This week, we sit down with Grace Campbell, Marketing Director at Conspec Controls, an international gas detection systems company. Grace shares about her journey in marketing, the challenges of being a 'Department of One', and the importance of research and lifelong learning in the ever-evolving marketing landscape. She discusses how she leverages strategic planning to avoid burnout, and the importance of research and audience segmentation in B2B marketing.
We also explore the impact of AI on marketing strategies, lessons learned from failed campaigns, and the impact of utilizing external partners to maximize efficiency. If you're a marketing manager juggling multiple responsibilities in manufacturing or B2B, this episode is packed with insights you can't afford to miss.
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Grace: So where Conspec is across five separate industries right now, I as the marketer have to develop separate plans for every single one of them. We have a different demographic. We have a different strategy to reach them, a different voicing. Everything is different. So it's really creating five separate marketing plans and marketing strategies, almost like five separate businesses. And part of that was that I was really struggling with, was aside from just my lack of knowledge and the industries as a whole, but was also just my lack of knowledge of the audience and my lack of knowledge of how to reach them and how our products work in those settings and application. So what makes an oil and gas person that we would sell to different from an HVAC or an industrial or somebody who's working in a power plant, how are they different? How is how I reach them different? So a lot of what I have taken a step back and seen better results from with our email initiatives or our ads or our SEO strategy has been educating myself more on our different audiences and our different industries.
Intro
Bill: Thank you for joining the Missing Half podcast where we're discovering what's missing in manufacturing and B2B marketing. I have a very special guest with me today, Grace Campbell. Grace is a young marketer here in Appalachia with a dedication to supporting businesses big and small. She first began in marketing as a social media manager and a content creator in the magazine publishing space and now serves as a marketing director for Conspec Controls, an international gas detection systems company. Grace, welcome.
Grace: Hi, thank you so much for having me.
Bill: Well, Grace, thank you for joining us. And what we like to talk about with our marketing managers is the fact that I started my early career as a marketing manager directly out of college. And I wish I had resources. I wish I had a community of conversations to discuss the challenges that I was facing. And back then, a millennia ago, a thousand years ago, we didn't have podcasts. We didn't have social media. We didn't have all these channels to discuss it. So we're really trying to provide a platform where we can have these conversations, learn what's missing, learn what's going well, learn what isn't going so well maybe, and just have those candid conversations so we can maybe make our lives a little bit easier. So thank you for joining us once again. So, so Grace, maybe talk a little bit about your journey, your early career here, and then what you're doing at Conspec and a little bit about Conspec as well.
Grace: Sure. So I started out at West Virginia University with a degree in advertising and public relations. And I really enjoyed my coursework there. And I was fortunate enough to get an internship with a local magazine company while I was in school. So I had a paid internship and got to get industry experience on a small, safe scale fairly early on in my career. So I got to start really young comparatively. And then I continued to work in that same job all throughout college. And then when I graduated college, I started work immediately there full time as a marketing associate. So I took on that role and again, was able to beef up my resume and get a lot of experience early on in the process coupled with my classes. So I got to get my class experience and then my real world experience with my job and see those two in application. And then what was legit from my college classes and what wasn't legit. I got to learn that.
Bill: Yeah, there's certain truth in that, that colleges and universities do their level best. I think specifically in this space, marketing and advertising is moving so rapidly that there's a tremendous challenge for them to keep up. But we all have to go through it. And I'm glad you were able to also have the foresight to take the job that maybe got you the job. Right. And as, I mean, when I was younger, I didn't want to hear that. I didn't want to do it. I wanted the job. I didn't want to take the job that was going to get me the job. But that's great that you had that experience. Right. So let's talk about Conspec. I mean, when we think about what we do at 50 Marketing with B2B and manufacturing, I mean, you guys are right in there. I mean, I look at your website and see what your content is about. I see coal mining and tunneling. Oil and gas industrial. One, that's my past. My father owned and ran coal mines in my youth. I grew up with that business around here. Mining and tunneling, oil and gas is certainly a huge part of Western Pennsylvania and the Rust Belt. So maybe talk a little bit about Conspec as a company.
Grace: Sure, so when I was brought on the team at Conspec, I was very transparent with my boss. said, I'm not an engineer and I have never worked in this context before. So I went in a little bit blind for a few different things. But I had the base level of knowledge for the marketing that they wanted to accomplish. They also wanted someone with a diverse background and that was me to a T. So the role is one of those that so many different things need done and it really changes. Some days we need to have full scale Google Analytics and website and all sorts of things like that. And some days you need to provide full support to a salesman in the mining industry or help on a sales call or an expo. So the role drastically changes from day to day. Some days it's a marketing function that I'm totally expected and I'm totally used to. And other days it's praying that you can get a decal on a wall. It changes every day, but it's a really fulfilling job and no day is like each other.
Bill: Love that. And this is something we talk about a lot because this is so prevalent in the market is this concept of the Department of One. Many companies in manufacturing and B2B that are, let's say, anywhere from $5 million up to $150 million in revenue, it's shocking the range, have one person by job title or role that is the go-to marketing department. They are the Department of One. Could you maybe talk, like let's let's unpack that a little more, what you just talked about and the diversity of work, the stresses and maybe some of the things that you really like about that. And then maybe some of the challenges you face as that department of one.
Grace: This has been something I've been thinking about a lot and I think it's I think it's a multi part problem. I don't think it's necessarily just one thing that companies are fault for putting their employees in a multi purpose role. I think that where we stand now in the industry is that marketing has become such a catch-all term. Now you're not only doing marketing in the sense of we're coupling graphic design and we're coupling analytics and we're coupling like ROI and company organization and organizational structure and the management of literature. Like all of these things have now become, well, that's all marketing. When I, you can't say no, cause it's your job. But at the same time it's, it's this question of like, well, you have people who are extremely proficient in SEO or you have people that are extremely proficient in Google Analytics. But I think on the, on the, so on one hand, that's, I think that's an industry problem. I think that it's because we've just created this term that is catch all because when you have the amount of freelancers or you have the amount of diverse jobs that are in this market of marketing, it becomes this problem of, well we need all of that. So we're just going to hire one person to do it all, which you can't fault the company for it. You can't fault the hiring team for it because like as a marketer and I'm sure you can say the same thing, you have a little bit of all of that. You have some aspects where you're like, okay, I've dabbled in Canva or Adobe Acrobat or I've dabbled in Google Analytics before. And I've touched all these things. But now I've become to this point where I can do, a Jack of all trades, master of none type situation. So I think it's an interesting concept because you have to constantly be learning throughout your entire career. And I know I'm fairly young in mind, but that feels to be the standard from everyone I've talked to, whether it be a 20-something year old or a 40-something year old. It's a constant pursuit of knowledge, especially as technology changes. So I hope that answers your question. I felt like I got a little off track there.
Bill: No, love it. Absolutely. And I think one of the challenges we're seeing is you hit the nail on the head. The Department of One, there are so many things now that are lumped into the marketing function. When I started as a marketing manager, the company we owned then, one of the manufacturing companies, it was really about a big number of trade shows a year. So like three or four trade shows a year, sales enablement material to help our on the road sales force, maybe some trade journals. But very, very limited. then, you know, we started into the websites and that type of, know, the internet explosion. Now the, the, the plethora of responsibilities that are being lumped on the marketing function, continues to just the rate of that continues to accelerate and the number of new things that are added every day. So really what I think has happened is, when before we could expect a marketing department of one to do it all, now we're just looking for someone who can traffic manage and project manage diverse resources to get it done. Because what we're seeing in the market is the companies that are successful are the ones that have that department of one, two or three, whatever, depending on the scale of the organization. But then they're leveraging outside resources, whether it's agencies, part-timers, giggers, half-timers, fractionals, whatever to find the right expert instead of the jack of all trades, the master of one to do that one thing really, really well, to really accelerate the development of the marketing function at that organization. So it is a challenge. I think the, the only, the, the industry problem as you discussed is that we have to be honest with organizations. We have to be honest with our superiors. We have to be honest as an industry because if we expect outsized results, we can't expect a department of one to execute across the entire marketing function without other resources. Cause there's no way you can catch up to your competitors or to the industry leaders that are outspending you 10 to one. There is no hack. There is no bootstrapping, there's just some functional and real physical limitations to what can be accomplished. So I completely agree with what you said.
Grace: Yeah, and I don't think it needs to be a bad thing. Like a lot of people think ignorance or not knowing is a bad thing when, especially for me coming into this role, like I'm the marketing director. It's not a job that I've held before. And I was very transparent about that throughout the hiring process. And what I appreciated from the hiring team was they were transparent with me about what the issues were going to be, what I was going to run into. And when I was running into problems, they were like, we warned you. But it's, it's, I think it's just part of the process and I don't think, I don't, I mean across the board, I don't think anyone should be faulted for not knowing things. I think if, if we try and lie and we say, I know more than, than what I let on, or I know more than what I'm saying, like, I, it would be impossible to compete with the internet. It is not, it is so all encompassing. It is, you can't just… Yeah, it's not like maybe if we were talking in the 60s, 70s in marketing, okay, sure. You know what? I will agree. You are an industry. You are leagues above everybody else. You know all there is to know. Now technology changes so rapidly. Like you're competing with AI. It's not, it's not going to happen and that's okay. It's not a bad thing. I think it's just important that as professionals and particularly young professionals, I get passionate about this, is that we're transparent about the things we don't know. And we expect training. That's part of it. I saw a LinkedIn post recently that was like, Gen Zers are performing poorly in the job market, or like they're doing terrible in the industry. And they're like, they don't know how to do anything. But my argument is, look at how much there is to know and learn and what does the on the job training look like anymore? Yeah, anyway, that was a tangent, but that's, I feel fairly passionate about that.
Bill: No, no, that's, that's right on. I mean, training is such an important part of it. Lifelong learning is such an important part of it. And part of the problem with marketing is that you, no one knows what to do with it because it's never been done before. So like, how do you use AI to make, make it work well? Well, that's being defined every day. Every day we're wrestling with that at our agency. Our colleagues are wrestling with that. Our suppliers, our partners, affiliates, our competitors, and that's just in the marketing space. I mean, the world is wrestling with AI. So part of it is we have to innovate so much that we have to take time to train. I think also another thing, and this is creating a proper expectations with organizations as they, maybe they don't have a department of one, or maybe they do have a department of one and they have been disappointed by performance before. We have to recognize that in the marketing function, we have to leave some space for tests and failures and reconfiguration, right? Like if a manufacturing company looks back at their process, the first time they set up that new machine, the first widget that came down the line was not perfect. And they're constantly having to tweak the machines or constantly having to do maintenance. they're constantly, you know, every year they add a new something or subtract something because it wasn't working properly. The same thing exists in the marketing machine. And it's not going to be perfect. So having the proper mindset of accepting tests, trying things, some will work, some won't, that is the right approach. And I think that can be missing with some companies not having the patience to walk through that process and allow it to mature.
Grace: I understand that, because I absolutely agree with you. It's something that we don't leave enough room for as professionals, as people in general. But I also understand from the business perspective. So I worked as a freelancer before I accepted my job with Conspec. And I worked with small businesses and social media management and different types of advertising and Google Analytics and all those different things. But sometimes there is no room for error or a lot of these businesses don't leave room for error or leave room for learning when the expectation is like, we're going to go viral overnight if we hire this marketing person. No, it's not going to happen. If it does, I would love to find the book or the online class where we can learn that. But, that's okay, leaving room for error and learning is a part of the process and that's how we create better initiatives. So that's why we have A-B testing, that's why we have all these different things. But understand when you're spending money on something, you want to see immediate results, but sometimes it just takes a little bit longer than just, we hired you, why aren't you producing? Well, it's takes time.
Bill: Yeah. Why didn't this, why didn't you flip that switch? Yeah, I love that. So let's, let's pivot into maybe some active initiatives or like market, like let's, let's talk about what maybe is working or what you've seen some challenges with. Like, are there some marketing initiatives or strategies lately that worked really well for you or didn't work really well for you? And what have you been learning like more on a tactical basis recently as you do B2B marketing for Conspec?
Grace: Something that I have learned recently that I think is really important that I was sort of undermining a little bit earlier in this process was the value of research in this industry in particular. So where Conspec is across five separate industries right now, I as the marketer have to develop separate plans for every single one of them. We have a different demographic. We have a different strategy to reach them, a different voicing. Everything is different. So it's really creating five separate marketing plans and marketing strategies, almost like five separate businesses. And part of that was that I was really struggling with, was aside from just my lack of knowledge and the industries as a whole, but was also just my lack of knowledge of the audience and my lack of knowledge of how to reach them and how our products work in those settings and application. So what makes an oil and gas person that we would sell to different from an HVAC or an industrial or somebody who's working in a power plant, how are they different? How is how I reach them different? So a lot of what I have taken a step back and seen better results from with our email initiatives or our ads or our SEO strategy has been educating myself more on our different audiences and our different industries. They're so different. So I would really say that I undermined research and now putting additional research into stuff before I just start doing it. Because like we said earlier, so much needs done. But if it's not properly researched, I don't know anything about anything. So it's important that I've been doing my research a lot more. And I've seen more results from that, particularly in SEO and with some of our email strategy. It's just been the more I learned about keywords and the more I learned about our separate audiences, it was then that it was like, okay, I see how we need to approach this differently from how we have been.
Bill: I think that's great. One of the things I think that we're going to see is more budget. AI is going to accelerate processes and help marketing become more efficient. Where we can still add value is by doing more voice of customer research and really getting to know these target audiences and really understanding their pain points and providing solutions that really hit right on. So I think for someone as early as you are in your career to recognize the value of customer voice of customer research and really understanding who they are and what they want. That is, you're well ahead of your years and your experience in valuing that. So I want to commend you on that and just recommend that you continue to focus on. Yeah, just continue to focus on that research because that will that will minimize the variability in what you do and increase the probability of success by making sure that you're really speaking to that audience. So that's a great insight. And for any marketing manager who's listening, if you are not engaging in a lot of research about your clientele, your customer bases, that is a hot take and you should really double down on that. What's something maybe then, so that was a good one because you you rung both bells there. It was like, what wasn't going well? And then how you turned that into something that became successful, like not researching it and then researching it and then the delta. Are there any other things like that that you would like to mention that have been successful, been a challenge that you feel would be like something to chat about?
Grace: I don't want to say any particular initiatives. A lot of it has just been a learning curve like we talked about earlier. I'm only nine months into my role here. So there's been a learning curve with not only my experience and education in these different industries, but as a whole on the different initiatives and strategies that we're trying to execute. I would say one thing that it, that was interesting that we tried as an experiment that didn't work for us, again, I'm just speaking purely for Conspec, was we worked with a company to try our Google Analytics. So with Google Ads are not something that I have a ton of experience with. So we work with freelancers and outsource some of that work. And so part of that was just been a lot of trial and error and learning for me. And we tried a Performance Max campaign through Google Ads. And I don't know if you've heard of this before, but it is basically, yeah, it's AI. It's like we talked about earlier. It's AI based to learn about what's performing well with your audience. We saw weird stuff happen when we tried that. We have this really nice, consistent conversion rate. Our goal was probably 10 conversions a week from Google Ads. And then we had probably eight consistently. So we had this really nice, steady thing going on this really nice steady pace. And then we were like, why don't we try this? This is new. Google's really encouraging this. Let's give it a shot. So I wish that I had them. I could share them with you. But we saw this almost drastic X in our data as soon as we launched it. So we saw this massive increase in impressions. We saw like 30,000 impressions a week or something. But our conversion rate dropped to one and zero. And not only in our Performance Max campaign, but across all of them, we saw absolutely zero conversions for months. And so it was like, well, oh my gosh, we saw these great results. We saw these really consistent numbers for a while. And then we experimented with something and it tanked everything else. And, you know, it brings in the danger of AI and the world's lack of knowledge and particularly mine for how to use AI to our benefit. But that was part of the process. We experimented, we wanted to try something, it crashed and burned, but we got to do it and we got to learn from it. And so it was something that didn't work for us, but I think it created better relationships and a better idea of what does work for us long-term versus we want these like short-term AI generated results when I honestly, I'm just not sure if I believe that that's a real thing. I think it's all gotta be consistency.
Bill: Sure. So one, just really appreciate your candor. That's what this podcast is about, discovering what's missing. We all have missteps. We all have campaigns that fail drastically and are just absolute dumpster fires. And then we have our successes. And I think the best career advice I could give any marketer is just try to have one more, one more success on the scale than all the failures. Roger Federer said he was one of the most decorated tennis players in history and he only won 54% of the points in the matches. He didn't win 85% of them. He only won like 5% more than his competitors and he came out and he's a storied professional, very decorated with all of the championships and all the titles. But no, Google ads can be very, very challenging. And we certainly have seen, we do a lot of custom audience A-B testing against AI or algorithmic audiences in our campaigns. And we certainly can see variability. We have seen problems with like those Performance Max or like the just the behavioral and contextual targeting that exists on Google and the other platforms. So no, that's an interesting take. But I think the important thing there is you tried it. Number one, you had the guts to try it, which is important. Number two, you observed it and measured it so you didn't set it and forget it. And a year later, you burn through 20 grand and nothing happened or 100 grand or whatever. And then as soon as you felt you had statistically significant data, and it wasn't going the right direction, you pivoted, moved on from it. So I think, you know, that's a great kind of like scientific method approach to tests in the marketing function. And, and that that's great. I mean, not great that it didn't work, but great that you defined that that is not a positive channel or a profitable channel for you guys to expand your reach and conversions. And sometimes it's good to know what works and also what doesn't work. So you can craft a better strategy.
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Bill: You talked about developing different marketing plans for each of your five target markets. How valuable has it been to take that step back and develop those strategic marketing plans? Because I agree with you. I don't think a company has one strategic marketing plan. They need to then have those sub strategic marketing plans per target market and go through the same fundamental processes because one size does not fit all and there is the need for segmentation and personalization in every business to make sure we are addressing the needs of each of those customers very, very specifically. Cause if we don't somebody else will. So maybe talk about the value of that process, please.
Grace: I was really transparent with my boss about two months ago and I said, I feel like I'm just treading water here. I feel like I'm doing things and doing things and I'm busy all day, but I'm getting nothing done. So I don't know if this is everybody else's experience or if this is just me, but when I get angry, I get really motivated. I just reached a breaking point. And I said, I'm so sick of just treading water. And I finally just said, I'm going to stop because clearly what I'm doing isn't working. So that's when I took that step back and I said, I'm going to approach this in a way that is hyper specific. I'm clearly uneducated on the things that I need to be educated about. So I'm going to take this initiative to learn more about the industry, learn more about the sales process, get leadership and guidance where I need it. And I really, for me at least, I hope my coworkers agree, but I believe that's changed the game. Not only for part of our initiatives, but for the sake of our company and internally and the results that we're gonna be seeing or the initiatives that we're starting. It has seriously just completely changed my level of confidence and the way that I approach our tasks now. I'm someone who when I have so much thrown in front of me, I kind of freeze like a deer in headlights. And it's just one of those things about me that I struggle with. But when I was able to take a step back, break it down instead of saying, oh my gosh, we need to produce results and we need to have lead gen and we need to be doing this, this, this and this. And so I was like, whoa, what are, like you mentioned earlier about the job, what are the steps to get to these goals and to get to these initiatives rather than trying to tackle them all at one time, company-wide across five industries? So I, like, I don't have a specific example for you yet because that process has only been in the last several months, but I know that we, I've been able to, to create more personalized campaigns. I've been able to bring on and strategize help so that I have better initiatives ready to launch that we're building up, like through email automation campaigns or through our website SEO or through the way that our audience interacts with our website or the way that we're gonna go and present at expos is gonna be different. So things like that have, I can't say externally yet, I want to soon, but internally it's really changed the game for my confidence as the marketing team and my relationship with my coworkers.
Bill: Well, so I think there's the answer. It did radically change what's going on there, right? And yeah, you haven't seen the results yet. But if you're developing that clarity in around your strategic approach, you're then developing a more consistent tactical plan to execute that strategy. Ultimately, that is going to be more successful because you have that set up in more of like a scientific method, right? Hypothesis, experiment, test, prove approach. I think you're changing that. And what I would encourage you to do and any marketing manager out there to do is once you've built that kind of process, don't wait until you get frustrated again to go back to it. Be proactive, schedule that out. So like go to your, you know, the boss, the C-suite and say, listen, this was a successful approach. Now what I would like to do over every two months, I would like to take a different target market and go through this in a deep dive. And get those stakeholders and get those like product specialists or industry specialists and interview them, do that voice of customer research in those spaces. So I think there's a model there, Grace, that you could rinse and repeat consistently. And then, you know, next year, hopefully you can do it in a review and optimize as opposed to a wholesale like review, right? Cause you're, building good habits and building a good program there. So I think that's, that's a great takeaway. And once again, commend you at this stage of your career to really want to get into that strategy. That's fantastic. Continue to be curious and want to move from frustration to optimization. That will serve you very, very well. Can you share any other specific examples of something you've maybe learned or a tool that you've been using that you found that was really helpful or a tool that you would choose never to click on again that you've used or any experiences like for peers, kind of like, we're not going to do like a HubSpot versus ActiveCampaign type of thing, but just more of things you've learned, tips and tricks that you would share with your colleagues?
Grace: I do have one. I feel like this isn't a great one, but I will never ever sleep on Canva. I think Canva is the marketer's best friend. Like in this role, there was some serious graphic design help that was needed. And I know we're supposed to talk about freelancers later, but that for someone who I had a single week on graphic design when I was in college, so I had never so much as opened Adobe. It was a changer for me of being able to learn all the tips and tricks of Canva. Not to create masterpieces, but to get what I needed done that day, done. So that is my, if you don't have Canva Pro, download Canva Pro. It's like $15 a month and it is worth every penny that you will pay. It is my best friend as a marketer who without a graphic design has experience.
Bill: I love that. I mean, there are many tools that we need to leverage for collaboration. And this might pivot us right into that, you know, getting outside help. I think one of the keys, whether you're working with an agency, half timers, part timers, giggers, freelancers, whatever it is, when you're bringing in that expert help, one of the hacks or one of the things we have to make sure is that we are using SaaS platforms that are widely adopted that allow for collaboration quickly and mobility between different experts. So how have you seen maybe Canva work in that way or how have you been collaborating with third parties to move your initiatives forward?
Grace: So just like how we talked about earlier with that challenge of being the marketing team of one, I think another part of that game changer mentality for me was I can't do this by myself. It's not a lack of ability, it's just sheer lack of, there's stuff that I do not know how to do. So being able to take that initiative and decide, okay, I know where my weak spots are and I know where I need the help, can I manage the budget and provide enough evidence to prove there is areas where I need support and can we afford it? Because I know that's a major problem with every marketing team is do we have the budget for this? Can we afford it? And that's been something that I've been learning as well, but I am a true believer in freelance work and in having outside help because we don't have the budget to bring someone in yet. You know, we're hoping for that later down the line, but right now it's just not a conversation for right this second. So to, I have to, have to consider that. So what I've done is, I've brought someone on as a freelancer to help with email initiatives, not necessarily because I can't do it, but because there are so many that need done across five industries that I need help to build them and to launch them and to manage them and have that data analysis. Cause like every single task has like 18 tasks underneath it. So brought someone on to do that. And I've brought on a graphic designer and whether it's a couple hours a week or part-time hours a week or whatever that looks like. I think I personally, in my experience, after I left the magazine company, I was a freelancer for about a year. And I was a freelance marketer, social media manager, content developer, and having businesses that gave me that opportunity helped me develop my skillset. And also fully transparent, I was cheap. As a fresh college grad, I was somebody who was affordable because I didn't have anything else. But so I was able to utilize both of those of being young and affordable, but also having a diverse skill set and a desire to do well by my clients because that's what was paying my rent. So that's part of what I've done is I've brought on a graphic designer fresh out of college and she helps get things done way better and way faster than I ever possibly could because she has a degree in graphic design. And then we work with another company out of Pittsburgh, I believe, called Mass Solutions. And they have been instrumental with helping us in website, SEO, Google Ads. And so all of that has been stuff that I have been managing and had to delegate and learn from. So Mass has been great about also educating me on the things that I don't know and being super helpful when I have questions about SEO or Google Ads. So I think… I think it's really important as marketers who are this team of one that we utilize the resources available to us because otherwise we're going to drown in my opinion. That was my experience. And then as soon as I brought on these freelancers, it was like, my gosh, okay. Now I can breathe and I can delegate tasks. And now I can, again, I'm I'm not rowing upstream. I'm finally making progress. So that's, I'm a strong believer in freelance work.
Bill: No, that's great. I mean, building out resource partners to execute the marketing function is the modern approach that allows companies to achieve outside results. There's no two ways about it. Department of one to three in the marketing function by role or title. Those departments are drowning if they do not have some type of budget for outside resources and whether that and that depends on the budget, the scale of what those resources look like. If it's young folks out of college just cutting their teeth, or if it's agency partners or a combination thereof, there's a lot of ways to execute that resourcing function, but it is so critical and I'm glad to hear that you've had success with that. Whenever you think about managing those resource partners, because right now you're managing two, three teams that are doing, what are the biggest challenges you face in managing those teams? Is it project management, scheduling, communication, proofing, ideation, and I'm just throwing a couple of boxes out there and they might not be the right ones, but what are the biggest challenges you face with managing that resource pool?
Grace: So I think there's my personal struggles, which is just the management of all of their tasks to make sure that I have three separate lists for knowing what's going on and what needs done at any given time. So just organization is my biggest concern and always my top priority, because if I'm not organized, it's a disaster and I don't know what they're getting done or what they're working on. So that, course, but I think just as a whole for Conspec in particular is just a lack of knowledge because you can't expect every single graphic designer or every single marketer to be an engineer or to have the technical background to understand how our products work in the setting. For example, it's hard to ask graphic designer fresh out of school with a graphic design degree to explain how our gas detection products work internally within the mine. That's a hard ask. So I think that's been the biggest struggle is not only learning myself because I came into this role with a lack of technical knowledge, but then also I have to teach those things at the same time. So to learn them and then quickly understand them well enough to be able to teach them to the people that I'm working with or that are kind of helping me and working in this team of different pieces, that's been the biggest challenge, I think, because there's only one or two people within Conspec that I can get that information from. And they have their own stuff going on. So it's just, that's been probably the biggest challenge.
Bill: So a couple of things I would offer in that, cause I've been, you know, I started as a marketing manager early in my career. I built a number of teams and certainly this agency and we built teams, multiple teams within this agency. A couple of recommendations I would have for you is number one, project management software is absolutely important. And whether it's Asana or Wrike or Basecamp or a Clickup or something like that, having that type of tool that you and your resource partners can engage in is a total hack and a game changer. Also one of the biggest challenges we face as an agency. I know that internal marketing departments face is technical product knowledge from subject matter experts, whether they're engineers, product specialists, sales specialists, whatever at organizations. And then making sure that that information is efficiently transferred from them into the marketing thing, whatever the deliverable, creative brief we're trying to create. And then that that is communicated and delivered by the resource partner. And what we have found to be very successful in that, and this is a dying art. This is something that was like old ad agency stuff, or you'll see at big agencies more so than you'll see it in terms of apartments is the creative brief. And the, the internal marketing departments that discipline themselves to generate a creative brief that has all the information relatively organized. If you're able to pull on those two levers, a project management system and implementation of really good, what we call A plus creative briefs, that someone can take that and do a great job with it, that will revolutionize your workflow if that's something that you think may be missing. And a third thing, this is a total like hack is a proofing brief. What does success look like? And then like, especially in very technical industries with compliance issues and regulatory considerations, making sure that like, even like the graphic designer knows, we can never use that word or the copywriter knows, you can never use that. Don't use the word advocacy because the FDA will breathe down our throats, those type of things. So there's different things that once you figure those out, document them and make them part of the process that will absolutely create efficiency across your entire ecosystem. And then you'll deliver higher quality work back to the subject matter experts. And they will want to work with you as opposed to avoiding the marketing function because we're kind of like the ick. They don't want to get on them. Like they just want to do their work and they want to avoid us, right? Because they've got better things to do. But those are just three recommendations for you know, especially younger marketing managers who are just starting their careers. If you embrace those three concepts, you will absolutely accelerate your efficiency in the delivery function. So, I just thought I'd share those with you. I hope those are helpful. Hope those are helpful to our audience and what could be missing in your process in, delivering great marketing.
Grace: Absolutely, that was really helpful. I wrote that down, so.
Bill: I saw you taking notes. That’s great. You're a good student. I love it. I love it. All right. So let's look ahead. When you think about this next year for your team and your marketing efforts, are there any particular projects you're specifically excited about? Any you're specifically dreading, right? Like there's some things we all love as marketers and some things we all hate. Is there anything there for the coming year that you'd like to talk about?
Grace: Something that I'm really excited about and this is going to sound so mundane, but we just completely basically scraped out our warehouse and redid it on the inside. So there's this whole section of the warehouse that is all marketing materials for our different expos. And keep in mind, we have five different industries and across the world. And so all of the sales teams for every single industry are going to different expos. And so those can be as far as South America. Excuse me, South Africa. But so part of that has been really exciting because I have, again, there was no marketing team internally pre me. So I'm the first marketer that's been in house at Conspec. So there was a lot of sort of individualized marketing strategies that were going on. So a lot of what my role to this point has been consolidating all of our resources under one umbrella, and then and then five smaller umbrellas underneath, underneath the big umbrella. So, we took the initiative and went into the warehouse to just figure out what we had, what we didn't have, what we needed redone, what needed updated branding, what was old, what was broken, where we could put it, so on and so forth. Something that's been really exciting for me is I created a master calendar of all of our expos for the entire year of 2025, and then already starting in 2026. So, rather than having these last minute, oh my gosh, we need 100 copies of this printed or we need stickers or we need merch or we need plans or we need email blasts a week before the expo. My heart rate gets way too fast talking about these things. So instead of having those like 911 hair on fire situations, I've been really excited that now my goal is to plan everything three months in advance. So every expo has its checklist and has its thing that is accomplished as far in advance as humanly possible. Of course, there's stuff that slips through the cracks, but having that structure, I think will make our expos way more successful. And I've also started an initiative to develop ROI reports after our expos. So we, again, we're sort of flying blind with, we would go, we are not sure really if we saw results, whether they be impressions, engagement, sales, whatever, we have no idea. And so I have been meeting with, again, a mentor because I think that's really important. And we've been working through what this ROI report will look like and what the important measurements for these expos are. And honestly, if they're worth even going to, and if they are, cool, but I want to be able to prove that definitively with data. So all of those are the kind of things that I'm really excited about that I have learned in the last nine months that are gonna be this really big initiative for the coming year and hopefully make us not only more profitable and more organized, but more confident when we go and do these. So we're traveling, we're like, yeah, we're gonna get sales from this, not like, oh God, we're gonna go do this and I hope we get sales type situation. As far as I'm dreading, I probably just more graphic design. I hope my freelancer is okay with doing more because I'm just, really bad at it. had a little mishap in something that I designed and tried to get printed for this expo next week in Orlando. And we were running tighter on the timeline than I would have liked. And I designed this, I guess I didn't get a second pair of eyes on it and it had some errors. All because I, you know, I don't know how to get it from like pixels to inches. I don't know, but I don't, I don't know anything about that. And so that was a real hit in my confidence of like, oh my gosh, this is a disaster. What am I going to do? So that's why again, three months in advance with a graphic designer and of another set of eyes. So that, that way things can get printed without having a hair on fire situation. That's what I'm dreading.
Bill: I love that. So those are both very... Let's circle back to the trade show. If you and your team are heading into a trade show, and this isn't just you guys, this is across the industry. If a team is going into a trade show, hair on fire, everything's behind schedule, we don't know if the booth is going to make it, we don't know if the printed material is going to make it, we didn't send out a pre-show email invite, we didn't have it on our social media. The probability of going into a show like that and coming out with any good results is it's like getting there is the result. And the result we're looking for from trade shows is not showing up. The result we're looking for is relationships and sales. And the fact that you're moving that from a tragedy or a panic or like a crisis to proactive planning and preparation and then you are going to get, I'm to tell you right now, you are going to get more ROI out of your trade shows because of this shift in approach. And it has, it goes far beyond the marketing function. You're going to have salespeople who show up ready to have conversations, not ones with frazzled nerves and just absolutely burnout getting there. So kudos to you on that. And also kudos for recognizing the fact that you don't like graphic design. And you're doing the right thing by finding an outsource partner to execute that function. Also, proofing, always get multiple sets of eyes on it because we found in our team, somebody else always has to look at everything. Because once you look at something for more than probably a half hour, you will no longer see it. Right. It's a job to be done. It is not a thing that you can objectively review and provide feedback on. So I think those are, those are right on. And congrats, the fact that you also organized a warehouse with all of the marketing stuff, that's huge. That will reduce stress and your not only for you, but your entire organization and sends a great signal. If the salespeople come in and see that, that you guys are ready to charge the hill and, be, you know, are organized.
Grace: Yeah, and it wasn't just me. You know, a lot of the team came in and helped and was willing to carry boxes and organize literature and help me identify miscellaneous wires. So I have to give props to that too. And there's some stuff I just can't carry. So we had to fix all that. But yeah, I had a meeting with my mentor and my CEO. And something that I learned about my personality in particular is if I'm not organized, I am a frazzled mess. And then our productivity just tanks because I get that deer in headlights thing is I'm just like, I don't have my list. I'm not organized. I don't even know what I need to do. What's my name? You know, stuff like that, that I don't know. I freak out. And so when I would look, I would go back into that warehouse and I'd see stuff. I'm just like, Oh my gosh, this is, this stresses me out just looking at it. So you know, finally tackling that with the team and getting some help and redoing that whole thing. Honestly, it was so cathartic just throwing stuff away. I mean, we just threw so much crap away. It was awesome. So those kinds of things were really, that was huge. Again, another thing that just was helpful for confidence and I think will be beneficial for the company as a whole.
Bill: No, that's great. Well, Grace, this has been an excellent conversation. I want to give you the opportunity here to tell a little bit more about how anyone who listens to this could get in touch with your company if they have any needs. And then also about yourself and all of these details will be in the wherever these things are shared on YouTube, social media, et cetera. They'll be in the comments or the footers or wherever they put such things to get to these links. But just maybe talk about your company and about where they can find you if they ever want to reach out and talk about anything.
Grace: Sure, so the best way to reach out to us is from our website. You can go there and submit a form fill and that goes straight to me where I delegate it out to the rest of our team. So it's a one-to-one opportunity to get in contact with somebody. We also have a support ticket for our 24-7 support team if you have any questions about gas detection or concerns with products that have already been purchased. Another is through LinkedIn. Again, that's me actively making sure that all the messages are answered. So all of those places are opportunities and ways to get in contact with us, whether it's to purchase, ask questions, or just inquire about jobs or whatever else. So those are the best ways to reach us.
Bill: Well, Grace, thank you so much. This has been an excellent conversation. I really want to commend you on your candor. It is great to talk to people. You're less guarded than some, and I really appreciate that because you're just speaking truth. And there are a ton of gold nuggets in this conversation and just unvarnished truth about what we're facing in the marketing industry, in the Department of One type of staffing approach, and then even into some specific tools and processes. It’s just been a great conversation. So thank you so much for joining us.
Grace: Of course, absolutely. Thank you so much for having me.
Bill: Thank you for joining the Missing Have Podcast where we're discovering what's missing in manufacturing and B2B marketing. Like, share, subscribe. Have a great day.