64: Balancing Modern Marketing with Traditional Approaches- with Chantel Soumis

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[00:00:48] Erin Courtenay: Oh, I would go, I, I think it should be required in elementary school. If I could go that far back and that's media literacy. I think there is a deep, deep need for adults, kids, all of us, we need to develop some skills in that area.

So that would be my, that'd be my bone.

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But if you're, if you're really not taking those classes, then you're missing out on that information.

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[00:01:41] Chantel Soumis: Yeah.

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Be responsible for yourself on all three of those buckets.

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[00:02:10] Lori Highby: All right. Well, we've got an awesome guest today.

Chantel Soumis is the head of marketing at Steelhead Technologies, a pioneering job shop, software startup recognized for its lightning fast deployment timelines and user friendly interface catering to all skill levels. An accomplished international speaker and LinkedIn influencer in digital marketing, Chantel shares cutting edge news articles and insights aimed at propelling companies to new heights of success through innovative marketing practices. With a global reach, she has graced stages from London to LA, captivating audiences with their expertise and passion for revolutionizing marketing strategies in today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, Chantel, welcome to the show.

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[00:03:27] Chantel Soumis: How crazy is that? It's such a small world. Thank you for having me.

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So, you know, you've got a strong, heavy background in digital marketing. I mean, that, that touches me so, so closely because that's my world and passion. I'm curious what type of content really resonates with the audience you're reaching, that job shop manufacturers?

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I was very digital, digital, digital, you know, everything's digital. We got to be in front of that up and coming audience and all those very tech savvy folks. And then I realized there was so much power in magazines. And print. Mm-Hmm. . And then we wrote a book at our company and that landed really well.

So people, even though in this, in this time and age where people are trying to manufacture more time in their day, they will make the time when they care about something and a strong piece of literature or that, that hard copy that they get in the mail that has a lot of impact on them. So that's something that I was surprised to see that traditional marketing is really coming back.

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[00:05:04] Lori Highby: Yeah.

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I might hand it off to somebody else and point to the content that I think is really has high value. It's really just a completely different interface and it has a different job to do than digital. And I, I get, I just get thrilled when people start talking about the good old days in print and how it still has a place in marketing.

So, so glad you brought that up.

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And if we're only consuming digital, then we miss the information that could be in these other sources, like books as well, that you mentioned. But when you said that, I was like, I have these sitting right on my desk. And I'm a clean freak when it comes to desks. So for me to have, it means I'm intentionally trying to get through them because it's just not a part of my world these days.

And I'm a Gen Xer. So I am curious also, Chantel, if you think it has something to do with the demographic that you're reaching, or, if you could tell us a little bit more of why you think that might be working in the job shop space.

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And all of a sudden you're best friends with this person that you've never spoken to, but they opened your gift and they're excited to talk to you. And I think that those emotional pieces that come into play with that break from the digital experience and their day to day is a huge breath of fresh air.

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And when we bring that into the relationship, either through a printed material, a gift, or some other manifestation of something that was made, then we're getting back to the roots of why we're all doing this thing in the first place. So it's not just something that's kind of fun and cool, but it really, it matters, you know, it matters to make those things. So I'm glad you brought up gifting.

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[00:09:18] Chantel Soumis: Yes. There's so much data out there when it comes to Google trends, right? Or your analytics. It's the heartbeat of your digital environment. And I am in that data in the weeds every single day. And I found a vast array of search queries, which can always be pinpointed. For example, we're in job shop manufacturing, and not a lot of job shops don't consider themselves job shops.

They might consider themselves a mom and pop shop, or a small manufacturer. So having those keywords trend is a it's like pulling a rabbit out of a hat half the time because even terms like ERP deployment versus ERP implementation. Those are vastly different, but the query lines up when somebody searching for a technology can completely either align with your target approach or fall completely out of left field, right? Like, for example, the other day we had a customer come to us and they said, we've been searching for your software forever. We didn't know you existed until we saw an ad on Facebook, but I had been searching for something and we're like, well, what keywords did you use? What were you searching for? They said warehouse software. And I'm thinking, well, that is something. That's a tiny piece about what our ERP or our plant operation system does. But that we're how we weren't even focusing on that. So having those conversations too to build that insight to and fold that into the data. Again, it's that whole ecosystem where the people and the humanity and those relationships really trigger and build that digital environment.

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So I love what you're doing. Asking the question, what were you searching for? Because that's going to give you further insight into how to tap into other people that are probably thinking very similarly to that customer.

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And when you're ignoring someone else's language, when you're ignoring or not paying attention to someone else's the foundation of what they think it is that they need, you're not respecting them. And so it's hard to build a relationship where you're not respecting the language that someone else uses.

And so now these tools, it's not just about being a more effective communicator or having better SEO or better analytics. It's about really using that digital space to build a relationship based on shared understanding. And I, it was hard, you know, when I forget the, what the big shift was that Google did, but what they really had in mind was making us all be better at communicating with one another.

And I love that idea like warehouse. Oh, right. That is, that is what people think, you know, and it just is not a term that gets thrown around. So, I really appreciate that you're reminding people of that. And I know that all of us have, and this is something I, I kind of beat the dead horse on, but have been in an environment where people are using maybe an acronym or maybe jargon. And then you're just like left feeling like the biggest idiot in the room and you don't get anywhere. And that's not cool. And so if you're going to be good at your job, you need to find out what other people say and how they talk and make them feel like you're listening to them. So, sorry, sorry about the soapbox, but feel a little bit strongly about that.

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[00:13:40] Kris Harrington: Yeah. I would say, I just want to add to that because, you know, I think you can learn so much from what, you know, Chantel just shared by asking your customers, you know, for a long time, we made an error at our organization because for about the first six years, we called our solution e commerce, but our customer base thought e commerce was Amazon. And they didn't want Amazon. Or they also didn't think they needed e commerce because they had dealers or they had customers. So they thought of it as maybe a dealer portal, a customer portal, a digital self service solution. So we've had to broaden and really ask deep questions.

And I only share that because I think we failed at it for a long time, and it didn't bring in the traffic or create the conversions. I'll use a word that we all know online where people were filling out our demo forms because we might not have been reaching them with them. We, we weren't, we weren't.

So we had to modify. So.

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[00:15:22] Chantel Soumis: In terms of rhetoric that we've seen and who's coming to the door.

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[00:15:29] Chantel Soumis: I know, well, the OEMs, right? Those are usually the big, the big manufacturers, the big enchiladas, the big fish, the John Deeres, the Caterpillars, the, you know, the folks that really end up getting all the credit.

The job shops are the folks that are almost invisible in our supply chain. Those are the folks that do so much of the work in service based manufacturing. And when I say service based manufacturing, you're probably like, we know, but does the world? And the service based manufacturing are those folks that either take the parts and they clean them, or they take the parts and they finish them with e coding, powder coating, liquid painting, heat treating, any of those services. Then they send them back, because they're the OEMs are either capped for resources. They need them quicker and faster. These parts faster to maximize production. And they just don't have enough bodies in the shop to help process these parts. So then these mom and pop service manufacturing service providers, they take them in and that that's their whole business is processing these parts. And a lot of times if they lose that relationship with that OEM, that original equipment manufacturer, they can completely go out of business, right? Because they don't usually have a Plan B. So make what our passion is, is really at Steelhead is really empowering, and making them stand on their own two feet so that they can attract, retain, and serve as many as possible, and have a Plan B and a Plan C to keep them evolving and going further and further into the future.

So that's my theory on what we describe these job shops as, these smaller family owned shops most of the time, versus the big enchiladas, the big fish in the sea that need the extra help to maximize production.

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[00:17:32] Kris Harrington: I think also talking about their role in the supply chain is so critical because, you know, a lot of the logistics that large OEMs have to do is managing these relationships with the job shops that help them build the bigger products that we all use and see out in our daily lives. But these job shops have a really, really important role.

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Or you know, the bolts on your, your, I don't know, your refrigerator, right? Everything we see touch and feel in our day to day is processed by one of those job shops.

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And these smaller businesses keep that diversity within both the marketplace and development, R& D space. You know, small manufacturers actually, they do do some of that development and come up with new ideas. So I, I love that you guys are supporting that particular segment of manufacturing because like you said, it is overlooked, but even more importantly, it creates the foundation of diversity from which we can maintain a robust manufacturing community and down the line economy. So I'm really glad you guys are doing that.

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And then I talk through every, not every segment, but really highlight like, okay, there's a 50 pound bag of flour. Where do you think that came from? You know, and someone had to create a piece of equipment. to harvest the plant. And then there's another piece of equipment to like grind it down. And then there's this assembly line machine, like, you know, there, did you know, there's a company out there that just makes conveyor belts and that's all they do.

I can just kind of really broke it down to like, help them understand that one, the ecosystem of B2B is significantly larger of the ecosystem and B2C, but to that, like there is a lot of really cool things that are happening in this world that a lot of people are not aware of.

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[00:20:16] Erin Courtenay: That's great. What it takes to make an Oreo.

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[00:20:28] Erin Courtenay: You got the best reviews. She's amazing. We really like her. Imagine if you did that lesson and then you didn't give them Oreos. You're like, Oh yeah. Here's a carrot.

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[00:20:50] Erin Courtenay: They're healthy.

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[00:21:10] Chantel Soumis: Ah, that's too funny. So, one of the things is that I'm super active on LinkedIn or I used to be super active on LinkedIn. And the reason why is it gave me this, like, ability to share my voice and unique lens on the world with a professional community, that's usually there to lift you up. But I didn't realize how easy it was to get ahold of people on LinkedIn, this professional platform.

You can seriously get in touch with nearly anybody. And one of the coolest conversations or opportunities that I had was actually with somebody that a lot of people relate to and that's Matthew McConaughey, and I got to pick his brain on the creative process of writing a book, his green light book.

And he talked about content creation, and it was just so cool that all of this happened because of LinkedIn. It would have never happened if it wasn't for building my community and, like, not strategic connections, but really those connections that lift you up and are there in the game to be better and a stronger professional.

So that's my obsession with LinkedIn. And it only continues to grow with these awesome connections that I make.

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[00:22:37] Lori Highby: It's on my list, yeah.

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[00:22:51] Kris Harrington: All right. I'm going to download it today.

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[00:23:01] Erin Courtenay: Oh yeah. I've heard from so many people. He's a master storyteller. Oh yeah, yeah. I've, I've turned a few people onto it and they're like, Oh, you were totally right. So yeah.

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[00:23:14] Lori Highby: All right, let's, let's move to this is the part of the show. I just learned that. Kris, finish that sentence.

What did you just learn?

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[00:23:37] Erin Courtenay: Fill me in. I saw the headline and it looked, tell me, I want to hear about it.

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[00:23:43] Kris Harrington: So yeah, so they had to, you know, publish an apology because the ad that they ran was essentially a big industrial press that inside the press had all of this if you think back to the arts, so books, paint musical instruments, there was a piano and the industrial press is crushing, crushing, crushing.

There's some music in the background. And it, it crushes all of these arts, you know, historical through our time, all of these different artistic ways in which we have lived and the instruments in which we've created art and other things, and it presses to the bottom. And then when it reopens, it's this thinner iPad Pro, and there's been backlash because of the significance that, you know, of the arts and for people, so it just reminded me because, you know, we have these platforms, we talk about these platforms, and How it is important to be intentional. It's a reminder because you have to imagine they spent a lot of money on that.

They did a lot of thought. They probably had a lot of people in the room. I'm sure they had people watch it. You know, it's still, it has, you know, they, they, they issue it, they have this press release, their CEO puts a message on X with the video and the ad, and then there's all this backlash. So, it's just so important to, in the creative process, because I'm sure the iPad pro is great, right? I'm an Apple user, but the way in which they issued their message wasn't received. So as we talk about the intention of our language and understanding difference, you know, right? It's all so important.

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Now I don't have to read about it. But this is a great reinforcer to our message about basically know your audience is what they say because what it sounds like is a bunch of tech folks were like this is cool because this is what this thing does and they weren't thinking about their consumers who are people who yes physically use those items and and believe they're precious and would not want to see them eliminated and they missed the frickin mark by a mile.

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[00:26:24] Erin Courtenay: tapped into that anxiety.

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[00:26:31] Erin Courtenay: Okay, wow. All right. So, Oh, yeah. What'd you learn? Okay. Well, I'm learning. Is that okay? Can I do that? Sure. What I'm learning. So we're getting some work done on our house, which people have been listening to and been hearing me talk about for way too long.

And we had a new foundation built, including a basement and they use something that's a new technology called ICF. Have you guys heard about it? And if you ask me for what it stands for. For I'm going to fail miserably, but essentially they're styrofoam forms and they Lego lock together. And so they have a gap between them.

Styrofoam forms. They have a gap between them. They Lego lock together. They build your foundation and then the cement truck comes and it has a big tube, like a four story high, like tube that comes down then. And they fill, they squirt in the cement into these styrofoam forms. And it's amazing. I mean, it's like, it's like, Oh, the future is here and it's doing good things.

Yay. Because the other advantage is that there's an incredible R value because that styrofoam remains in place outside of the cement. So that's something I just learned in, I, it. Always makes me happy when innovation is like for the good. That's me. Sorry.

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[00:27:55] Erin Courtenay: Is that okay? Is that X rated? Is that bad?

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[00:28:06] Erin Courtenay: Okay. For episode from here on forward. Sorry, boy. That's okay. So rude. Okay.

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I, I haven't seen much of it where like content is being published and saying this was created by AI or like there's a watermark or anything like that, but TikTok just announced that they're going to start. publishing or saying that this was, you know, anything that's published or uploaded their platform that was created by AI, which I'm kind of curious, like, how are they going to validate that?

But I, and I also wonder if this is an attempt, because I know there's a lot of controversy around TikTok in general in the U. S., like if this is a way that they're trying to appease our government officials that are going to make some of those decisions.

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[00:29:03] Lori Highby: Yeah. So I think that's interesting. I mean, you know, a couple of channels like Meta said that they're going to start, you know, tagging content is created by AI and whatnot.

So I'm just interested to keep an eye on the pulse of the AI transparency. And I, you know, there's been signed legislation around that, but I haven't really, like, it's not apparent to me that, and the content that I'm consuming in the digital space, besides like, it's obvious that that was generated by AI from a, like, my brain knows that, not like, There's a stamp on it that says this is created by AI.

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[00:30:10] Lori Highby: Yeah, I mean, there's, there's a lot of questions around it. I mean, I, I believe this is more for like video content and probably images is where my that's my assumption, especially because it's, you know, easy to recreate someone's face and audio and like make them look like they're saying something they're not right. You know, then the deep faking stuff that's going on out there.

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[00:30:34] Lori Highby: But yeah, for like just text content, yeah, I don't I don't know how that's being monitored really right now. I mean if anything it's, we just sent out a letter to all of our clients what our AI policy is so that they're in the know.

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[00:30:54] Lori Highby: It's also on the footer of our website. So that's where you can.

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[00:30:59] Lori Highby: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'll throw that in the show notes. I think it's important to just be transparent about this is how we're using it. And these, these are the things we're for and what we're doing, and this is what we're not doing with it.

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[00:31:14] Lori Highby: All right. Chantel, what did you just learn?

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But I think I recently gave a presentation in Florida at the Women in Finishing Conference. And it was on how to like generate creativity. And you know how you just can feel so fried and burnt out. It's Friday, right? It's easy to feel burnt out at the end of a very long week, especially when it's starting to get nice outside. We're looking out the windows and we're admiring that, but we know we just can't take the time to get out there.

But I uncovered how neuroplasticity impacts our creativity and that creative generation. And I'm obsessed with neuroscience and how we really need to start forging more healthy habits in our day to build a healthier mindset, to enable that creative workflow, right? Because it's not the big ideas aren't just floating around there that anybody can just pick up. You know, we generate those based on our own capacity neurologically.

So anyways, that was a, a big can of worms that I could talk to you even to be sure that like a tiny bite sized clip, but neuroplasticity and the creativity side of things is just, it's, it's extremely profound and it blows my mind every time that I, I think about those kinds of things.

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There's so, that's a big rabbit hole to go down and I, I started pursuing kind of that path from my own personal, like educational enrichment. I'm like, I, I don't have the capacity to go down that right now, but it is fascinating. Right.

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So, yeah. Yeah, that's the, that's where I've thought about it. And then my brain, I've just given up. I'm going to move on.

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Think that like in the beginning of the conversation, Erin, you mentioned just, there's not, not as much intention around these thoughts in our day to day that when we do put that intention first, and it's always in our purview, we can do just so much more. It's incredible. Yeah.

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[00:34:07] Chantel Soumis: LinkedIn, of course. Yeah, LinkedIn Look us up.

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[00:34:20] Chantel Soumis: Thanks for having me. This was such a cool conversation.

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