you know, tried to throw as many value bombs as I can today. It’s going to change to sales conversation when they are ready to buy. And I have witnessed that so many times where I’ve had someone schedule a discovery call with me where I’m going through my normal motions, right? And they’re like, I don’t need this. I know I want to work with you. You’ve already proven to me what’s going on. Just tell me how much it costs. And I’m like, that’s amazing.

Curt Anderson  40:22

I just did that. This week. I there was a guy whose YouTube channel I started following in January of 23. Watch it, watch it, watch it this week, I felt I bought a service that he offers, like 15 months later. And but I feel like I know, I’m had exchanged with him on LinkedIn. And you know, like, I’m, I’m 15 months into this relationship, you know. And so, you know, so Laurie, what we’re hearing patients and again, kind of practicing what you preach. You are a fierce educator. I encourage any manufacturers out there that are that this is this message is really resonating with, check out Lori’s website, because Laurie, anytime you’re on the show, I just tell you, we do well, we can run about being sometimes as consultants, we’re educators, or I’m sorry, we’re like the cobblers kid with no shoes. And when you go to Lori’s website, Keystone click, there’s Laurie you, you really practice what you preach? Yeah. 100%. Yeah, talk. So let’s go there for a minute, then we’re gonna start winding down. But just share a little bit about you know, how you your team, how you’re so dedicated on educating webinars, podcasts, information guides on your site, so let’s go there from it. Yeah, I

Lori Highby  41:24

I’m a big believer in, in just education in general. And I actually went through this exercise by myself a few years back, Simon Sinek start with why to really figure out because I like shiny objects, not very typical entrepreneur, right. And I’m like, I need to get a little clarity on what I stand for. And the core of that actually, was education. And I believe that I love educating others. And one of the best ways to become an expert or really skilled at something is to teach somebody else what you know. And that’s why I’m a big believer in educating. And I also very much believe that, you know, like, what is it a rising, rising tide lifts all ships? Yeah, something like that, whatever it is, but like, I want to elevate the industry, I want everyone to be on the same playing field. So there, there is no secret sauce. This is, you know, trust that we know what we’re doing, because I’m showing you the exact process on how to do it. And you can do it yourself if you want to. Or if you want to work with us. That works great, too. Yeah, internally within my team, you know, we have we have quarterly rocks, which are getting stuff done internally for the business, but there’s quarterly educational rocks, too. So I want everyone to learn something new, and the team and then we teach it to each other. I think that’s so important.

Curt Anderson  42:41

You don’t mind I shamelessly steal a line near yours that you taught me many years ago. And you’re like, you know, I can watch Do you remember the story? I can watch the Food Channel. And man I can watch step by step but I still enjoy going out for a nice steak at a restaurant because I just can’t do it the same as they do on the food chain. Yeah, 100% remember that line? Shamelessly borrow that steal it from you all the time. But I love what you’re saying there is like, you know, staying in your lane. Lots of entrepreneurial tips here on the show today, Damon cuz we

Damon Pistulka  43:12

got tons of content. Yeah, I

Curt Anderson  43:14

know that. He asked a question that Oh, yeah. How

Damon Pistulka  43:18

can we can we post advertisements in our personal profile? Oh,

Lori Highby  43:21

that’s a that’s not a quick answer. Yeah, it’s you have it has to be linked to a business profile. And then you have to have like admin level access on the business profile. And yeah, it’s, it’s not a it’s not an easy done deal.

Damon Pistulka  43:41

So it can be done. So doing some research, we got a deal and Yale talks about this a lot. And she was talking about last week when we are on the show, you know, going and being in these exchanges. These live exchanges is a great way to meet people and really understand and learn more about this, this kind of thing and, and, and, you know, you can actually learn about your customers too, as well doing them. So what else Lori? Lori Highby fierce educator, so true. And then she mentioned Kurt and I various networkers and show hosts. I don’t know about that, but we like to do it. Yeah, you

44:16

guys are great.

Curt Anderson  44:19

Fun, totally agree as a comment there to Damon and

Damon Pistulka  44:23

Timothy Gil Robertson. Well said but he’s got up here he goes, it’s become a thing. I love joining you guys and meeting you. It’s great. It’s great. I mean, we the the kind of relationships that you can build by being active in these these forums, wherever they are, if it’s an Industry Forum, it’s an association, you know, group in law and live or in, in in or both electronic, digital, whatever you want to call it. I see more of those coming up. I think it’s a great way to to really build relationships. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  44:55

And Lori just mentioned herself, you know, to podcasts, she speaks at Unity. Are cities and she does all sorts of educating. So just if I think, you know, a great tip is if you just dedicate yourself to being that educator of your product. What a great investment we love this line. Laurie, I haven’t dropped this on you before we always brag. We preach to our manufacturers. How do you out teach the competition? How do you get yourself out? Teach the competition? Let’s go here. I know you’re super busy. You probably do have a hockey game today. I’m just teasing me tonight. Right? Do you have a game tonight? So I don’t not tonight. Okay, so Laurie has a great hockey hockey player. But again, connect with Laura on LinkedIn, check out Keystone click connect with Whitney Houston. While you’re here, we love Whitney. Lori, I asked you earlier about you started your company in 2008. We’re going into that fourth five year cycle you’re 16 years in, I asked you, you know, hey, was there a tipping point we hit on that? I love to ask now. For a young entrepreneur, Laurie in 2008. See there’s a 20 something or 30 something, say there’s a 60 something who is you know, accidental entrepreneur, maybe downsize or you know, something beyond their control? They’re starting their entrepreneurial journey. What advice would you have to give to that new entrepreneur? That’s been great success for you?

Lori Highby  46:11

Yeah, I would say find others that have already walked in the shoes that you are about to walk in, because they’re going to be more willing to give and it’s someone to lean on that mentorship can be so beneficial for you.

Curt Anderson  46:28

I lost track that was dropped. You could call that shot right?

Lori Highby  46:33

across my mind, I didn’t know.

Curt Anderson  46:36

You know, we’re just gonna point you know. At the portrait, I’m going to swim swinging. Right?

46:44

Right there,

Curt Anderson  46:45

right. Here’s what I’m going to put the puck, right. graded. How about Lori, how about this one? I put out a Post this morning asking this question I’m going to ask you, what is the best business advice that you were ever given that you feel is really helped you as an entrepreneur? Oh,

Lori Highby  47:02

wow, that’s a big one. I have to think about that, actually. You know, I think it’s just being your true authentic self. At the end of the day, you know, it’s believe in what you sell, believe in what you do and be be your true authentic self.

47:21

Yeah, absolutely.

Curt Anderson  47:24

Dan Biggers keeping track. So that was that was another you could call that one too. Right? That was another so let’s let’s recap a few things Lori, and then we’re gonna wind down so you’ve talked about communication, you know, staying on top of things you were ahead of the curve on AI let’s not ignore those, you know, we don’t have to like follow every tech not you know, technology shiny object. But you were out ahead of AI. You’ve talked about dedicating yourself to your customer understanding their pain, I have a solution for your problem. So tons and tons. Damon dude, like it’s almost unfair, that we get these free coaching sessions. You know what? Yes. Any takeaways for you, Damon? I don’t know what page you are on. Notice what we do today? Well,

Damon Pistulka  48:06

I come back again to the you know, just what you were talking to earlier. And I gotta say, if you came in on this late, go back to the beginning and listen to this, because when you were talking about clarity, Trump’s persuasion, you’re talking about doing research, customer research, because we honestly don’t our customers in the hub and spoke that you were talking about in how you really create that hub, content around your biggest pain points in the in the words that your customers would use and then create all that spoke content around that. And and then just the, the ways that you can, how the clarity that that gives you that’s just what sticks out in my mind. I’m still back there, trying to catch up, but I’m still doing.

Curt Anderson  48:56

So Laurie, we have you have a great event coming up. Again, a shameless plug on April 16 12 o’clock Eastern Levin Central. Lori and I are going to be jamming at the Purdue University MEP Manufacturing Extension Partnership. And Lori just you want to give them just a little sliver of what we’re going to be talking about on Thursday.

Lori Highby  49:15

Well, the biggest mistakes that we see happening in the marketing world so I cannot drop a couple of them on our chat today, but there’s definitely more.

Curt Anderson  49:26

So you got to come back to that. You have another big event coming up. And Damon’s birthday may 15. Yeah, May 13. Just share what’s going on in me Yeah.

Lori Highby  49:34

The podcast a broadcast for manufacturers is CO hosting event with the woman in manufacturing southern Wisconsin chapter at Waller shine winery. So it’s a happy hour, but we’re going to be recording a live show. So if you’re around, definitely join us. Yes, absolutely.

Curt Anderson  49:52

Love it. Okay, Laurie. I have one more question for you before we let you okay. Are you ready? Are you sitting down for this one?

Lori Highby  49:58

I get nervous but yeah. And now,

Curt Anderson  50:01

we know that you’re a huge hockey fan. We know that I’m going to slide over to another sport. Are you a baseball fan? Are you brewers brewers?

Lori Highby  50:08

Yeah, I mean hockey Trump’s Yeah, baseball but yeah,

Curt Anderson  50:13

hockey rules. But you know, you might appreciate a brewers game in the summer Stein was nice, beautiful day in Milwaukee. I have to say I’ve been every stadium and Milwaukee they know how to have a good time and baseball.

50:24

Know how to tailgate. It’s like, it’s like a Wisconsin

Curt Anderson  50:28

football game. They’re tailgating, like nine in the morning for a night. Nice. I’ve not experienced anything like it. But Laurie, let’s go here. Let’s just pretend we’re the brewers are playing the dreaded who? Cubs, right? They don’t like the Cubs. Right? Yeah. brewers are playing the Cubs. It’s the ninth inning. Okay, ninth inning tied score. There’s a runner on second base. There’s two outs you with me so far. Tyson score, Bodman, the ninth person on second base two outs. The Brewers need a they need one hit like we need to get this game over with right because Laurie has a hockey game. So the manager is standing there turns on the bench and says Hey, hi be grab your helmet. Grab your bow your back get up to the plate hitting the winning run. You will be okay. Yeah, cuz you grab your bat. You grab your helmet. You’re walking up to the play. What is your walk up song?

Lori Highby  51:25

I knew that’s where you’re going. I was getting a little nervous. I figured I could figure it out. Okay. Oh, man, okay, recently. Oh, dear. I want to look at my phone real quick.

Damon Pistulka  51:51

Go on to the phone. See, man, what

Lori Highby  51:54

is my walk up song? Goodness. That’s a big one that’s making me think too hard right now.

Curt Anderson  52:01

Harry. Harry says we call it Wrigley north.

Lori Highby  52:05

I appreciate that. Oh, yeah. You know, I’m okay. I had the song I know it is give me one second. I’ll figure it out. Right now. It’s gonna be by the artists POS, which is a song.

52:26

Get down. Get down did

Lori Highby  52:28

POS. It is a Minnesota wrapper.

Curt Anderson  52:33

So the Skoda wrapper, of course.

Lori Highby  52:35

I want you to listen to it. And I want you to tell me what you think about folks

Curt Anderson  52:40

in Milwaukee didn’t talk to people from Minnesota, but I guess

Lori Highby  52:45

I have to.

Curt Anderson  52:47

I guess otherwise, Damon, so anyway, do you have it on there? No, I

Damon Pistulka  52:50

don’t. You don’t have

Lori Highby  52:51

that? You probably wouldn’t want to play that. Well. Yeah.

Damon Pistulka  52:54

That’s the other thing. I’m thinking when you say rapper I’m thinking uhj not probably could be

53:01

good, be good. Lori,

Curt Anderson  53:02

thank you for playing our little game. And so that was that was our little build up. So any takeaways, words of wisdom, parting thoughts that you want to share with the crowd for today?

Lori Highby  53:10

Definitely invest the time and understanding your customer. It’s going to make a big difference in your long game marketing strategy.

Damon Pistulka  53:18

Yeah. That hit me like a brick, but the first time it hit me like a brick again. That’s awesome. Right?

Curt Anderson  53:26

We’re not the quickest guys on the planet. So Laurie, thank you. We appreciate you. We applaud you. We commend you. It’s always an honor privilege of doing anything, any man anytime I get to get the hang out with Lori Highby. I just I feel that much smarter. Damon, you know, that’s a great thing about our show, again, with this content. Laurie is like, I never need to be the smart guy in the room. I never want to be the smartest guy in the room. It’s just great. Bringing a wonderful, amazing, passionate people like yourself. And just as you said, rising tide lifts all ships and we certainly did that today. So if you’ve been hanging out with us for the past, however long it’s been it’s a great time to stand up and give a huge round of applause for liat Lori Highby the big cheese of Keystone. And so I just want to wish everybody an amazing, incredible weekend. And just God bless you guys. Thank you for joining us. We’re right back here on Monday with more awesomeness. Damon Take it away, brother.

Damon Pistulka  54:16

All right. Thanks, Laurie. It’s so great to talk with you again. It’s a it’s like a just a huge firehose of knowledge that hits us every time we get you on and I do love it. Love it. Love it. Oh say hey, thanks. Here yeah masterclass, Harry says Thank you, Lori. Let’s think Harry, Dan, Timothy Gale, and I’m missing a bunch of other people that were here, Whitney, if you’re listening to the show today. Thank you. First of all, we appreciate it. We appreciate a do that and go back and listen for the beginning because Lori drops some real bombs that you’re gonna want to put in place in your company. If you are thinking about marketing, and as Kurt said, we’ll be back again Monday. A with another great guest thanks everyone have a great weekend see ya