Scuka

IPACKCHEM

DYSYS

Vega

Project Electric

ProHome

Goodman Steel

Altec

CaraGreen

It’s unclear who first uttered the words “lies, damned lies, and statistics”, but the meaning of the phrase is clear. Statistics, even those derived from trustworthy and reliable data, are easily manipulated to support any argument. Abuse of data allows untrustworthy parties to mislead their audience, particularly if that audience isn’t data-literate.

We see it all the time. The graph on a news program that purposefully removes context to support a political position. The sleazy investment pitch that focuses entirely on the upside while downplaying the risks. We’re all familiar with the ways that unscrupulous people sell us bad intel.

Although there is such a thing as bad data — small samples, bad collection methodology — typically, the data itself is blameless. Data doesn’t care to tell one story or another. It just is. Humans, however, require a narrative to wrap their heads around complex data. Our brains are wired for narratives. It’s how we organize and preserve knowledge — how we’ve done so since the earliest days of human civilization.

This is the role data analysis plays within an organization. Data analysts are the storytellers who present insights in a digestible way. Their power is the ability to influence critical business decisions by pointing leaders in the right direction. Their responsibility is to do so honestly, accurately, and without undue bias.

Let’s take a look at the role of storytelling in business: why it matters, how it works, and what can go wrong if it’s done poorly.

## What is business storytelling?

First, let’s define what we’re talking about. Business storytelling is the practice of turning facts and figures into a narrative for yourself, your team, or your clients. It matters because humans learn through stories better than they do by looking at a spreadsheet.

To be clear, business storytelling should be non-fiction. It’s not about making up a story that doesn’t reflect reality in order to appease a client or ignore a problem. The storyteller’s goal is to uncover truth, then present that truth in a compelling way.

While business storytelling shouldn’t be frivolous or overwrought, it can be entertaining, funny, eclectic, stylish… whatever it needs to be in order to engage its audience and successfully confer its message. Basic business memos and lengthy text-based reports have a place in the working world, but they tend not to tell a very good story.

When we talk about business storytelling, we’re often referring specifically to data storytelling. There are other kinds of business storytelling as well. How do you present your training materials to new staff? What does your quarterly strategy meeting look like? These business units can also benefit from good storytelling.

## Why does data storytelling matter?

You may not yet be convinced of the importance of a good story when presenting information. The facts and figures are already available in a spreadsheet. Why spend more time (sometimes much more time) to make it look pretty?

Stories are how people communicate ideas. Imagine if history class consisted only of list of names, dates, and statistics. We might be able to conceive of the scale of WWII’s Ardennes Offensive, where a month of fighting combined for 200,000 casualties. But would we remember those names, facts, and figures without the first-hand accounts from servicemen? Can we fully appreciate the devastation of war without primary sources from reporters and civilians? Film footage and photography?

A story is more than a list of events or a summary table of data. Stories provide intellectual and emotional context that make the information presented memorable. They allow us to do more than merely report information — analysis itself is storytelling.

Ultimately, a good story should help a decision-maker make smart choices. It should facilitate access to information without requiring the kind of data literacy or specialization that a raw data dump might. It provides an artifact that can be stored, shared, and reflected upon by team members of many disciplines with different levels of data sophistication.

## The do's and don'ts of data storytelling

There is a wide range of acceptable practice in business storytelling, but there some definite do’s and don’ts to consider.

### Do’s

- Ensure the story you’re telling is valuable. Before you embark on a storytelling journey, plan out how this story will deliver value to you, your team, or your customers. It can be easy to get in the weeds and lose sight of the objective if we aren’t deliberate.
- Verify the quality of your supporting data. If the information you’re presenting is inaccurate, your story will be too.
- Empathize with your audience. Craft your story with a specific audience in mind. Don’t be too general, or develop a story that resonates with *you*. You already know what’s up.

### Don’ts

- Don’t overreach your grasp. Keep stories short, direct, and digestible. Ensure you have the time and resources to do justice to your subject matter.
- Don’t fight the data. Sometimes the picture we hoped to paint just isn’t supported by the facts. Honesty is our responsibility as analysts. Interpret and contextualize, but never hide or misrepresent facts.
- Don’t take things at face value. When we develop business stories, we’re doing the leg work to understand a challenge, then communicate our understanding to others. If things don’t add up, look into it. If the data suggests something shocking or unusual, verify it.

## Getting started with story-based analysis

Telling a story with data is a lot more work than simply generating a report or exporting a spreadsheet. There are many formats in which we can tell a story, ranging from powerful data visualization tools like Tableau and Google Data Studio to slideshows, custom infographics, or even microsites. Regardless of the tool we choose to use, the initial process is the same.

### Setting an agenda and collecting your data

The first thing we do is set the agenda. If we try to tell a story without having a sense of the beginning, middle, and end, we’re going to get lost in the plot immediately. Communicate with the intended audience for the report: what questions do they have? What business metrics do they wish they could understand at-a-glance?

Starting with a question or two sets the plot for our story. A good report should be concise and answer one question or a set of related questions. Don’t try to broadly explain everything at once. The narrower the scope of the story, the better crafted it will be.

Once we have a question, we pursue answers. Start by planning out where the answers may be. Often, we’ll need to compare information from multiple data sources. Figure out which tools you’ll need to do so — how do you export, combine, and clean up your data? In many cases, Excel or Google Sheets will do. If your needs are more complex, there are hundreds of tools that can help you connect and combine data sources. Google Data Studio is a good (and free) place to start.

### Check yourself before you wreck yourself

Before we dig into the data, carefully consider the potential pitfalls and challenges posed by the questions you’re trying to answer. Where might your biases mislead you? What gaps can you identify in the data set? Critically, how can you address those gaps and mitigate those biases? Write down a framework of considerations to guide you through the process. Once we’re neck-deep in data, it can be hard to maintain an unbiased and rigorous process.

### Find the right answers

You’ve surely heard the phrase “there are no stupid questions”. That may be true, but there *are* stupid answers. As an analyst, arguably our greatest concern is truth. We know that statistics can be manipulated to say almost anything. We can’t succumb to the temptation to deliver the easiest answer, or the one that makes our department look best. This will *feel* like delivering value for everyone involved — at first. But if our reports are used to make business decisions, and our reports are flawed, the decisions will be equally flawed. Eventually, those shortcuts and boastful claims come home to roost. Stay humble, and be committed to truth.

### Write for your audience

When reporting information, there is no single right way to best reach an audience. Just as small children enjoy picture books while adults prefer novels, our tone and format must adapt to the one receiving the report. Everybody has different abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. Great analysis involves empathy and emotional intelligence as well as rigorous data skills. Do your best to present your findings in a format that is both digestible and enjoyable for your primary audience. If they are visual learners, emphasize graphs and include colours and imagery. If you know their hobbies and interests, you could even include references or design elements that mirror said interests.

Don’t get *too* cute with it, but be willing to play. It makes the job more fun, and may make your end user more receptive to the insights you’re sharing.

### Plan for a sequel

Often, when we present one report it will pave the way for another. By answering one burning question, we help our team identify more questions — hopefully, *better* questions. It’s good to consider where a report may lead you. You may end up taking note of other metrics that may support the topic of your initial report, or set aside useful views and data blends anticipated to be used in the future. While you’re digging through the data, it makes sense to plan for eventualities.

## In conclusion

They say data is the new oil, an infinitely valuable resource waiting to be tapped. If so, analysts are the refineries that turn it from black sludge into useful material. We’re the pipelines that distribute information throughout a business so that it can be used effectively.

From solopreneurs to industry titans, data is central to the operations of a modern business. By telling the right stories, we ensure that data is useful, accurate, and honest.

There's a dirty word that we're hearing a lot lately.

It's the R-word: *recession*. While we aren't officially in a recession — a recession requires two consecutive quarters of economic contraction, which we haven't yet seen — there's no doubt that we're in a state of low consumer and investor confidence. **Despite relatively strong employment numbers in many parts of the world, global markets are bleeding gains and much of the world struggles with explosive inflation.**

Recessions demonstrate the psychological side of economics. When people believe they're in hard times, they tend to start saving more. This means less money circulating in the economy, which means economic slowdown.

Regardless of whether we're officially in a recession, we're definitely in a period of economic pessimism. From our clients and partners to our own business, we see the impact. Belts are tightening. Budgets get re-evaluated. Ambitious and risky projects get put off or have their scope narrowed.

One of the first taps many business owners look to turn off is marketing spend. Production, operations, and sales are tangible business units. Cuts to these areas are felt immediately. Marketing is less tangible; slashing spending has a harder-to-measure (or easier to obscure) impact on the day-to-day operations of the business.

The message we want to share is that marketing is essential during hard economic times, but it may not look the same as it does during an economic boom. **By mitigating risk, focusing on fundamentals, and investing in the right prospects and customers, marketing can be a tool to keep you afloat during economic uncertainty**.

## This too shall pass

**One of the most impactful ways we can recession-proof our marketing is by adjusting our mindset.** Before we get into the nuts and bolts of recession marketing, let's consider the view from 10,000 feet. The big picture.

In Spring of 2020, many of us watched the world around us change in rapid and concerning ways. Within the course of a week or so, the world went from wide-open to shut down. Air traffic practically stopped. Schools and offices closed. We sat in our living rooms and home offices, transfixed by an influx of bad news. Everything seemed to go from bad to worse.

Then it got better.

I'm not calling the pandemic over. Cases are surging in many areas. Experts forecast another wave this fall. The situation continues to evolve, and 'normal', defined as 'the way things were without COVID', may never fully return. But we learned to live with it. We got vaccinated, managed our risk, and in much of the world can live life as we did pre-2020, for the most part.

The point I'm getting at is this: **when things are bad, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that they will likely get better.** A recession looms, but it will pass. It's a normal part of a global economic cycle that expects highs and lows over time. Successful businesses will weather this economic storm by keeping an eye on the upswing. **Instead of despairing, they're preparing: getting ready to make a splash when the good times come again.**

## Three burning questions

Before we dig into some specific recommendations, we have a few questions you should ask yourself to understand your position as we slide toward recession. By understanding where you are, you'll be able to tailor your approach to suit the unique needs of your business.

## What's on your horizon?

Just like people, businesses have a life cycle. New businesses tend to be scrappy, energetic, and motivated to fight for market share. However, they may lack financial and human capital to accomplish their goals. Their situation tends to be more precarious.

Older businesses tend to be more conservative in their approach, better established within the market, and more financially secure, often at the cost of agility and hunger.

Where your business is at in its life cycle is an important consideration for how you approach marketing during a recession. If you're a startup, this may be the first big macroeconomic hurdle you face. This is a time to prepare your business for the struggle ahead, focusing on efficiency gains and securing your position in the market.

Established businesses may approach the problem from another angle: how can they best throw their weight around when their younger competitors are vulnerable? **Marketing initiatives that exploit the precarious situations of less-established companies (competing on price knowing startups can't afford to match, or promoting speed of service when other businesses have to lay off service staff) will be a better fit for businesses with the resources to stay the course and outlast their competition.**

### How does a recession affect your product?

**Different industries experience a recession in different ways.** An alternative finance company offering title loans and invoice factoring will benefit tremendously from economic contraction, assuming their capital reserves are intact. Their clients experience the exact kind of squeeze that pushes them to make use of an alternative lender.

Many other businesses benefit. Resellers of used vehicles and equipment tend to experience an uptick in business in hard financial times. Ironically, luxury brands often find themselves immune to recessions. High-income purchasers of their products tend not to experience the brunt of an economic downturn. The people whose purchasing habits are most impacted aren't the ones buying Chanel perfume and Rolls Royces.

Tourism, hospitality, and retail-centric businesses tend to struggle most, as do the manufacturers and resource industries that directly support these verticals.

Purchaser perceptions can either be a boon or a pox on your marketing performance. Understanding the impact on your industry vertical is essential when planning your marketing through economic hardship.

### How stocked are your cupboards?

Although saving for a rainy day is good practice for both people and businesses, many companies operate with sparse resources in reserve. Especially for younger companies, a healthy rainy day fund may be difficult to maintain as staffing and supply costs continue to balloon. If your business has a healthy financial buffer, the coming months are a good occasion to dip into that reserve. It may be a competitive difference-maker for you.

For example, if other businesses in your vertical don't have the resources to continue their advertising efforts, they will stop purchasing advertising inventory. This has a deflationary effect on the cost of that advertising inventory. **Because you saved for a rainy day, you get to buy ad inventory at a discount and actually *increase* your reach compared to pre-recession times.**

If you don't have a healthy rainy day fund, don't despair. You won't be able to take advantage of the situation, but you also aren't alone in that regard. **What you must focus on is doing better than companies in the same situation.** Your biggest opportunity to succeed is in fostering better marketing efficiency. Seek out and excise wasted ad spend, campaigns with poor ROI, and initiatives that are risky. Double down on safe and consistent channels.

## Recession Marketing's Golden Rule: Don't Stop!

The easiest thing to do when facing an economic struggle is to panic. Shut off the taps! Slash the budget!

Budget management does become essential during a recession, but a full stop is never the right answer.

Consider this article on the relative performance of consumer goods giant Procter and Gamble and Coca Cola during the first year of the COVID pandemic. [Coca Cola blinked](https://www.amazon.ca/Other-Guy-Blinked-Pepsi-Cola/dp/0553051776) (again). They halted advertising campaigns, believing that marketing did little to help generate sales 'right now'. They reported a net 11% revenue reduction year-over-year. Pepsi, which did not halt its advertising, reported a net 5% increase in revenue YOY. P&G saw a similar net 4% increase in revenue.

### Delayed reaction, momentum, and the marketing funnel

Though there are valid criticisms of the marketing funnel — that it's too linear, not representative of contemporary decision-making processes, that it over-simplifies people into purchasing units — it is a fundamental concept that underpins so much of our understanding of marketing. If you aren't familiar, the marketing funnel is a visual concept for understanding the customer journey. Customers enter the top of the funnel, often labeled 'awareness', then progress down the funnel through interest, consideration, intent, evaluation, and finally to the point of sale. It's used to conceptualize campaigns for each stage of the purchasing process. How do we generate awareness? How do we turn awareness into interest, or intent?

One concept the marketing funnel illuminates is that a lot happens between product awareness and final sale. All those stages take time. **When we halt marketing campaigns abruptly, we're severing a stage of our funnel. We'll see the outcome on net sales in the weeks or months to follow.** In some cases, it can feel like a business saves money by cutting their campaigns short. Dollars that otherwise would have been spent on the campaign remain in the company coffers.

But what happens next month, or next quarter? How many fewer sales might you accrue for halting your marketing?

Many businesses struggle to answer that question, which is why…

## Evaluating ROI is critical

Without a full spectrum accounting of your marketing performance, mapping marketing spend to sales outcomes, you're guessing.

Your guesses may be educated, but they are still guesses. Marketing can be counter-intuitive. The flashy print ads you're running in trade publications may feel good, but what do they do for your bottom line? Meanwhile, maybe that long-forgotten blog post on some niche problem tackled by your industry drip feeds you a few leads per year, unseen and unheralded.

Knowledge is power, and marketing ROI is *knowable*. **Before hacking and slashing your marketing budget, develop a deep understanding of what's working and what isn't.** Try to reset your understanding of your own marketing to view the challenge with fresh eyes. Make no assumptions about what works and what doesn't. Between CRMs, analytics trackers, and marketing platforms, the data is there. Let it show you the answer.

## Know thyself

A business that doesn't understand itself is one doomed to mediocrity.

**During hard times, marketers should be especially deliberate about playing to their strengths, mitigating their weaknesses, and embracing their opportunities.** A living SWOT document, adjusted regularly as conditions change, is essential to your recession marketing performance.


> 💡 Do you need support with business analysis, positioning, or business strategy? We can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses, evaluate your market and competitors, and position you for success. [Connect with us today!](/contact)


Client composition is another facet to be explored. Knowing specifically what each of your customers is worth to you can inform your marketing strategy. As you analyze your clients, you may identify that some are unprofitable. **This is a good time to consider moving on from these unprofitable clients to focus on those that deliver value.**

Clients that require a lot of care but aren't very profitable may share attributes that you can strategize around, steering campaigns away from generating these low-value, high upkeep customers. Conversely, the attributes of particularly high-value clients may be identified and targeted by your campaigns.

## The training montage

If you've ever watched any of the Rocky movies, you'll remember the iconic training montages. Rocky gets beaten down in the first couple acts, then grits his teeth and trains himself back up, better than ever.

He throws logs around, punches meat, runs through the snow... whatever it takes to come back stronger, meaner, and leaner.

A recession can be your chance for a training montage. Our recommendations require that you develop strong attribution, look inward and analyze clients and competitive strengths, and carefully monitor money in and out.

If your business is impacted by a recession or slowdown, don't let idle time go to waste. **This is your opportunity to build up marketing best practices and institutions within your business.** When the cycle turns and we're back to the boom times, you'll be prepared to make a big splash.

## The uptick

We've mentioned several times that recessions aren't forever. In fact, they happen like clockwork. **In the past 90-odd years since the Great Depression, the United States has seen fifteen recessions, averaging one every six years.** With the exception of the sharp drop in spring 2020 as the world temporarily closed down, we've been in an extended period of growth for over a decade.

Like a wildfire brings renewal to a forest, a recession cleans house in the economy. Stagnant and inefficient ventures fail, sending their human and financial capital to new ventures and more valuable sectors. Humans and businesses alike learn better financial habits.

**Although keeping afloat during a recession is tough, those that survive the meltdown emerge to a brighter future**. The months after a recession are among the most creative, innovative, and exciting times to participate in the economy. Customers reject their previous dogma and embrace new products, new brands, new ideas. This is why getting organized during a recession can prove so valuable. **If you invest your time wisely, you will be in the best position possible to benefit from post-recession goodwill and opportunity.**

## The bottom line

In the end, a recession will mean something different to your marketing department depending on the current health, life stage, and industry sector of your business.

Established businesses may look to maximize their reach by purchasing discounted advertising inventory and investing in marketing channels their less established competitors cannot afford. More vulnerable organizations may be better served by turning inward, streamlining operations, and preparing to make an impact when the good times return.

*Whether you’re established, an up-and-comer, or something in between, we can help you realize success — whatever that looks like to you. [Reach out to us](/contact) to learn more about how a marketing consultancy engagement can support your revenue goals and safeguard you from economic turmoil.*

Change is the universal constant. Whether we act or not, everything around us changes all the time. We change — sometimes by our own volition and in ways we can control, but not always. Most of the ways we change are out of our hands.

But can change be directed? Can we shape change to suit our needs? Unless we live in a purely deterministic world, the answer is yes. We direct change all the time, choosing this or that, influencing outcomes to suit our wants and needs.

Yet when it comes to business change — organizational change — teams tend to struggle. Change stalls in its infancy, or comes with unintended consequences. Groups often fail to overcome inertia, returning to safe, established habits rather than embracing new ones.

How do organizations embrace positive change effectively? The answer is change management.

Change management is an interdisciplinary practice that facilitates directed, lasting change for individuals and teams. Combining elements of business management, philosophy, and psychology, change management is the missing piece between where your team is now, and where you know they need to go.

## Three basic principles of change management

Originally developed and proposed by psychologist Kurt Lewin in the 1920s, the “Three Step Change Model” continues to influence change management thinking to this day.

The three steps in this model are:

- **Unfreezing**, where processes become destabilized and teams grow energized for change;
- **Changing**, where new processes are introduced and explored collaboratively;
- **Refreezing**, where processes are set and confirmed.

Taken as a whole, it’s a process that dissolves rigid organizational structures, builds up potential energy to facilitate change, then re-shapes and solidifies the organization once the changes have been put in place.

This process has been expanded upon, edited, critiqued, and otherwise modified into dozens of new models over the past century, but in most cases the principles remain the same.

## The science of change

Change isn’t limited to humans and organizations. Our universe is always in flux, experiencing chemical and physical transformation. In fact, many of the reactions we may have experienced in high school chemistry class mirror the three principles of change management. We’ll use science as a framing tool to explore change in more detail.

### Unfreezing: energy transactions and state change

Quick! Name three phases of matter!

For those who skipped elementary school science class, the answers are solid, liquid, and gas. When we teach kids about matter, we usually start with the safest and simplest chemical available to us: water.

Water can be liquid, solid in the form of ice, or gaseous in the form of vapour. Each time water changes state — transitions to a different form of matter — a transaction occurs. An energy transaction.

To melt ice into water, we introduce energy. There are plenty of ways to measure energy; in a lab setting, you’d probably express it as joules/gram or some other metric measure. My background is more trade school than engineering class, so I’ll use BTUs, or British Thermal Units, defined as the amount of energy required to increase one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit.

Clear as mud? Good.

We know that water freezes at 32F. Did you know that 32F is also water’s melting point?

The way it works is this. Raising the temperature of a pound of -10F ice by one degree only takes a single BTU. But melting one pound of 32F ice takes 144 BTU. Liquid water is much more energetic than frozen water, so the water won’t change state until it’s acquired enough energy to do so.

Likewise, to turn water to ice we need to remove 144 BTU of energy from each pound of 32F water, but only one BTU for each subsequent degree by which we cool the water. To turn water into steam is even more energy intensive: it takes 970 BTU to create one pound of steam, assuming the liquid water is at its boiling point of 212F. This is actually the reason why steam burns can be so dangerous: steam has a massive amount of energy to transfer, much more than the equivalent amount of 212F water. When it touches skin, it releases that energy into your body very quickly as it condenses.

**What does this tell us about organizational change?**

Now let’s tie things back together. In change management, we have three steps: unfreezing, changing, and refreezing. If we frame this three step system as a physical state change, from ice to water to ice again, we see two major energy transactions: adding energy to facilitate melting, then removing energy to refreeze.

This is exactly how change management works. Instituting change doesn’t happen without an expenditure of energy. When significant change occurs, the most difficult obstacle tends to be inertia — inability or unwillingness to make a change because of how easy it is to continue the way things have always been. As managers, we need to find the energy to facilitate change. This might mean freeing up team resources to focus on the internal challenge, planning change cycles for times when the team is rested and operating under capacity (ie, your slow season), or even adding temporary staff or contractors to allow permanent staff to adapt to the new process. After changes are completely integrated, we can remove the added energy to freeze things back in place.

Once your organization is unfrozen, you can enact change. Think of it like dissolving another chemical into your water — adding something useful to the composition of your organization before you re-freeze it to lock in the changes.

### Solution and dissolution: the change phase

“Like oil and water.”

It’s a well-known phrase meaning ‘incapable of mixing’. In chemistry, two chemicals that cannot mix are called immiscible. The molecular structure of oil and water are incompatible: rather than blending together smoothly, the oil sticks to the oil and the water sticks to the water.

Instituting change can be a lot like mixing oil and water. The new ideas, processes, and technologies are fundamentally different from the old ways. It’s not enough to throw them together in a vessel and hope that when you come back, everything’s nice and blended.

If you try it, you might find that people fully bought into and advocating for change adopt the process readily, while less informed or more skeptical staff stick with what they know. You’ve got oil and water.

The good news is, there are ways to make oil and water mix.

For example, we know milk has fat — oil — in it. But it’s primarily water-based. It stays blended due to emulsifying agents found in milk. These chemicals create a bridge between fats and polar molecules like water, allowing them blend — and stay blended. Mustard can do the same for your salad dressings. Eggs do the same in your mayonnaise.

**Solvents and solutes**

In change management, we’re integrating something new into an existing organization. We can think of the organization as a vat of solvent — that which we will dissolve our changes, our solute, into. This is how we produce a solution.

Solutions are homogenous blends of two or more substances, meaning that the solute becomes integrated with the solvent. When we institute change, we do it to last. Our solution must not dissolve the moment we stop stirring!

**Change and emulsification**

For this reason, we may need an emulsifier to join our ‘old’ water with our ‘new’ oil. If we merely introduce new ideas, ask our teams to adopt them, and leave it at that, we haven’t really facilitated change. There are a variety of ways to ease the transition from old to new.

What we need to introduce is a binding agent that bridges the old and new. This may come in the form of expertise, like a consultant or process expert who can help team members see the value of change and provide a path of least resistance. It could involve an intermediate period of less radical change, allowing workers to adapt more slowly to the new paradigm. Maybe it’s a reward system that encourages adoption of a new process by offering prizes and incentives to early adopters.

In any case, there are techniques to reduce the challenge of blending old and new during the change phase.

### Refreezing: solid but not static

The notion that we can control change, or that if we’re not actively changing we’re standing still, is overly simplified. It’s useful to imagine it this way, as we can break down change into components we understand.

Change is a constant. We can control some types of change in some ways, but we can never fully remove chaos from the equation. Change happens intentionally and unintentionally, at all times, to all things.

I say this because the idea of ‘refreezing’ implies that, once change has been implemented, the organization becomes totally static. It’s solid bedrock, immutable and fixed until the next unfreezing. That isn’t totally true.

Once an organization refreezes, it continues to change and evolve, albeit more slowly. Managers ought to watch for any cracks that may form once an organization freezes — is the change we implemented gradually coming undone? What internal and external supports can keep everything locked in place for the long term?

Ultimately, a frozen organization ought to be like a copper statue. It still reacts to its environment, but the patina of its exterior protects the core of the organization from radical change. Like waves on the surface of a deep ocean, change in a frozen state should be fleeting and surface level.

## Preparing for organizational change

Knowledge is the enemy of fear. When we understand something, be it change management, marketing, or anything else, we’re no longer filled with uncertainty. Where we had doubt, we instead find resolve — a path toward whatever goal we’re seeking to accomplish. Hopefully, this article helps you and your team understand change from a new perspective.

This is an introduction to the concept of change management. It’s a century-old discipline, so there’s lots more to learn! If you’re interested in discussing change management for your organization, [reach out to us today. ](https://blackbeanmarketing.com/b2b-marketing-consultation/)We can help you realize transformation in sales, marketing, and business intelligence.

When it comes to web design, people tend to over-complicate design elements without needing to. Why do we see this so much when it comes to the web? Are their leaders making assumptions about what their customers want? Maybe the customers want something they don’t need. Or the developers get pressured into building elements that completely miss the mark. Perhaps it is a combination of both developers and their clients wanting the newest and greatest tech — but is that practical?

Say we are building a new house. The owners would like a grand entrance with a large staircase leading to the front door. When building a staircase, you always want to take the most direct path to your destination. You will use fewer materials and save time if you have a straight shot. If you start creating twists and turns because the owners “like it” or they feel that it will look “better this way”. You will waste money.

The same can be said about many websites, especially in manufacturing. Why do companies waste so much money on extra features that do not move the meter? These websites become larger and more complicated than they need to be. 

We can first look to the decision-makers such as CEOs and managers. They may or may not know the technical side of the web development process, and could make uninformed decisions on key features. These leaders tend to focus on appearances when it comes to the web. Some may not understand the true impact of the website and how vital it can be to their bottom line. Often, these managers rely on several other voices to make informed decisions. All people want their ideas represented, but not all ideas are created equal!

## What can you do to create a harder working webpage?

Don’t distract users from the paths that make you money. If prospects need to fill out a form in order for them to work with you, make sure it is front and centre. Don’t let your users get distracted by complexity, glitz, and glamour. The more complexity that is added to the website, the more window dressing you have that can take away from design elements that really matter.

These features not only waste development and marketing time. They can lose you customers! Start with the minimum viable website to accomplish business goals. Stop focusing on the “nice to haves” and focus on the “need to haves”. What is needed to maximize the user experience and complete your goals?

A single well-built landing page can perform better compared to a complete website. This can be true if we are looking at conversions or page speed, and begs the question: do you even need a full website with all the bells and whistles? If you only need a single lead form, don’t overcomplicate it. **A simple landing page can often do more for a business than a big clunky website or application.** A landing page can produce better ROI compared to hundreds of pages on your website combined. If users need to take 10 actions or clicks to accomplish their goals, you’re distracting them too much. A complex website distracts from completing goals in general. Every new element distracts from every other element.

## Keeping things simple.

K.I.S.S is an acronym for “Keep it Simple, Stupid”. You will hear it time and time again across many different industries. Don’t over-complicate a solution. Focus on the essentials, not the “nice to haves”.

- Speed - The less clutter and features on your website, the faster the page will load. If your website takes too long to load, your users could navigate away before they read anything. You want your users to stay on the site to get the info they came for. Also, Google and other search engines prioritize you in the rankings based on load speed. If your website is faster, your marketing campaigns will see better performance.
- Positioning - Make sure your *wants* align with your customer’s *needs*. All assets and features need to align with your audience. You don’t want to build a super fancy website for an older, non-technical audience.
- Action - What are your customers intended to do? Did you want them to complete a contact form or just sign up to a newsletter? Make the path clear to complete your customer’s goals for coming to the website in the first place. Intent is everything!
- Brand Alignment - The site or landing page needs to feel like an extension of your brand. If you have colours or elements that do not mesh with your overall experience, it can push customers away. Adding a bunch of extras won’t do anything if they aren’t aligned with your brand experience.

The simple solution can save you time and money. Take your own opinion out of the equation and think, what do my customers want. Will this feature push them closer to complying the goal of the website? If the feature is just fluff maybe it should not be there at all. Stop distract users from the paths that make you money.

Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Academics, consultants, and marketing professionals love a buzzword. Buzzwords help them frame ideas in order to sound authoritative and innovative. They try their best to promote sexy-sounding concepts to wow and dazzle their audience. Concepts like "Industry 4.0".

As someone who endured years of talk about Web 2.0, I was eager to explore this new paradigm -- it's two versions ahead of Web 2.0, so it must be pretty special! I found that Industry 4.0 was originally conceived around 2011-2013 before being popularized by Davos leader Klaus Schwab at the 2016 World Economic Forum. Over the next two years, its arrival on the scene spurred a flurry of thinkpieces and microsites from the likes of [PwC](https://www.pwc.com/sg/en/publications/industry-40.html) and [BDC](https://www.bdc.ca/en/articles-tools/technology/invest-technology/what-is-industry-4). And then? Not much! Outside of sales-focused articles from component suppliers, there are fewer and fewer resources exploring Industry 4.0 concepts.

If the term Industry 4.0 passed you by, don't worry; you still know what it's about. **In short, Industry 4.0 is the overarching term for the increasing pervasiveness of digital technology in manufacturing.** I'm talking about concepts such as cloud computing, big data, and robotics. It takes the initial automation of the manufacturing process that happened through the 70s, 80s, and 90s, and pushes it even further: sensors that report data to autonomous robots capable of making independent decisions about the process they oversee.

So as we are coming up on a decade of this revolution, why hasn't it felt more revolutionary? After all, in 2016, PwC [reported](https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/industries-4.0/landing-page/industry-4.0-building-your-digital-enterprise-april-2016.pdf) that 51% of Canadian manufacturing businesses "expect to achieve advanced levels of digitization by 2020". We come back to the pragmatic and sensible nature of those trained to design and build robust, repeatable processes -- everything was too new, unproven, and risky. Retooling an entire operation to embrace every pillar of Industry 4.0 would be highly disruptive.

**So instead, companies are taking a bit-by-bit approach, connecting individual machines to a collective data platform, and analyzing performance data to see where processes can be optimized.** They are experimenting with prototyping or production through 3D printing and developing products ready to be part of the Internet of Things (IoT). It takes time for these paradigm shifts to filter their way through all businesses, big and small. If you don't believe me, think of all the Web 1.0 sites you've come across while we are starting to talk about Web 3.0?

So why is a [strategist](https://www.linkedin.com/in/teresanykilchuk/) at an industrial marketing agency talking about Industry 4.0?

1. Because I am a geek who loves technology.
2. Industry 4.0 will extend right from how you make things to how you sell stuff in many different ways.

This connects to my other technology passion, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and how to personalize your sales and marketing based on data-driven insights.

**Digital technology has much power to harness in the drive to stay competitive, be efficient and profitable, and build on the long, proud legacy many manufacturing firms enjoy today.**

In 1999, I joined a small but growing technology company selling a new category of software called “Customer Relationship Management”. We worked hard to describe how this new bit of kit would transform how companies worked, increasing revenue, and cutting costs all while delighting customers. It sounded wonderful: the promised land of sales, marketing, and service leveraging the power of the “information superhighway”*. (Yes, that was part of the messaging — it was 1999!)

Just a few short years later, after some implementations had gone live, we found ourselves developing resources to coach potential customers on how to successfully implement our software. “Ten Steps for A Successful CRM Implementation” and the like.

You see, word was getting around that these transformative projects didn’t always live up to their billing. Some, it was believed, were just colossal wastes of money. Not entirely surprising, as it was a new way of working and being. Not every organization would be ready to implement a CRM. Some might need a little hand-holding, right?

## CRM implementations frequently fail, even today

Imagine my shock when I recently read that consulting firms like Forrester and Gartner reported that up to 50% of CURRENT CRM implementations fail — that is, CRM implementations in 2022, not 1999. In fact, some companies have had two or three initiatives fail. WHAT? HOW? WHY?

Despite lots of best practice white papers out there, my guess is that most people just don’t think it will happen to them. Organizations read white papers about change management and fostering a CRM culture and ignore the advice contained within. 

When a company gets burned (or feels they’ve been burned) by a CRM implementation, it can make them gun-shy and suspicious of trying again. They’ve just set a pile of money on fire; why should they risk setting *another* pile of money on fire?

Fortunately, costly mistakes can be avoided. There are some key situations where if you see it happening, you just *know* that the CRM implementation will fail. Let me take you through the biggies, especially for organizations implementing a CRM to upgrade their sales process.

## 1. Leading from the front lines: Have senior company leaders fully bought in to CRM implementation?

If senior leadership won’t commit to using the CRM themselves — DAILY — it will fail. When leaders expect that the sales team will use a CRM, but want their own process to stay exactly the same, it’s a sign the company isn’t ready to implement change yet.

When leaders come into their sales funnel review meetings, laptops open and ready to engage, CRM implementation projects succeed. These leaders are ready to have conversations with their sales team and adjust their own workflows to leverage the strength of a CRM.

This does a couple things. It sends a message to the sales team that what happens in the CRM *matters.* It isn’t just a control panel. It’s a system where teams across the company can work together to add value to their processes.

It also leads the cultural charge. If leaders buy into the system, other departments are less likely to wonder why they have to change their processes. It diminishes calls of hypocrisy and demonstrates to staff that the CRM is no mere exercise — it’s part of the business moving forward.

## 2. Demonstrating value: Focus on what will make your processes better

Make sure as part of the implementation you aren’t just replicating existing processes in a new way. Find pain points that can be automated, dispensed with, or made better. Anything to make the pain of learning a new way the better, easier path to take. 

Focus relentlessly on these benefits in your change management communications — and make sure they are actually benefits. If you haven’t pinpointed where tangible improvements can be made, and are just planning a like-for-like replacement, pause and re-consider. A CRM implementation should be strategic, not off-the-cuff.

## 3. Start on the right foot: It’s all about data

Before you begin implementing a CRM, formulate a plan to extract important customer data from your current system. Cleanse it, regularize it, and enrich it.

Crap input equals crap output. If you have issues with data integrity, thoroughness, or structure in your current sales process, don’t carry those issues forward. A bad first impression will last long in the memory and inhibit uptake and usage straight out of the gate.

## 4. Chaos is the enemy: Plan for a manageable implementation

No one can know and plan for everything all at once. Maybe the good folks at NASA can — that level of preparation, design, engineering, training and trouble-shooting would make most projects cost and time prohibitive. There is a reason NASA plans on decades-long timelines.

Instead, be OK with planning a CRM adoption path in discrete chunks. Pick a business unit, process, or market segment, and plan to make an impact there.

You need to articulate a vision and a goal set that is company-wide — just don’t try to implement it all at once. Start with a more manageable project in terms of scope, users, customization needs, etc. Work on making that a very successful project, then check it off and move on to the next discrete chunk.

You can discover a lot of the speedbumps and gotchas while not stopping the entire business from performing while you fix them. When that team starts raving about the improvements they feel in their daily work lives, you’ll have an internal set of cheerleaders to help pave the way forward for other groups.

## CRM Implementation: The bottom line

There are many more things that every experienced CRM project manager may be planning and preparing for, but these are the biggest considerations that can nearly guarantee success.

Every single time I am asked if CRM is a good idea, the answer is YES. Almost any size of company will benefit. What you need to do is avoid framing CRM implementation as merely procuring the right software. It isn’t. 

Procuring software without planning for how your people and processes will change to focus on collaborating across sales, marketing, and service will almost always result in a wasted investment. Why not instead take the time and make the effort to ensure that your investment supports your employees and delights your customers?

**Fun note: a small upstart competitor we all thought would soon fail was leveraging the power of something called “The Cloud”. Oh, how we laughed. That company, Salesforce, is now the largest CRM company ever. My old company became an add-on for Oracle’s ERP software. *

**This article isn’t for industrial firms with money to burn.** It’s not for billion-dollar corporations that can afford to put their marketing on autopilot. It’s for all the underdogs running against big competitors amid a limited pool of prospects, with fewer resources and a fraction of their budget. Because being smaller requires a different marketing game plan—and it even gives you some advantages. 

While you may not be able to outspend your competitors, you can outsmart them with some simple yet powerful marketing tactics.

## Four Big Ideas for Small Budgets

All marketing requires some form of investment, just not necessarily a monetary one. If you’ve got a strong team, happy customers, and solid expertise in your industry, you’ve got the ingredients for a low-cost yet robust marketing strategy. The key is to set your priorities and build a plan that maximizes the resources you have.

Below are four tactics we’ve used to score marketing wins for up-and-coming industrial firms.

### Call on your base

Lots of firms get so focused on new lead generation, they forget to go back to their existing customer base. Yet, one of the most effective tactics for driving more business is to start with those who know and trust you already. 

When was the last time you connected with existing customers to ask if they need anything from you? Think about how busy you are and how easily you forget to reach out to people. The same thing is happening at your customers’ companies—and if you time things right, you may get in front of an existing opportunity. You’ll hear, “Your timing is perfect! I’ve been meaning to call you,” more often than you might think.

Don’t assume customers will reach out if they need something. Take the initiative and check in with them. It’s not about begging for business; just a simple “Hey, how are you?” is a great way to remind people you’re there. Ask if they have any challenges they need help with, or if they know about a new product or service you’re offering. 

Doing this will help maintain important relationships and keep your name front and center. In turn, your customers will feel looked after and more willing to turn to you for their next project, because they’ll remember that you remembered them.

*💡One way to ensure regular touchpoints with clients is to automate your communications through a customer relationship management (CRM) system. You can schedule periodic emails, track events that trigger responses or remind your team to reach out if someone hasn’t been contacted in a while.*


### Gather your proof

Another way to leverage your existing customer base is to collect endorsements and examples. Every new prospect is going to look for evidence that you’re worth doing business with, and seeing positive feedback from other customers will give them more confidence in you.

With a relatively small amount of effort, you can develop a library of powerful marketing resources:

- **Ask for referrals.** Be sure to offer a tangible thank you, like a gift card or a discount off their next project. If they’re not in a position to refer anyone, try one of the next two tactics.
- **Ask for testimonials.** These can be used across your marketing communications, including your website, print materials, and advertising. As you’re asking for quotes, aim to include every industry, company size, and type of target client you’re looking for.
- **Publish case studies.** Highlighting work you’ve done for customers, along with the impact it had on their business, is a great way to show off your skills to prospects—not to mention spotlighting your customers, too.

Make it a habit to ask for recommendations as part of every customer relationship. (Creating email and case study templates will make this easier for your team.) This way, you’re mobilizing the power of your existing customer base to help close the next deal. 

## Squeeze All the Juice

You may not have to lay out a ton of money for effective marketing, but you still have to hustle. The key is to leverage every activity in a way that multiplies your overall impact. 

All of the tactics mentioned above can work together as a force multiplier. Some examples:

- Run the PR stunt and invite your customers to watch or participate. You’ll not only get media coverage, you’ll also have a fun reason to reconnect and stay top of mind with those customers.
- Create a video about the PR stunt and use it in your newsletter for added exposure (just be sure to send it out *after* the media story is posted, so you don’t “scoop” them).
- Repurpose content in other formats to share it in multiple ways. Write an SEO-friendly blog for Google searches, then turn it into a YouTube video. You can also condense it into an infographic, which is highly shareable on social media.
- Post about everything on all the socials. If you get a bunch of good customer quotes, feature them in a series of social media posts—and be sure to tag your customers! Promote all of your original content and any news stories on your social channels. And don’t forget to interact with your customers’ social profiles, to remind them you’re there.

To squeeze all the juice out of your marketing efforts, don’t think of tactics in isolation; think of them as a suite of initiatives. With every activity, ask yourself, where else can I apply this to create other benefits? 

Remember, too, that you don’t have to do something new and different every month. It takes a while for marketing messages to sink in with an audience, so it’s important to stick with the same messaging for at least a few months or longer to have an impact. Plus, what isn’t new to you might be new to others. Just because you’ve seen something a hundred times, you may have a perfect prospect out there who’s never seen it before.

## Build a Roadmap

Smooth out your activities with a roadmap, so you’re not doing 15 things in Q1 and nothing in Q2. This will help your team maintain their current workload while working on special initiatives. And it lets you plan out ways your activities can build on each other (that force multiplier). 

Start with what you can do this quarter, and then ask, what’s the most natural thing to do after that? Think of it as stratified layers, like this:

- In Q1, we’re going to start contacting our customers to check in.
- In Q2, now that we’ve got the rhythm of contacting customers, let’s aim to get at least one customer referral per month.
- In Q3, we’ll launch the PR event, invite customers, write a blog, and promote all of it across our marketing channels.
- In Q4, we’ve got the PR event coverage and a blog; what other content or promo opportunities can we create from those?

Every quarter you’ll have new tools to use, and likely new opportunities to use them. And here’s where you can truly disrupt the big dogs: Bigger companies typically move slower, with multiple decision-makers and longer iteration cycles. You, on the other hand, can test things in small batches, learn fast, and shift gears quickly if something isn’t working.  

## Lean on Your Partners

If you have a good, long-standing relationship with a B2B marketing agency, remember that they’re your partner in all of this. Most of the creative people we know (at least here at BlackBean) will happily take your call and kick around ideas to help you. No charge.

*Side note: If your agency wants to charge you every time you pick up the phone and talk to them, maybe they’re not the agency for you.* 

As trusted advisors, your agency can be a great resource to make sure your marketing dollars are spent on initiatives that actually have value. Remember that you’re both experts from different perspectives with a ton of experience. You know your industry, and they know marketing. Together you can identify marketing tactics that will get the most bang for the buck.

In the end, everyone’s situation is unique, and not every marketing technique will work for you. And, while some tactics are low cost, they’re not necessarily low effort. But, you can do a lot with a little as long as you hustle—and [reach out for help](https://blackbeanmarketing.com/contact/) when you need it.

A playwright named Titus Maccius Plautus from the 200s–100s BC is credited with saying, “You have to spend money to make money.” We don’t know much about his life, except that he was one of the great Roman comic dramatists and a failed businessman. That doesn’t mean he was wrong, but he wasn’t *exactly* right.

To this day, entrepreneurs, business leaders, and, yes, especially marketers still use that adage to throw money at all kinds of things, as if spending alone is the solution to their problems. Yet, [82% of small businesses fail](https://www.thebalancesmb.com/cash-flow-management-2947138) because of poor cash flow—often because firms are throwing good money after bad.

For your business in general and your marketing in particular, ***spend money*** ***where it matters***. If you’re struggling to figure out where that is, you’re not alone. We’ve put together this overview of where investments work best for industrial firms based on our experience helping several businesses get back on track.

In every case, we started with a roadmap.

## If Only Plautus Had a Plan...

There's that other old chestnut, "Fail to plan, plan to fail." (Ben Franklin, in case you were wondering.) We've seen the aftermath time and again, especially with newer companies. When you make an investment with no clear strategy, you're planning to fail.

This is especially common with company websites. Over the years, we've been contacted by many firms that launched a new website, sat back, and waited...and waited...and waited for leads to come in. These companies didn't establish lead-generation goals for the site or implement targeted tactics in nearly every case. They'd simply built an expensive digital brochure without an SEO strategy, data tracking, or [conversion optimization](https://blackbeanmarketing.com/industrial-marketing-services/b2b-marketing-strategy/).

Whether you're launching a marketing initiative or investing in other business areas, building a roadmap is critical to ensure the money you spend will move the needle for your firm. The roadmap should have two main ingredients: **a budget and a game plan.**

- The **budget** aligns your growth targets with your revenue and expenses.
- The **game plan** acts like a GPS for your business decisions.

💡 *Not sure where to start with a roadmap? It’s one of our favorite things to do. [Give us a shout](https://blackbeanmarketing.com/contact/) to learn more.*


There are all kinds of ways you can spend money to make money—if you establish specific goals and strategic priorities. Below are three areas where we’ve seen investments pay off for industrial B2B firms that are strategically spending.

## The 3 P’s of Powerful Spending

**There are three business areas where smart investments are most likely to drive growth: People, Products, and Perception.** Aligning your spending with these three principles won’t guarantee fiscal responsibility or increased revenue, but it will help. A lot.

### Invest in your people

Businesses invest in their people every day. It's called payroll. But investment in people doesn't stop there. Comfortable, happy people are more sustainably productive than their uncomfortable, unhappy counterparts. That's why money spent on talent retention and development is one of the best investments you can make.

However, when it comes to development, some firms focus only on hard skills like safety or compliance, with no particular goals in mind other than having a more competent, knowledgeable workforce. Short-term, that approach could increase productivity and profitability. It could also backfire.

Suppose hard skills are the only kind of training you offer. Your employees might simply realize that they're now more valuable in the market and go elsewhere, looking for more money. Which can end up costing you much more than you spent on training.

**If instead, you invest in a combination of hard and soft skills training (" soft" being interpersonal skills, time management, etc.), you'll not only increase employees' happiness and productivity.** You'll also reinforce your firm's value to them as a source of professional growth—in which case, they're more likely to stay.

When you factor employee acquisition and onboarding costs into your budget, along with any revenue gains from enhanced productivity, it's clear that employee retention drives profitability. In the long run, this strategic approach to workforce development supports your growth goals better than hard-skills-only training.

💡*Just as important as making an investment is measuring whether that spend is paying off. If you’re investing in soft skills for your people, software like [Know Your Team](https://knowyourteam.com/) can provide valuable feedback on the difference you’re making for your team.*


### Invest in your product

When it comes to investing in product, some firms focus primarily on R&D. Of course, improving your product with new features, better quality, or additional options can spur more sales or command higher prices, driving up revenue. And, if your cost to improve the product is less than what you stand to gain, it's a good investment.

However, many firms fail to consider the inputs and outputs along their entire value chain. How much time and resources does it take to design, manufacture, and distribute a product? Where are there inefficiencies you can reduce? Investing in ways to produce and sell a product more efficiently can be just as profitable as improving the product itself.

This is where developing a strategic plan is crucial for identifying all the levers you can pull to reduce inefficiencies, improve product quality, and increase profitability. Scrutinizing all the inputs and outputs can show you where investing in equipment, R&D, or people will drive the results you seek.

See? This ties right back to investing in people. You probably know better than anyone that employees who just clock in and out aren’t really invested in the success of your product or company. The better the team, the better the product and the processes behind it. 

By investing in people’s technical, problem-solving, and leadership skills, you can help motivate them to streamline and improve your production and sales processes—especially if you have a roadmap to point them in the right direction. 

*💡 One essential way to measure the impact of product and process investments is through client satisfaction research. Whether you use automated surveys or have an account manager call people to check in, invest in methods to make sure you’re making things better, not worse.*

### Invest in perception

For better or worse, perception matters. That's why mechanics wear coveralls to work, and bankers don't. Suppose your business doesn't project authority, reliability, or other essential qualities to your target customer. In that case, it's time to invest in changing those perceptions.

We've seen many industrial firms struggle with having their target audience perceive them as being too small to meet the needed capacity, even when they're actually a large company. More often than not, it's because every piece of their marketing screams "mom-and-pop shop." Outdated website? We're looking at you.

Many firms know they should be getting big contracts, but their marketing isn't helping them succeed. Branding is a massive part of that and an excellent place to start with an investment. Beyond branding, how you talk to people and what you talk about are vital in shaping the message you're projecting into the world.

If your intended message is getting lost in translation, invest in content that better supports your business goals. Too many firms are careless about spending on advertising and websites that use the wrong words to express what's meaningful to their target audience. Instead, identify the core message that's crucial to your success and invest time and money in creating the content to support it, including:

- Unique mission, vision, and values statements that resonate with your prospects
- Authoritative writing that projects the scale of who you are and what you can do
- An SEO-driven website strategy that ensures the right customers find you
- Storytelling that showcases the grit, hustle, and drive behind your firm

Above all, invest in hiring people who are good at this, so you don't waste money on more ineffective content. It is a specialized skill to craft your core brand message and deliver it through meaningful content. Spend the cash to get it right.

💡*Not sure if your content is working? Here’s a cheap but effective way to invest in measuring the effectiveness of your message: Ask five friends to look at your marketing materials and ask, “If you didn’t know me, what would you think of this company?” It might cost a few beers, at most.*

## When to Go Off the Plan

**While we're strong advocates for building and following a clear spending strategy, we also believe you need to be ready to react to change.** Blindly following a long-term plan can backfire horribly. Just look at what happened to Pepsi's [ill-fated commercial with Kendall Jenner](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/pepsi-ad-kendall-jenner-echoes-black-lives-matter-sparks-anger-n742811).

As part of its new "Live for Now" marketing campaign, Pepsi shot the commercial long before the Black Lives Matter movement took off in the U.S. It was slated to launch during the summer of 2000 when BLM protests suddenly surged across the country. With everything they'd already invested in the campaign, Pepsi decided to air the commercial anyway.

The ad showed supermodel Kendall Jenner doing a photoshoot and then "jumping in" with protestors marching along the road. Critics everywhere bashed Pepsi for co-opting the protest movement. The commercial was yanked off the air less than 48 hours later. The brand lost a ton of equity at that moment. The money they'd spent on that campaign was lost, too. In fact, the follow-on impact may have cost them millions more.

The world moves fast. In February 2022, no one was talking about the war in Ukraine. In July 2021, no one saw the Omicron Covid-19 variant coming. That's why we recommend allocating at least some budget for rogue spending, so you can be responsive when market conditions change.

Be open to recognizing when spending money could actually lose you, and be ready to pivot your strategy to support your long-term goals.

Need some help identifying the most impactful ways to invest in your marketing? We'll work with you on everything from website user experience and advertising to branding and communication strategies. [Contact us today](https://blackbeanmarketing.com/contact/) for a free consultation.

What "Spending Money to Make Money" Really Means

Before the internet became what it is today, manufacturers would rely heavily on their conventional marketing funnels such as trade shows, conferences, or advertisements to generate leads. A website was generally thought of as a ‘nice to have’ but unnecessary. With the rapid advancement of technology, manufacturers are starting to realize that websites are essential to a business’ success. Why? Studies have shown that having a strong online presence is the best way to generate leads. This starts with a great website.

**Before we get into the examples of great website designs, let’s take a look at features that actually make for a great website:**

- Clear and concise navigation
- Great imagery, videos and graphics
- Clear Call-to-actions that meet the business and user goals
- Path leading to conversion
- Great Hero image and messaging (first impressions are everything)
- Opportunities to learn more
- Content and design related to the target audience
- Clean responsive design
- Website load time

## Why is it important to have a good website loading speed?

**53% of mobile site visitors will leave a page if it takes longer than three seconds to load.**

Load speed is one of the most important factors to achieving a website's goals. For reference, we are using GTmetrix to measure website performance. It reflects how fast the page loads for users, and how well it's built for performance. Statistics say that the ideal website load time is 2 to 5 seconds, however, each second beyond 2 seconds results in greater bounce rates.

# [1. Lockheed Martin](https://www.lockheedmartin.com/)

One of the industry leaders in security aerospace manufacturing, Lockheed Martin does an outstanding job in its website design. Throughout the pages on their site they have a consistent, interactive, and clean design with clear CTAs that direct the user to the ideal page.

Designing a mega menu with numerous pages can be challenging to many designers, but they do an exceptional job of making their mega menu user-friendly as it is clear and easy to navigate.

![](https://files.benecms.com/blackbean2022/media/lh_megamenu.png)

What also stands out about the Lockheed Martin website design is their product page and the interactivity on that page. Interactivity provides the user with the ability to click and interact with sections on a website which gives it life. Here, they do a notable job of this by giving the user an opportunity to click and interact with three things: viewing the specs of the 3D helicopter image, looking at graphics of the helicopter performing different maneuvers, and a video of the helicopter in action.

![](https://files.benecms.com/blackbean2022/media/raider_x.png)

### Speed Test

Lockheed Martin homepage has an impressive GTMetrix load speed of 2.8 seconds and it remains under 3 seconds. They do a great job of optimizing speed and performance which gives them the best ability to convert.

![](https://files.benecms.com/blackbean2022/media/speed_test_lockheed.png)

# [2. Caterpillar](https://www.cat.com/en_US.html)

Caterpillar is one of the top manufacturers of construction equipment. To go along with their website's clear CTAs and seamless navigation, Caterpillar does a fantastic job of strategically guiding the user to convert. On their equipment page, they designed cards with great imagery for each of their products. After the user clicks on the machine that they are interested in, a list of specific machines under that machine umbrella displays. This is where you can view the specifications and request a price. Reducing the amount of thinking for a user is essential for improving conversion rates. This is clear, simple and easy.

![](https://files.benecms.com/blackbean2022/media/caterpillar_1.png)

![](https://files.benecms.com/blackbean2022/media/caterpillar_2.png)

### Speed Test

Caterpillar has a below-average load speed of 5.4 seconds which may affect conversions. However, since CAT is such a dominant leader in the construction manufacturing industry, prospects will have more patience with their load time.

![](https://files.benecms.com/blackbean2022/media/caterpillar_speed.png)

# [3. Loupe](https://loupe.team/)

Loupe’s mission is to revolutionize the automation industry by unlocking machine potential. Upon landing on the site, Loupe does a great job of making their brand personable by incorporating their core values and place of work as a video in their hero banner. Once they brief the user with their mission statement and what they do in the first section, they then go on to show reputable brands that they have already built successful partnerships with. This creates a form of trust and reliability with the user.

![](https://files.benecms.com/blackbean2022/media/loupe_1.png)

They also do a great job of telling a story throughout their page design guiding the user to the contact form which is their form of conversion. The CTA’s are clear, navigation is simple with no dropdowns, and they provide high quality images for all of the products that they’ve worked with.

![](https://files.benecms.com/blackbean2022/media/loupe_2.png)

All in all, Loupe has a fantastic website design.

### Speed Test

The Loupe homepage has an average load speed of 3.4 seconds. Not the fastest time that we have seen but considering the hero banner is a video, this is an impressive load time.

![](https://files.benecms.com/blackbean2022/media/speed_test.png)

# [4. CST Tires](https://csttires.com/us)

CST tires is one of the world leaders in tire manufacturers. The hero provides great imagery with a tire-related CTA replacing the generic ‘products’ CTA. This is key because it tells the user exactly what they are searching for. They also do a great job here of including a short concise selling proposition in their hero text.

![](https://files.benecms.com/blackbean2022/media/cst_1.png)

On their user-friendly product page, they display important specs for each tire based on their target audience's wants and needs. This can make conversions easier on a user as they don’t want to guess what they are buying.

![](https://files.benecms.com/blackbean2022/media/cst_2.png)

### Speed Test

CST Tires has an above-average load speed of **2.5 seconds.** Although they have a homepage with many images which could be a problem for some websites, they do a great job of compressing their images for optimal performance.

![](https://files.benecms.com/blackbean2022/media/cst_speed.png)

# [5. Lear](https://www.lear.com)

Lear is a global automotive technology leader in Seating and E-Systems. Right off the bat, Lear displays an impressive futuristic type video representing the innovation in their company. But before throwing products at the user, they describe their company and culture before leading the user into their product catalogue in the following section. Once on the product page, tabs are designed for the user to easily jump to their desired section which prevents unnecessary scrolling.

![](https://files.benecms.com/blackbean2022/media/lear_1.png)

![](https://files.benecms.com/blackbean2022/media/lear_2.png)

The navigation is clear and it also gives the user an opportunity to define themselves in the top right. Whether they are investors or suppliers, clicking this will lead them into their desired user flow.

The overall design is clean with a lot of white space with minimal clutter.

### Speed Test

Lear's homepage has an underwhelming GTMetrix load speed of 6 seconds. Similar to Loupe, Lear struggles to optimize their video and images for best possible performance which will have a negative impact on prospect experience.

![](https://files.benecms.com/blackbean2022/media/lear_speed.png)

## Let’s get your website to the next level

As you can see from the website examples above, a great user-friendly website design could be the difference between making a sale and losing a prospect. If you are a manufacturer looking to stand out from your competitors, a great website design should be the first place you should start. Here at BlackBean, we can help your business since we have the expertise and skills to make your user-friendly website a reality. Reach out to us so we can help your business today!

![](https://files.benecms.com/blackbean2022/media/best_websites_footer.webp)



5 Best Manufacturing Websites 2021 And Why

## What is Frankenstein Syndrome and is your marketing in distress?

Frankenstein Syndrome refers to a marketing issue wherein a company's marketing tools and strategies are pieced together from many sources - resulting in an often redundant and fragile marketing ecosystem. By stitching together resources, tools, and content, businesses could end up creating more problems than they solve.

Solutions that may have been implemented with the best of intentions could ultimately become nothing more than short-term pieces of patchwork for a long-term set of issues. As a result, you have a fragile system of tools that aren't meant to operate together. What frequently ensues is a complex and out-of-date marketing funnel that could lead to your business hemorrhaging potential consumers and money. By not addressing this issue as a systemic problem, your company faces wasting money on advertising that never reaches your target demographic.

So, what can lead a business to become a monster, like that of Dr. Frankenstein’s creation? (Frankenstein was, of course, the doctor and not the monster. If you remember nothing else from this article, remember that.) Using a marketing funnel can be a highly ineffective and costly measure for your business. A dated marking strategy can only make matters worse by wasting time, money, and resources. Businesses must strive to identify and fix marketing mistakes and miscommunications if they want to continue to grow their businesses. Communication between departments can also have a big impact on brand awareness, lead quality, as well as the direction of future messaging and product development, which affects all future sales efforts.

## What is a marketing sales funnel and why is it a bad business strategy?

A marketing funnel, or marketing sales funnel, is a thought model used to understand the process of turning business leads into customers. The mechanism is designed to help one visualize a series of stages during the consumer’s buying journey. While the idea of the marketing funnel has many incarnations, it functions basically in the following stages starting broadly and becoming narrower as the categories continue. Picture a funnel labeled as such in descending order: Awareness - knowing about your brand, Consideration - contemplating buying your product or service, Purchase - actually spending money on your business, and finally Loyalty or Advocate - becoming loyal to your brand and ideally repurchasing and promoting it.

So, how does it work? It starts by casting a large marketing net, trying to reach everyone. The problem arises when at every stage of the funnel, you lose business. This means that while some businesses may be aware of your product or service, those that actually reach the final stage of becoming loyal clients or advocates of your brand would be a much smaller number. What’s the problem with that, one might wonder? The problem is that the marketing sales funnel is a dying and flawed marketing technique, one whose roots are almost as old as the author of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, herself.

Elias St. Elmo Lewis is the marketing pioneer, and literal Advertising Hall of Famer, whose ideas are thought to be the basis of the marketing funnel. The first, primitive explanation of the advertising concept was in a column written by Lewis, under the pen name Musgrove, for “The Inland Printer.” He stated in the August 1897 issue: “The first law of ad composition should be, as in the making of a picture: Have a point on which the attention is to be concentrated and render every other portion of the ad display subordinate to that.”

Two elements from his ideology were to "attract attention" and "maintain interest" or as it is often referred to as sustained attention, which is the very crux of the funnel system. The problem is that the funnel system has not evolved in over a century, but consumers have! By ignoring this crucial fact one can easily turn their well-intentioned marketing strategy into a monster of a problem.

Herein lies the trap of funnel marketing. If you want more advocates, you have to raise awareness. The only way to do so is to buy a bigger funnel so you can have more potential leads, so businesses are forced into buying more advertisements. The funnel is a top-bottom system that flows in one direction so its success for your business relies on your ability to buy more and more advertisements to raise awareness - which is costly and utterly wasteful. Businesses become reliant on advertisers to fill the funnel. There are good reasons to buy ads, but the reasons and ways we advertise have changed over the past 124 years, especially when one considers the invention of the internet. Businesses have to acknowledge the need to update processes to market more effectively.

## How communication between departments can affect marketing returns

A recent study from the market research firm FocusVision polled marketing executives from organizations with at least 500 employees and at least $50 million in annual revenue that purchased a marketing technology solution within the previous year. The results showed that the average business-to-business buyer’s journey for a single employee involves the consumption of about 13 pieces of content. This content ranged from vlogs to customer testimonials to reviews, as well as white papers and analyst reports. The business-to-business buying process can take weeks and end up involving multiple individuals and decision-makers within a singular company.  It is, for this reason, vital to establish cross-team collaboration between sales and marketing teams on a holistic level for your business to succeed.

When asked, “how did you find content,” the respondents said overwhelmingly directly through vendor websites, followed by internet search engines and social media. The least likely sources of awareness being through email advertisements and word of mouth. In order to update your marketing process, your business must be willing to change and evolve as people and technology do. Before the 1980s, most marketing was done via three venues, radio, television, and print media. Then came the internet. This unlocked a powerful potential in interconnectivity.

So the issue became building technology and software to read and react to all of the new data that was being created. From there software was developed to target customers and to make solutions to measure how well the information is being used. This is where miscommunication can start to form. Studies show that less than 30% of advertisers consider their own measurement data trustworthy, yet hundreds of billions of dollars are spent on annual global marketing.

![](https://files.benecms.com/blackbean2022/media/marketing.webp)

## How is a monster created?

In any given business, marketing is channeled through a number of strategies including email, search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC), television, social media, and performance. While a CMO might oversee marketing, it is usually the case that multiple teams are working on marketing content. More often than not, those teams are working independently of each other. Each team works within their own framework, within their own budgets, and under their own project goals. This means that there can be a disconnect of communication between teams and departments within the same company if they do not subscribe to a holistic view of marketing strategy. If a flaw starts to form within a system, this is when tools are built to effectively bolt projects and strategy together to form solutions for the smaller problems or challenges within a system - this is where Frankenstein’s monster can start to form.

In a marketing system, a variety of tools are used like spreadsheets, data warehouses, attribution vendors, and more. If your company does not have a systemic methodology, it can lead to the duplication of data within teams which exacerbates existing problems. Stitching tools together can build an even bigger monster, leading to patchwork systems that were not meant to work together.

The biggest problem here is the lack of data transparency. Can you answer these questions about your own company? Where is the data coming from? Who assembled it? How many people have access to the information? This is the key issue for marketing in the post-internet era - it is not enough to simply consume and collect data, it has to be tracked! Tracking data is imperative to gaining access to meta-level information, otherwise, the data is not actionable. If your data is not trackable, it means that you are left with mostly aggregate-level data. Marketing teams need to validate and confirm where impression clicks are happening in order to get actionable leads.

Not having access to tracked data combined with a disconnected marketing team can lead to the grave problems of data duplication and the normalization of marketing data. Every department may assume your marketing data is correct, but the bigger the scale, the more connections are created within a system, which can lead to duplicate connections, and redundant data points.

Frankenstein systems also generally lack the ability to scale your business because patchwork systems are often inflexible and unable to grow with your company. This leads to wasted time and money for your marketing team to fix small-scale problems in the short term while leading to costly problems in the long term if you want your business to grow - and you do. It can also cause a high risk to the security of your platforms and can usually only be fixed by doing manual and routine maintenance that is an avoidable expense to your business.

## Scaling back the monster

Understanding the interconnectivity of both your data sets and your marketing personnel is crucial in order to reduce the risk of duplicating information. It is important to work with intelligent connections, not monstrous ones because data access needs to be consistent across all channels within a marketing department and your business. By creating API codes, it will allow for equal access to features of the entire operating system or application. This means that you will have fewer duplicate counts which are important because incorrect or inconsistent data can skew your ROI and give a distorted image of your marketing effectiveness.

Creating a monster can be avoided if you take your time to strategize a marketing technique from the beginning with an end in mind.

This includes working with a deliberate and well-documented marketing process, anticipating marketing mistakes, and understanding the more contemporary tools you have at your disposal to improve your marketing performance. Your company might consider updating your marketing tools and ditching that funnel in order to encourage a more modern and systemic strategy as well as allowing for equal access and trackable data across your marketing teams and business as a whole.

BlackBean Marketing is a marketing agency for blue-collar innovators. Our expertise is in marketing and sales enablement for industry and manufacturing -- from metalworking to biotechnology. Industrial businesses have unique sales and marketing challenges. We aim to solve them with you. \
Whether you need sales document design, strategic consulting, content development, or a powerful new website, our interdisciplinary team can service your request. We're personable, agile, and creative. We're BlackBean Marketing.

An industrial marketing agency in service of your growth

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Navigating a Marketing Minefield

Arctic Apples Marketing Support

## Background

Arctic Apples is a B2B producer of non-browning apples. Their focus is on serving the retail and food-service markets with individually-portioned, pre-sliced apples. As a GMO product, Arctic Apples face increased skepticism and scrutiny from their prospective customers. They struggle to educate end consumers on the safety and nutrition of their products while emphasizing selling propositions for their B2B market. Finally, Arctic Apples had minimal consumer awareness and brand recognition. They sought an execution partner to aide their internal marketing department with campaign execution.

## Challenge

Arctic Apples' biggest challenges pertained to messaging and communication. A key goal for this engagement was to increase positive brand recognition among consumers across the US and Canada, particularly among the USA's growing Spanish-speaking community. They struggled to balance educational information for a vocally negative anti-GMO consumer audience with a need to sell to organizations and retailers at scale across the USA and Canada.

## Solution

Fundamentally, our engagement with Arctic Apples is about execution. We offer design and web development execution services to allow their internal marketing team to implement campaigns and strategies. We provided a range of marketing and web development services to Arctic Apples, including:

- Design and development of a sales and informational website featuring consumer content (blogs, educational articles, recipes) and targeted marketing content for retailers and food service organizations
- A full Spanish version of the website to improve accessibility for the growing Hispanic market segment in the USA
- Packaging design for their individually portioned apple segments
- Production of a wide range of sales and marketing resources (flyers, one sheets, technical documentation, etc).
- Execution of a North American giveaway campaign featuring an Arctic Apples branded YETI cooler

## Results

Our engagement has allowed Arctic Apple's internal marketing staff to execute more swiftly on a variety of campaigns including Amazon Shopping campaigns, giveaways, and B2B sales initiatives. With our support, Arctic Apples generated over 21,000 form submissions for their YETI cooler giveaway.

Our enhancements to the website resulted in an 8% improvement in overall pageviews and a 27% decline in user bounce rate.  Users visit 12% more pages per session. Key markets including cities across the American Southwest saw increased traffic, particularly in areas with high Spanish-speaking populations.

Evergreen Marketing for a Non-Browning Apple

Growing reach for a growing business

Fertilizer and Supplement Marketing

Diablo Nutrients

## Background

When we began working with Diablo Nutrients, they had little understanding of their own marketing funnel. While they had a general understanding of their target market, they wanted to take their marketing to the next level, especially online. In order to do that, they needed to understand their own brand's strengths and weaknesses and find a niche for themselves in a crowded cannabis growing market.

## Challenge

We identified a number of challenges for Diablo Nutrients during our research and consultation phase:

- Diablo has a positive reputation among experienced growers familiar with their product, but very limited brand exposure to the casual growing market at large.
- Due to the nature of their products, there were a variety of legal requirements and restrictions to be met for every marketing campaign.
- Diablo's unique branding cuts both ways. It resonates very well with the right audience, but the wrong audience may struggle to connect. "Finding their tribe" was an important strategic consideration.

## Solution

Before we could make recommendations or put a plan into place, we needed to understand their industry and competition. We began by compiling a market research document, using customer information from their website and social media channels as well as data collected from a marketing survey we administered. This research helped us understand Diablo's target markets more deeply, identifying primary and secondary customer personas and the most effective channels to use to speak to each. We analyzed competitors large and small to identify opportunities for growth and establish a clear picture of Diablo's market position. This helped us develop marketing collateral that resonates with their audience and supports their team's marketing objectives. Our deliverables included:

- A new website featuring tools that resonate with Diablo's customers: feed calculators, location finders, grower's tips, and technical documentation.
- A wide variety of brand collateral including sales and technical documents, social media content, and trade show materials.
- Ongoing support and advisement on marketing investment and strategies.

## Results

Our market research helped Diablo's marketing team get on the same page and coordinate their efforts. It continues to inform Diablo's social media and newsletter content strategies and offers insight into their customer's needs as they continue to grow their market share.


Grab Marketing by the Horns

Cool Prices in a Hot Market

SWAN Heating and Air Marketing Services

## Background

When we began working with Swan Heating, they had a lot going for them: plenty of website traffic, hundreds of 5 star Google reviews, and a good reputation in their service area surrounding Denver, Colorado. What they weren't getting was results. Their advertising performance was falling behind as leads grew more expensive and harder to find. Our task was to optimize their digital marketing performance, ensuring that all that traffic didn't go to waste.

## Challenge

- Swan Heating, an established HVAC business in Denver, needed to improve the quality, quantity, and cost of their online leads
- Though their website received plenty of traffic, Swan felt their business had begun to fall behind their competitors, especially regarding their search advertising performance
- When we began working with Swan, their year-over-year leads from Google search advertising had fallen by over 40%, while cost per lead had increased by nearly 25%
- While their website received plenty of organic search traffic, it was out-of-date, lacked proper tracking conversion tracking, and was not optimized for lead generation

## Solution

Swan Heating had plenty of potential customers *filling* their online marketing funnel, but that traffic wasn't transitioning into enough leads or sales to justify its acquisition cost. In order to fix this, we first needed to understand why this was happening. We knew the website needed an update, so we started there, designing a lead-generation focused WordPress site to replace their out-of-date website. We also configured proper conversion tracking to measure website performance more accurately. Finally, we sought to understand why the Google Ads account performance had decreased. We performed an audit on the account, then implemented recommended solutions, serving as Swan's advertising management team.

- A performance-first website was designed and built using WordPress. This website featured improve page load times and visuals, as well as improved calls to action intended to provide customers with more opportunities to connect with Swan
- An advertising audit was completed, revealing a number of inefficiencies and performance issues. These issues were corrected and an advertising administration strategy was put in place
- Website and landing page conversion tracking was implemented to improve attribution accuracy.

## Results

Positive results were seen both immediately and through the next year. Website users and pageviews both increased by over 20%. Recorded revenue attributed to the website increased by over 100%, while website lead volume improved by 85%. Advertising performance improved similarly, recording record year-over-year conversion volumes as well as up to 50% cost per lead reductions.

- In the year since our team began administering the advertising account, conversion costs dropped by over 15% year-over-year. Lead volume increased by 48%
- Since May 2020, lead costs have dropped to their lowest recorded value since advertising began in 2015 — a decrease in cost of over 50% compared to the all-time account average
- Since the new website launched, website traffic increased by approximately 50%. Unique pageviews increased by 36%, and bounce rates dropped by 5%



Finding Efficiency in a Competitive Market

Website

Informing their audience

Okanagan Specialty Fruits Website Development

## Background

Not every marketing challenge is about lead generation or increasing volume. Okanagan Specialty Fruits is the parent company of Arctic Apples, a non-browning apple developed for retail and food-service applications. Their website failed to broadcast their values and service offering, instead generating consumer searches for information on GMO foods.

Rather than increasing traffic, OSF wanted to improve the composition and quality of traffic to the website, targeting prospective employees and businesses looking for services and partnership rather than consumers seeking information on GMOs.

## Challenge

The primary challenge for this project was to reframe the website's content to serve OSF's business objectives, while displaying the information in an appealing and professional manner. The goal was to reduce or eliminate traffic from consumers looking to learn about (or debate the merits of) GMO products.

## Solution

To this end, we identified a set of content that primarily delivered consumer traffic. We redirected this traffic to the homepage or to relevant pages with B2B intent.

Our website design struck a balance between friendly, personal, and casual, and professional, technical, and capable. We worked to update their branding while retaining its original look. The new website features more strategic content including an upgraded job board and a streamlined, B2B focused sitemap.

## Results

OSF's results are best expressed by its organic search keywords. Once dominated by GMO keywords, OSF's search profile now largely consists of branded terms, informational fruit growing terms, and biotech related queries. Despite a significant reduction in overall search traffic due to elimination of low value keywords and content, search visitors spend 87% longer on the website now than ever before, finding relevant B2B information for their high-value queries.

Informational Website Development

UI/UX-First Website Design

Skills Centre Website Development

## Background

Skills Centre is an employment and career services agency operating out of British Columbia's rugged West Kootenay region. As the largest provider of employment services in the region, thousands of people rely on Skills Centre services to upgrade job skills, find work, and access community resources. Skills Centre engaged with BlackBean in 2021 to rebuild their website in order to better serve their organizational objectives.

## Challenge

The previous Skills Centre website presented a unique UI/UX challenge. The website received tons of organic search traffic and high engagement from its many visitors, but not the* right kind* of engagement. Users arrived on the popular regional job board, leaving before exploring Skills Centre's training and employment services. These services are Skills Centre's core mandate, but remained underutilized by its prospective clients.

## Solution

Our solution was to 'go with the flow'. Skills Centre successfully attracts dozens of viewers per day to its website, largely through its presence in Google for search terms like 'kootenay job board' and 'jobs near Trail BC'. Instead of trying to deflect users from the path of least resistance, we leaned into the job board. We developed a tagging system to highlight relevant Skills Centre services for each job. Is the user looking at a job that requires first aid certification? They'll see a call-to-action to register for first aid training through Skills Centre.

The Skills Centre job board was rebuilt to distribute traffic to relevant services. This technique supports Skills Centre's strengths in terms of user acquisition. The goal was to align with the wants and needs of their audience, adding value instead of imposing a different experience.

## Results

Before rebuilding the website, over 85% of website traffic visited the job board and went no further. On the new website, 43% of users engage with content other than the job board on their visit. Content engagement improved substantially. Users spend an average of over three minutes on-page on the new website, compared to just 1:29 on the previous version. Average search position and overall search volume also increased due to improved website quality and SEO. As percentage of traffic share, search traffic has increased from 45% to 60% since launching the new website.

Insightful design drives real results

Advertising

Solving for Success

ClearSolv Website and Advertising

## Background

When we first engaged with ClearSolv in 2019, they were a startup solvent distributor with an unfinished SquareSpace website and no means to collect online leads. ClearSolv had their sights set on attracting clients in the cosmetics, cannabis, and botanical extraction industries. They needed a marketing partner who understood their needs and could communicate their message to customers effectively.

## Challenge

Our engagement with ClearSolv led us to understand several key challenges impacting their marketing success:

- ClearSolv's client base was limited and they had no online marketing funnel to generate leads
- Their brand was incomplete. They required a new logo and a variety of branded materials including business cards and trade show materials
- Their sales team needed a lead generation website with targeted content that spoke to purchasing departments at extraction, cosmetics, and manufacturing businesses
- ClearSolv needed a strategy to generate website leads at a reasonable cost per acquisition

## Solution

Our first steps were to research the solvent and chemical supply industry, identifying competitors and learning industry terminology. We then applied our research to the branding process, producing a brand identity that spoke to their audience. Once the brand was completed and approved, we developed a responsive WordPress website, writing content for each page intended to drive conversions. After the website was complete, a Google search advertising campaign was strategized and launched to drive traffic to the website.

## Results

While many businesses struggled through the early days of the COVID-19 crisis, ClearSolv thrived. Taking advantage of increased demand for solvents such as isopropyl and denatured ethyl alcohol, we proactively scaled up our advertising, focusing our campaigns on medical manufacturers and hand sanitizer production. Since March 15 2020, the advertising campaign has generated an average of 6.5 leads per day from businesses across Canada and the US. Leads from ads comprise over 80% of all recorded leads in 2020.

- Scaling the advertising campaign aggressively and early allowed ClearSolv to dominate paid search results through the height of the COVID-19 crisis, resulting in explosive growth
- The updated website generated nearly 700 combined phone calls and form submissions from January to May 31 2020, at an average cost per lead below $20 CAD

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