Digital Marketing Strategy: Focusing on Business Improvement & Growth
Is your digital marketing driving real growth, or just adding to the noise? In this exciting episode of Stop Being the Best Kept Secret, we dive into Manufacturing Marketing Strategies that connect with buyers. We are focusing on business improvement and growth.
Our guest is DiAnn Beyer, an advocate for the U.S. Manufacturing Industry and a Business Recovery Specialist.
DiAnn Beyer is a leader who helps manufacturers improve results with clear plans and smart actions. She works with teams to solve problems, guide change, and drive growth using data and real-world insight.
We break down how digital marketing can drive real business improvement and growth. Learn how to get found online, connect with the right buyers, and turn your marketing into results. Simple steps. Real impact. Strong growth.
This episode will show you how to make better decisions, improve performance, and build a stronger business.
Focusing on Business Improvement & Growth: Key Highlights
• Challenges in US Manufacturing 4:07
• DiAnn’s Transition to Marketing 5:33
• Digital Marketing Strategies 13:24
• Building Relationships and Networking 42:42
• Final Thoughts and Advice 52:04
To learn more about SEO for Manufacturers, check out SEO for Manufacturers: Foundations, Strategy & Implementation.
B2Btail – Helping Awesome Companies with Digital Sales Growth Solutions
Get Your FREE SEO Report
You Have Only One Chance to Make An Outstanding First Webpression https://b2btail.com/webpression/
Stop Being the Best Kept Secret: Manufacturing eCommerce Strategies
Follow B2Btail on YouTube, Reddit, and LinkedIn.
Curt on LinkedIn
Damon on LinkedIn
Transcription
Damon Pistulka 00:02
Alright, everyone, it is Friday, and that means it is time for stop being the best kept secret. I’m the one of the CO hosts here. Can’t remember what I’m supposed to say. Damon Pistulka And that gentleman right over there, Curt Anderson, is going to take it away. I’m going to get our names up here, because we were, we were again, getting ready to go. Weren’t quite ready, but we’re ready to go now. Thanks, Curt. Let’s do it. We’re gonna be digital marketing strategy, focusing on business improvement, improvement growth. Whoa, gee,
Curt Anderson 00:36
Damon, I’ll just take it. I’ll just, you just take it. Do you sit
Damon Pistulka 00:38
back, dude, you sit back. I was going, I was going, and couldn’t stop. It could like a snowball rolling down there.
Curt Anderson 00:46
It was better than a train wreck, right? Be better. So, hey, let’s dive in. We’ve got Diane Beyer in the house. DiAnn, Happy Friday to you. How are you?
DiAnn Beyer 00:59
I’m great. Happy Friday to you, what a great day to wait to end the week with friends. I love
Curt Anderson 01:06
it absolutely. So just what a great day to have a great day. And repeat offender you’ve been, you’ve been hanging out with us multiple times on the show. So just little introduction, you are a business improvement specialist. Damon. I tagged DiAnn the most rational human being that I’ve ever encountered. She’s just an amazing, incredible wife, a wonderful mother, all sorts of new, exciting things going on in her life. As matter of fact, I think you have a new addition to the family that we might get into today. So Diane, tell everybody a little bit about yourself, please.
DiAnn Beyer 01:40
So I I do work with manufacturers on improving their current conditions. I’m work with those who have lost sales and revenues, operating profits and even lost employees due to trade so but today, I’m more here as an industry advocate for the Manufacturers of America.
Curt Anderson 02:04
Very passionate for manufacturers. Now I’ve asked you this before. We’re going to dive into it. What share a little bit in your background. Why are you so passionate about US manufacturing?
DiAnn Beyer 02:16
So that’s an excellent question, and it’s kind of something that I wanted to advocate for manufacturers today, so I’ll kind of skip ahead a little bit here. I think we as American manufacturers, those in the industry, don’t realize what a pillar in our economy we are. I don’t think we realize that, you know, there’s we participate and provide I have my notes for the exact numbers, two point something trillion dollars to our global domestic product. Yeah, if manufacturing us, manufacturing wasn’t important, we’d all be home, homesteading and making her and we just don’t appreciate the value that manufacturers bring to our world, to our jobs, to our homes, to our education. There isn’t anything that we do in our lives that manufacturing doesn’t touch.
Damon Pistulka 03:15
Yeah, yeah. It’s one of those base base industries that we need to keep in
DiAnn Beyer 03:21
the US, and I’m aware from being in my position, that if we’re not mindful about what we’re doing in the industry, we could have things happen like what happened to the textile industry. Back in 1948 textiles were booming here in America. We were a leader. And then 1990s with globalization, we allowed other countries to take over the industry, and now we only produce two to 3% of all textiles here in the United States, which puts us on a very just big disadvantage, and we saw that right in covid. I find it interesting that we’re talking today, because this is the six year anniversary of covid, and when I feel that there’s been a huge shift in our manufacturing industry, covid kind of gave us some glimpses to supply demand. And if you’re paying attention, the chips all. A lot of our chips were being made overseas, and we were kind of stuck here, and that’s developed into the chip act, and kind of brought our awareness to us, and to some of us in the industry, of how important it is to be producing things here globally. If we’re not paying attention, our global competitors can come in and steal market share and eventually could take over segments of our industries. So yes, I’m here as an advocate today,
Curt Anderson 04:52
just little bit of an advocate, and so you’ve had a fascinating journey. You went from accounting to like in my humble. Opinion, and I know you’re very humble, so you won’t, I’m going to say it for you, because you want, you’ve become an incredibly astute marketer in really taking a deep dive and understanding, like, and it’s all about, you know, when you strip it back, it’s like two things. It’s like, it’s the psychology of the buying process, but really it’s relationships. And you are the, if I can say Queen the authority of just like, really doing vast networking, building those relationships, just talk a little bit about your journey, your transition going from, like, fierce account counting side of things to, like, what really tug you over onto the marketing side of things?
DiAnn Beyer 05:37
So, so I’m a numbers person, okay, and that’s one of the things I want to advocate for manufacturers. Now, you need to know your numbers. You need to know what numbers your what your numbers speak to you. I can read somebody’s financial statements and see what the story tells me. If you can’t look at your financials and understand you need somebody in your circle who can my full circle story is I started out in manufacturing, working for manufacturers and working their financials and understanding what the numbers meant, that I could communicate with the presidents, the owners and say, here’s where we’re trending. Here’s where we’re going. Is there. I then moved into my Curt position, and I work with those who have been struggling and impacted by foreign trade, and who are, you know, some are desperate not to fold like it depends on where they are in their journey of decline, when, when I work with them. But in that process, right throughout all of it, there’s been this trend of what happens when there’s a decline, when our sales decline, when our operating, our normal go tos, or our historical go to I should say, have been cut the fat, trim the expenses, lead generate. So there’s always been that importance of Link generate. The other part of it is and we say this all the time when we’re talking about your digital marketing game. Know your soulmate, know your customer, and you not only to know your customer, but you need to know how their world is evolving and changing. And I brought up covid as an example. Industry has changed in the last six years because of covid, but we also have generational changes. We you know, who are our customers currently, right now, we have some who are boomers who have grown up with a phone on the wall and have to talk to people make phone calls, we have others like my children, who learn to text with their hand in their sweatshirt and text without even seeing what they’re saying to their friends while they’re sitting in class. You know, the environment we grew up in with being pre computer pre, you know, pocket phone takes a generational shift and needs to account for those underlying consumer issues. And I’ve got a fabulous story to tell to you know, get into the digital marketing and why that’s part of the key this weekend, I have a car lease coming that do that. I need to turn it in May. So couple weeks ago, I decided I’m going to be proactive with this. I’m going to start figuring out if I’m going to buy it out or if I’m going to trade it in get a new lease. You know, what am I going to do? And what did I do? I got on my computer, I typed in best lease deals because I decided I wanted another lease March 2026 I even chat GPT it to see what would come up. In doing that search, I got two in New Jersey dealerships that came up, four in Pennsylvania, one in four in the surrounding Philadelphia area, including one in Philadelphia and one in downtown. And up came their chat box. I had already seen a good deal, and I typed in the chat box of all of them looking for the best lease deal on make and model. Best deal wins. I’m looking to take delivery Saturday. That’s all I did. Phone starts ringing off the hook, text messages start coming in, emails start coming in, and I declined the calls. Dealt with the text messages because I too, have a job. I’m working, and family I’m taking care of Time is money started three local to me, pushed for me to come into the store, didn’t want to give me numbers one in Jersey, completely sat, sent automated messages and never followed up. And then they just died off when I didn’t respond. The other one in New Jersey sent me stripped down base model, no, no,
Curt Anderson 10:11
yeah, most muscles,
DiAnn Beyer 10:13
yeah, options on it. And, you know, lime green color. Now I’m not ditching anybody who loves lime green. I’m not a lime green. Run, run around town, everybody looking at me, and I had already sent the colors. Long story short, one of the dealers was the one that I had originally used. From that one put me in a spiral loop of going from one customer care person to another, business development person to another, and never took me out of this look. It was almost like there was a competition between three people trying to get me in the door. I took delivery Saturday from the Allentown location. Oh, did you the Allentown location? Sent me through email and through text, an actual offer, uh huh, that beat the deal I gave with more options on the car. Listened to me as a customer and realized and and that’s one of the things, like, you know your soulmate, and one of the things I’m saying about know your foundation of where your stomach is coming from. Well, do we want less for more money, as in the New Jersey dealer, or do we want more for less, as in the Allentown I get an upgrade to my Curt paying less money and then to the finance office. I was sitting signing the papers, and I looked at the finance manager. I said, How many times have you sold a car without the person ever seeing it, touching it or driving it? He went and haven’t seen the car yet. I mean, I saw it online. I saw the stock number. I did my research, but know your customers now, okay, Diane, this is a car purchase car. How does this apply to manufacturing? How does it apply to digital marketing? What have we been saying you know your customer, those who stayed in the BDC center and customer care and trying to get me to come in and waste my time looking at cars that I already know doesn’t know time is important to me. Yeah, they’re lost in their own process. Curt, you’re going to love this. One of the ones local to me. Just kept sending me dittos and flyers of how they’re the best. And I thought of you about wee wee syndrome. We are the best. You gotta do for us. You gotta come and see us. Come to our showroom because we will give you free tires for life. We’ll give you free are. We’re the best. We’re the best, and we never addressed my issue on numbers. The other thing, what am I always advocating to our manufacturers? I always say, if you are not coming up on Google search, you’re not even competing. What happened? I got on I researched best car leases in March. I got seven hits, five from Pennsylvania. There are over 1000 car dealers in Pennsylvania, five came up, yeah, if you are not having a website, and we discussed the generation that likes to text and not talk to people that is now currently flooding our markets and our industries and in position of making purchasing decisions. What did I do? I use the chat boxes on the website. If you don’t have a way to communicate with your client, and we’ve said this before, at 3am when they’re up with a baby, you’re losing business. Now, as an accountant, let me pull this in for you, right as an accountant, when you start losing sales, I said, we start looking at tributes that getting rid of expenses, looking ways lean generate. But we should be thinking outside those boxes, outside the boxes, how can I expand my hours to get to the people who need to be dealing with the outside? Have your website able to handle the influx? Right there, you can open up your revenue streams just by being online. It’s not a new person, but it’s a sales person that you don’t have to pay 24/7, have them be able to get a quote. I wasn’t going, I made clear I wasn’t going into any location without an actual quote. Be able to quote people, be able to have them purchase online, if I understand, now, I haven’t dealt with Carvana, but Carvana is moving the needle in that industry. To FOCUS Online. Never see the car and have it if the finance manager heard me. Me, and was listening, and I said, I came and I bought without even testing, driving or touching the vehicle. There’s a new revenue stream make it easy online for you to buy a car like environment, because guess what? Karma is doing that and that is your competitor. So you also need to be aware of what your competitors doing and out perform. Make sense.
Curt Anderson 15:26
Phenomenal story. You know, what that? You know they always say, I’ve been big on this line. You know, facts tell stories sell like that. Is a powerful, perfect example. I just had a conversation this morning something very similar, Damon, I know you’re constantly talking about, like, removing the friction your What are your thoughts on DiAnn’s experience?
Damon Pistulka 15:45
Yeah, I love the example, because you were ready to walk in, sign the papers and buy right, and the other, and that’s so. So this is not, I’m coming in to look and maybe, yeah, choice and all that. So I just need I give me the bottom line, let me know, and I’ll come in and take care of it if we’re ready to go. And that’s like, if you can’t do that in an industry like the faster you can do it, the better, almost as Curt likes to say, with a quote generator or something like that. I mean, you can go to go to one of the big car sites. You can get your price right there, if you want to, you know, and get things like that. That is that speed means additional revenue, because there are some people that will not want to come in and look at it. They want to sign the line and have it show up, like Carvana, or they want to walk in sign it get out. They don’t want to look at 100 different vehicles. That one they know is just fine.
DiAnn Beyer 16:47
And, and I’m going to be Curt to the punch, I know he’s going to ask me, What’s the best business I ever got? And I’m going to throw it in right here, one of and, you know, I don’t know that there’s a best. I have many. But one of the things my father used to say to me is, time is money. Don’t waste yours. Don’t waste your clients, and don’t allow anyone to waste yours. And that is knowing your customer, right? Yeah, we that’s the foundation of, you know, I don’t, you know, on top of knowing, you know, he’s a director, he’s the CEO. And specifics to their business, you need to know the foundation. The foundation is, our clients are changing due to technology they want. There’s good majority who want to be, you know, not talking face to face. They are living in the fear of missing out. They they have other things that are important to them. Sitting six hours in a dealership, driving every car in the lot to then have that puppy dog. Oh, I fell in love with this one. No, like they’re educated, they’re researching. They’re researching online. Where are they? They’re online. I don’t know that I hit any dealers over the past week that are advertising on TV, but I know there’s about 1000 of them that didn’t even get me to even look at their inventory because they didn’t come up in a search. And that’s what I have been standing on the mountain. You know, it’s not, it’s no longer just cut the fat and increase leads. It’s looking at how we can really build sales and partnerships and business and the industry we have, we have some issues coming up. We have aI coming in. Those who are jumping on that are going to move faster than those who are resistant to it. You both know I’ve said we have three types of manufacturers, the proactive one, who’s staying on top of technology and new changes in the environment how our customers are now buying. We have the reactive, who waits until sales decline to make the changes, and then we have the status quo. Who stays consistent with this is what we’ve always done. We’ve been doing this since 1950s and mop oil in your apron, right like but I’m going to be standing with warning signs. It is time for all of us in manufacturing industry to start all being proactive. There’s been a lot of changes, and one of the things I’m going to say is start tracking your sales. Start tracking like chips Act, and the chips issue and our supply chain issues back with covid Six years ago should have woke us up. We need to look at where global competition is. I would absolutely recommend to every manufacturer, you should be looking at your financials monthly. I know some manufacturers who don’t even look at them for three months because they allow it to take. Three months to formalize them, and I know they don’t know how to read them. Know your ratios, your debt to equity, your current assets. Know you know your sales decline month over month, or your sales improvement. Track your tariffs, what extra, how costs have increased over time. These numbers tell stories. Your numbers and financial speak volumes. If you don’t know how they speak, get in touch with somebody like myself who can translate for you. One of the things I think manufacturers should be doing are not only being proactive, but to have their senators and their representatives, not only the representative where their business is, but where they’re, where they live on speed dial, because I told Curt couple months ago, change is going to come from the manufacturing industry, the changes that are currently happening. Everybody’s talking about how life is changing in our world right now and how things are expensive at the kitchen table, but the average consumer has a small voice in in our government and in making policy changes, but the manufacturing industry a pillar in our economy, with you having the right story and saying, Hey, this is what happened, and this is how I’ve been impacted, and this is what’s changing, and this is where we need to be focused. That’s a strong story. And I’m not saying good or bad, like you guys have the numbers. If tariffs have increased your sales, that’s a huge story to stand on. If they’ve defined sales, that’s a story. Another thing I would suggest to manufacturers is we don’t realize we’re in a global marketplace, and it’s a shame, because we should be standing on what happened to the textile industry in the 1990s with the trade impacts there, we do need to realize my story with I drove an hour to Allentown to get the best deal that represents your sales going overseas because of that steel. People will go further, people will travel. People will deal with those who are going to work with you. That’s global competition. So I do, I do need to give a shout out to my MEPs and the SBAS manufacturing extension partners. If you are a manufacturing you don’t know them. Get to know them. We’ve lost over 200 200 really talented people from the MEPs. You need to make those connections. We need to collaborate and come together proactively as an industry, right?
Damon Pistulka 22:53
Yeah, yeah, they’re doing a great job. And I just call I come back again to what you said about you did a Google search. I mean, this is these. These are basic things, right? If, if, if you today, have not searched to see if you come up from somebody else’s computer that hasn’t searched you before, you’re missing out, or go incognito and do it, because if you’re not showing up, you’re, you’re, you’re dead to the world. I actually did a post about that you’re invisible to the world. I think it was yesterday or day before, just because if you can’t be found, right? You’re only as you’re only as known as the people you talk to then or the people you’re doing business with. Absolutely.
DiAnn Beyer 23:37
And what did I say? I said I Googled best lease deals, march 2026 if I know, you know, we need to know what the manufacturer. But if I was a dealer, I would be posting a blog to my website every month, best lease deals, May 26 and the best purchase deal. And I would be running things to come up. I would understand what the blogs are, and I would make sure, because here’s the thing that out of the box thinking I’m talking about, it’s not just lead generation anymore. It’s not just having more numbers in your contact list to get it is finding new ways to do business. One of the things I’d suggest no contact in US commercial services and learn about exporting your product, right? Yeah, how do we make better sales? It’s not always the generation, but Right. If you’re coming up in searches, and I’m promoting you to get your digital marketing plan together. And I’m saying, Get your website where it’s not complicated for I’ll be honest with you, there was an eight for a dealer that came up. Their website was so difficult to go through, I clicked off you need business is global. Business is online. Business is your your website. If your website’s not performing, you are losing end of story. We’re a gold market getting online, making it easy for a customer. Know how they’re working and dealing and making connections. But this expanding sales is then also be prepared to do global markets and do exports, yeah, yeah. This is how we’re going to build businesses and improve this.
Curt Anderson 25:32
Yeah. Hey and Damon, we got a couple of comments. I think there’s a question here that might be a good one for DiAnn.
Damon Pistulka 25:38
Let’s see here. Let’s see right here. Hello, good to see you. One question, I love your thoughts on, how do you prioritize between short term performance, ie leads and sales and long term brand building when working within limited budgets? Awesome question. Yeah, it’s a great it’s a great question, because I think everybody lives in this world, right? I got to play with somebody this week about that. You know, playing by going, What? What? If you had every bit of money you wanted to do it, but in the real world.
DiAnn Beyer 26:16
So, you know, my first thoughts with limited budgets, right? If you’re blogging, you can have someone in house blogging for you, and you can the blog is going to get generate you coming up in search, right? There’s very little cost to that. If you’re doing it yourself, you can also work with a partner. That’s huge, right? And I think if I’m understanding the credit there is also relationship building, right? Short Term leans, you know, it’s that knowing your customer relationship, you can have short term sales and have a sale, but if you’re not working the whole process for your customer. If you’re not doing the quality assurance and you’re not taking the pressure, the difficulties off their back, they’re one hit wonder, building relationships, making it easy for them to do business with you, putting on your website, a quoting process, a purchasing process, they can just get on and do it and handle it, and have stuff shift and have that confidence that you’re there you are dealing with repeat sales. Then yeah, and I always advocate you want to be building those relationships where you’re not just a one hit wonder and they’re moving on to the next you want to establish that relationship, right?
Curt Anderson 27:49
Yeah, right. And I think, and, yeah, any questions that you guys have drop them in the chat box. We’d be happy to pull up any questions. We’ve got Diane buyer here today, growth specialist, Business Improvement expert. So please drop your comments, drop any questions. We’d be happy to pull those up. And so DiAnn, you do an amazing job of, let’s, let’s talk a little bit further about, like, understanding that customer. So let’s take, let’s talk to that manufacturer out there, their CNC Shop Pro, they do circuit boards, whatever it is that they make. And, you know, unfortunately, they’re just kind of like, oh well, we can see and see for anybody, everybody. We can make circuit boards for anybody. But then when you talk to them long enough, we’re like, oh well, 70% of our businesses in auto, or, you know, 80% of our businesses in pharma. How do you help that that person, kind of, like, dive in and, like, understand their but understand like they’re really in a niche, in a niche, and they just don’t necessarily realize it.
DiAnn Beyer 28:50
So I’m more of a different approach than the niche and down on on specific products. I try to help them see where we can improve our situation to make things better financially. But on the knowing your customer, niching down, I will say I have worked with manufacturers who like lead generating, right they, let’s say they make a cup, and they sit there and go, Sailor down. We have to improve. So let’s make a lid for the cup. Let’s make a straw for a cup, and they start breaking. No, you don’t want to spiral out into new territories, and so you want to niche down. And you want to talk to those people, to your customers, who do those specific so in in what I’ve learned in digital marketing, you want to be talking on your website with your blogs about how you work for let’s say, if you’re doing widgets for automobile industry, you want to have content specific to the in the automobile industry, so that when somebody is researching that particular service or product, it’s coming you’re coming up. You. Are the experts?
Curt Anderson 30:03
Yeah, absolutely. Damon, any thoughts that you want to add to that?
Damon Pistulka 30:06
I I just think, if you’re not niching down in manufacturing, like you say, we talked to lots of manufacturers that are doing contract work and and even other other kinds that have product lines, right? If you don’t focus in on the industry where you’re the best, you can’t do what DiAnn is saying. Because if I’m if I’m building blades that could be used for dirt or are more likely used for snow removal, and I’m writing a blade, well, you can go out and push dirt and move, you know, whatever, but, but if most of my sales comes from snow removal, we should be talking about why, or why this blade was designed this way, or challenges in snow removal and how, how products can be designed to do that. Then you go, okay, who’s visiting our website? Well, if I’m writing about everybody, you don’t know who it is, but if I’m writing about this person, we talk about this a lot, Curt, and then when you really know, and Diane was saying it about the soul mate, who that is, you’re speaking to them, who’s going to be there, if I’m talking about, if I’m saying, hey, in the commercial snow removal business, there’s two things that really are a big difference in in in the industry, and you’re educating them, talking about things you don’t have to worry about. Who’s coming to your website, looking at your stuff, because if I’m looking for a snow blower, I’m not going to come to your site. And because I’m a for my house, you know, there’s so many different ways to do that, and people get they get that. I’m going to miss some sales if I don’t try to talk to everybody. But it makes it so much harder to figure out, well, what are we what are we really trying to do? Because the lead you get are often kind of you scratch your head. You have that call you scratch that head and go. I guess we could be construed doing that.
DiAnn Beyer 32:01
So I’m going to jump in here because I come to this as an accountant first, and I come to this as numbers speak. And I’m come into manufacturers when they’re looking to improve their numbers and sales have declined, right? So I’m not front line on the digital marketing with them, or frontline on that, where I’m going to see things is I’m going to look at the numbers, telling me a story, and I’m going to I can sit here and say, Okay, look at your debt to asset ratios. And if your debt to asset ratios are high and you’re starting to become underwater, you’re spending money, or rather, you’re borrowing money to do things in your business and you need to fix something else, and that’s kind of where I’ve seen like, for example, a cup manufacturer goes into making straws, and then bigger cups, and then cup holders and cup caddies and and starts, you know, borrowing money to make all These things try and make more sales. And if that’s where I’m saying from the accountant side of it, look for where your numbers speak to you and where they start skewing off normal. That’s going to say, hey, wait a minute. I have a problem. Let me look back at what I’m doing and that, if you know how to speak numbers, that’s going to pull you back to let me niche down. So I come from it from the opposite side most of the time, but that’s where I also say and Curt knows this is where my favorite saying, it’s my motto, my mantra, we are better together. You always need to have your circle of friends and your circle of experts. That’s where I sit there and say, Hey, this is where we need to pull in a digital marketing expert. This is where you need to be focused on getting that information out there you are a snow removal blade person sticking that lane. Let’s put our money in focus there. Let’s trim the fat out here. Let’s focus on these customers. So this is where digital marketing and accounting come together and meet. And this is where you know, at an advocate for the manufacturing, I always say, listen the owners of the businesses and manufacturers I work with, the presidents and company you know your product, that is what you are an expert at. You’re not always an expert in finances or taxes or reading the financial statements. Get people in for digital marketing, for that can help you build those processes. And that’s my going back to my story the car dealer, the one who constantly had me in a loop of the Business Development Center, customer care, support, you’re lost in that cycle of I need to generate leads. I need to generate leads. And you’re not stopping your process and realizing this is not effective, because if you’re looking at your numbers, you’re tracking your numbers, you would see maybe you had 480 website hits that month, and two came in through the door. Hmm, that’s where it show you something. It’s not working. That’s where, yeah, numbers talk to Yeah, 480 hits on your website, and 375 came in, or 420 you know your process is working,
Curt Anderson 35:18
right, right, right. So let’s go here. So Damon, I did a little fun webinar this week for a trade association. Had a great time geeking out. And DiAnn, we reposed a question that I’m going to throw at you. And at the end of our session, we reposed this question. They said, All right. Curt, Damon, for the manufacturer out there that just, you know, maybe I just had a call this morning, marketing was just not a priority. God bless them. You know, they’ve been busy. It was funny. They obviously, you know, 1950s they’ve been busy crushing it where they didn’t. They didn’t need the website, they didn’t need this social media thing, all the things, right? So for our friend out there who like, maybe they feel a little bit behind the curve. Website’s not where it needs to be. The question that we’re we’re asked, What would you advise them, what like for that, that person that’s just starting, where should they start? Where’s the, where’s like, the the beginning line of like, kind of getting into this digital marketing journey. We’re like, I can just see like, not, and I won’t even say, like momentum, but I just, I’m getting off the sidelines onto the field. I’m going to get a little bit dirty, throw some blocks get hit. But where would they where should they start, in your opinion?
DiAnn Beyer 36:31
So first, from an accounting perspective, where I said the old way of doing business is we were cutting and trimming the fat. We were getting rid of the expenses. One of the things that always got cut was marketing, yeah, yeah, yeah, because we couldn’t see the benefit of it, right, right? We’re hiring sales people. I have somebody to do that for me. There’s that mindset of it wasn’t important. And then can I plug? Can I plug? I’m sorry for everybody viewing, but I’m going to plug here. I absolutely love your digital game plan, and I think it’s huge because I’ve worked with you with it. I see the benefits of it. I love how you streamline and show what’s working on a website, what needs to be enhanced and what’s missing. I have experienced both professionally within my own organization and working with other organizations where we hire a website designer or somebody, and there’s a disconnect with the conversation, and they’re trying to find out what we want and need, and we’re trying to, like, rely on them, on an expert. One of the things I love about your digital game plan with those three columns of this is what’s working. This is what needs to be fixed, and this is what you’re missing entirely. It gives a blueprint that everybody understands. It creates a conversation that both parties can come to an understanding, understanding each side. And I think that’s so critical right now, because I think that’s where manufacturers are, right. They know they need digital marketing. They know they need a good website. They know they need to maybe have E commerce or quote capabilities on the website, but that’s not where we’re experts in we’re experts in making widgets, and that’s where I say, get your circle of experts. We are Better Together. No man is an island, and no man should be an island if we want to be successful, we must work together. Collaborate. Work on the problems. Have the difficult discussions, have the hold the mirror moments, hit the bull’s eye, and do it together.
Curt Anderson 38:52
Yeah, I tell you. Damon, having a so I’m going to, I’m going to throw a plug right back at you. Having a friend, professional colleague, like Diane buyer, it’s like, yeah, and you know what? And I’m not great at this, because, like, you know, I want to be like, Mr. Nice Guy. And like, you know, I don’t hurt anybody’s feelings. But DiAnn has a gift, and it is a blessing, and I can express my gratitude from the bottom of my heart, where DiAnn tells you she holds up the mirror, like, hey, you’ve got food in your teeth. You got this. But she does a phenomenal job. You never get better by just praises and compliments, right? You only do better when you acknowledge like, Hey, where are my deficits? Where are my flaws, my faults? How can we improve
DiAnn Beyer 39:32
so and I’m just going to tag on that, right? If, if I’m a business improvement specialist and I’m supposed to be helping you with your problems. I can’t put solutions in place if we only know the tip of the iceberg of problems, because you don’t want to tell me the deep dirt, ugly and what’s hidden behind the surface, below the surface, with the iceberg, I need to know the whole we have to have the difficulty successions without any emotion. With it. It’s it’s not a fault thing, or it’s where we are. And so, like, I’ll take it above the industry right now, manufacturing industry, we have a big problem, and we need to work it together, and we have to be direct about it. We are facing a 2 million job position openings coming in that in the future that will be unfulfilled, that will drastically impact American fan. We need to be working on it day, because what we do today creates the future for tomorrow. We have to stand together and fix this. We, as a collective manufacturing industry, need to move to working with teachers, mentoring programs, Big Brothers, Big Sisters, anywhere where we can start pulling in talent for our manufacturing industry, right? You can’t fix solution and put solutions in place if we don’t fully understand the problems. And I can’t be a problem solver if I don’t tell you where I see the problems, that’s right.
Curt Anderson 40:59
Damon, what are your thoughts on? Like that tough love advice, what? I think
Damon Pistulka 41:02
it’s great. I think it’s great. And, you know, it’s it. You really want to get better. You need that, right? You need that. And then you need to absorb it and make the change move forward.
DiAnn Beyer 41:15
That’s right, it is. I, I try to look at it as a coach, you know, like it was very profound to me. My daughter was playing softball. She was middle school. She had a friend on the team who was a home run hitter coach. You know, she went to the coach and she wanted to be home run hitter, and the coach said, Hey, listen, you’re never going to be a home run hitter, but you don’t need to be. That’s not your niche. Your niche is getting on base. So let me get on base, and you can’t score if you’re not on base, because, you know, so let me teach your slab bun, let me drop bunt, let me teach this. And you know, she was very frustrated the beginning when he started saying that, and he mentored her and coached her. And looking back, he is the reason she got to play college softball. Yeah, right, where her home run hitter stopped playing in high school, right, right? And that’s kind of the thing we need to take, assess where we are, look for where we can improve, move in those directions, layer the that learning and growth in that brings us the success.
Curt Anderson 42:27
Yeah, that is a spot on, you know, I was, I always say life is baseball, softball, right? Like every, every analogy in life, I always feel like you can pull back the baseball, but you think about that. And to your daughter’s credit, like, you know, hey, she want to be better. She want to do her best. And so she’s thinking, I want to be a home run hitter. So for our manufacturers out there, I think, you know, I can do CNC machining for anybody or everybody, or whatever it might be, as opposed to focusing on our core strengths. So now you go up to the plate and like, Man, I’m going to, I’m going to put this one out there, and you, you pop up, you fly out, you strike out, and now you’re frustrated, now you’re mad, and maybe, maybe your daughter doesn’t keep playing, because if there was a coach that said, yes, let’s make you that home run hitter, and they and she just was never going to come about. And now instead, she embraces her core strengths, her superpowers, and goes on to college. That is a that’s a drop of mic. Phenomenal story right there?
DiAnn Beyer 43:21
DiAnn, yeah, we have to play to our strengths, play to your course. And that’s that goes back to where I say, have your circle of experts, because we are not a master of everything. And that goes internally within our business. You’re not just going to know what you know, your product, your product line, but maybe human resources out of your scope, or financial or digital marketing. You know, there’s a lot that goes into our our individual businesses, and that we need support with our experts. There their support we need on the higher level in industry. You know, that’s why building relationships, being there, being able to have a difficult discussion, mentoring, coaching. It’s, you know, it comes back to what I’m always saying, We are Better Together. If you’ve got a problem that you’re not figuring out yourself, it’s time to call in somebody who can help you get there.
Curt Anderson 44:09
That’s right, get that relief pitcher there. So let we’ll start winding down. I know everybody. You’re super busy, DiAnn, helping people grow their businesses. Yeah, a couple questions left for you from a LinkedIn standpoint. So like, you know, maybe in a previous life or previous role, maybe social media wasn’t a super top priority for you, you’ve really come in and embrace LinkedIn. It’s been a huge part of your professional life. It’s converted into wonderful relationships. You’re a fierce networker. I’ve made wonderful friends through you. We’ve shared our communities with each other. Talk a little bit for our friend out there, that manufacturer, when we’re talking about, like, what’s the starting point? What is LinkedIn done for you personally?
DiAnn Beyer 44:52
Oh, LinkedIn has opened up a whole new world for me. Is taking me from one platform to another. Talk about building communities, building people relationships. And I will say LinkedIn is another place where people do business. I was able through LinkedIn connections with my current position. So my current position, real quick, is just a government program. I shouldn’t say just a Pro is a government program that needs to work with manufacturers who are negatively impacted with foreign trade for us and we’ve been in existence for over 50 years, and people don’t know who we are. We’re not a home, home run name well known. So getting people in the door, when I started working here six, six years ago, would take eight to 12 soft touches, a huge focus on outreach and lead generation and then and we were really spinning our wheels trying to get our name out there. It’s kind of how you and I connected, because I google search stop being best kept secret, you know. But in my connections with LinkedIn and people understanding what I do, we were able to have people find us. And that’s a whole game changer, yeah, and that’s kind of what I’m saying, and that’s why I’ve been such a big advocate for digital marketing, right? It’s so hard for us to forward out and say, let me find the customer who needs me now and find that. Take that from a lead prospect to a lead and pull that customer in. Is such a better place for somebody who needs us to find us. And LinkedIn has been that for me. So, you know, use the social media let people find you. You know, it’s no good to find a customer six months after they found another solution, yeah, oh, you should have been here last December, we had we needed our pipe sticks, though. We needed a new Florida. We needed the widgets you’re making, and we got a new supplier. No, you want you know. So which would you rather somebody picking up the phone and calling you and say, Hey, I need you now. What can you do to help me? Or spending all this time and energy touching people eight to 12 times and saying, Hey, we’re here. Can we help you? Can we help you? Can we help you? Call us when you need us? No, LinkedIn has been that for me, it’s been able to build a relationship with people. Grow my experts circle. Grow my circle of friends. Have people. Hey, you know what? You have that problem. Let me introduce you. It is important.
Curt Anderson 47:57
Total game changers. Remember Damon, you and I just had our six year anniversary this week, we first connected. He connected on my wife’s birthday, I think in 2020 right with I was like, right when the world was collapsing in covid. And so we just celebrated. And we go back a number of years, I can tell you exactly where I was the first day. You and I connected on the phone, and we’ve just been fast friends ever since, and collaborated done business together, and so what an absolute honor, privilege. Damon, what for our friends out there? Maybe new to LinkedIn? What are your, what are your, you know, you, you’re on LinkedIn once a while, right?
Damon Pistulka 48:29
I hear a little bit, little bit yeah. It as DiAnn says, You meet so many great people. First of all, just great people, just meeting good humans. Yeah, I’ll just start there, because it is so cool, you know, because you don’t realize how many people out there doing good things, until you get out and LinkedIn is a place where you see a lot of people. Some may be active on LinkedIn, some not so active, but people are, are out there trying to do good stuff. And then, as DiAnn says, When you come into a challenge and you’re going, I don’t know how to solve something like this, it’s not my deal. But I’ve talked to three people, five people, whatever, that might know somebody or they are the person or the company, have the company to do it. That’s the real power in building those people around us with the specialized skills. And you know, you don’t have to be an expert in business. You just need to know the right people to help you.
Curt Anderson 49:26
Yep, yep, yep, let’s we’re going to wind down on this DiAnn, if you don’t mind. And I don’t know if it’s a little curveball or not, but in I’m not sure how this, how this one’s going to go. But you, you, you the relationship. Damon, I are huge girl dads. You had a one you know where I’m going to go. You had a wonderful, wonderful relationship with your father. And I just, I almost feel like he’s mentored me. You’ve shared so many brilliant pieces of advice and like how he built his business, and he had such a huge influence on you and your career. You as a mom, you professionally. So on and so forth. Share for folks out there, what’s share a little bit about something from your dad that would just be a golden nugget for our friends out there that they could take away today. Any anything that you could share from wisdom from dad? Sure.
DiAnn Beyer 50:16
Well, first of all, he’s hanging on that picture up there. I keep him with nice time. We lost my dad last May to a tragic fall. So those of you who have seniors in your family be aware that falls can be deadly, but my first thought when you asked me that coming off LinkedIn is my dad always used to say, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. And you know, I think, I think you’d be very proud about how I always talk about circle of friends and experts. Have your circle Don’t be an island. That was kind of my father. He was always building. It was important for him. It was, you know, I remember as a child, he would say, it’s not the man who dies with the most money in his pocket, it’s the one who dies with the most friends, yeah, and, you know, and to your point, Damon, yeah, there’s a lot of really great people in this world, and it is those of us who are blessed to get to meet a new person every day. Just add to that circle. That was that he just, you know, and I think a lot of his success was because he knew how to network and do things before the internet and people together and say, how you need that? Here’s this, well, I’m looking for that and and pull it. You know, he grew up in a in Fountain Hill in the Bethlehem area. That was a small community where everybody knew everybody, where it was filled with a lot of family on almost every block, and neighbors were friends, and friends were family, that God allowed us to choose, right? And everybody was important just because they were part of the community, yeah, and I think that’s
Speaker 1 52:16
man, if we could get back to that, could you imagine what we could create if we,
DiAnn Beyer 52:26
yeah, have that mindset, how important we are, just because we’re here together,
Curt Anderson 52:32
be unstoppable. And I’ll tell your dad was, like, he was a he was a great quarterback, meaning, you know, like, he always had a guy or a gal in his pocket. And, you know, I love the way you describe, like, his humility, but he always knew somebody was like, you know, I’m not necessarily going to be the smartest guy in the room, but I’m going to find the smartest person for you to help solve that problem. And what are just a servant leader is, how is the term that I think of when you describe your dad? So, yeah, good. Stuff here. Damon takeaways, thoughts on our wonderful conversation with our good friend, DiAnn
Damon Pistulka 53:04
buyer, been great catching up with you, DiAnn, so so powerful and and thank you. You’re welcome.
DiAnn Beyer 53:11
So I gotta ask you, you’re not gonna ask me what my walk up song is.
Curt Anderson 53:15
I am so alright. So for anybody out there that is not familiar. We love closing out with the walk up song Damon’s big mariners. DiAnn is a huge Phillies fan in Philadelphia. DiAnn, if you’re walking up to the plate to hit in the winning run, my friend, what is your walk up song?
DiAnn Beyer 53:34
So I’m going to answer it this way. Ready my first time on your show. I said it was center field by John February. Good choice. Put me in coach. I’m ready to play. And then the second time I was on, I said, here comes the sun by the Beatles. And so I’m going to give you a walk up Trifecta today. I’m going to add hit me with your best shot by Pat Benatar. Benatar, here’s the cycle that we are working on. You’re going to get hit with things that are going to be hard and difficult, but we’re going to get in the game and play together as a team and put each other in at center field, and we end up winning with Here Comes the Sun, making tomorrow a better day by what we do today together.
Curt Anderson 54:25
Drop the mic. You know Pat Benatar, for anybody out there, like anybody under born, after a certain age, you might like, who’s Pat Benatar? Google her and play. As a matter of fact, I pop on Pat Benatar after we get off that call. So alright, alright, guys, let’s wind down and alright. First off, DiAnn Beyer, thank you, my friend. We appreciate you. We applaud you, we salute you. Anybody out there? Best way to reach you, DiAnn, LinkedIn, do yourself a favor. Connect with DiAnn on LinkedIn and. You can tell she’s an absolute powerhouse. And if you’ve been hanging out with us for this entire time, how about why don’t you stand up and give a little standing ovation, big round of applause for DiAnn, Beyer for words of wisdom, her brilliance, her passion, her expertise, and all the above. And do me one last favor, just go out there and be someone’s inspiration, just like our dear friend, DiAnn, and you too can make the world a better place. Damon, why don’t you close this out, my friend,
Damon Pistulka 55:27
DiAnn, thank you for being here today. It was awesome getting to talk with you, learn from you, as as always, I want to thank then everyone else that showed up that were asking the great questions too. That was awesome. We had some good questions today, and it’s always appreciated. But you know, as Curt said, go out and be special, do your thing. And you said, DiAnn, we’re better together. Thank you so much. Thank you. We’ll be back again next week. Have a great weekend. You.