Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
On this podcast, we’re on a mission – to change and disrupt the way people think about B2B marketing one insightful conversation at a time. Get inspiration from interviews with B2B marketers and industry experts who share their stories, achievements, thoughts on trending topics, and give B2B marketing tips and recommendations. This show is hosted by Christian Klepp, Co-founder of EINBLICK Consulting.
Many marketing teams struggle
with leveraging data to achieve
tangible business outcomes.
They're caught up in the cycle
of analysis paralysis, or even
end up looking at data that
doesn't really drive growth. A
lot of it comes down to having
the right strategy,
understanding what the goals
are, and making sense of the
data. So how can B2B arketers
measure what counts and leverage
actionable metrics that drive
profit. Welcome to this episode
of the B2B Marketers in the
Mission podcast, and I'm your
host, Christian Klepp. Today,
I'll be talking to Kenny
Ridgell, who will be answering
this question. He's the founder
of Ridge Media LLC that aims to
overcome the digital marketing
chaos. Tune in to find out more
about what this B2B marketers
mission is. Off we go. Mr. Kenny
Ridgell, welcome to the show, Sir.
Yes, sir. Thank you. Christian,
happy to be here.
Man, it's great to have you on
the show. We had a fantastic pre
interview conversation where
we're talking about fatherhood
and crying babies and sleep
deprivation and all that good
stuff, right?
All the fun stuff that everyone
has to either look forward to or
reminisce upon.
Yeah, or they look back at it
and go, Yeah, I'm glad that's
passed. I'm glad that ship has
sailed right.
Exactly, either reminiscing upon
or lack of sleep, or looking
forward to the lack of sleep,
and nothing can prepare you.
Exactly, exactly. Or the
comments like, oh, yeah, I
Exactly. It's like, I don't even
remember how bad it was six
remember those days
months ago. I think part of it
is that amnesia that occurs.
It's like, oh, it's not that
bad.
Yeah. It's a bit of a brain fog,
exactly. Great. Kenny, but
moving on now, from fatherhood
to B2B marketing, Man, I'm
really looking forward to this
conversation because, let's be
honest, it's a conversation that
I think is something that needs
to be had within an organization
in order to drive that success.
So what am I talking about,
ladies and gentlemen, well,
let's just dive right in. Okay,
so you're on a mission to
simplify marketing analytics,
where you assist founders and
CEOs in leveraging data for
evidence based decisions that
drive revenue. I hope I got that
right. But for this
conversation, let's zero in on
this topic, how to measure what
counts and leverage actionable
metrics to drive profit. Now
people are probably thinking
like, measure what counts. Hmm.
Wonder what that means. But
let's, let's kick off the
conversation with two questions
here. Okay, and I'm happy to
repeat them. Why do you think so
many marketing teams struggle
with using data to achieve
tangible business outcomes, and
what do you think is the root
cause of these issues?
I'll go inverse. I'll start with
the second question. First, I
think the root cause kind of
stems from like a lack of
understanding truly the industry
or the business that you're
talking to. And what is the
sales cycle like? How long does
it take to get the clothes. What
does the conversation and
process look like? I mean, at
the end of the day, if you take
a manufacturer versus the
landscaper, right? You're going
to have a landscaping like,
visit, you're going to audit the
property, you're going to come
back with a proposal pretty
quickly. It's going to be brief.
You might be able to close
within like, you know, a week to
three weeks, Max, maybe six or
as a manufacturing opportunity,
a lot of times, like, say,
somebody's coming in, they're
building something custom.
There's gonna be engineers
involved, there's gonna be spec
involved. There's gonna be
multiple site business involved.
It's probably a year along to
two year long buying process
before they actually purchase
that equipment. I think the long
the wrong video can get obsessed
with is the incorrect metric
from that right?
So take impressions, for
example, I call marketing a lot
of times smoke and mirrors,
because I think a lot of people
can do it that song and dance
they can do, like the pony show.
But at the end of the day, what
actually matters to this
business owner money in their
pocket. So if you back it up
and, like, reverse engineer the
situation the manufacturer, take
that for example, how many
eyeballs actually quantify of
like, a quality buyer. There's
probably only a limited pool of
people who are going to be
buying this. You should not be
measuring impressions as like,
one of your like, Okay, we got
100,000 impressions. There's
probably not 100,000 people that
are actively shopping for that
piece of equipment at all. You
don't need to be looking at
that. It needs to be much more
like, of a less of a shotgun
approach and more of a rifle
specific, I think, the old adage
of, you know, throwing the
spaghetti against the wall and
seeing what sticks that that may
work in, like a B2C or retail
type situation, but it B2B, it's
cutthroat. You got competitors
who either, like, you know, in
front of your customer already,
and they're already working with
them, or they're courting their
your customer right now. So you
got to be aft. You got to be
quick. You got to be agile, and
you got to really make sure that
you're telling the story
directly to these people and not
just measuring. Oh, well, what
was their engagement? Did they
come to my site and spend a lot
of time on there?
It's no, it's like, What page
did they spend a lot of time on?
How can we feed that type of
information back to our sales
team through the CRM (Customer
Relationship Management)? How
can we, like, connect the data?
I think a lot of times, and the
B2B world, there's just a
disconnect between what your
sales team and there's like your
CRM is telling you and the
updated refresh data versus what
you're learning on the other
end. You need to be trying to
understand this customer user
journey. So we take Christian as
like a prospective buyer. He
looks at a Google ad. We now
know that, you know, he has a
device ID tag. He's going to our
LinkedIn. He's going to our
website. We already have him on
our CRM, his emails there. He
finally calls in, you know, off
of a meta ad. Okay, well, did
Christian come from Facebook
because that was the last place
he saw, or was it the entire
user journey that mattered? What
steps did it take? The full cost
isn't the cost per click on
meta. The full cost is the
Google cost per click, the cost
of the SEO (Search Engine
Optimization) campaign to find
it again, the cost of your
LinkedIn campaign, your email
marketing drip, your sales guy
who touched on again before he
came to meta. And you want to
know that whole pathway. And
then you got to understand,
like, you know what? What could
we done to maybe shorten the
pathway so it's not as
expensive?
And then number two, how can we
repeat that pathway for a future
prospective customer, because
this is someone who found this
walk through the whole path and
then delivered. You've got to
make sure you connect the dots
all the way through the journey,
or else you're missing out. You
know, say, we could have said,
Oh, meta was the best play here.
Well, at the end of the day,
without the other pieces of
lineage, they would never have
made it to meta. They probably
never made it to the purchasing
decision that might have just
been like that, like a straw
that broke the camel's back. So
you know, to answer your second
question. First, I think the
problem is that people focusing
on the wrong, they focus on the
wrong piece of basically,
analytics, and then they threw
that focus on the wrong channels
and trying to focus on the wrong
metrics. And at the end of the
day, people, what people need to
be focusing on is customer
profile data and connecting your
sales team to your marketing
team.
Absolutely, absolutely. So going
going to that first question
like, Why do so many teams
struggle with using data? I
guess a big part of it is like,
what you said, it's just the
failure to understand who
they're targeting, where they're
coming from, and do you feel? Do
you feel a big part of it, at
least, I've seen this in my
experience, people tend to like
over complicate things when it
comes to data analysis?
Yeah, we always say, be more
direct with your data and
simplify. And I think direct is
their number one key, because
some people can just, you know,
they talk in these airy ideas,
kind of like, you know, you can
hear multiple sales pitches now
from Instagram that come to mind
where it's like, I kind of, I
even sell this stuff, but I
don't really understand what
he's talking about. Because I
think some people want to just,
like, over complicate it, make
it sound more dense than it
needs to. And I think the end of
the day, tracking too many
things is part of the problem.
Like, whenever we hire new media
buyers, we always talk about,
you know, they'll set up their
conversion tracking, for
example, and they'll track like,
oh, five to six different things
as conversions. Like a website
click as a conversion, going to
the Contact Us page is a
conversion like, no, no, no,
let's get back to the root of
it. What is a true conversion?
What do we add that value to?
And then let's try and focus on
the proper metrics. Of course,
tracking everything is good, but
focusing your conversions on
just what are contact points,
especially in B2B marketing, who
filled out a form and who called
us.
Most importantly, anything else
is not valuable. And then taking
a
it one step further with a
program like Call Rail you can
actually record the call, and
you can make sure that the
length of the length of the call
is good. So we actually have
somebody manually, like, go back
and listen to these calls at the
end of the day, you can, you can
hire a virtual assistant for
your team. You can plug in call
rough like, 100 bucks a month,
probably over $1,000 total cost,
all in you can have a call
recording system. You can have a
person who's monitoring all the
calls giving you true feedback.
And then the end of the day, you
export that data to your CRM.
Here's our here are good calls,
a script for your team, or maybe
you should stop answering the
here's their phone number and
their emails and their names.
You send it to your CRM, put it
in a ChatGPT or AI tool, and you
basically like, compare your CRM
and who's who closed versus your
calls. Okay, now we see which
ones overlap, and you're truly
like connecting the data. It
takes a little bit of manual
work, but somebody listening to
all these calls, giving their
phone number and their names,
then using your CRM to basically
phone. I mean, we have some
people like, where it's like,
connect the data and pipeline
shows you what your ROI (Return
on Investment) is. And I think
if you don't do that last step,
then a lot of times we think,
Oh, we're getting a lot of good
calls. And then you look down at
how much ROI actually came from
it, even if they're talking the
phone to two three minutes, they
were shopping, they didn't have
the budget, they you know, oh,
we're concepting. We're a year
out from buying that, you know,
the you might actually not be
getting quality calls, even if
the calls are just long. Got to
take the extra step of manually
listening to it
you know, they just had a dial
tone go, and it would just go to
the next person, next person in
the company, tells my answer so
it always end up in the owners
and hands he'd be like out in
the field, sir, I think you need
to have a team around you to
help answer the phone. You're a
multi million dollar business.
It's time to step back from your
phone lines.
Yeah, you've got to find a
couple tools that talk to each
other, right. And, I mean, at
the end of the day, the thing
that's probably the hardest
thing to do in today's market is
determining what software
program to buy. I would say
right now that Call Rail is
pretty much the biggest
component to what we do, because
it does, like the form tracking.
It does integrate directly into
your like call recording
capabilities, and it actually
has an AI transcriber that would
transcribe the notes and qualify
the leads good or bad, and it's
reasonably cost, and it actually
ties in a majority of CRMs. So a
lot of that, like manual pieces,
can be done. So we use go high
level, and at the end of the
day, I think it's a company like
that where it's one singular
dashboard. You're placing all of
your information, both your CRM
your email marketing,
everything's tied in through
there. You can actually layer in
a program called, like a Pearl
Diver. So as soon as you get
people who are actually typing
in like, it does a website
identifier.
So based on keywords or
competitors or searches, you can
get their phone number in their
email, and you can just create,
like, a cycle or a system where
it goes back to it like, so
like, basically I would get
Christian's email because he
typed in marketing Greenville,
South Carolina, I would get
populated into my CRM. Our CRM
is going to automatically, like,
you know, start dripping him
emails, and then Call Rail is
going to record when he calls
in, hopefully, and then when it
ties the two together. But I
think the main thing is making
sure you choose a couple robust
systems. I think fragmented
approaches are outdated, and
it's too hard to make the
programs talk to each other.
You've got to find one or two
programs that can do a lot of
what you're looking for. So the
more programs. I mean, we've
been there as a company, and
there's no shame in that we've
had like five or six programs,
and you're like, trying to build
Frankenstein online.
Frankenstein, Frankenstein works
about like Frankenstein. It's
slow, it's clunky, it doesn't
really work. Of course, it takes
investment and time to get to
that level. But once you make
the step and investment into the
true, proper software, hiring
the professional set it up, once
you have the system, it's, it's
unbelievable the clockwork they
can do for you. But I think too
many people are cheap on the
front end. They like, kind of
like piecemeal together, and
then they start, like, just
sticking new things on top,
instead of just saying, all
right, we got to scratch this
and go back to square one.
Yeah, exactly. And once they do
that, then they start yelling,
it's alive.
Exactly.
Fantastic. I'm gonna move us on
to the next question about key
pitfalls. And you've mentioned
some of them already, but like
key pitfalls that B2B marketers
need to avoid, and what should
I think social media is a huge
key pitfall that a lot of B2B
they be doing instead?
people fall into the trap of,
unless you know your customer
100% as a buyer that's going to
be on social media, think that
there's a time and a place to
invest that energy and resources
onto other channels. I mean, you
got streaming capabilities, you
got display campaigns, you got
native ads, you got, I mean,
even radio, I would think would
work better because you're doing
more of a one to one approach. I
would not recommend doing this.
Social media goes back to like,
it's a lot of time to create all
your strategy. A lot of it's not
going to be directly relevant to
your customer. Because, I mean,
how many times can you post
about the same product over and
over and over again? For even if
you have a vast line of to like,
say, your manufacturer, you have
like, we have five dozen
products. Well, what product do
you feature on your social
media? Well, how do you like
highlight that individual? I
think so many people get
obsessed with like, we need to
be on social media. We got to be
on social media. And that is a
big mistake for B2B companies. I
think LinkedIn is a good place
for you to I think it's a, you
know, one of those platforms
where you can be on there, you
can be more of a thought leader,
you can create yourself as an
expert. But it's not, it's not
great to be on some of the other
I mean, I just know the
manufacturer the other day in
social media platforms. And I
see that like resource waste heavily.
Australia, and, you know, he's
heavy leveraged into meta ads,
and he's getting a lot of leads,
but they're not a lot of quality
leads. And he's like, look, now
my problem is, I have 2000
leads, and I only have like, 20
of these people are gonna buy
this year. I know based on my
facts of how much, like, you
know, how many sales we're gonna
have, 12 to 30. So I've got 2000
people. I've got to filter
through. How do I get and so he
made his form longer and longer,
right? He's like, I am hoping.
I'm like, well, at the end of
the day, your form might stop
some people that also may be
qualified leader buyers, because
they don't want to have to fill
out this extremely lengthy form.
So he's obsessed with meta. And
I'm like, you know, I get
there's a time and place, and
you don't want to back away from
it, but the amount that you're
investing there, it can go so
much further for you, if you can
be very specific about who these
people are and leveraging this
across other networks. I mean,
take LinkedIn, for example, just
buy ads they're on there to
strictly job titles and people
in certain locations, and you're
gonna have a better result than
just going on Facebook and doing
it interest based, because, I
mean, Facebook and Instagram and
Tiktok, they're all interest
based, they're not title based,
or they're not profession based,
so it's all different algorithm.
Yeah, no, that's absolutely
right. That's absolutely right.
Talk to us about the importance,
I mean, like, I know you know
that it's important, but talk to
us about why it's crucial to
have the right strategy and
approach to leverage actionable
metrics and data, and why you
shouldn't just wing it. Right?
I have one of my favorite
customer stories from a guy that
I met a while ago that I would
know he would hate, he laughs at
it now, but he said that, you
know, every year he would just,
he managed his own ads. So he
would just, but he was just
trying and starting and stopping
old campaigns within weeks, you
know. So he would, he was like,
AB test, and I do it over, like,
four or five days, and at the
end of the day he, you know, he
used probably every bell and
whistle on meta. He used every
bell and whistle and Microsoft
on Bing on Google. And he was
like, I don't think any of it
works. I tried it all, and I
went back and read all of it.
And he, he was just starting and
stopping campaigns every week or
two. And I'm like, like, you
know, at the other day, one of
my favorite stories for that is
just be patient with this stuff.
It's not like I always say, it's
not feeling the dreams. You
can't just build it and they
will come like you gotta be. You
gotta really fine tune it. You
gotta spend your time diligently
looking through it. And I do
think there's a there's
sometimes a place of, like, just
a little bit of patience goes a
long way in this game. Because,
I mean, it's all
experimentation, right? It's a
game we're gamifying an entire
like, a marketing experience and
exposure, but making sure that
you're playing the game with
patience. It's not, it's not
like you're gonna step in the
batter's box in a baseball game
and hit a home run the first
time. Like, yeah, take some,
take some batting practice. Get
warmed up.
Absolutely, absolutely reminds
me of a client we worked with
about two years ago in the home
furnishing industry, so things
like window shutters, for
example, right? And we were
launching a campaign for him. A
week later, he goes, I have no
web traffic. I'm like, well,
it's only been a week. You know
what I mean? Like, did you
expect this like, you know, you
switch it on and then suddenly
people are, like, flocking to
your like, showroom.
fire. My favorite, my favorite
quote for that as a guy spoke in
my NBA class who ran a big
agency called brains on fire.
And he said, the Clemson NBA
came to him, and they said,
Look, we'd like to, you know,
make an announcement about
opening up an NBA school in
downtown. We have a $5,000
budget. And he looked at him
dead the face to the dean, and
he said, If all you have is
$5,000 you need to go buy a
wagon, get the remaining cash in
$1 bills, pour gasoline on and
push it down main street. That's
gonna be the best press you can
get for your $5,000
Oh, I am pretty sure they did
not appreciate that answer.
They probably realized he was
right.
The best part is, I heard this
at the MBA school. They had that
Yeah, exactly. They didn't push
the cart down Main Street, but
they should have.
They probably should have, yeah,
exactly, exactly. All right, so
guy come back and speak. And I
was like, I'm surprised they
Kenny, based on your experience,
and also based on all the things
that we've been talking about in
past couple of minutes, how can
B2B marketers leverage this data
and also hopefully a bit of
creativity and strategy to
achieve these tangible business
even let you come back and
speak.
outcomes. So how can they be
more creative in their approach?
Because I think that's important
too, and what are the key steps
that they need to take? Just
walk us through that.
I would say one of the biggest
things is going to different
industry trade shows outside of
your specific industries. So if
you're trying to innovate
within, like, you know, the
marketing space, right? If
you're a manufacturer, don't go
to your manufacturing show.
Looking for marketing
innovation. Go to an ad agency
show. Go to some of these
hospitality shows. I mean, I
think hospitality has to be very
innovative in their approach. I
mean, you know, like some of
these B2C companies, they're
very, very edgy, and you can
take a lot from it. Like, you
know, at the end of the day,
Nike might be a B2C customer,
but they also has a lot of
messaging and materials that
they use in their marketing that
can be very impactful. So I
think going outside of your
industry to take some knowledge,
it's almost like traveling right
when you go to Europe and you go
experience different things, you
can bring back some what you saw
to your clients and to your
clientele. Same idea and
approach goes into your business
line. Go away from your
industry. Go learn other thought
leaders. Think about what the
kind of approach they're taking
and the trend. See what you can
bring back. And think that you
know being patient, but also
like having a timeline that
you're comfortable spending.
I always say, start small. Do an
experimentation. Do something
you're comfortable, and then
know the data is value and make
sure you're collecting it,
because as long as you're
leveraging it should be a
learning experiment. It's not a
failure. So, you know, say,
Bring it. I always tell people
like, for, you know, take, take
it. A simple approach, in terms
of, like, you know, I think of
each channel as a bucket. Let's
take three or four channels, or
three or four buckets. Let's
spend the same amount of money,
even if it's $1,000 on each
let's run an experiment for nine
days so we know we have
patience. Okay? That means we're
gonna run you each one's $1,000
a month. You're 4 your nine days
or 12 dozen dollars. Okay, even
if you need to do that four more
times throughout the year,
you're gonna spend $50,000
you're gonna test all these
different strategies. You're
gonna have tested all these
different channels. You're gonna
have a general idea and what
usually happens after nine days,
you're like, one of those four.
Two of those four worked. Okay,
let's cancel the other two.
Let's try and spend, you know,
an equivalent amount of money on
two new channels, if you keep
just diligently AB testing,
collecting the data and learning
from what happened, I think
that's the best play possible.
So many people were rushed in
there and rushed out of there
like I've seen my one of my
favorite campaign success
stories is, you know, we had a
90 day trial going with a
client. It was day, like, 82
he's like, just pull the plug.
We hadn't gotten anything from
it. And I'm like, man, you're
selling stuff that's over
$100,000 a piece. If we just get
one client in the next eight
days, you're not gonna fire me.
And we want to spend $10,000 I
think he was spending like
$3,000 a month. On the 87th day.
He had like, a $250,000 close,
and he's still a client today.
But, I mean, we were five days,
and I think we battled him every
day during those last five days,
but the end of the day, once we
found that one channel that
works. Now we've canceled other
co channels or our other
buckets. We poured the water
out, poured water in a different
bucket, and then tested it out
methodically, scientifically,
approach, use the data, and then
make sure it ties back to money.
Because if you're not collecting
the data and you're not tying it
back to the money, then you
don't know what's working. And
you're stuck in that 50% of my
marketing dollars work and 50%
of my marketing dollars don't
work. The problem is, I don't
know which 50%. That is the last
place you want to be stuck,
especially in today's digital
age.
And I, you know, I agree with, I
agree with what you said. Um,
I'm just gonna throw this one in
there, because I'm pretty sure
you've, you've come across the
situation more times than you
care to count. But um, how do
you get buy in for what you just
suggested? Like, even things
like, Okay, let's go to a trade
show that's not linked to our
industry. Let's do something
that's unconventional, do
something that's a little bit
more creative. Because, I mean,
let's, let's be because, I mean,
let's, let's be honest in B2B,
that's a that can be a really
tough sell, especially, and
nothing against business owners,
and nothing against senior
management. But, you know, look,
a lot of these guys don't have a
marketing background. They're
either, they're either somebody
in finance or somebody in, you
know, that's a bit more, you
know, has a bit more of a
technical background, and, you
know, mentioning to them, okay,
well, why don't we just spend
money and go to a trade show
that's not linked to our
industry? They'll look at you
like you're crazy. So, how do
you how do you get buy in from
that?
I would say the way that I've
done in the past is probably not
the most economical, but I've
just gone myself to the
conferences,
go, I usually I'm kind of using
myself
couple trucking logistical
clients, but I learned some
different other stuff in terms
of, like, AI agents and some CRM
management at different
techniques they were using to,
like, monitor their, like,
basically all their trucks on
the road, and how they're trying
But I think the hardest part of
getting management to buy in, in
to get loads coming back. I use
that for a bunch of our home
terms of thinking out of the box
is you've got to get a small win
somehow. So, like, I mean, if as
soon as you have a win or
something under your belt where
you can, like, say, Look, this
actually works, you have a lot
more leniency from those like,
service clients. I was like, Oh,
that software could be cool for
you know, staff members or
senior management people to buy
into your idea. So my fate, one
of my favorite thing is, is just
trying to, like, you know,
that's why taking those calls,
listening to them, monitoring
them, finding a key win and
getting access to the data. As
an agency, you've got to get
access to the data. So, like,
I'll go through a logistical
over here. And then the other
day, it was one of those things
client we had, you know, the
beginning, they're like, We
don't... I don't think this is
working a ton, you know, we're
not seeing a ton of difference.
We're not seeing how it's going.
I'm like, Just give me access to
your salesforce. It was a big
tug of pole. I'm like, Look,
just let me look at your
salesforce. Set me up as a
salesperson. I'll bring you a
piece of business. I don't care.
And so I ended up referring a
couple people to them trying to
get a business, got into their
salesforce. I was able to, like,
you know, connect the dots
between because they weren't
doing the connection. So I
where I was able to, like, you
know, piecemeal different
listen to all the calls. I
connected the dots. I found that
eight people in the last 30 days
that actually come through our
ad campaign and bought from them
that had never bought from them
before, one of which was, like,
a one and a half million dollar
client. So I came back to him,
and, you know, this is a meeting
a week before, they're like,
basically firing me, saying,
like, this isn't working. Stop
it. I come back a week later and
I'm like, actually, in the last
30 days, you drove like, $2.2
concepts and bring it back.
million of the business here to
your accounts, mainly $1.5 of it
came from this one key, this one
key woman. And they're like,
that lady, that's it that came
from y'all, I'm like, yes, so
they went from we're gonna fire
y'all, we're not seeing that big
And of course, then the debate
came. Well, we'd actually been
of a difference, to like, oh,
the biggest piece of business we
trying to contact a woman we had
never been able to get our
won in the last 30 days was for
meals ad campaign.
business in the last two years.
Maybe we finally just got it.
I'm like, well, or maybe we
helped push over the edge. But
the idea is that we went
together, you know, like, it's
not our of y'all winner. We win.
It's like we're selling your
service, and we've got to just
try to be walking the horse to
the water we hope they drink.
Yeah, we're both trying to talk
the horse into drinking. But at
the other day, we got the horse
to the water, and she drank this
time. And it's a really good
deal, but it's funny, you know,
because they're ready just to
throw the towel in. And now,
once I got a little bit of wind,
I was able to, like, coat them
into getting a little more
innovative, try and get out of
the box, like, how we do some
different things. Because I
would say they've always been
very, very traditional in their
advertisement being billboard
centric, news centric. And we,
you know, we've been able to
introduce more and more concepts
in terms of automation. We've
tied their CRM into a
programmatic campaign now. So
we're like, for example, if
their CRM moves people through
deal stages, it actually will
serve them different ads.
So based on specifically what
their sales team puts it in
there, say they're like, they're
refrigerated trucking, or these
people are automotive trucking,
they're gonna fall directly into
an ad campaign category that's
gonna serve them as specific to
whatever service it is. As soon
as they fall like, the sales
team moves them from like, we're
just a warm lead to where, like,
we're 75% to close, or 90% to
close. They're actually getting
more specific ads tailored to
whatever they're trying to
whatever they're talking about
their notes. So the ads are set
up to trigger. And if people
don't open the emails and they
fall back, or if they fall you
know, if they start stalling,
they fall back. It within the
funnel. But it's all AI
connected to where the CRM ties
in, and people just go, you
know, stage to stage to stage
through. But at the end of day,
like, trying to convince the
trucking industry to, hey, let's
set up your CRM to automate ads
to go stage by stages or sales.
But I just come in there at day
one, he didn't, like, No, I'm
like, what that's, what's that
gonna cost? And I don't lie,
like, What's that even mean?
Whereas, in the beginning we got
a win, we slowly built him in,
and now he's actually coming
with me to a hospitality
conference here since, so at the
end of the day, I'm like, we
got, we got him. Like, he's
bought he's bought in, he's
looked in. But I mean we had to
get the big win first.
Yeah, so it's going back to what
you said earlier. It's, it's,
you've got to bring them some
proof or evidence. Sorry, this
sounds like a detective story
here, but, yeah, just prove to
them that it works, right?
Exactly like they want, fact,
they don't want a gut feeling
like, you know, this has to this
hat. The line has to be direct.
Exactly, exactly. Okay, my
friend, we get to the point in
the conversation where we're
talking about actionable tips,
and, man, you have given us
plenty already, right? But just
imagine there is a B2B marketer
out there that's listening to
this conversation, and you want
them to take action on what
you've been talking about. So
what are the three to five
things that you could tell B2B
marketers to do right now.
I would look into Call Rail set
that up on your computer. I
mean, set that up on your
program of me try and tie it
into your CRM. You know, maybe
that's step two. Number three, I
would try and find either a
partner or get your own seat at
Stack Adapt. It's the one that
I've talked about where it ties
directly into your CRM. So it's
a programmatic ad buy campaign
in the minimums, like 1000 or
2000 time ton, you can actually
set it up to where it triggers
all the CRM. It'll do your email
campaigns through there. Number
four, I'll try and potentially
invest in a go high level
account or something along those
lines, some campaign where it's
going to basically pull all this
data together into one dashboard
to where your CRM is all linked
with everything in the I've gone
on. And then number five, I
would set aside a budget each
month for experimentation. And I
get, if your budget is tight is
small, I wouldn't say don't
spend like $500 not gonna get a
lot of results there, but every
month, just because your
campaigns working. Now we want
10% or carved out where this is
experimentation. You know, I
would say that's the huge don't
stop experimenting. Don't stop
learning. If you can be the
first mover, if you can get that
blue ocean strategy, then you
really gonna if you can be the
first thought leader in Tiktok,
for example, five years goes
like an influencer. Think about
how much money that person made
as a B2B market. We got, we got
to be thinking the same thing.
There's Tiktok ads next. What is
next? Is Microsoft ads next? You
know what? What are the plays
here? How do we get ahead?
Because if we can get part of
the market share on this new
platform, this new technique, we
can explode our business. So
just keep trying. Keep it. Keep
busy. Imaging. Go implement some
different tools and start
tracking a day on what kind of
revenue you're making.
Fantastic, fantastic. I love it.
Here comes the Love it or hate
it, question. But man, we've
been talking about data, so it
would be foolish for me not to
bring up metrics, right metrics,
which metrics? And I know, I
know we talked about this at the
beginning of the conversation,
you could go down this deep
rabbit hole and just drown in
this like, sea of data and
ubiquity and what have you. But
like, what are some of the key
metrics that marketers should be
paying attention to?
Specifically in the B2B world? I
think the key metrics that we
I know some of these products in
B2B world can be very
need to be paying attention to
is number of number of contacts
in our pipelines. I think that's
a huge thing. It's got to be
continually refreshed. Got to be
paying attention to client like
detailed information. I think
that's a metric that is like
interesting and very like
detailed. Make sure that you are
overlooked, and it's almost like
data input. You know, equals
data output, make sure your data
input is extremely clean. Number
presenting the information to
the buyer, because you only have
three, I'd be really focused on
individually counting your calls
in your form. I think this is a
huge way where you're going to
be tied back in. And I would
say, if you monitor your revenue
a lot of times, if you see your
calls tick up, your forms tick
up, the same percentage your
revenue will typically tick up
and the other the last piece of
like, you know, metrical advice
limited number of buyers once
you get them on the website,
that I would give you, would be
monitoring your engagement rate
once they get on that web page,
if they spend less than a minute
per page on your site. Figure
out where people are bouncing
off and on what pages, and keep
updating and fine tuning those
individual pages on your
website. Maybe you have to do an
E brochure. Maybe you have to do
an explainer video about the products.
or two minutes on that
individual like products page,
you've missed something. Make
sure that all your specs are
there, all your details there
any information they could
possibly find. Really, really,
really, really, deep dive into
those sessions, per page,
engagement rates. That's like a
very granular level of
information. But I think that's
something like, that's what B2B
marketers get paid to do. We're
not looking at just, oh, Coca
Cola. How many people saw our
ads. We're paying attention to
how many people saw this
individual X, Y or Z product.
How much time do they spend on
that page? Why'd they bounce?
What happened? There's a program
called Crazy Egg. You can
actually record and see what
people are doing on your
website. It'll record their
individual interactions. You can
record just individual pages if
you realize, okay, people are
really bouncing off of this,
like products page, plug, call
rail on there. Record that page.
Figure out what everybody, like
anybody who bounced off their
watch their sessions. It'll if
you get a whole you like, heat
map, a whole wave of like, where
they scroll around what they
did, and it actually gives you
artificial intelligence, give
you insights into, like, what
you could do on that page, or
what people may or may not be
looking for. It's like $79 a
month plug call rail in. There's
that's like something I can't
preach enough to B2B marketers.
It's like you've got to pay
attention to your per page
sessions.
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely,
yeah, I've heard of Crazy Eggs.
So that's a that's a good one.
And I think you've mentioned
call rail a couple of times now,
like, so definitely, um, just,
just to quickly recap, number of
contacts in pipeline, client
detailed info, um, data input
and output, call and form leads
and engagement rate per page, I
guess, right so per page on the
site?
Correct. Yeah.
Fantastic, fantastic.
Sorry, I talked pretty quick.
You did good to keep up with
that. Yeah, I'm the antithesis
of the southerner that talks
slow.
Don't worry. We can, we can slow
the video down a little bit.
But we might need to. Everyone's
like, breathe, remember to
breathe.
Goodness. Thank goodness for
video post production. All
right, a status quo in your area
of expertise that you
passionately disagree with, and
why?
It goes back to social media. I
think post like, quantity of
post is like the status quo that
I think is. I'll go even further
into I dislike social media. And
know, how can misalign. Take a
manufacturer they like, they
might post about birthdays, they
might be posting about, you
know, X, Y or Z, and think about
it from a customer perspective.
You want you go to trade show in
like Shanghai, you meet somebody
there who has this great
product. All you wanna do is go
look at it and show some money
on your staff about this
product. You go to their
Facebook page. That's somebody's
birthday. The next post down is
like, what day for lunch? The
next post down is about, like,
their company retreat. The next
post down is like, you're like,
I'm just looking for a picture
of the product that I was shown.
And then now your Facebook has
actually helped un-helping you
sell right? It's not helping
advance your message. And so the
idea is, like, you don't have to
post all the time just to work
with the algorithm through and
be make sure your top four to
five, your last post on your
grid, if you want to call it
that are very, very relevant,
and it's. Said, just make sure
that you're posting quality, not
quantity as an individual. It's
not about telling a story you
can. Of course, there's a time
and a place to like, humanize
the brand. It might be better
suited in a video where you have
like, individual people, and you
can do, I always like, go back
to like the old Gary V saying
the jab, jab, punch. So you can
do co jabs here that are like,
not call to actions and then a
little punch of the call to
action, but I would make sure
that it's customer relevant. If
you think about this guy or
girl, who's you just met at a
trade show, what are they
looking to see on your social
media? Make sure that's what
your post. Don't waste the space
in the time posting about
something else. I think there's
a status quo. Like, I've got to
post four times a week. I gotta
go on stories. I gotta, like,
have a presence. I gotta be a I
gotta have people, I got to show
faces. Yes, yes, yes, all that
is correct. But no, no, no. If
you're not, if you can't keep it
consistently about your brand or
about what you're selling, don't
waste your customers time, and
don't waste the space or energy
resources of doing that.
Yeah, yeah, no, I totally agree
with that. I mean, like, you
know, just posting for the sake
of posting, especially about
stuff
about. It's just a waste of time
and energy.
Exactly, yeah, and it's honestly
probably hurting your brand more
Yeah, yeah, absolutely,
absolutely. Okay. Here comes the
bonus question on the topic of
traveling. Well, if you were
than helping your brand.
stuck on a desert island, three
things that you would bring with
Is there a chance to get off the
desert island?
you, and what are they? And why
would you bring them?
you're gonna be stuck there for
a while, and eventually,
I mean, I think you got, I think
you gotta say, like, a pot, a
eventually, like Tom Hanks in
that movie, right? Like some
container ship will pass by him
and pick you up.
flint and a knife.
Okay?
Because you can at least make a
fire and, like, boil some water
and keep yourself alive, and you
can at least cook some food
using the pot as well, start
your fire with your flint, your
knife. Maybe that's very
conservative, or, like,
realistic answer, but this is
strict survival response.
That's a great answer. Like, I
would cringe if you would have
said, like, oh, you know, my my
my iPad and and my Netflix
subscription or some nonsense
like that, right?
Or, I mean, I'm a little like
city, so I almost said my tent,
but I think a pot might be more
important than the tent.
Absolutely. Man. Kenny, this has
been a great conversation, man.
So thanks so much for coming on
the show and for sharing your
expertise and experience with
the listeners. So uh, please
quick Introduce yourself on how
folks out there can get in touch
with you.
Yeah, I'm Kenny Ridgell with
Ridge Media. Our website is
https://ridgemediallc.com/ go on
there. Check out our case study.
Follow us on social media.
Promise not to post random stuff
that doesn't is not relevant to
you, and feel free to reach out.
We always offer free brand
audit. Well, happy to meet with
you. Just brainstorm good ideas
out there. A lot of that comes
from just like my passionate
energy for marketing as a whole,
not looking to just basically
make money everywhere we go and
say we want to share ideas,
create value and hopefully make
new relationships. Look forward
to hearing from you.
Fantastic, fantastic. So once
again, Kenny, thanks for coming
on and take care, stay safe and
talk to you soon.
Absolutely. Thank you, man.
All right. Bye for now.