Welcome to the promo playbook, the podcast where
suppliers come to win in the promotional products
industry. We're your hosts, Lisa Faustik and
Adrienne Barker, bringing you insider insights,
expert strategies, and no fluff advice to help
suppliers navigate the promo channel like pros.
From marketing to distributors to mastering software
onboarding, we cover it all. Whether you're new
to the industry or ready to scale up, this is
your playbook for success. Let's get started.
Hey everybody, welcome to this episode of the
promo playbook. We're so excited today to have
Gloria Lafont from Action and Marketing joining
us today. Gloria is a marketing agency that works
on behalf of distributors to help them differentiate
themselves in the marketplace. So I'd like to
start by welcoming Adrienne and Kim, my co -hosts,
and then turning it over to Gloria to give an
introduction. Gloria, tell us about yourself
and the company. Hello everybody. First of all,
thank you so much for having me here. It's an
honor to be talking to you guys and in your podcast.
And I started a long time ago in marketing, in
the marketing industry. Back in the days of direct
mail, I learned all about direct response, advertising,
and I found it absolutely fascinating. I loved
how the concept is to target an audience and
market only to them. You find the right audience
for your product and then only market to that
group of people. So I thought that was very,
very interesting. And when the days came of the
internet and working on the internet and getting
found and all that is exactly the same principle.
To me, the principle has not changed. It's A
different medium, but it is exactly the same
thing. So I was a distributor and I had a marketing
experience when I started my distributor company
and I went to networking events. I went to all
kinds of places to get clients, which I did.
And every time I met people, I also wanted to
help them with their marketing outside of the
promotional products and smaller companies didn't
have a big budget for promotional products. Then
it's a different target audience than the people
that are going to buy products and that are worth
having as clients, which I also found. So eventually
I decided that I was going to sell the distributor
part of the business and I just sold my book
of business. And it was something that I was
able to achieve because I had automated their
order processing in a very simple way. I had
a large clientele in the service industry, businesses
like car repairs, plumbers. I had landscapers,
painters. So those people consumed tons and tons
of t -shirts and they always order the exact
same thing the exact same breakdown in sizes
there was no no mystery so i ended up because
they were busy i ended up creating a system where
they would just send me click here and put your
order in and then i will send them the link to
pay and that was it they got their order because
i had that set up in that way where i Had removed
myself from the whole process. I was able to,
I mean, of course I still deal with them. You
know, I still talk to them every once in a while.
And because you got to have maintained the relationship,
but the whole process, it was very easy to transfer
onto another business. And a screen printer ended
up buying my book of business for that. And so
then fast forward, I just decided to specialize
in helping distributors with advanced marketing.
Because I see a big need for this. I see a big
gap between the cookie cutter and the mass produced
type of marketing and the specialized marketing
that businesses need to at some point start to
apply. Great. Thank you for that insight. Really
appreciate it. So how long have you been working
with distributors doing their marketing? When
did you sell your company? This would be around
2014, 2015. I had a book of business in local
businesses. I worked a lot with local nonprofits
and arts related organizations. I still have
a couple of clients in that field. I started
also working with distributors. helping them
out with different things until I decided to
formally have a program because I didn't want
to be another cookie cutter or tactical type
of application marketing because to me you have
to have a strategy behind things so I started
kind of doing that and gradually in terms of
defining all the services but around I think
it was 2017 when I started really selling a program.
You know, this is what we do and this is the
results that you can expect from this. Okay,
great. Thank you. I think one of the things I
wanted to chat about and I'm going to invite
Adrienne to sort of weigh in on this, which is
the idea of distributors using marketing agencies
that aren't familiar with the industry versus
an organization like yours that is very familiar
with the industry. Um, pros and cons, Adrienne,
what are your thoughts on that? And you are on
mute. Okay, so pro, I don't, okay. I'm going
to go with the cons first because that's what
enters my mind when I've talked to other people
that have been dissatisfied. So I, you know,
I'm coming from the LinkedIn position because
that is where my glory is in the industry, uh,
working with both distributors and suppliers,
helping them with getting their marketing on
the LinkedIn. Very difficult to work with someone.
And that they understand the industry of marketing
is that they can say it they'll say oh i get
it i understand i ordered bugs you ten years
ago. It doesn't work like that so my only advice
i have. Is that if you are in the promotion products
industry you know how confusing it could be you
understand that stick with someone that understands
the industry the minute you try to go outside
you are not gonna be pleased with the results
cuz they don't understand it i think that. that
is really very important. Also, if you are okay
selling this mug with a nice piece of artwork
and putting it out to your followers on any of
the social media platforms, but you're also okay
that hundreds of other people are gonna have
the same exact post, same exact mug, and they're
also all over the place, then use those ones
that are very inexpensive. They may be $100 a
month. That's fine. You know, especially maybe
if you're if you're growing or you're not worried
that they're seeing that there's other companies
but if you want to stay away from the cookie
cutter and you want custom You really need to
know that it's going to cost you a little money
and you need to work with someone. I'm going
to say like Gloria who's here and I've been following
Gloria. I've never met Gloria, but she's already
earned my trust because I've been following her.
I see her work. I've watched her interviews and
I know that and her workshops and presentations
and I know Gloria knows what she's talking about.
Why? Because she's coming from inside the industry.
I think our industry, which is an amazing industry,
should really work and make sure you're working
with someone who's inside the industry. When
you hear Lisa, when you hear Kim, my story, we've
all had the years. We're all veterans of the
promotional products industry and we understand
it. Thank you, Lisa, for the question. Great,
great response. And we've seen lots of changes
and growth in the industry too related to marketing.
So Kim, I want to ask you as a PR executive,
you started your career in PR and marketing.
How do you see this fitting in with a distributor?
What are your thoughts on inside the industry
versus outside the industry marketing support?
I agree it's a quirky industry and you need someone
who understands it. At the same time, you are
marketing to an end user who is a consumer. You
can't ignore the fact that you need to understand
some of the consumer trends going on. What are
people interested in? If sustainability is really
big right now, and that's what everyone is buying,
regardless of where they're buying it, whether
it's Target or an upscale place, if they're only
buying things that have some sort of sustainability,
that message still needs to happen. from a distributor
to a corporate customer, right? So I think you
do need to really get to the, you know, as a
distributor to be able to walk the walk, talk
the talk and understand what that is, because
it is not the same as a B2B wholesale environment.
You need to work inside the industry, but you
can't be so boxed in that you're not. aware of
general consumer trends because those consumer
trends are what your buyer is going to want.
So you need to speak to those too. So I think
one is more of like a process. How do you reach
them? What's the best way? Where are they living?
Where are they reading? Where are they getting
their information? How are they digesting it?
And another is what is that message? And what
is that content? And I think you do need to know
a little bit outside of the industry to hone
in on the content part more because you're pulling
that from consumer. But it is a whole different
ballgame B2B wholesale, like on the retail side,
versus B2B in your distributor world. So I think
that that's an important thing to remember, too.
Okay cool so thank you for that insight. So you
know one of the things I heard Gloria in what
you were saying was originally when you started
your distributorship you had some niche marketing
and you actually created a niche customer base
that you automated with an e -commerce solution
and then you were able to then sell that. I think
that's a really compelling thought process for
our audience. And could you walk us through when
you're meeting with a new distributor for the
first time, how do you work with them and analyze
them to figure out what their communication strategy
should be? That's an amazing question. The first
thing that we do is once we've had a call to
get to know each other and see if we are a good
fit or not. The first thing we do is I call it
a game plan. It's a program that is very simple
where we're going to start. We're going to create
your own marketing plan for the next 90 days.
What should you do in the next 90 days to move
the needle and to really go in the direction
you want to go? So when we do that, we send a
questionnaire. one of the things that we do is
send a questionnaire that is pretty comprehensive
to kind of uncover your own point of view, your
own, your target audience because if you ask
any distributor for the most part, oh no, everybody
can buy from me. It's so widespread that everybody
can be my client. But when you start digging
a little bit, you'll see that there is a trend.
You know, if they are in California, in San Francisco,
maybe they have a lot of tech companies. That's
a big portion of their clientele. And if they're
in Texas, they have an oil company. So there
is always a way of narrowing down the audience
and then the messaging and then what makes you
different, because everybody sells the exact
same product, but everybody is unique. Nobody
is the same as somebody else. So my job is to
uncover that uniqueness and that your own point
of view, how you approach things. And that's
something that I've been doing it for a very
long time. And I'm still learning a lot when
I go through this process. But the one thing
that I have found is that there are not two distributors
that are the same. They're all different. Which
is great, because otherwise I would be very bored
if I'm honest. So I love that answer for a number
of reasons. One is what I hear is you're a strategic
partner. Really, you're helping your distributors
at a high level identify who they want to be
and how they want to go to market. And I totally
resonate with that comment of everybody can be
my client, you know, having lived as a distributor
for many years and on the supplier side, working
with hundreds and hundreds of distributors. I
think this is a common, actually almost roadblock
to folks. There's a real magic in focusing in
niche marketing. So I love that answer. I'm going
to switch a little bit to the idea of The size
of distributors that you work with, what's the
average size of a distributor that you like to
have as a client? The perfect fit for us is a
small distributor that has a small team in place
and they're at least one million or going in
that direction. One and five, I guess, is a good
range. I don't work with the very, very large
companies I have. called me and we've but it's
not really at this point I identify that that's
the best the best fit because when it's a solo
distributor we also help solo distributors with
consultation and some things like that but a
solo distributor that doesn't want to hire anybody
that wants to do everything themselves it is
very limited as to as to how much growth they
can handle at the end of the day. Yes. I have
done this and again, I do offer some solutions
for small distributors, but as far as the program
goes, which is a monthly service where they're
basically hiring our entire team, but they pay
less than if they were hiring one person. And
then that is really for distributors. And what
you said is exactly right. We partner, we are
their marketing partners in that sense, because
we kind of have their back and we know what's
good for them. And we're also open, you know,
as to if they want to go in a different direction,
they want to introduce a new product or service.
So that's kind of how we do. Okay, great. And
I love that. Range of distributor, I think you
said these words at one point, Gloria, it's an
underserved group of distributors that are so
valuable to the industry. That distributor range
is really the bedrock of the industry. Absolutely.
I love that you're focusing on that demographic.
It's really exciting. So tell us a little bit
about what you see in terms of marketing trends
for that type of distributor to reach an audience.
The marketing trends that I see is that the same
marketing trends that are going that are happening
everywhere, which is the prevalence of the online
space and the younger distributors are that are
coming in. They are really have a much better
understanding of that online space. They have
a better understanding of marketing They know
they have to do marketing and they don't want
to do the cookie -cutter They don't want to do
the exact same social media post that a few thousand
other distributors are posting Because they know
that that's not that doesn't really is not going
to give them the results they need. And again,
I have nothing against that. That's a good way
to start. If you're small, you want to have something
showing that serves a purpose for sure. But at
that level, it becomes a point that you kind
of want to upgrade your marketing. And I see
a lot of distributors interested in doing that.
Also, with the older distributors, They are looking
at exiting the business and they want to set
something up that is sellable because if you
run the business yourself and Only you can run
the business Then you don't have a and you have
not built an asset You have just had a job and
if you save enough and put money in a 401k or
an IRA whatever instrument like that Then that's
your retirement, but you you have something in
your hand that you could sell with a little bit
of effort and putting some things in place and
in fact one of our clients bought another distributor
and this other distributor only because he wanted
to expand to the location where this other distributor
was and when we went to do the marketing and
and do the campaign to to kind of integrate that
other those other clients the distributor didn't
have a client list a proper client list exported
from QuickBooks and then you have people from
2006 and then the people that are more recent
I'm talking last order 2006 and then more recent
people don't have emails for example so that
you don't have anything to say you could get
more money if you have here's my customer list
Here's how I communicate with them quarterly.
This is the types of things that they order for
you have something more substantial, which you
already have in your head. Yeah. So I think what
you're saying, if I can sort of paraphrase that
is data is king, like manage your data, make
sure you have clean data, pay attention to your
data and you can help the distributor do that.
I can help 100 % and that it's worth money. Yes,
yes. So that's great insight. I want to switch
over a little bit to social media. So I saw a
new website that you do Facebook ads and you
help with social media advertising. I think this
is an underserved also category for our distributor
audience and our supplier audience, by the way,
can also be using Facebook advertising to target
their distributor partners. Tell us a little
bit about what you're seeing in trends on the
social media front in terms of advertising. Social
media has gone rogue. Social media now gives
an incredible opportunity that wasn't here when
it started or not even a year ago. We used to
only see posts of people that we were following.
But now we are being served with information
and content That is not even paid sometimes from
people that we don't know we never heard of them
I'm sure that I'm not the only one that gets
this You go on Facebook, especially and you see
all this stuff that who cares. I don't care about
Jennifer Lopez Or this other one or that I keep
hiding those posts. But the point is that if
you have interesting content, something that
is worthwhile is going to show, is going to come
up, and you have a bigger chance of exposing
your business. Now, as far as advertising, I
find that things have changed tremendously. We
also do Google advertising. And with AI, They
want to write the post for you they want to write
the ads for you they want to create and this
is causing a lot of problems because it before
you can control. your ads and it's good that
if you have more ads created and more variations
and all that. But sometimes it's just targeting
the wrong thing or that's not what you want to
say. So it's causing problems and also there
are a lot of bots clicking on the ads. So there's
been a big disturbance of that in that section.
One thing that I say that is worth doing advertising
is retargeting. people come to your website and
they hang out and then they leave and They never
come back and they were interested in what you
had there for sure So if you can advertise to
those people Online as they're browsing and doing
other things That's your audience that came to
your website So that is one thing that I don't
know many people that are doing it other than
a few of our clients Of course you have to have
a certain amount of visitors a month, I think
it's a thousand, and by a thousand I mean registered
in the tracking apps to determine that they're
enough. to apply the retargeting. But many distributors
have that if you're spending money on Google
ads or any other ads, you are getting a lot of
traffic and those people are leaving and you're
paying for that traffic. So why not invest in
retargeting, which is a lot less costly. That
is one missed opportunity that I see many distributors
could and also suppliers, if they're doing ads,
they could also do also another way is if you
have a list. which suppliers have of distributors,
you can serve ads to the distributors because
you can target the ads to that audience. So there's
a lot you can do with ads. But one thing that
I want to mention and make sure that it's clear
is that none of these things are standalone.
You can't just do ads. They may work for a little
while, but you do need to have a different ingredients
in your marketing. So your website is very, very
fundamental because that's where the magic happens.
That's your place of business. So if you have
a generic website just put your logo on and you
have the exact the exact same Banner as everybody
else, which is funny Sometimes I'm working with
a three or four distributors at the same time
and they all have the exact same banner on their
website And we're like, who's is this again?
Because that that's not enough you need to have
your own personality communicated on your website
it has to you have to show why would they want
to pick you because if you have the exact same
website as other thousands then the only differentiator
is price that's the way it life is so okay and
for example you go see a client and the client
is evaluating different vendors and everybody
has the same website then they're going to pick
the cheapest the one that's offering the best
prices That that's the way we function whether
you like it or not and then if what if they are
a sports company and one of the distributors
only talks about sports on their website and
Then they also have the same catalog website,
but they're they're talking about sports stuff
They're gonna go with that one because they're
gonna feel that they understand what they need
and their business So that's kind of the what
we do with our clients help them match their
message to their audience. Sorry, my dogs are
making a lot of noise in the background. I apologize.
Kim, would you like to weigh in there? Yes. I
have a question for you, Gloria. So I love this
and totally agree. You need to have multiple
ingredients for that marketing cake. As a distributor
who's just starting, they're approaching a million
dollars. They've got a small team behind them.
They know they need to, in order to get to that
next level, you know, to get to 1 .5, to get
to 2 million, to get to 3 million, they need
to invest in marketing. Looking at all the different
components, is there an area that you would recommend
almost like a larger investment, right? Like
social media can blow up. Right. And you can
either put money in Facebook ads or you can put
money in LinkedIn ads, and then you can go on
TikTok and then you can do retargeting. Like
there's so many things just under the social
media bucket. But then you have your direct mail
and then you have, you know, you have all different
drip campaigns. You have all different stuff
that you can do. Where would you is there a spot
that you would recommend people start and then
and then sort of grow? Right. We start with the
foundation. And if you don't have a website,
if you have a cookie cutter website, your website
is part of your foundation. OK. So the first
thing we do back to what the first thing we do
is is the game plan. So within the game plan,
we see what you have in place and then come up
with a plan. What do you need to do first? What
comes next? Usually the website is the first
thing. Maybe you have a website that is unique
to you that needs improvements. So we come in
and do the improve because sometimes distributors
are like this and they put this on the website.
Oh, I like that. That sounds good. But it's not
them. It has to be your voice. It has to communicate
your point of view. So. not only the looks, also
the messaging, the content. If you work in an
area, like I said before, in an area where there
is a lot of oil companies and industrial tech
clients, then you want to talk about safety.
You want to talk about different kinds of quality
products that can withstand corrosion and things
like that, just to give you an example. and sustainability
as well, which is important. So you got to really
pick a few topics to focus on that. So first
the website, then the topics, and you put the
topics and the content on the website, and then
you spread the content throughout online, social
media, ads, and whatever it is. But they have
to be tied into your website and to your topic
and to your sweet spot. That's how it works.
So social media is not a standalone. And depending
on who your client is, like, I don't have any
client that we're doing any TikToks for. The
reason is because you could, like you said, you
can do so many different things. But where should
I put my money that is really going to be when
I get a bigger, a bigger back for my book? Right.
LinkedIn is the number one place. Now, Instagram
is emerging. So. You know for the distributor
business because the distribution business like
you said you are as a distributor you are marketing
to companies. And you have to tell them that
you understand their marketing you understand
their audience and they you understand what they
are trying to do. So that you can come in and
bring the products that are going to do that
job so. You do that through your content and
through the way your website presents itself.
So I don't know if I answered your question.
No, that was great. Thank you. We have to start
with the strategy. Then comes your foundation,
either build it from scratch or improve what
you have in there. And then we can help with
the full execution of the monthly different things
that need to be done regularly. Okay, so that's
awesome insight. Thank you, Kim, for asking those
questions. I know we're getting close to time.
So Gloria, one of the things I was wanting to
ask you about was walk us through the cycle of
this. So I'm hearing the wisdom of investing
in your website, making sure your website is...
reflecting your message in your tone, then you
bolt on maybe your social media or email marketing
and other marketing activities. What is the timeframe
for this? You meet a distributor, tell us what
happens next. Okay, I meet a distributor, we
talk about the game plan. That's the first thing
that we do. And after the game plan, We present
what we're recommending and we go with it. What
we're recommending again usually is we're going
to focus on these segments. We're going to focus
on this market audience first. Maybe you have
many different target audiences, but we're going
to start with this one. So we're going to start
developing content. And usually there are two
parts of that. One is the reactivation of your
database, which normally they haven't done anything
with their own clients. And the resell, the lifetime
value of the distributor client is very, very,
very high. One of the highest, I think, in any
industry. So you want to make sure that you're
marketing to your own clients so that we include
that in the whole deal, right? In the whole.
program. And that's when the CRM comes in. So
we were finding that our clients were really
not having a good system to follow up and to
keep track of the leads that were coming in,
or even their clients. So it becomes something
where the client calls you. You never, never,
ever communicate with your client unless they
need something and they contact you. That's not
really a good idea. So then you wonder why they're
also looking at other, you know, hey, match this
price. Well, hey, you know, you never really
ever where are you? So we do that. We do that
part. And that's how it's different for everybody.
So we help them with the implementation and we
create some reconnection and with their clients
and a plan for that. So that's why it's a kind
of comprehensive because just social media alone,
social media is not a standalone. You need to
have a good foundation because people in social
media are going to go to your website. So if
they see nothing that has anything to do with
what you're saying on social media, then there
is a big disconnect and people don't have time
for that. They leave. So it's a whole thing.
And then you also have to monitor, track the
results, see what content is coming up online.
And then now you have to optimize for search
and not just for search, but also answers. questions.
What questions are people asking? Let's just
provide answers for those questions. The way
the content is structured has to be different.
And it's interesting. It's very dynamic. Even
though it could be tiring sometimes. So many
changes. Lisa, it looks like you're saying something
gold. I think that, you know, what you're saying
is it's a big job. There's multiple moving parts
to it. I do want to ask, with those multiple
moving parts, do you have a dashboard tool or
some type of tool that you use with your distributors
to measure results, do the retargeting, look
at social media? How does that work for you,
Gloria? Right. place to track is with Google
Analytics and then the all the Google suite of
of tools that they provide for this analytics
is just one part and and we have some what we
call KPIs you know what is it that we're going
to track what what do we track traffic and we
track conversions because that's important. And
then nurturing loyalty which I think is a very
important topic that you brought up which is
making sure that your nurturing your existing
client base. Right, right. That we do through
email and tools like Zoho provide dashboards
where you can really see. All your campaigns
and a big part of the work that is being done
with the marketing how many leads came in how
many You know new clients and repeat clients.
So you you want to have all of those things in
place That's how you measure your growth And
the results and and that's why I have to insist
that it's not a single thing that you do is now
Okay i'm gonna start doing some ads in on facebook
because someone told me or i've seen ads on face
i'm gonna do some No, that is alone. That's really
not going to give any any major results. So that's
a very wise words. So I think we're going to
sort of look towards wrapping up our discussion.
Adrian, do you have any thoughts or, you know,
final thoughts or questions for Gloria? Gloria,
I'm hoping you'll agree with me. But leading
in with that one, but I do want to say that for
suppliers and distributors and their social media,
it's not just posting and walking away and correct
me if I'm wrong, but what I noticed is there's
not a lot of engagement. You know, someone, are
you checking your inbox? Even though it's, you
know, that, you know, you're checking any messages.
Are you thanking people? Are you sending a LinkedIn
or you're creating, are you, is there a program?
Are you using some kind of crazy automation program
where the computer does the whole thing but you're
not people are saying i'm interested in you're
not even responding to it because it's not really
a human looking at it or the messages are so
canned that what you know that you know uh and
so i i just think you'll agree with me right
like when you're setting up that social media
and you're hiring someone to just post for you
I think you're making a big mistake. You have
to have someone that's really in there. Especially
if the posts are going out to thousands of people
and nobody's checking, absolutely. And I encourage
my clients to go and check their social media,
repost and comment, because I'm not them. And
this is where the sales job comes in. So usually
we do a training with their entire sales team
as to how they're going to use that content.
And it works. It works. Sometimes we get one
of our clients, hey, which supplier is this from?
Because we posted some kind of a product and
they're like, somebody wants this. What is this
supplier? So now we have a method too, so that
they know. And we ask them, who are your suppliers?
What are your favorite suppliers? show that.
But yes, 100%, you as the owner or not the owner,
usually the owner is the one that does the most
sales. So whoever's doing the sales needs to
go on social media and respond to comments and
repost on their own personal profile. And this
is how your page grows. This is how you get people
to see your brand. Awesome. That really does
answer my question. Also, I noticed, because
I've worked with a lot of distributors, that
many of you don't have Google My Business page.
Are you nuts? Like it's a free, I know, right,
Gloria? I think Gloria could set that up for
you. Right, Gloria? Do you do the Google My Business
page? Of course, that's different. They probably
don't know they have it because Google assigned
them one. If they don't know they have it most
of the times. It's just that we have to recover
it. But no, 100%. That's part of the foundation.
That's part of the foundational work. Do you
have all the things that you need to have for
Google to see that you exist and what you do,
who you serve? And I love that you mentioned
it's not just a search, it's an ask engine. So
very, very smart. And I also, I think you guys
that we need to have a conversation about chat
bots and AI in the future. So, so if you're familiar
with that, Gloria, maybe we'll do a panel discussion
on that. I think that would be really interesting.
I just want to say to distributors and suppliers,
stop forgetting your follow -up when you are
looking at marketing. And I'm talking about the
engagement, but also often I see that where someone
is actually saying, Hey, I would be interested
in meeting. And I will say out loud that many
of my clients that have put me on pause or have
stopped, it's always because they're getting
the leads, but they're not able to do the follow
-up. So don't start a program until you're 100
% all set with the process and how you're going
to handle each and every lead coming in. And
that's it. I've actually enjoyed this conversation
tremendously. And Gloria, it's nice to see you
face to face on Zoom. Thank you so much, Gloria.
Kim, do you have any last comments? No, I mean,
I think, you know, Andrea, Adrian was taking
the last, I was gonna say the same thing. Like,
you know, you need to cover the basics first,
right? And I think that most entrepreneurs and
small businesses, if they're spending $20 just
randomly picking a number on Facebook ads, think
they're doing marketing. Right. And they just
throw something out there and I'm doing something
like, and that's all they have time for. And
that's where sometimes those cookie cutters just
go one step above and do the cookie cutter, invest
in that, because at least that's better than
nothing. But it's not really going to be driving
your business. But then when you do decide you
want to invest, you also have to be ready to
handle. that growth, whether it be responding
to people, responding to leads, being able to
fill orders. So, you know, it's sort of the,
okay, when you first start out, you're just doing
anything and you think you have it covered, box
checked, and really, you're not, you're just
covering the bare, bare, bare, bare, bare minimum.
And then when you start to invest, you need to
understand that it actually does need attention.
You can't just throw money at it and say, well,
now I have $500 or $1 ,000 a month I'm going
to throw into advertising. Because if you're
not responding to it, you might as well send
me that $1 ,000 a month. And it's the same thing.
It's like throwing it out the window. So I love,
I was so excited for this podcast. I love this
conversation around marketing. you can do a lot
of things very cost -effectively, to Gloria's
point, if you're just targeted and streamlined.
And those small audiences, you reap so much more
out of than if you're throwing spaghetti against
a wall and seeing what sticks. So don't be afraid
of, you know, if someone like, you know, Gloria
comes in and says, we should focus on, you know,
only A through B right now in this particular
audience. because you will most likely get much
more return out of that segmented, more niche
approach than you will at going wide. Great,
great. Thank you. And I agree with everybody's
comments. I think to summarize, don't be afraid
to hire an agency. Don't be afraid to hire a
partner like Gloria who knows the industry, but
also knows marketing beyond the industry. Think
about niche marketing as your friend. When you're
ready to invest, make sure you have the capacity
to follow up and take advantage of your investment.
These are not easy things, audience. We know
that these are difficult decisions to make, and
it's not easy to grow a distributorship in the
$1 million to $5 million range. We are your biggest
fans. We want to bring you resources that can
help you grow. We hope you'll reach out to Gloria
if it's something you think will fit in with
your company. Gloria, you're brilliant. I think
you're very unique in the industry, offering
something that our audience really needs. And
we really appreciate your being on the show.
So we'll look forward to seeing you again. Would
you like to say any parting comments to our audience?
Well, all I want to say is thank you so much
for having me, first of all. This was a very,
very fun conversation. Of course, I love to talk
about this. That's my favorite topic. I do think
that distributors can compete with the big players
with online marketing, even if they're just by
themselves. And just putting some things in place.
And we do offer, like I said, the game plan is
something that a solo distributor can completely
afford. And then they know what they have to
do and they can do it in phases. But then you
know exactly what to do instead of trying. a
ton of different things. But I do believe in
this industry. I absolutely love this industry.
It's a lot of fun is the creativity is wonderful.
And most distributors that I all the series that
I talked to have so much to bring to the table
in terms of the creativity, but nobody would
ever know. So go for it. Thank you so much, Gloria.
Kim, Adrienne, I love this topic. I hope we'll
be talking more about it. And we'll see you next
time on the promo playbook. In the meantime,
be successful. We'll see you soon. Thanks for
tuning into the promo playbook. If you found
value in today's episode, be sure to subscribe
and leave us a review. Got a topic you'd love
us to cover? Connect with us on LinkedIn. We
want to hear from you. Until next time, stay
smart, stay strategic and keep growing your supplier's
success.