Why a Two-Person Marketing Team Runs on Relationships in Plastics ManufacturingWhy a Two-Person Marketing Team Runs on Relationships in Plastics Manufacturing

Why a Two-Person Marketing Team Runs on Relationships in Plastics Manufacturing Transcript:

Jeff White: Welcome to The Kula Ring, a podcast for manufacturing marketers brought to you by Kula Partners. My name is Jeff White, and joining me today is Carman Pirie. Carman, how you doing, sir?

Carman Pirie: Doing well. Another great show of the Kula Ring coming up, I think.

Jeff White: Yeah, yeah. Kind of recording in midsummer here, which is nice.

Carman Pirie: Always nice. If it were summer year round in Nova Scotia, nobody would ever get anything done around here, that’s for sure.

Jeff White: Yeah, and probably have three times the population too.

Carman Pirie: It’s three times the population and about one-fifth of the productivity, which is already pretty low, but…

Jeff White: Yeah. But that’s not what we’re here to talk about today

Carman Pirie: Not at all. But we can brag about the Nova Scotia summer every once in a while, you know?

Jeff White: I do think what we’re gonna be talking about today will resonate with a lot of manufacturing marketers who are dealing with the rigors and extra requirements of, of having very small teams, even within large organizations, as well in mid-size and small.

It’s kind of the standard, standard play with a lot of orgs, eh?

Carman Pirie: It certainly is. Yeah, I think the challenges of the one, two-person marketing team and getting into that today I think will be interesting. And also, there’s something we talk about I think is often talked about a little bit more maybe on the sales side, than on the marketing, but the notion of the kind of the sea change that’s underway in terms of the people that are working inside of these organizations.

The members of the buying committees are, they’re often no longer, 50, 60 years old. Often now 30, 35, 40 years old, and a different generation in charge of those buying decisions, and frankly, in charge of marketing departments. And I think that’s part of what we’re talking about as well is the evolution of kinda just how that works now that the new generation is taking over.

Jeff White: Absolutely. So joining us today is Chloe Linsmeier. Chloe is the marketing manager at Advanced Blending Solutions. Welcome to The Kula Ring, Chloe!

Chloe Linsmeier: Thank you. Thanks for having me, guys.

Carman Pirie: Chloe, it’s wonderful to have you on the show. And we’re burdening you with not only leading the marketing for the organization with probably half the team that you need or less, but then we’re also saying you need to represent an entire new generation in B2B manufacturing. And it all has to happen inside of a half-hour show.

I don’t know, it seems

Jeff White: But first I need to know, is the weather there nice in the summer?

Chloe Linsmeier: I was just gonna say I can brag about the Upper Peninsula, summer too, which I have been off for a lot of the summer because us Yoopers love our summer as well. So totally can, relate to you guys with no productivity.

Jeff White: I just got back from a cross Canada trip, so I get it.

Carman Pirie: Yeah. All right. Well, Chloe, tell us a little bit about the company, if you would, before we dive into how you ended up there.

Chloe Linsmeier: Yeah, absolutely. So Advanced Blending Solutions, we’re located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, just about 45 minutes north of Green Bay, Wisconsin. I have been with the company since 2014, and we manufacture blending material convey, desiccant drying, and re-pelletization units for the plastics industry.

So we’re equipment manufacturers. We were founded in 2009, and have been here in Wallace since then. It’s a great company to work for. I love the people. Being a Yooper, it’s a lot of people that are from this area, so we are like a mini family.

Carman Pirie: Really cool.

Jeff White: We have to, we have to pause. What’s a yooper?

Chloe Linsmeier: You’ve never heard of a Yooper?

Jeff White: I haven’t heard the phrase, no.

Chloe Linsmeier: Oh my gosh. Okay. So, ’cause Michigan has the Upper Peninsula and the Lower Peninsula.

Jeff White: Oh, you see the Upper Peninsula. Now I get it. Okay

Chloe Linsmeier: Yeah, so the Upper Peninsula where you, we are referred to as the Yoopers, and then the people that live in the Lower Peninsula are trolls, so, ’cause they’re un- they’re under the bridge, ’cause the Mackinac Bridge connects,

Carman Pirie: Yeah. Yeah, that all makes sense. That all tracks. And I was in the, in my geographic knowledge is going to, show how limited it is now, but the Upper Peninsula, is that the part that connects to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario in one part?

Chloe Linsmeier: Yes. So Sault St-, Sault Ste. Marie is…

Carman Pirie: But there’s a Sault Ste. Marie on both sides.

Chloe Linsmeier: Yeah. So yes. Yeah. They’re f- I’m trying, I’m not good with directions. East, east of…

Carman Pirie: all right. I spent a week there one afternoon and, yeah, no . It was actually, it was more entertaining I believe when we crossed over into the US side of Sault Ste. Marie than I remember the Canadian side of Sault Ste. Marie being.

Chloe Linsmeier: I can’t say I’ve ever been there honestly.

Carman Pirie: Nice. A part of the peninsula that I’ve been to that you haven’t. See, now I’m feeling like I’m part of it now.

Chloe Linsmeier: Maybe you’re the Yooper.

Carman Pirie: I’m gonna put that in my bio, Jeff, on LinkedIn. It’ll be great. All right. Chloe, tell us about, how you ended up there. What, other than the fact that maybe you were just born on the Upper Peninsula and destined to be there.

Chloe Linsmeier: Yeah, so it’s actually, kind of an interesting story. I worked at, a golf course while I was in college, and I met the owner of the company and, my now my boss. And I was in college to be… I wanted to be a physician’s assistant, and my dad said, “You do realize that people come to you and complain about not feeling well every single day when you’re a physician’s assistant?”

And I was like, “Yeah.” He goes, “You don’t like people that complain.” And I was like, “Huh, okay, I should probably, like, reconsider what I wanna do.” So I added on a business minor deg- degree, my last semester. Met these people, went there for an internship, and I just loved the story and being part of a, a small team.

We were very small at that point in time. This was 2014. I think maybe we had 30 employees. But we were growing, and it was really fun to be part of something and help to build that, and I could see the success in the future, and I just felt that I had to stay here. This was not anything I ever intended, was staying, close to home when I was finished with my degree.

So it’s been really fun to watch our success, watch us continue to grow, continue to win, and that’s something that I really pride our entire team on.

Jeff White: That’s really interesting, and it’s not that common to run into machine manufacturing companies that only started in the last couple of decades. And typically, if we’re speaking to someone who’s in the machine business, they’re ninth generation or something like that, very long-standing organizations.

So that’s really cool. Is there something unique about what ABS brings to the market about the the innovations of your machinery and things like that?

Chloe Linsmeier: Yes, absolutely. We have some of the most technically advanced equipment with our controls, so we are able to help our customers increase efficiencies and reduce waste, which is a really big thing in the plastics industry right now because of the software that we are able to program for our machinery.

We’re constantly evolving. I’m actually sitting looking out into our R&D lab that we have. The building that we have our offices in used to be an old school building that we took and we renovated, and many of the employees, including the owner had gone to school here, and we renovated the R&D lab, which used to be the gym for the students.

So it’s pretty cool.

Carman Pirie: Really cool.

Jeff White: Who knew that Kula and, ABS would have some similar backgrounds? I mean, we used to be operate out of an old Catholic boys school.

Chloe Linsmeier: Really? That’s the first other person I’ve ever heard, so very cool

Carman Pirie: It’s an entirely different episode of the podcast if we tell you some of those stories, I can tell you. That was in the very early days of the agency where all profit was meant to go towards, drinking and espresso machines, I think, in the very early days.

Chloe Linsmeier: I love that because we’re actually trying to find a way to budget an espresso machine into, my office, mine and my boss’s office downstairs. So we have a lot of similarities.

Jeff White: If you want any suggestions, we can help.

Carman Pirie: We may now have a factory direct connection to a couple of, espresso machines.

Chloe Linsmeier: Okay, that’s good to know.

Carman Pirie: Yeah, it’s a bit of an issue.

Jeff White: Only for our accountant.

Chloe Linsmeier: Right.

Carman Pirie: Chloe, first of all, I guess it’s shocking that you’ve been with the organization as long as you have.

I don’t think there’s a lot of people that that’s the case, that are your age. I would like to understand, a bit about the, your reality day-to-day as a small marketing team. What would you say, is the single biggest advantage of that and the single biggest challenge that you live as a result?

Chloe Linsmeier: Of having a small marketing team?

Carman Pirie: Yeah.

Chloe Linsmeier: I would say the advantage that I have is, I have a lot of leniency and free will. I am able to do a lot. I have a lot of flexibility. I don’t really have to go through the rigmarole of approvals and, the latter. I have a really good relationship with our marketing specialist.

I think that’s probably my favorite part, is her and I just jive so well together. We found a way to work tremendously together. Shout out to her for letting me use her laptop today because mine wasn’t working. That’s probably my favorite part, and the creativity that comes with that relationship.

We have a great relationship, so it’s not like anybody’s sitting around, have- feeling like they have to tiptoe and not be able to say what they want to in a creative sense. Because it does It can be embarrassing to voice some of the ideas and be fearful that they might be stupid if you have a large group.

I would say the con of a small marketing team is there’s so much that we want to do. There’s just not enough manpower behind us to be able to do it all and keep up on the latest trends. I mean, we had gone to a marketing conference that was held in, Green Bay back in April, and I can guarantee you that half the stuff that they talked about has already changed, in regards to AI and y- the algorithms of social media that are constantly shifting and changing.

So it is very hard to keep up on, what’s new, how to make sure that you’re using the latest practices and the latest trends and be successful.

Jeff White: When you’re talking about that, and it’s certainly—Carman’s fond of saying that, there’s never been a, a more difficult time. It’s a total game of Whac-A-Mole now if you’re trying to keep up with every possible innovation and new technology or social network or what have you.

But you must have a, a baseline strategy of things that you do, and then you’re probably trying out new things to see if they fit. But what’s the kind of core of your marketing endeavors?

Chloe Linsmeier: So when it was just me on the marketing team, and, this was, like, gosh, maybe seven-ish years ago, I was like, “Okay, I’m not really sure what to do, so let’s try social media because it’s free.” And with being a young company, f- free is me, is us. So I was like, “Why not?” While it wasn’t necessarily, a huge target demographic at that point in time, because a lot of the our target audience is probably more middle-aged, I still saw that it was going to end up going somewhere, and it was going to continue to grow with the younger generation of people that are coming into manufacturing.

’Cause in the plastics industry, there is – there seems to be a large gap between, the older generation and the younger generation. There’s nobody really in between the middle. So we started with social media and just took off and did that, and we do email marketing very, very… once a month, really, is all it is, ’cause we don’t want to inundate our customers, our audience, have them unsubscribe, ’cause you’re, you’re defeating the purpose.

And a lot of our business practices are run off of relationship building, which is, goes back to what I said before about one of the pros. I’m a huge relationship-building person. That’s how I got my job, was building that relationship with these people prior to my job where they trusted me enough to come in and get the job done.

We are trying to dabble a little bit in the AEO landscape, and figure out how to make all of that work and how to show up. Because, I Google us and we’ll pop up in something. I’m like, “Ooh, yay, win,” and we get really excited. But then if you were to do that tomorrow, you might not show up again.

So it’s how do you continue to stay relevant? Because people are what, it’s zero-click marketing. People are not going to your website until, they’re pretty much ready. I’ve been noticing even just a slight decline in our website visitors. But I… It’s nothing that I’m worried about.

But that’s something… that’s a big one. We had never utilized, the UTM tracking, which has been really interesting to see how people are coming in and reading our blog posts. I know that I just recently read somewhere that the, the long form content is coming back, which is something that I was really surprised to hear, but I think that goes hand-in-hand with the AEO.

So we are putting a, a stronger emphasis on, updating our blogs and making sure that we’re pushing content out like no tomorrow, or trying to. Like a, with a small team, it’s hard.

Carman Pirie: And Chloe, do you find that this is a similar experience with others that you interact with across the plastics industry? I mean, other firms that you may meet at trade shows or what have you, is this, is this a similar story repeated often?

Chloe Linsmeier: I noticed that a lot of plastics industry manufacturing companies probably have a third-party marketing, group that they’re working with. Or if like they do – if they don’t, they have a very small team, ’cause I have talked to a couple of the other marketing people in the industry and they’re like, “How do you do everything that you’re doing?”

And I say, “We run hard, number one. But, we also do plan pretty far in advance. We do utilize a third-party marketing firm as well on top of us for some of the things that we’re not great at.” I was never very good at the digital marketing landscape because of the fact that it changes so f-frequently, and you have to be pretty tuned in to what’s happening.

So we do utilize a third-party m-marketing firm for that sort of thing, but we are now starting to put more of an emphasis on us learning it so we can understand it better and, capitalize on that as well.

Carman Pirie: I guess I’d like to dive into a, a little bit about the dynamics around the plastics industry more broadly and just how you’re… Because it, it strikes me that it seems like there’s part of your role or a good chunk of it that is more on the relationship build side.

How are you building those relationships with the industry? And do you find not to be, I don’t know, sound weird about it, but does it, is it, like you just mentioned how like, okay, there’s kind of nobody in the middle. Like, there’s like these people that have been in the business forever, and then there’s folks that are relatively new.

And I’m just assuming that the folks that are relatively new maybe go about it a bit of a different way.

Chloe Linsmeier: Yeah, so, personally, I’m obsessed with the plastics industry. It’s nothing I ever thought I would say, but you find that once… I travel to a lot of conferences and trade shows. I handle all of our event marketing as well, so I end up being, front of the line at these events a lot of the times too, which is how I got involved in the Future Leaders in Plastics, group that I’m a part of, which is a group of about 300, under 40-ish they say, young professionals in the plastics industry that we get together on a quarterly basis.

We’ll meet up at certain plastics industry events for cocktails or appetizers, or sometimes we go bowling, or sometimes we’ll do mini golf. But it’s a big part of what I do. There is a big gap, in my opinion, between the two generations, but I’m finding that a lot of younger people are coming into the plastics industry.

The older generation is great to work with. They love the plastics industry just as much. You’ll find that people have been in the plastics industry for 30, 40, 50 years. Once you’re in the plastics industry, you don’t leave, you just go somewhere else. So it’s very interesting. The plastics industry is almost like a family.

I’ve heard people talk about other industries that have moved from maybe automotive into the plastics industry. They’re like, “Wow, everybody is so nice in the plastics industry.” I was like, “I think everybody is nice too, but I just thought everybody was nice.” So I’m like, “I’m… good to know. Don’t go into automotive.”

No hate to the automotive industry. But yeah, it’s a very interesting, time for us, so we’re trying to recruit more young people.

Carman Pirie: It’s impressive. I mean, 300 folks, as part of that Future Leaders group. D- help me understand, the makeup of titles there. Most of them – I’m assuming most of them aren’t marketers, but maybe they are. I don’t know, like marketers, engineers. What’s the makeup of the people?

Chloe Linsmeier: I would say there’s a good mix. Marketing and sales is a good – marketing, sales, business development, a lot of individuals from those roles. But then there’s also, as we discussed earlier, a lot of manufacturing companies are family generations. So it may, it might be the president of a company, the young son or young daughter is stepping into that role, so this is a great way for them to get involved, meet people, build their skills, because we learn, how to build confidence and presentation skills.

So a lot of things like that. But then there are a good chunk that are engineers. I would say that we don’t meet the engineers as much as the sales, marketing, business development people just because…

Jeff White: That’s shocking.

Chloe Linsmeier: Right. Right. So weird. We’re there, we’re at the conference ’cause that’s part of our job.

The engineers are at their desks ’cause that’s their job. So and they’re a little more introverted. So it is, it’s exciting when we do get the engineers because that’s a lot of the, target audience.

Jeff White: Yeah, I was wondering how many – what’s the split between folks like you that provide machinery and equipment and things like that to the plastics industry versus, say, you know, the, the folks that are buying that, like packaging manufacturers or others that are using the pelletizing machines and stuff?

Chloe Linsmeier: There’s, there is an actually pretty decent split. The Plastics Industry Association has done a really nice job making sure that it’s beneficial for everybody involved. When I first started, I would say it’s a lot, it was a lot of the machinery manufacturers. But now we’re seeing that it is more of the processors and the chemical suppliers, which is who us manufacturing people want.

Jeff White: Yeah. And I would have to think too, that, that creates an interesting channel for you that, that is maybe a little bit different from the more traditional, trade show, all packaging trade shows or things like that, where you’re a little bit more intimately connected to these folks and learning with them at the same time, and probably creating relationships that could be leveraged down the line.

Chloe Linsmeier: Oh, absolutely. I have made so many friends. We know all about each other’s spouses, our kids, what’s going on, the hard times. Those relationships go really far, in my opinion. I could not talk enough about relationship building and networking. That is my jam. But, it’s been very beneficial.

We’ve gotten customers and prospective customers to come visit our facilities based on those networking and that relationship building.

Carman Pirie: How has, have those relationships changed your understanding of, of who you’re trying to sell to, who you’re trying to market to?

Chloe Linsmeier: Just based on the friendships that I’ve made, I am not, I’m not afraid to ask questions because I would say if I were to ask a seasoned veteran, and this maybe five years ago, I’ve grown so much, by participating in these groups, but I would’ve been nervous to ask a question. I didn’t wanna sound stupid.

I didn’t wanna sound like I didn’t know something, and it is very male-dominated, so I just didn’t wanna sound silly. But now I have my relationships that I’ve built with my friends and people that have been in the industry. I’ve met a lot of really great, older mentors as well that I keep in touch with very often.

They’re always willing to help me out and, point us in the right direction. “Hey, we – I see your equipment at this facility all the time,” or, “Hey, you would be a really good fit here.” So they kind of help… We all help each other lead the way once we have those relationships built.

Carman Pirie: Chloe, I wonder, as we bring this, podcast episode to a close shortly, I wonder what, ’cause you’ve been at that role now 12 years is a, it’s a good go so far, and I’m wondering if you had to identify something that you kinda wish you would’ve known earlier, ’cause you’ve learned so much, I’m sure, over those 12 years.

If you had to pick the one thing you wish you’d have figured out a little sooner, what would it have been?

Chloe Linsmeier: Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid at all. If I would’ve put myself out there to get outside of my comfort zone a little bit earlier, I can only imagine where I would be personally and where we would be professionally. As a company, that was … Once I found my footing and the confidence that I needed, and understood that those scary moments really are what propel you.

If you would’ve asked me to do this podcast back in 2014, yeah, no. Absolutely not. I’ve done panel discussions now. I am not afraid to speak in front of my team. I would’ve been afraid to speak in front of my team. And I’ve just really learned how to step outside of my comfort zone. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, and don’t doubt yourself, because most of the time if you have a question, somebody else has that same exact question.

So it’s really fun for me now having, our marketing specialist who reports to me, and she’s younger, and so I can, see some of the things that I was like in her. You know? When you’re new to a role, you’re a l- you’re a little nervous. You, your confidence is not quite there. So it’s been really fun to help mentor her as well

Jeff White: I think that’s such great advice for everything. Really, like just being comfortable saying, “I don’t know. How does this work?” Or, or, “What should I do here?” Or, man…

Chloe Linsmeier: w- that’s one thing that I wish I could go back and redo so many times over, and I tell my daughter the same thing. I, my daughter’s 16 years old, she’s at a difficult age for teenage girls. And, she listens. She listens to my advice, so she’s awesome, ’cause I did not listen to my parents at all.

It’s really fun to be able to pass some of that down, and see her thrive and take the advice and, yeah, really go.

Jeff White: Yeah.

Carman Pirie: Jeff’s a dad of, two, two girls.

Jeff White: Early 20s and a son who’s 18, but all are out of the house, so you know…

Carman Pirie: chloe, it’s, been wonderful to have you on the show. Thank you for joining The Kula

Chloe Linsmeier: Thanks for having me, guys.

Jeff White: Yeah, it’s been great. Thank you.