s01e03 – Marketing & Australian Manufacturing

SUMMARY KEYWORDS
marketing, business, manufacturing, manufacturers, market, measure, customer, opportunity, support, website, working, clients, important, guess, industry, products, achieving, prospective customer, absolutely, message
SPEAKERS
Graeme Fitzgerald, Jacqui Daley

Jacqui Daley 00:00
Hi, everybody. today’s podcast, I’m joined by Jacqui Daley, founder of The Measured Marketer, marketing organization that specializes in supporting Australian manufacturers. Jaqui and I first met a couple of years ago when I was looking for some marketing support and positioning my consulting business. Jacqui has over 18 years experience in developing marketing strategy to support businesses and their leaders to achieve the goals including return on investment, market awareness, brand positioning, amongst other things. Jacqui is passionate about taking the complex world of marketing and technology and turning them into a language and a form that allows businesses to make the right decisions and deliver the returns they want for the investment. Jacqui’s experience includes international campaign management, event coordination, PR, issues management, crisis communications internal community brand management and public speaking amongst a long list of other activities.

Graeme Fitzgerald 05:12
today’s podcast theme is marketing in Australia manufacturing. When I was considering the themes for my first season of podcasts, I felt that manufacturing and marketing was one area that had to be included. For many years experience. It’s apparent to me that one area that a strain manufacturers have a great opportunity to improve is in the marketing their business and the products and solutions they provide. In our time together, I hope we can share some of the passion Jacqui has for this too often neglected aspect of manufacturing, and help you on your journey to a sustainable, profitable future. So welcome to manufacturing mastery jacking.

Jacqui Daley 05:50
Hi, Graham, nice to be here today. Thanks for inviting me. Not a problem. I’m looking been looking forward to this for some weeks now. So. So what I plan to do just to help keep things moving. I know our listeners are all very busy people. And we want to keep it as short and concise as possible. So I’ve got a few questions I might just use to lead through the discussion, but we’ll just play it as we go. So maybe if you could share with everybody where your interest in passion for marketing came from, and how that passion is translated to your journey, working with manufacturers now. Um, well, I guess I, if I go all the way back to school, I was really quite a creative little girl. I really loved the humanities subjects. But I also had a real interest in maths. So it’s a bit of a bit of a combination of interests right there. And that really led me down a path of studying Communications at university. And it was at a really interesting time gray and where we had the opportunity to start to learn about website development, as well as understand the some of the more traditional approaches to marketing through public relations, etc. One of my little ties into manufacturing is actually that I worked for my dad’s business whilst I was at university. And I was based on an industrial site at the one steel site in Newcastle on Ingle street in my field. So I feel like I grew up in a pretty industrial area and managed to get a really good understanding of business, I was looking after the admin and the accounts and the marketing from from quite early on in my career. I thought at the time that I wanted to get out of the dusty and dirty industrial sites that I’m somehow I just haven’t been able to escape that

Graeme Fitzgerald 07:51
gets into your bones or something somewhere, gets under your skin, and you can’t get away from it. Very similar story to mine.

Jacqui Daley 08:00
So in trying to escape my industrial heritage, I move straight to London after uni and actually worked over there for eight years, which was really important part of my career journey. You know, the early 2000s was when digital marketing was really taking off. And I managed to be right in the middle of the, you know, the digital marketing hotspot. And I was really learning the tools of my trade in those early 2000s. Yeah, it was really exciting time. And then I guess another another move in the career was once I moved back to Australia, I ended up in a really exciting role at the University of Newcastle. And one of the campaigns that I was responsible for, was actually working with the academics and the researchers to help them translate the importance of their research and what that meant to to communities. So, you know, if I think about now working with, with engineers, with manufacturers, with scientists and trying to help them, I guess, interpret until the stories of their complex and nuanced kind of services and offerings and products that they produce. That was really an important part of in my pathway to now really enjoying, and lifting the bonnet on working with these manufacturers to, I guess, translate what they’re doing to an audience in a way that they will better understand it.

Graeme Fitzgerald 09:33
Well, No One No One do. You can handle manufacturers if you cut your teeth working with the university, research actors.

Jacqui Daley 09:42
Yeah, yeah. One of my little personal sort of stories is like, you know, if I can work with academics, accountants and real estate agents, then you know, this manufacturing sector is just a breeze. Very good.

Graeme Fitzgerald 09:55
Yeah. And so yeah, so there’s a bit of a passion then You ended up? So how did you end up with the focus in the, I guess, specialize in the area manufacturing? How did that,

Jacqui Daley 10:11
um, when I left the uni, I just knew I really wanted to work with businesses that needed help with their marketing, and I am based in the hunter regions. So there’s a big focus in the area on, you know, manufacturing, heavy industry, a lot of STEM businesses, the kind of clients that I work with. And I think it’s that the bigger understanding the bigger picture grain that’s really made me quite excited about working with manufacturers, you know, versus potentially working with other sectors or, or businesses in other areas, this, you know, business to business, and explaining and working with clients that are really solving the national challenges of our time. That’s what gets me really excited about working with these kinds of businesses. Now, that’s SOME ECHOES on hearing in your your home. Yeah, things you find passionate, so. So with that, then what can you share with us? What do you see as some of the critical aspects of marketing, the manufacturers must must have nailed down to have a successful, profitable and growing business? Yep. So I guess a lot of the time when my business, when we start working with a manufacturer, they know they haven’t prioritized the marketing, they’re coming to me for help. And they’re aware that it’s a part of the business that they’ve just not managed to get to, or they just don’t understand it. And that’s completely understandable. I don’t know how to manufacture widgets. So it’s, you know, it’s about leaning into that area of expertise that you need help with. So I guess, when I start working with these manufacturers, we start with the core foundations of marketing. So do these businesses as a manufacturer to those of you listening today? Do you have a clearly defined value proposition? Does your branding match your market needs? Are you easy to find online? And do you have a good website, it’s just, let’s get the basics right first. And the other thing is making sure that you have all of the marketing metrics set up to actually measure what matters. The other thing that I noticed is that manufacturers, if they’re lucky, they’re doing really well in one particular industry or segment. And they haven’t really explore the opportunities in other markets, and they just don’t even know how to get started in those areas. So, you know, that’s another area that once we’ve got those foundations, right, that they’ve got a clear understanding of how to articulate the products and services that they have, and the problems they solve for the market.

Graeme Fitzgerald 13:01
That’s what you mean by value proposition? Is it?

Jacqui Daley 13:04
Yeah, it’s about understanding the customer. What does the customer need? Yeah, what is the problem that you solve for that particular customer? And what makes your offering your product or your service, unique to what else is on the market? Yeah. So once that’s really clear, and it’s actually not as easy, you know, to to work on that kind of thing yourself as as you might think it is, it is, it is helpful to get some supporting in defining that value proposition. It’s then about thinking, well, how can we take this fantastic offering, or these fantastic products that we have, and market to a completely different segment, or even just a completely different geography, you know, often the client when we start working with them will just be focusing on their local market, when, you know, there might be a huge opportunity for them within other states or even in other countries as well. I think that’s a really important thing that you highlight there. And it’s one of the things that in the current world, that I’ve been talking with clients about is around the risks associated with just relying on the small segment segments of the market and the the resilience that you can create in your business if you have a broader market opportunity. So yeah, I take Yeah, and then I think the only other thing to flag in terms of the critical aspects of marketing for manufacturers, is there are absolutely nuances to the different kinds of channels that you have. So you can’t be great at everything and you shouldn’t use every single marketing channel and tactic that exists. So if you think about if you’re selling directly to consumers, if you’re a B to C business, you want to be utilized. really different channels to do your marketing to if you are a business to business or a b2b kind of business. So, you know, whether you’re on Facebook versus LinkedIn, whether you are sending email marketing campaigns out every day of the week, or once a month, it’s all depending on the type of audience or who your customer is. And I think that too often I see businesses trying to be great at everything. And then in the end, don’t do much at all, because it’s all just too overwhelming and they can’t prioritize.

Graeme Fitzgerald 15:39
So don’t don’t try to be all things to all people.

Jacqui Daley 15:42
Yeah. A lot of like that message. So one of the things that you found in The Measured Marketer several years ago, from my experience, the concept of marketing, and measured, haven’t always been included in the same sentence, some might even go so far as to say that go together, isn’t marketing one of those dark ads that you can’t really measure? Graham, you’re hurting my feelings.

Graeme Fitzgerald 16:13
I don’t mean to hurt you. I mean, to understand, it was one of those things.

Jacqui Daley 16:18
Well, this is why, you know, The Measured Marketer and proving the value about our expertise, and the impact that we can have on a business is absolutely imperative, because, from my perspective, the ability to measure what matters in marketing is absolutely possible. Everything can be measured. And just like other parts of the business, it’s actually important to understand what are the important metrics that you need to measure because there is so much data, there is so many ways to analyze how business is performing from a marketing perspective. So I’ve probably summarized down my five top things that I think we should measure when it comes to marketing, if you would like me to go through, I would love I’d love you to go through, because I like the concept of if of measurement, because if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. If you can’t manage it can’t improve it. So if we’re about improving the profitability and sustainability businesses, it’s one of those foundation bits. Yeah. Okay. So the important thing, the top five things to measure in your marketing in your manufacturing organization is to measure it start with your plan, it’s actually to articulate and write down what are your business goals? And then how can marketing help support you in achieving those objectives. So it might be the obvious things like you want to sell, you know, 500,000 units, or you want to generate $1 million worth of revenue for a particular product. Or it might be that you’re looking for 100 new prospects in a particular new industry, I think what’s really important, even from a marketing perspective, is that you write down what you’re looking to achieve as a business, and that you’re checking in monthly to see how you’re performing against those goals. And then you can work with your marketing, person, marketing team, marketing agency marketing consultant, to make sure that you’re heading in the direction of achieving those goals. And marketing is absolutely the tool to get you there. The second thing that I think you can measure from a marketing perspective is whether your branding is working for you. So when I talk about branding, there’s sort of two elements to a brand. One of them is the way you look. So your logo, how does your website look? What are the quality of the emails that you’re putting out into the market, do all of the touch points that a customer has with your brand, look and feel right to your customer base. And the second part of branding is, can you clearly articulate that value proposition, the message around the products and the services that you offer, and how you can help your client. Now the best way for you to measure whether your branding is working, is to just ask your customers. You can run online surveys, there’s free tools you can use to help you do that. You can conduct phone interviews, you can have focus groups. The main thing is just that you stay really in touch with your customer and talk to them. Ask them the questions about whether what you’re putting out into the market is resonating with what they need. The third thing that is absolutely imperative for you to measure is your website. And if there’s only One thing you take away from our chat today, make sure you have Google Analytics set up properly on your website. Because there is so much you can learn about not only the current performance of your business, but also the future trends. And you know what particular products might be generating more interest than others, where traffic is coming to, from your website from all around the world. And once we’ve got that benchmark information, like how many visitors you’ve had in the last three months or so, then we can start to look to grow it and improve it over time. So make sure you’ve got Google Analytics

Graeme Fitzgerald 20:39
really is making sure you got measurements in place in place before you know where you are right now to start with. Yes,

Jacqui Daley 20:46
yeah, we need to, we need to have the tools set up first in the first instance, so that we can develop that benchmark understanding of what does it look like today? And then what are the tactics we could put in place into the future to improve from there? Number four, is measure the size of your database, understand the numbers that you have, in terms of how many prospects Did you speak to this day, week, month year? How many customers do you have right now. And then the more you understand about your customers, and your prospects, and even importantly, your conversion, from prospects to customers, the more you’re going to know about your business, and the more likely you are to have a successful and thriving business into the future. And the last important measurement is measure the performance and outcomes of your marketing activity. So whether you’re running marketing campaigns, whether you’re investing time into social media, whether you are, you know, putting ads in a particular newspaper or online publication, there are a lot of metrics that you can use to measure the effectiveness of those of those tactics. And I guess it’s part of that as well, if, if the phone is ringing, whilst you have a campaign in market or after that time, have your sales and your extended team, ask where those prospective customers found out about you. One important thing to know is that, you know, if you are investing in marketing, and you might be running, for example, a two week advertising campaign, don’t just measure the performance of that campaign over the two weeks that it’s in market. Because you know, the leads are going to come through for for a much longer time frame than the two weeks. And also, depending on the size, and how long it takes to you know, move a prospective customer through your pipeline, you might have generated an inquiry in, you know, in February, when you had the campaign in market, and it might take until June or December that year for it to actually convert. So it’s really unfair to just measure the performance of the campaign for the short time period that’s in market.

Graeme Fitzgerald 23:15
Yeah, I think, from my experience, the different different industries have different time from inquiry to make the sale just depends. So what you’re saying is be aware of that and don’t, that’d be too short sighted. Is that right?

Jacqui Daley 23:33
Exactly what I’m saying? Okay. So as you know, I guess I, I have enough marketing knowledge to for some people might be a little bit dangerous. Can you share your thoughts on the greatest opportunity for Australia manufacturers in 2020? And beyond that, particularly around how they market themselves to prospective customers? Yeah, so I’m really excited to work with manufacturers right now. I just think there’s a huge opportunity, you know, the Australian Government, modern manufacturing strategy, the focus on domestic manufacturing, the ability to access funds, and have, you know, a really great support team behind you, with government grants, such as the entrepreneurs program, you know, there is so much structure and support for you to look at the way your business is set up and how you can look to you know, not only expand on your existing markets, but diversifying into new markets. It’s the time is now and and I’m really excited to work with businesses to do that. So I guess, you know, one of the things I would suggest that these manufacturers do is work with an experienced marketer to create a marketing strategy for your business. need to put the time into planning. I always tell my clients there is no way I’m going to invest any of their funds on marketing and advertising activity until I know they’ve got those marketing foundations set up properly. Is their brand, right? Does it resonate with their customers? Is their website working effectively? You know, who are we trying to target?

Graeme Fitzgerald 25:19
Yeah, so it’s almost like, I don’t want to waste your money or my time doing something that hasn’t got any thought behind it.

Jacqui Daley 25:28
No, it’s like sending somebody to the shop on a Sunday afternoon and the shops not open. Yeah. Yeah, let’s make sure that, you know, the website, is there 24 hours shop front? And it’s gonna do the selling for them?

Graeme Fitzgerald 25:44
Yeah. Okay. So how do you think the, the COVID pandemic will really impact in these manufacturing businesses over the next three to five years?

Jacqui Daley 25:57
I just think it’s that, um, I think the opportunities there in that, you know, that need to find the solutions within Australia. And so and I think that the government’s putting the funding behind the support structure that those businesses need to help them elevate all aspects of their business marketing, being one of those. You know, every time I work with these amazing manufacturers, they are so great at what they do, and so terrible at marketing themselves that nobody knows exist.

Graeme Fitzgerald 26:33
I think the core message you’re saying there, though, is, the opportunity has probably never been better. But only for those who are willing to do the work to go out and put themselves out there rather than if you sit and wait for it to happen. Probably won’t. sound right.

Jacqui Daley 26:49
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I think there are a number of manufacturers that got a little scared this year in 2020. But I also think there are a lot a number of manufacturers, I guess, all the way through the spectrum, some just coasted through without too much impact. And others had so much opportunity and pivoted in so many exciting ways. Because, you know, they they just saw the opportunity that was there. And it’s the same as any business in it any time frame if, if you’re not willing to look to the future and what’s happening. Yeah,

Graeme Fitzgerald 27:26
don’t be too disappointed if it doesn’t arrive.

Jacqui Daley 27:29
Yeah, there’s so many examples of, you know, across multiple industries, Kodak was leaders in their field gone.

Graeme Fitzgerald 27:37
I can use them in my strategic planning workshops. Yeah, example,

Jacqui Daley 27:43
to stay on top of what’s going on in the market. So part of my aim in these podcasts is to give them give our listeners something that they can take away, I think you’ve probably already given them ample number of small things that they can go and do already. But as a practitioner for responsibility for achieving real results with your clients. Can you share with us one of your greatest The greatest challenges in marketing and how you tackled it? Mm hmm. This is a really good question. And I guess one of the things that I noticed is that often the challenges when I’m working with clients are really nuanced to that particular business. And so in an exe, as an example, in a particular scenario, I was working with an OEM and a regional equipment manufacturer, and they are manufacturing heavy, industrial, heavy equipment for industry. And for a mine site in particular, they had an opportunity to work on a really big project overseas. And that particular end user, the client was really nervous about using the Australian solution. And not that the concern was around the Australian, you know, the, the high quality Australian manufacturer, but it was about the localized support, how are we going to be able to, you know, get the parts and do the repairs that we need to do on this multi million dollar piece of equipment. If if the service is all being delivered from Australia. So we took that on as a marketing challenge and decided to take a really personalized approach to, I guess, easing their concerns and addressing the problems that they were bringing forward to us. So this end user wanted to make sure that they were going to get great localized support. So what we did was we built a micro site, we built a website directly to respond to these tender opportunity, and we covered off on a a whole range of things, what was the selection criteria, of course, for that tender, we ticked all of those boxes as we needed to, we showcased how to repair that equipment, we created video content, to show how you could repair different parts of the equipment. We provided the contact details for the local support providers in country. And we also provided 24 our contact details for our, for our team in Australia. And, you know, the whole thing, we put the relevant manuals for that particular piece of equipment in there, we gave them access to buy the most, you know, frequently required spare parts, or any of their concerns were really alleviated by us addressing addressing this specific project opportunity in a really personalized way.

Graeme Fitzgerald 30:54
So really built a trusted service business model for that customer to give him permission to make the decision to say yes, yeah. And

Jacqui Daley 31:03
that idea went from being a marketing idea to then becoming a customer service portal.

Graeme Fitzgerald 31:08
Absolutely. That’s executives. Yeah,

Jacqui Daley 31:10
yeah, exactly. And so just a little bit on the numbers. That project cost $5,000. It cost us $5,000 to build that Microsoft. It was an $8 million project.

Graeme Fitzgerald 31:24
Yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s what I was chuckling at. Sorry. That’s,

Jacqui Daley 31:30
that’s the point. And that’s just proving you know, how, with highly personalized and targeted marketing, we in the industry would call that account based marketing ABM. And we talk a lot about that these days, when you’re going for high value opportunities, how can we invest the time and the money to prove to those particular clients that we are the right fit for their needs? That’s a great example. Thank you, thank you for sharing that. Um, I’m, we’re rapidly running out of time. That is why I have my one big question. You’ve been doing marketing now for many years? What’s been your greatest lesson in that time? And how’s it still influencing you today? Yes, you know, in walking in the door and meeting these manufacturing business owners for the first time, they find marketing overwhelming. And even more so since the explosion of digital marketing. But I guess what I want, I want you listeners to take away today is, you know, you don’t have to be a huge business, you don’t need to have a huge marketing team to deliver great marketing outcomes and marketing results. So I’ve sort of really tried to clearly articulate this through through this session is, and through these podcasts is that you need to have a really solid understanding of who your customers are, you need to be able to articulate how you can solve your customers problems, you need a really good website and you need an extra, you’ve got those analytics set up properly. So you can measure the performance of your site. And you need to find a way to capture and communicate with your prospects and customers ongoing. So you know, beat the drum, once you’ve got these channels set up, beat the drum stay consistent with your message. And don’t assume because you’ve put out one email, launching a new product or one social media post that, you know, you can wash your hands, and it’s done. And everybody in the world is going to, to know about what you’ve just launched. Because, you know, the statistics. So there’s a whole range of data behind this, but it takes 18 touch points with a customer or a prospective customer, for them to be ready to buy from you. Yeah, you know, the world is bombarded with marketing messages and branding these days. So just create the channels, be really good at the basics and then beat the drum. That is my key message for some marketing is very similar to most other disciplines of manufacturing, then that it’s not something you do once and then move on from it. It’s something to continue to master. And it doesn’t, I guess the message I’m hearing is don’t over complicated. No, get good, get good assistance and help to do that. Yeah. And yeah, well, and do it and there’s a whole heap of models, you know, you can recruit internally, you can work with agencies, you can work with freelancers. The important thing is, just find those few tactics that work for you. remain consistent in the message? No, look,

Graeme Fitzgerald 35:04
I’ve been very, very, I think has been very insightful. I know I’ve learned even more things today after talking with Jacqui, sir. As you know, mastery of manufacturing is fascinating to me. And I can go on talking all day if I had the chance. So thanks for sharing a small part of your journey today. And I’m sure there are many takeaways. I know I’ve got to written down here. Myself. So thank you very much for your, your time. You can contact Jacqui. Yeah, sorry.

Jacqui Daley 35:39
Thank you. Oh, good. You

Graeme Fitzgerald 35:40
can get we can contact you, Jacqui, on LinkedIn. Is that right to Ovi website? what’s your website? Maybe I’ll get you to share that with people. So that.

Jacqui Daley 35:51
So my name is Jacqui Daley, and the website is The Measured marketer.com.au.

Graeme Fitzgerald 35:58
Thank you for your time today, Jacqui, and your insights. And I’ll talk to you again soon.

Jacqui Daley 36:04
by Graham by

Graeme Fitzgerald 36:11
how do you think?

Jacqui Daley 36:15
think it went? Okay. That was about half an hour.

Graeme Fitzgerald 36:20
Yeah, yes. A little bit longer than normal. But that’s probably dangerous, because I’m getting more comfortable. I felt that felt more natural today than the other two that I’ve done.

Jacqui Daley 36:31
Yeah, good.

Graeme Fitzgerald 36:33
Yeah. And I didn’t mean like it was a you talk. I told you talk I talk.

Jacqui Daley 36:39
No, it didn’t have a nice flow to it. You did well, in the, in the I guess seeming together. Yeah. Yeah. So. So thank you. Now there’s really good. I didn’t tell you the other bit of news. My Do you know MIT modular, the people who manufactured Department of Education, demand of all buildings at Rutherford? I’ve heard of them. Yeah. And is Peter Davies working with them?

Graeme Fitzgerald 37:06
Not at the moment. Ian Doherty, who I used to work with in the steel industry. He came to one of our

Jacqui Daley 37:13
ways I do know he Yeah, yeah.

Graeme Fitzgerald 37:15
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He’s the general manager there. So I’m doing some strategic planning with them. Next week. Hmm. Yes. So cool. Things keep on

Jacqui Daley 37:28
you are falling along. But this, these things are starting to feel much, much better as well. So I’ve got some things with Steve Keefe and Deidre Lewis. The moments and I’ve got a in seeking permission from osco to to do one as well. So, yeah. All right. All right. So we’ve got um, the one from john. Yes. Well, that’s ready to go. I know. It might Yeah, it’s probably even online. So I want three more before we can launch