10 Content Strategies for Middle Market Manufacturers to Slay the Big Dogs

I get this a lot: “We compete against a billion-dollar company. But we’re better.” How do the Davids of the world keep Goliaths in check?

Whether clients or colleagues, small to middle market manufacturers everywhere are talking about sharpening their stories to compete with the big dogs in the Fortune 500 (more on this in the excellent book published by IMEC this year called Made in Illinois.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Content consistency is king, queen and the entire court. Your mail carrier is a great metaphor. They deliver (literally) no matter what. Consistently publishing content means more than even great writing (did I just say that!!??!!). Why? Because when you send your blog out on time (we get an F- for this at K+L) or you show up on Instagram three times a week (C-) or you share a LinkedIn post weekly (don’t ask), it’s like showing up for the neighborhood baseball game on a regular basis. It says you are in it for the long game. Start with a content mission statement. This is super easy to write. Fill in the blanks: Our content is for (audience) who can find (type of content) that will help them (what the content will help them do).

2. Blogs inspire admiration which leads to trust. Blogs do not bulldoze into prospect doors and get them to sign on the dotted line. They do, however, solve problems. That’s the beauty of blogs. They answer the questions your customers struggle with. And, you, the noble small to midsize manufacturer show you are there for them with blogs that have real answers and heartfelt advice.

3. Write like your hero talks. Too many people in this world say they can’t write. This is the tragedy of traditional grading systems. One “F” on an English paper, and it wrecks havoc on the creative writer inside us. But you don’t have to be Hemingway to write well, you just have to be a good listener and show empathy. When it comes to your website or email campaigns or sales decks, incorporate the language of your hero — your customers and prospects.

4. Data science is your top super secret competitive advantage. Rich data surrounds you. Use this information as the “authoritative” differentiator in your messaging. We recently designed a survey for a locally-owned solar company, Independence Renewable Energy in Sandwich. The information not only will inform the brand work we are creating, it also netted the company four new newsletter subscribers, inspired social posts and provided an excellent reason to reach out to past customers. Original research provides content for press releases and blogs. Think exclusivity: what data do you have that you and you alone can share?

5. Plan content around business objectives. Don’t just be an online content creator, be an online marketer. (more on content specifically at VIA’s Can-Do Content Marketing for Manufacturers roundtable on June 18 featuring Michael Lis from Speck Media, Nancy O’Leary from Custom Direct and Janet Viane from Red Caffeine, plus yours truly). The gist: give content a job. Make it work hard to achieve your business objectives. Like: creating a better customer experience, increasing leads, attracting investors, reaching revenue goals, converting prospects into customers and building community.

6. Choose your worldview. This is where size is an advantage. Very large companies must overlay their values onto thousands of people. Small to midsize manufacturers, however, can plant their flag and share their values across the company with greater agility. Integrate your company’s worldview in your content and you become unforgettable or, at the very least, not forgotten in a noisy world.

7. Treat your website like your dog. Feed it, love it, take it for a walk every few days. But, absolutely do not ignore your website or it will grow lonely and – I so hate to say this word as I live for style – shabby.

8. Social media are databases, but your inside list is gold. There was the world before social media and the world after. The latter isn’t so bad if you think of it as yet another place to build community. Building an inside list, however, is not just a database; it is gold. Treasure it, respect it and, by all means, use it to stay in touch with your most important people.

9. Social responsibility is the main course, not a side dish. If you believe in stamping out hunger or saving the planet or helping at-risk youth, then create a team of people who believe in that too and do something. Take one small step. As we saw with the VIA Spark Awards, it starts with one person who says: “Why not? This cause means something to us.” From there, invite people to volunteer to be on a green team or a social impact group. Big companies do not always have the agility to make bold moves. Be bold.

10. Love first. This needs little expansion. Love is the place from which amazing things are born. Show the love in the words you share, mediums you frequent and lives you touch. That’s great content marketing - being a bright hope for others and staying with them so they succeed.

My Meeting with Mr. Mantle

Mr. Mantle, can I ... um ... have your autograph?

I was three weeks shy of my 9th birthday, and our family trekked the 3 ½ hours in our Town & Country wagon to Minneapolis. We were staying at the Radisson Hotel, where we always stayed on those rare visits to the "Big City." As we were checking in, the bell hop mentioned that the New York Yankees would be arriving soon after playing the Minnesota Twins at the old Met Stadium. I begged my dad to let me hang back for an autograph or two.

As the team shuffled into the lobby, I shyly approached a man in a suit and tie. I asked if he was a Yankee and if I could have his autograph. Third baseman Bobby Cox obliged. I did the same for the next man, Frank Crosetti. This time, I got a different result. Not only did he sign the hotel letterhead paper, but he said, “That’s Micky Mantle.” Aptly nicknamed "The Crow," Crosetti's arm lifted like a bird ready to take flight as he pointed to Mantle.

“You will want his autograph,” said The Crow.

I was shaking as I approached America’s iconic baseball player. Tongue tied in knots, I handed him my paper and pencil. He looked down, signed the sheet and was gone.

This was better than Christmas morning. My heart was pounding as my wobbly legs made their way to the elevators. When I got there, I looked up and saw Mr. Mantle. My shit-eating grin turned to shock and fear. I took off for the stairs and raced up to the third floor where I pushed the button to continue upward. The elevator doors opened. And there he was again. This time, alone.

I operated in panic mode as I stepped aboard and pushed the button. Up we went, together. A little boy and a whole lot of greatness. I sprinted out of there as if I was on fire. Mr. Mantle continued upward.

April is baseball month. But, right now, no one is sauntering on the field. No one is striking out on the Twins, giving me legit reasons to be grumpy around the house. No texts from my White Sox friends poking fun at the Cubs.

The good news: Baseball will come back. Like the sport itself, with 162 games a season, we have to play the long game. We have to believe. Like the little boy I once was who saw the chance in a lifetime.

Cheers,

Roderick

PS. The remaining autographs were obtained at breakfast the next day.

Your Brand Story: 10 Events That Trigger a Review

Change begets more change and oftentimes people in the middle (aka your team) are caught in no-man’s land wondering what is the new company story. Here are 10 events that trigger it’s time to review and rewrite your brand story.

1)        You’re targeting new industries or audiences

Companies in growth mode often look to new industries or vertical markets to target. Having a solution for customer needs in those markets is important, but equally important is how a company communicates its brand story to break through the messaging din with a content mission that aligns with growth strategy and business imperatives. Complete Merchant Services (CMS) moved from Payment-as-a-Solution platform for the health care industry to the direct sales companies and then to franchisees.

2)    Your business changes focus

Perhaps you’ve hired or acquired a team that fills a critical void. Maybe it even creates an additional profit center. With expanded offerings, your DNA changes. Sometimes this means a name change or sometimes it just means a fresh look at the solutions you’re bringing to the table. Case in point: Before the totally retro Chicago-based Build This entered the scene in 2018, it was strictly a web design firm. Then it adopted app development and, out of its trendy offices in the Chicago Board of Trade building, changed its focus – and its brand story. A fresh new website with technology imagery, an expanded offering including one-day websites, and a “We’re More Than An Agency” headline on the company’s about page was a successful brand story rewrite.

3)    Merger or acquisition

This is a biggie. We have witnessed first-hand the impact a merger has on a company’s brand. It’s understandable that company executives focus on the financial and tax implications when entering an M&A. However, a common brand story has to be developed and then introduced to clients, prospects and, most importantly, the people who work there. Reston, Va.-based Hinge Marketing offers a downloadable rebranding kit. In addition to a new name and look, changes also occur in business practices and employee training.

4)    Your business model changes to bring a fuller solution through strategic partnerships

Sometimes, it makes sense to form strategic partnerships to offer clients fuller solutions. Chicago-based Fortress Consulting, for example, pulls in marketing and creative experts as needed to show a more complete story. (Check out the new “life after pro football” branding project they did for Matt Forte. Cool stuff!). As your solution expands, so does your brand story.

5)    The customer journey changes (does life ever stand still?)

How does your customer see you? How do you view your company and what it does? Is how your customer buys products or services in your market changing? Customer journeys shift and companies that can stay ahead of the wave will thrive. The ones that don’t rewrite their brand story – Blockbuster, Sears, Montgomery Ward, American Motors Corp. – often find themselves out of business or a target for an acquisition.

6)    You choose to break away from companies in your industry and how business has “always been” done

Let’s say your industry is one based on price. It’s transactional, your product a commodity. But you don’t want to do business that way. You choose to step apart from the pack. We call this your unfair advantage, also known as your differentiator. When your company understands its unfair advantage, your story will set you apart from everyone else in your industry. It often is not what you think. Silver Spoon Desserts, for example, has an unfair advantage of employing single moms from Chicago’s distressed neighborhoods. Why? Because owner Tamara Turner was a single mom, and she understands women in that situation don’t need a handout, they need a paycheck. When customers hear her story, they become believers. What’s your unfair advantage?

7)    The last time you reviewed your brand story was when “Frozen” was the highest-grossing film of the year.

That was 2013. Six years is a long time in business. Technologies change. The customer journey changes. Global markets change. How has your company changed? How has your brand story reflected that change? Is it frozen in time?

8)    Digital transformation

This is the business buzz phrase, which really means the Internet of Things (IoT). From cloud-based computing to shopping online to software as a service (SasS). Digital transformation is designed to improve the customer experience, but it’s more than technology. Great piece in Harvard Business Review that talks about what needs to be done internally prior to and during implementation of digital platforms.

9)    The dynamics of the industry have changed

Industry change is often a result of several of the points made above – digital transformation, the fluid customer-buying journey, new technologies, etc. Again, staying in front of the wave, through professional development, attending seminars, reading forward-thinking publications and listening to industry podcasts can help you stay aligned with industry trends. Ask: how is your brand story adapting to the shifting sands?

10)  Your company’s vision goggles need replacement

If our vision in life stayed the same, there would be a lot more professional football players, fire personnel and professional singers in the world. These were my children’s visions when they were really little. Guess what? None of them are going into these fields. When a company’s vision – that altruistic destination that is not yet, but oh so desirable – changes, the brand story changes too. Because it’s not just about internal stakeholders. Your customers and other champions need to be part of your vision too.

The Beats Behind Your Breathtaking Stories

A story without beats is the fastest way to make people fall asleep. (That was not meant to rhyme. Just putting it out there.) In fiction books or movie scripts, writers define a beat as the smallest unit of a story — something that happens that causes a reaction.

If the Titanic had been merely a fabulous ship reaching port in one piece, there would have been no story.

As corporate storytellers, we look at marketing as having beats too. A beat is an interaction — something that happens that causes a reaction. Your hero headline on the homepage creates desire. The visitor clicks on the call-to-action to learn more. There’s a beat. The average movie has about 40 beats. The average homepage? Anybody’s guess. BUT, strive to have beats throughout.

Here’s the big WOW: a great brand story is one long string of beats — one interaction that leads to the next one.

Less beats slows the action. More beats can keep you on the edge of your seat. Now switch the perspective to your story. Thinking in terms of beats, instead of mere content, changes everything. Website content becomes a path of engagement, sales decks become dialogue, and videos inspire action.

Our own lives have beats. Our own lives are one long scene built upon another, conversation that evokes action, surprises that lead to unexpected roads. Our own story does not magically appear. You went from point A to point B, maybe even to point Z (thank you, alphabet, for having 26 of you). It’s never easy. The path was littered with fear and angst. But it was worth it because it landed you here, wherever here is — from one interaction after another.

There are many stories behind a company. How you saved the day for a customer. Why your company does what it does. Your vision for an amazing world. Your founder story.

Showing your stories to the outside world should captivate people in the same way you feel entranced watching a great movie. Stories are one-part emotion and one-part authoritative. People buy on emotion and justify the purchase with underlying authority or facts. The beats in the story keep the emotion and the relationship moving forward.

Consider your story one of your biggest unfair advantages — one thing that others don’t have and cannot copy.

Let’s end with the words from one of the most famous film directors of all time: Frank Capra: “There are no rules in filmmaking. Only sins. And the cardinal sin is dullness.”

Now, take your brand story to breathtaking heights.

A Story: Keep Going

I love to run, but I detest feeling cold. So last Saturday, I went to our local Vaughn Center, plunked down two dollars in quarters pilfered from our family coin jar and exchanged them for the privilege of running the track.

Six times around makes a mile. It's really not hard at all. Unless you are Marvin.

I don't know if that is his name, but that's what I'm going with. He looked like a Marvin, a rather nostalgic name befitting a man who is most probably in his seventies, wrinkly skin on his dark-skinned face, still broad-shouldered, still built like the athlete I suspect he once was. He wore chinos and a black polo top.

When I spoke with him, I didn't ask him his name. It was enough for me just to approach a stranger. Many people don't know this about me, but I'm a real introvert. Big groups terrify me and meeting strangers . . . don't even get me started. But this man did something that was so massively impressive, I had to work up the nerve to tell him the truth. And I did. I thanked him, straight out, for inspiring all of us that day.

Marvin walked at a complete 90 degree angle. He used the rail around the second floor track as a guide because, obviously, he really didn't have a lot of clearance to see far ahead. He would stop a lot. He would stand at the rail and watch the basketball and volleyball players below make three-pointers or spike the ball over the net.

I imagined him fifty years before. A great player, someone with promise, maybe a scholarship to college or the captain of his high school team.

Then something happened along the way. Was it a car accident? Years of hard work stacked on top of each other? An illness winning the war on his body?  

So I asked him, after thanking him, if it was painful to walk. Because it looked like it was, and he shook his head and said, "Oh yeah. My back, my lower back." He was sitting on the bench alongside the track when I talked with him. I figured I had one more question before he thought I was a nut, so I asked him what I really wanted to know: What motivated him to come out here and go through all this pain?

His eyes had a fierce light of goodness. He stared right at me and said, "I've got to try. I've just got to keep on tryin'."

I thanked him again. It was one of those moments where I felt like I'd been touched by an angel. One human being sharing with another about courage, life, determination.

Michele Kelly is CEO and Co-founder of K+L Storytellers, a brand storytelling and content company passionate about helping middle market companies scale through story.