“We’re waiting for the economy to improve.”
If you work in B2B marketing, you may have heard this a time or two.
But – EVERY economic cycle eventually changes. The question is whether you’ll be ready when it does.
Companies that continue to strengthen their marketing, improve their sales process, and increase their visibility during slower periods are usually the ones that gain market share when demand returns.
They don’t start preparing when the economy improves. They’re already positioned to take advantage of it.
My guest Gina Tabasso of Barracuda B2B Marketing is with me to discuss how marketing is a continuous process of creating visibility, building trust, and staying connected with your audience long before they need your products or services.
Gina is a B2B growth strategist empowering small to mid-sized companies through realistic and proven foundational and growth marketing strategies and incisive, data-driven support to elevate their brand, maintain a strong digital presence, and generate quality leads for the sales team.
Show summary:
In this episode of PR Explored, host Michelle Garrett, a PR consultant, author, and writer interviews her guest B2B growth strategist Gina Tobasso about why manufacturers and other B2B companies should treat marketing as a continuous process, especially amid ongoing uncertainty (COVID, supply chain disruptions, tariffs, reshoring).
Tobasso says many B2B companies underinvest in marketing, recommending 3–5% of revenue, and warns that cutting spend dries up the funnel, slows sales, and triggers panic “lead gen” efforts that ignore long sales cycles (often 18 months) and the need to nurture the 97% not ready to buy.
They discuss foundational priorities like updating websites, implementing an affordable CRM to track ROI, and focusing on organic tactics (content, SEO/AEO/GEO, PR backlinks, reviews, YouTube) over ineffective low-budget ads.
Tobasso also explains buyer-journey stages including loyalty/advocacy, shares a customer-feedback/NPS example, and describes her holistic approach aligning sales, marketing, and operations and bringing in trusted partners for sales coaching, strategic planning, or M&A.
00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro
00:57 Gina’s Career Journey
03:08 Why Manufacturers Delay Marketing
04:47 Uncertainty Is the New Normal
07:15 Budgets and Funnel Basics
10:44 B2B Reality and Marketing Ops
14:44 Lean Six Sigma for Marketers
18:42 Buyer Journey and Loyalty Loop
22:58 How Much to Spend on Marketing
26:17 When to Adjust the Budget
27:15 Invest Through Downturns
29:07 Price Versus Value
30:43 When Marketing Stops
33:41 Consistency Beats Cycles
36:13 Organic Budget Priorities
41:43 Sales Assessment And VOC
43:51 Strategic Partners For Growth
47:41 Networking And Wrap Up
Show notes:
Gina Tabasso’s LinkedIn newsletter that this episode is based on: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/most-expensive-customer-acquisition-strategy-waiting-gina-tabasso-ugzyc/?trackingId=gZ900l9q2nGXZCr481cA5Q%3D%3D
Gina Tabasso on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ginatabasso/
Gina’s company, Barracuda B2B Marketing: https://barracudab2b.com/
Manufacturing Resource Group: https://mfgresourcegroup.com/
Barracuda B2B Marketing on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@barracudab2b
The Manufacturers’ Efficiency Webinar Series: https://webinar.barracudab2b.com/manufacturers-efficiency-webinar-series
Full transcript:
Why B2B Manufacturers Shouldn’t Pause Marketing in Uncertain Times
The Most Expensive Marketing Strategy Is Waiting
Michelle Garrett: [00:00:00] Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of PR Explored. I’m your host, Michelle Garrett, a public relations consultant, and PR Explored is a video podcast where we delve into trends and topics related to public relations. And today my guest is Gina Tobasso. Gina is a B2B growth strategist working with small to mid-size companies, and I am really happy to have you today, Gina.
Thanks for being here.
Gina Tabasso: Thank you. It’s good to be with you again.
Michelle Garrett: I would love… As we get ready, we’re gonna be, talking about our, topic today in just a couple minutes, but as we get into that… before we get into that, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background and anything that you want to share, and I’ll put some links, in the comments as you, you are sharing.
Thanks so much.
Gina Tabasso: Okay. I started out my career back in the [00:01:00] day, it wasn’t called marketing, it was called advertising. And my first job out of college was with a manufacturer, because client side paid more than agencies paid. And then I, worked in construction for a while and in distribution. Took a little couple ventures out to get CPG experience and, worked for a university, but my heart was with manufacturing, so I ended up going back into that industry.
And then I started my own consulting firm a few years ago and have gone out on my own and, I do B2B growth strategy for small to mid-size B2B companies. And what that means is I help them grow revenue by aligning sales, marketing, and operations, and then I stay on board to lead the implementation of the marketing portion of the strategy and make recommendations for other partners who I see opportunities for, whether that’s [00:02:00] sales coaching or strategic planning or M&A.
so I tend to look at organizations very holistically.
Michelle Garrett: Yes. And, I, I feel like it’s, obviously this is something that they really need. And, I, I, I have known you for a few years now, and I just feel like you- there aren’t a lot of people in this space, so I really respect and appreciate what you offer because everything that you share on LinkedIn, I feel like it’s very, it’s just, it’s very real, but it’s very helpful.
Gina Tabasso: Thank you. You have been such a supporter. I really appreciate that. There are some people who, regularly comment on posts and them- Absolutely … and it just warms your heart. It makes you think that, you’re not throwing stuff out there into a vacuum, and that people actually care about what you have to say.
Michelle Garrett: isn’t that true? And with LinkedIn more than ever, ’cause…
Gina Tabasso: With AI, all the AI generated [00:03:00] stuff.
Michelle Garrett: Yeah. You could post and you think nobody’s paying attention, so it’s always nice when somebody is actually interacting with what you have to say. And like I said, everything really resonates with me, and that’s why, I wanted to talk to you today because, I’m gonna put up the piece that kinda spurred my, my invitation for you to come on because, I feel like it’s just a topic that we, don’t, maybe talk about enough.
And, even before we went on today, we were kinda talking about how manufacturers can be a little bit sometimes, they’re a little slower o- on the marketing side sometimes. ‘Cause I think in my, experience, it’s mostly based on relationships and that they would call it the old boy network.
I don’t know if that’s really a term we wanna use anymore, but, but yeah. So manufacturing companies don’t really always see the need for marketing, for PR, for communications and things like that. [00:04:00] that’s, that’s kinda what caught my eye.
and we’re gonna be talking about, the, Let me pull up your piece because I don’t even, I forget what the name of it was, but I just remember that it was really, it really resonated with me because I feel like a lot of times, manufacturers do have a tendency to put this off, and even more so now, again, as we were talking beforehand, the most expensive customer acquisition strategy is waiting.
Why Do Manufacturers Delay Marketing?
So they’re waiting on things to change, to improve, for the uncertainty to clear up, and that might not really serve them very well.
Gina Tabasso: it’s, I also did, prior to that newsletter you read, I did one last year about how uncertainty really needs to be baked in to [00:05:00] our environment. nothing’s new.
COVID happened, storms in Texas that took out petrochemical plants happened, the backup in the Suez Canal happened, a shortage of shipping containers happened, a shortage of logistics and truck drivers happened. Now, the new government’s policies have happened with tariffs and reshoring and supply chain disruptions.
So it’s, been years now, and even before COVID, other stuff happened. Yeah. So if people keep… e- life is cyclical. Life is a rollercoaster ride, even in your own personal life, so it’s no different in business. There’s ups and downs, there’s, downturns and upturns.
Michelle Garrett: Yeah. And that’s what my manufacturing clients, that I’ve been working with for a while, and I, when I interview the CEO to we do, we maybe write, pieces, thought pieces, trend pieces, thought leadership and [00:06:00] things, that’s what they will talk about, is the fact that, you have to be resilient and you have to be thinking ahead and be prepared, but, anything can happen at any time.
And again, just like you were saying, I’ve seen this with my clients, it’s like, yes, there’s always something that’s gonna impact the business because there have been times when gas prices went up, which means diesel fuel goes up, not just right now, but that’s happened before, then that affects prices, and if work- affects, the ability to ship things and, all of that.
it’s, it, that’s just an example, but there’s always… Yeah, and think about, like the aging out of the workforce, in some of the manufacturing- companies and things like that. So there are always things that they’re going to have to, just roll with and, that doesn’t mean that you should stop marketing and just pull back entirely.
So that’s what I, wanna talk about [00:07:00] today. And let’s just get into our questions. And if anyone has a question, please be- feel free to share and we will, be happy to try to address anything that’s on your mind. let’s talk about, how economic conditions can impact marketing budgets, because sometimes companies pull back when there’s, they perceive there’s an economic downturn
Uncertainty Is the New Normal
Gina Tabasso: Yeah, I went over that in, when I was talking about the, the, the impacts that create uncertainty and what causes people to pull back.
But what I tell my clients, and not all my clients are manufacturing clients, I’ve worked with tech and SAS companies, AI companies, funded startups. But, in the B2B space, the typical marketing budget that a company should be spending is 3 to 5% of revenue, and I find most [00:08:00] of them aren’t even spending half a percent.
And then they wonder why they see marketing as a cost center rather than a revenue generator, because they’re doing this scattershot approach. “Let’s throw money at a wall and hope it sticks. Oh, this doesn’t work. That didn’t work. That didn’t work. Oh, marketing doesn’t work.” And I tell them, it’s a strategic process, like a process on your shop floor.
You’re trying to go to the end of the process. You’re trying to do no marketing ever. You don’t have a CRM, your website is 20 years old, and you wanna hire someone to do lead generation. That’s the end of the process. Yeah. You w- you wouldn’t do that on your shop floor. Don’t do that in your marketing.
And I think with all those economic barriers, they end up cutting costs that they see as non-essential. And for a lot of, manufacturing companies, essential is the shop floor. it’s producing product. And [00:09:00] so they scale back a lot of other areas of the business and then, what I always see is, and we can talk about even, the next thing we said we were gonna talk about, which is, the process, that it’s a continuing process.
So I find what happens is inevitably leads dry up, the funnel is empty, cash flow ceases, and that’s when the panic begins. we need to hire a new salesperson. We need to get marketing. We need to generate leads. And that’s because you need to constantly be filling that funnel. We need to be bringing in and nurturing leads all the time because, I forget what the statistic is.
I, shared it in another LinkedIn newsletter I did, but something really low. It’s something like 3% of people are ready to buy now.
So we’re looking for that 3%. What about the 97%?
It doesn’t mean they’re not ready to buy [00:10:00] at all. They’re just not ready to buy now.
So those people need to be nurtured.
And I also tell people that in manufacturing, sales cycles are really long. In any B2B business, sales cycles are a year and a half typically And so how can you expect a marketer to generate and convert leads in, 30 days when your sales cycle is a year and a half? You’ve got to stay in front of these new people for a year and a half to convince them to buy.
And always, as people exit the funnel, you need to fill the funnel with new people. It’s, just continual process. so I just wanted to share that.
Michelle Garrett: Yeah. But- I think that’s often, when we talk about, I, I mean for, me sometimes I’m … People ask me, “What is… What do you mean when you say B2B?”
They don’t really understand. it’s business to business of course, but what’s different about it? Because of course I have also worked with clients in consumer, [00:11:00] industries and all kinds of industries. But there’s something different about B2B because the budgets are bigger, it’s often like a committee of people making the buying decisions, and the cycle is longer.
So you do have to continually be out there. Yeah. It’s not like you can issue a press release once a year and expect, that people are gonna see that. Yeah. you have to be thinking about, things that you’re gonna be sharing and talking about across all kinds of channels and, your website, you mentioned that, is really the hub of your marketing or should be.
And I think often with, manufacturers I see sometimes the first thing I do if somebody gets in touch with me is go look at their website- Yeah … and if their website hasn’t been updated in years, that’s probably the first place they need to focus because we don’t want to be directing attention, unless they’re ready for that, So that’s just another, another hurdle I guess.
Gina Tabasso: I tend to find that, [00:12:00] the two things that need to be done right away is fixing up the website and standing up a CRM. A very few manufacturers and B2B companies I’ve worked with are using a CRM, and so you can’t track your return on investment or the buyer journey- without that important piece of software. And it’s, not expensive, even enterprise level. When I work with small to mid-size businesses, that’s usually, 50 million or less in revenue, usually maybe 100 people or less, and the CRM that I use that I’ve stood some of my clients up on, it’s $99 a month.
that’s not… people think they’ve got to go with the HubSpots or the- Yeah … ClickDimensions or, Microsoft Dynamics, and that they’ve got to spend, $15,000 a year on a CRM. Most of those are too sophisticated for a company that’s just starting to use a CRM, [00:13:00] and I always tell people, HubSpot free version is never free.
It’s free for th- this long, and then you need to add Sales Hub and Marketing Hub, and then you have to pay for more seats and you have more than 1,000 contacts and you’ve got to start paying for more contacts. So it adds up really quickly.
Michelle Garrett: Yes. And, I, yeah, I feel I’m not… I do use tools, of course, but I don’t, I’m not a tool-heavy, marketer, I say a lot of it is you can be accomplished without, It’s more about the expertise. That’s more where I would say invest your money, in somebody who knows what they’re doing versus… Because I know of companies who will just spend thousands of dollars on tools and they never even use them.
They don’t even have the login information- with their media database, for example, or something like that. I’m like, what good is that doing you? You could reallocate that money to somebody who could actually carry out, media outreach [00:14:00] for you or help you with some thought leadership or something.”
the expert can help you depending on your needs and your situation, but just paying for tools and, the… I don’t know that’s really necessary always.
but we’re ta- So now we’re, we’ve gone into question two, which is, marketing is a continuous process. It’s not something you can just kinda, it’s not a faucet, You just turn it on and off and it, has to be something, or it doesn’t work. And you were saying that earlier too, is like sometimes they’ll, try something, it didn’t work because they aren’t doing continuous, they’re not making continual efforts.
And so then, of course, it’s probably not gonna work as Well,
Gina Tabasso: I, like to explain it this way, especially through my years of working, I’ve, put a lot of tools in my toolkit, which is why I’m not just a marketer anymore. I’m a growth strategist. And two of the things that really changed my life were [00:15:00] becoming Sandler Sales trained and getting a certification and doing a year of sales mastery, which is basically weekly meetings with your coaches to do, role playing and, scenarios.
And then I earned my Lean Six Sigma yellow and green belts, and I’m a black belt candidate now. I’m partway through my black belt. And Lean Six Sigma, a lot of people don’t know what it is- if you’re not in the manufacturing space, but it’s not just being used in manufacturing anymore. A- as a matter of fact, I use it at home.
So what it is, it’s two different methodologies. So Lean- tries to focus on increasing speed and eliminating waste. Six Sigma focuses on data and reducing defects. So, those, started out on the shop floor of manufacturing companies improving processes in manufacturing. But [00:16:00] I got my training at a university.
I worked for a university, and because they taught Lean Six Sigma, they wanted their leadership team to all have belts and to do three projects a year. and then I was saying how I do it at home. Think about a simple process that a lot of us do. And Michelle and I were talking earlier about how we all both have cats.
And so one day I’m going to feed my cats, and I do what everybody else does. I go to the floor, I pick up the bowl, I take the bowl to the counter. I go to the closet, I get the bag of dry food, I take it to the counter. I fill up the bowl, I take the bowl back to the f- floor. I go back to the counter, get the bag of food, put it back in the cupboard.
my Lean Six Sigma brain one day went off and said, “Dummy, it’s dry food. You don’t wash the bowl every day. Take the bowl to the bag or the bag to the bowl. Why are you making all these trips to the counter?” And, that’s an example of a process [00:17:00] improvement on a very simple level. so I, like that I
The fact that I … And I tell marketers this. This is another, a good tip. Marketers who are getting more, like, mid-career sometimes ask me, “What would you recommend I learn?” and I tell them, “If you can learn to speak other languages,” and I don’t mean Spanish or Japanese. If you can learn to speak other languages, add those tools to your toolkit.
As marketers, a lot of people add marketing tools to their toolkit.
What made me go to the next level was when I added sales to my toolkit and I added Lean Six Sigma. So now I can go into a company and speak the language of sales, the language of marketing, and the language of operations. And I can get all those teams into alignment- which is something as just a marketer I couldn’t have done 20 years ago. so I just, I encourage people to, learn other [00:18:00] methodologies and, like even now I’ve been learning about theory of constraints and, applying that. what are your bottlenecks in your facility? so there’s a lot of valuable things out there that you, if you’re a consultant, bring those to your clients and make yourself even more valuable.
Michelle Garrett: Yes, because, honestly, we are not, focused on one- With sometimes if we’re working with a client, we get asked to do a lot of things that we might not even, they might not have brought us in to do originally, but it’s just part of, the, process of working with them.
it’s always helpful if you can bring all that to the table, I think so, yeah. can we… Let’s talk for a minute about, the buying cycle. obviously we were talking a little bit earlier about how many, there’s only a very small percentage of people who are ready to buy right now. So [00:19:00] there are people at different pr- points, along the, path to making a buying decision or even to researching vendors or anything like that.
So maybe we can talk a little bit about, why, it’s a continuous process, but let’s talk about maybe some different points in the process.
Gina Tabasso: Yeah. that’s one of the things I usually Include, I, I include that in my strategy to educate my clients about the stages of the buyer journey.
And- simplified, there’s usually more than three stages, but if you just look at top, middle, and bottom of funnel, the top of the funnel is just awareness. People don’t know who you are. You need to make them aware that you exist. So that is very early on in this, in the process. Then they move t- through, the consideration [00:20:00] phase, where they’re considering buying something, they’re starting to shop around, they’re interested in learning more, they want some education.
And then they get to a point where they have the intent to buy, and then they make a decision. So that’s where they make the purchase. that’s where a lot of sales teams think the sale ends, at the purchase point of the process. And then we move on and try to find our next lead. But there’s one more layer people forget about, which is the loyalty, the advocacy portion.
And that actually is my Lean Six Sigma Black Belt project. I worked for a manufacturer who had no feedback mechanism from their customers. It was like someone’s unhappy, they send an email. Someone’s happy, they compliment a salesperson. That salesperson may or may not share it with the rest of the team.
It definitely doesn’t get shared with other customers or other [00:21:00] prospects. So I said, “Let’s capture this customer feedback and then take it one step further.” So I, I did a net promoter score, and we’ve all taken them. your car dealership sends you that scale. On a scale of one to 10, how good did we do on these points?
anybody who gave us an eight or above, we asked them for a Google review. Oh,
Michelle Garrett: yeah.
Gina Tabasso: That helps with SEO and organic search.
Michelle Garrett: Yeah.
Gina Tabasso: then anybody who gave us a seven or below, we reached out to see how we could fix it. what did we do wrong? How can we improve? We wanna get better. We wanna make sure this never happens again.
And believe it or not, we turned some haters, some people who were really unhappy, into giving us a second chance-
Michelle Garrett: Oh,
Gina Tabasso: wow … and they became advocates. We won their business back because we showed them that they matter and that they were heard and that we were sorry and we took accountability. so that’s [00:22:00] how I tell people that buyers move through the, process of purchase.
Michelle Garrett: Yeah, because there seems like there’s too much of a focus on, the actual, piece when they are buying and when they are making the sale. And I’m like, wow, it starts, so far… most people by the time they’re contacting sales have already done all the research and, like online.
isn’t that… I’ve seen that statistic ’cause buyers are younger now than they used to be, and of course, everybody just goes on and does search. And now we have AI search, which I think might be one of my questions coming up. But yeah, so you really need to make sure that you’re showing up. And to do that, again, you can’t just write one blog post or issue one press release or d- you know, it’s it’s something you have to be thinking about and working on all the time.
What Portion of a B2B Company’s Budget Should Be Allocated to Marketing?
let’s talk [00:23:00] about, you mentioned this a little bit earlier, but I wanna talk a little bit more about it. what portion of a company’s budget should be allocated to marketing generally?
Gina Tabasso: Yeah. In the B2B space, it’s less than in B2C. so I tell my clients usually 3 to 5% of revenue is a target on what to invest in your marketing budget.
And, the thing is with marketing, like the sky’s the limit. There’s so much that you could do. You could do $100,000 program, you could do a $70,000 program. I had a client who wanted to do their entire … They were a 30, $32 million manufacturer and they only wanted to spend $40,000 a year on their marketing.
And then, you wonder why you don’t move the dial. you- you’re not gonna get real far with that kind of budget.
or they wanna spend $500 a month on Google Ads. That’s not gonna get you [00:24:00] anything. It’s, you might as well not even do it. yeah, that’s what I recommend really.
Michelle Garrett: I, it’s funny ’cause I often work with companies that have a very small marketing team. Sometimes one, a team of one person doing their marketing, so then they do outsource, things like maybe PR content, different email marketing, different parts of the program. but it’s just, it’s really interesting to me because I feel like, a lot of companies don’t allocate enough to- toward marketing, and then you- Yeah
have companies that are just really, hopefully their expectations are in line with what they’re willing to invest in the marketing, ’cause that’s sometimes not the case.
Gina Tabasso: if you, as- as an example, if you’re an $8 million B2B company, 3% of revenue would be $240,000.
I’m never seeing an $8 million company spend [00:25:00] 240 on their marketing.
And it- it, I’m lucky if I see the, usually the maximum is half of that, like 1.5%. but the, I think the majority of people I’ve met are doing no marketing or spending like half a percent on their budget, and, that’s just why they’re not moving the dial. And they’re putting … Another thing that does is that puts all of the burden on the salespeople.
They have to do lead gen, they have to do lead nurturing, they have to warm people up. And you think about how many lost sales you could have, ’cause sales people just want volume. They want commission. So they call, get turned down, call six times, get turned down. Next, closed deal. Lost, closed lost, let’s move on to the next person.
closed lost, let’s move on to the next person. Where if you continue to nurture those leads, they might convert eventually. And, the sales team isn’t being [00:26:00] given the support they have, that they need. They’re not g- being given the materials they need. And so I, feel bad for companies that don’t have marketing because those sales people are really overloaded and burnt out.
When Should a B2B Company Adjust Its Budget?
Michelle Garrett: Yeah. For sure. do you think that there are times when a company should adjust their marketing budget? if they’re launching a new product. what are some examples of, when you would, increase or decrease or make and adjust your budget?
Gina Tabasso: Yeah. I would definitely, with our new product launch, that takes a lot of effort.
a new product or service launch, there’s usually some additional budget allocation. like I have a, a client, a perspective client that I’m working with that they sell cranes, like gantry cranes for manufacturing facilities. They started a second company where [00:27:00] they’re selling hoists. they had to allocate additional budget to the hoist company, so they stopped doing the marketing for the crane company because that’s a longer sales cycle and a harder sell.
Yeah. So they’re trying to ramp up the sales for the hoist company to generate some quick sales and quick revenue that they can then reinvest into the crane company to do marketing for that. Another time to adjust budget is honestly in a bad economy. it’s a bad economy, tariffs, supply chain, reshoring.
Everybody’s tucking in and not spending.
But then you’re, y- you all, were here, and now we’re here being really conservative and waiting, When everything breaks open, you’re gonna have all that ground to catch up. So the people- who are gonna be ahead of the pack are the ones who in that tough time are [00:28:00] investing.
Because think of it, if your sales cycle is a year and a half, you need to be doing the marketing now to get those sales a year and a half from now. So if you’re- waiting until things get better, you’re gonna have to wait another year and a half. So you’re gonna be waiting three years instead of a year and a half.
so that’s when I tell people that they really should adjust.
Michelle Garrett: Yeah. I’m, actually writing this down. You have to be forward thinking. It’s a year and a half, you have to be thinking, what do you want to happen in a year and a half from now, and then what do you need to do to get to that point, So- It’s like a chess
Gina Tabasso: game, right? Yeah.
Michelle Garrett: And I don’t think that… and, I have a lot of empathy for them because I know people are just, of course, they’re always stretched really thin, and they’re, inundated with things that they’re trying to do that, have to be done this week or today or whatever.
But if you really can play the long game and be that forward-thinking, consistent, [00:29:00] company that’s out there, I think that does really pay off. and I’ve seen it with my own clients,
Gina Tabasso: I know. It is hard f- especially in manufacturing. there’s high overhead, there’s low margin.
people are always price conscious, a lot of my customers, my clients, that’s their biggest pain point, is “You’re too expensive. You’re too expensive. You’re too expensive.” we’ve got really expensive equipment and automation and robotics. that doesn’t pay for itself. if you’re buying on price rather than quality or service, we’re not the company for you.
And so people are always looking for, the cheapest deal. But it’s, i- in B2B businesses, you… I always equate things back to my personal life. Cheapest always isn’t always better. So sometimes you buy the better bicycle, or you buy the nicer car, or the better motorcycle, or better quality clothing, and [00:30:00] because it lasts longer, or it looks nicer, or it fits better, or it has more features to it.
And so we do this, that in our personal lives, but then in business, people are like, “Oh, we want the cheapest price. Let’s get the lowest bid,”
Michelle Garrett: Yeah, that’s, yeah, that’s interesting. ‘Cause sometimes you work with clients and they might not be the cheapest option, but they have, they’re higher quality, they have…
They provide better customer service. They have been in business a long time and have a good reputation. They’re gonna be there, when you need them. so there are reasons beyond price. But yes, I, know exactly. I know exactly what you’re saying. and so let’s… this kind of dovetails into the next question, which is:
What If a Company Pulls Too Far Back on Its Marketing Efforts?
what can happen if a company kind of pulls too far back on its marketing efforts?
Gina Tabasso: I see it all the time. That’s when people call me. So they’re not doing any marketing, or they’re [00:31:00] doing very little marketing, and what usually ends up happening is the funnel dries up. there’s no leads coming in, sales slow down, cash flow ceases, and then people panic and then reach out to someone to do lead generation and work miracles.
And, so that’s why I tell people it- it’s a process. I, I t- I set up expectations in my discovery calls with, potential clients. I tell them, “Your first… If you’ve never done marketing before, your first year of marketing is foundational.” Yeah. “We’ve got to fix up your website. We’ve got to stand up a CRM.
We’ve got to clean up your lists. We’ve got to start generating a ton of content that you don’t have. We’ve got to get SEO in place. And then maybe the last few months of the year we can turn toward, paid ads or, LinkedIn outreach or whatever.”
But it, it’s- It, it’s not y- the first year [00:32:00] of ever doing marketing, you’re probably not gonna see a huge return on investment.
I, one of my clients, I- they told me their sales cycle was a year and a half. In the time I worked with them, I worked with them for one year. After six months, I generated a lead for them that converted into a customer, and that one customer was like $74,000 for the order. So it paid for my entire year of marketing and then a few thousand dollars on top of that.
So it’s okay, if you got a whole year of a marketing team for free, you’re doing pretty good. And so then they were like, “Oh, marketing’s not working. We don’t wanna proceed. We don’t wanna continue a year two.” then the following year, ’cause again, they told me their sales cycle was a year and a half, the following year, all these leads and sales started to pop that we had generated, and they got a ton of sales the following year.
They sent me a couple gifts. They [00:33:00] were like, “Thank you. You were right. We were wrong.” And, so you know, that’s kind of the benefit of marketing consistently.
Michelle Garrett: Yeah, and and they do see the benefit, but you can’t… It’s hard to prove it until they see it. You know what I mean? So it’s just like that cycle of trying to convince them, and then once they see it, they get it.
But, but yeah, a lot of companies don’t, won’t believe and, understand that’s what it takes. So I just, everything you’re saying just resonates. But, but yeah. so they… Let’s see.
What Are the Benefits of Marketing Consistently?
this question is obviously pretty, like we’ve already talked about it, but I mean- there are a lot of benefits of marketing consistently and not coming in and out, and I think, we’ve talked about that, but is there anything else that you want to say about that? [00:34:00]
Gina Tabasso: we alluded to it earlier. let’s talk about the client I was just talking about.
So you do a year of marketing, then you stop. The following year, all these sales start converting from what we generated that first year in that year-and-a-half sales cycle. Then if you don’t do any marketing during that year that all the sales are popping, which they didn’t, because they’re getting in all kinds of money.
They’re like, “Oh, we don’t need to do marketing. We’re getting all these sales.”
Michelle Garrett: Yeah.
Gina Tabasso: then, if you aren’t doing it during that year, what happens the following year? The leads dry up again. So it’s this constant, repeating the mistake and then trying to catch up, and getting behind and trying to catch up.
And, so I think if people stay on top of it, you never fall behind and get in that situation.
Michelle Garrett: And it applies to across the board, right? We’re talking about, we both work with [00:35:00] B2B companies and a lot of manufacturing clients and things. But even as my, as, as me, as a single person business, I find the same thing, and I hear other consultants and freelancers say, I don’t…
I’m, my leads are drying up. I don’t have any clients. I’m running out of…” but they weren’t. A lot of times their head was down, they were working, which I understand, but they weren’t doing anything to market themselves and stay out there in front of their potential, clients.
Gina Tabasso: So- Definitely. I’m not a hypocrite. I practice what I preach. The majority of my time I spend marketing my own business. I’m doing everything. I’m guesting on podcasts. I’m do- starting a webinar series. I’m doing LinkedIn newsletters. I’m doing email marketing. I’m doing LinkedIn posts. I’m going to in-person events.
I’m going to networking meetings. I go to conferences and trade shows. I’m doing LinkedIn outreach and appointment setting. I’m doing warm calling. [00:36:00] The only thing I’m not doing for my business is- I haven’t paid for any ads. I’m not- paying for ads. ‘Cause as a consultant, I, don’t feel that’s gonna get me traction.
It’s m- that’s, the other thing. I wanted to go to our last question you had, because this segues perfectly into that.
Michelle Garrett: Okay.
What Should a Company on a Tighter Marketing Budget Focus On?
Gina Tabasso: so Michelle had asked me earlier, like if a company’s on a tighter marketing budget, what are some suggestions on what to focus on? What I just told, what I just told you is it.
I came up through the organic ranks, through SEO, and now AEO and GEO. And you can get a lot of traction with content, with press releases, with back links, with Google reviews, with claiming local listings, with social media. And so I, even YouTube, like Google owns YouTube. They factor video very [00:37:00] heavily into their algorithm.
I have a YouTube channel. Do a lot of people watch my videos? No. Do I care? No. I optimize the description with my keywords. Google crawls YouTube and says, “Oh, Gina’s putting up a video every week. This is great. She’s a thought leader in her space.” And that factors into the SEO ranking.
So yes, if people watched it, I would get ranked even higher ’cause they do factor in comments and likes and all that stuff.
Michelle Garrett: Sure.
Gina Tabasso: But the fact that I have a presence and that I’ve got content that I can constantly add to my blog on my website, so my website is ranking because it’s showing that I’m active and constantly posting new information. so yeah, that’s, what I would say is, I, I, and I’m doing it with my current client.
They- we decided to reallocate budget away from Google Ads into content and into organic because, [00:38:00] organic is just the work, just the creating the content. It’s not any additional spend, like $3,500 a month on Google Ads. And in B2B, ad- Google Ads aren’t always the best way to go, especially now that people are searching through AI.
I think SEO is the best way to go and, the PR and media relations because of those backlinks and those… All those backlinks you get from magazines or trade publications or newspapers- Yeah … those count as citations in AI, so that’s what boosts your ranking in AI is all those citations you get. so that’s what I’d focus on now.
Michelle Garrett: I just, I’m exactly like you because I don’t really spend money on my marketing, but I do spend a lot of time on it. Me too. And, I put effort into it. and I, enjoy, doing a lot of those things, and I also use [00:39:00] myself as a guinea pig because some of the things that I learn, of course I can apply to my clients as well.
So I feel like, it benefits, every, every part of what I’m doing. and I really, believe in that. And I do think a lot of people forget that Google owns YouTube, and that’s the whole reason that I got on YouTube as well, because, I… Yeah, you’re right. it, it may not be like, we…
We’re not obviously, maybe at the, the, top of the, ranking, but, that doesn’t matter because it’s important for search, and that’s how a lot of people that are coming to me now, prospects, are f- are actually talking to, ChatGPT or their, platform of choice to find me.
Even though I still get referrals, and I get business other ways, that’s becoming more common, and they will tell me that you came up because, I ask all these questions and you were at the top of the list or whatever, so the… And [00:40:00] then, whether or not it pans out, it, it doesn’t always, but, it is definitely something that’s, I’m hearing and seeing more,
Gina Tabasso: These were all good questions. I appreciate you digging out the information by asking the right questions. That’s so important in an interviewer. I… Years ago, I was a journalist, and so I interviewed a lot of people to write my articles, and I, would say the best journalists are, best detectives and researchers, and so it’s always about asking the right questions.
Michelle Garrett: I appreciate that. Or- No, but I have a journalism degree. Oh.
I, and writing is my, and, interviewing people, I always have enjoyed those things a lot, so I’m really, that’s, I’m glad to hear you say that- Good … ’cause I do try to, actually put some effort into these.
is
Gina Tabasso: there anything- Yeah, I have a journalism degree and two [00:41:00] English degrees, so I’m a writer through and through too.
Michelle Garrett: My daughter’s studying English right now, so yeah. is there anything else that you wanna share?
Gina Tabasso: I had something in my brain, and when we started talking about journalism, it left my brain.
Strategic Planning for B2B Companies
Michelle Garrett: don’t remember. You can take a minute and think, and I’m gonna put up your sites, your, website and, some of these other links again. I know that, Let’s see. Is there anything else? I’m looking here at my notes too. Yeah. so you mentioned that, You help obviously with the, if you have to- when they go to implement the strategy, sometimes you have to bring in strategic partners.
Do you wanna talk [00:42:00] about that a little bit? Do you have like a… ‘Cause that’s always a tricky one, I think. It’s sometimes I have to do a similar thing or just, there’s something they ask me for that I don’t do. So then I have to make a recommendation. I’m always like, you have to be really careful with that because, you don’t wanna recommend somebody that you don’t think is gonna do a great job for them.
Cause it impacts your reputation .
Gina Tabasso: And in you asking me that, I remember the other thing I was gonna talk about. So it all goes together. So I’ll start by not answering your question and going to what I was gonna talk about, because then it goes into your question. So as part of a strategy, when I go in and do a growth strategy for a company, two of the big things I do, and this came up in my brain because of us talking about journalism and asking good questions and interviewing people.
I first do a complete comprehensive sales assessment. I interview the entire sales team, and I ask them a list of about 40 questions to look at everything, their [00:43:00] process, their playbook, their sales cycle, their timelines, their experience, what they like about their job, what they don’t, what they think could be improved.
And then I also interview three to five of the company’s current, former, or ideal clients, and I do voice of customer work. And I ask over 20 questions to them, and it’s basically an external SWOT analysis. I look at what, how do the customers perceive the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
And then I do an internal SWOT analysis with the leadership team. 99% of the time, the internal SWOT and the external SWOT do not match. How you perceive yourself is not the way everyone else perceives you.
And what matters is how the customers perceive you. So it’s getting those into alignment.
So with that said, that’s where you uncover those opportunities, and sometimes the opportunities have nothing to do with me. They don’t [00:44:00] have anything to do with marketing. They… Oh, the sales team, they’re amazing engineers and machinists who’ve come up from the shop floor. They can talk product specification all day.
But they’ve got no sales training, and they don’t know how to close and convert. That’s gonna cause a problem for me showing an ROI on my work if they can’t convert those leads I bring in, ’cause they’re just order takers. They need to get a sales coach. I’m not a sales coach. I know guys that I’m strategic partners with that I would recommend and put my reputation on the line for.
I also look at their strategic plan. What are your three to five-year goals? ‘Cause that’s gonna inform my marketing strategy Wait a minute, you don’t have a strategic plan? You need a strategic plan, Mr. $10 million manufacturer. I don’t do strategic planning, but I have a partner who’s an EOS person who can come in and do a strategic plan for you.
I ask questions like M&A, [00:45:00] like what is your succession plan? What, five years from now, do you plan on staying in the company, selling the company, turning the company over to someone else, or closing the company? Because what I’m gonna recommend from a marketing perspective is gonna be very different based on those scenarios, because we’re prepping you for five different scenarios.
Michelle Garrett: Yeah.
Gina Tabasso: So if they say, I plan on selling the company-” I’ll say, “Do you have an M&A person in place to help you value the company?” And they’re like, “No, it’s five years from now.” And I tell them, “Do you realize it takes three to five years to value a company for sale? If you think you’re gonna wait five years and then try to sell it, you’re probably not.
So I know an M&A guy. I don’t do that, but I can introduce you to someone.” So those are the kind of strategic partners I have so that I can create, a holistic environment where I can help a manufacturer solve any pain point, and in solving those pain points, that helps them grow. So that’s why I’m now a growth strategist and not [00:46:00] just a fractional CMO.
Michelle Garrett: Yeah. And I think it’s really, interesting too, because I think a lot of companies… I know in the manufacturing space, I, I have a client who’s acquiring, some smaller companies, and that’s, that is their growth strategy, right? That’s part of their growth strategy. and a lot of companies do wanna…
the, maybe they’re, they’ve been around 50 years, 75 years, 100 years. It’s been in the family or, maybe the founder, owner’s getting ready to retire and they, they just want a good home for the, a, a good steward to take care of what they’ve built. and but some companies, don’t, they don’t wanna go that route.
So anyway, it’s really interesting to me and I, this is something I had never, known a lot about until I started working, with this client ’cause they, that’s, it’s a, he, the CEO talks openly about it. And he, it’s a long process. Like- Yeah … they get to know each other at trade shows and events and It’s [00:47:00] just, it’s something that happens over time, I-
Gina Tabasso: My friend is an M&A advisor, and he actually buys up manufacturing companies. Smaller ones, eight, five to $8 million, 5 to $10 million. And he looks at the ones that are actually in distress, because he said the bottleneck at those companies is always the CEO, owner, and president.
If they would get out of their own way, the company would grow. And so what he does is he buys the company, he fires them, he takes over, he puts in the proper processes, and the companies become incredibly profitable, and then he can sell them.
Michelle Garrett: Yeah …
Networking Is Important for Every B2B Businessperson
Gina Tabasso: yeah. It’s, just, that’s another thing, advice I would give people, is network.
Build your network. I am only as strong as my network, and I- Have so many people supporting me and so many people I can call on that I’m, not alone. as a solopreneur, [00:48:00] I’m not alone. I have a team.
And that’s very powerful. it’s even in the downturn times, that’s sometimes what gets you through it is people are there to help you through the struggle and raise you up and, look out for each other.
Michelle Garrett: Absolutely. Yeah, because again, it’s cyclical and we know that, it’s never gonna just be… There’s always gonna be ups and downs and, Yep … and things happening. So we have to- The
Gina Tabasso: rollercoaster of life …
Michelle Garrett: stick together and support each other, when we can. So yeah, no, I appreciate that.
Gina Tabasso: Thank you, Michelle.
Thank you for always supporting me too through the rollercoaster ride, and I’m glad that we’re friends and I’m glad we were able to get together again.
Michelle Garrett: Me too, Gina. I really enjoyed this conversation, and again, I think that you’re one of the, wiser, people in my network on the manufacturing and B2B side, and I’m always, interested in what you have to say.
And, [00:49:00] yeah, I, really hope that, everybody who, listens, or watches gets something. I’m sure they will take something away from this that will help them. I hope. And I’ll put all of Gina’s links in the comments.
Gina Tabasso: I, really wanna- Please go and- … tell all the listeners and, followers here, I am a servant leader, and I believe if I do the right thing, the money will come, and I love to help people.
So if anything I said resonated with you that you wanna talk about more or you want advice on or to brainstorm, please reach out. I’d be happy to add you to my network. maybe I can’t help you, but maybe I know someone who can.
Michelle Garrett: Yes. And I put your LinkedIn in there and of course your website and your link to your webinars and all of those links.
But I really hope people will find you on LinkedIn and follow you because you do post a lot of great things on there, and that would be a great way, to, get to know you and, vice versa. yeah.
Gina Tabasso: Thank
Michelle Garrett: [00:50:00] you. Absolutely. Thanks for being here, Gina, and I wanna thank people, everybody who tuned in and, today, and I will be back in a couple of weeks, with another episode of PR Explored.
Thanks so much.
About the host: Michelle Garrett is a B2B PR consultant, media relations consultant, writer and author of B2B PR That Gets Results, an Amazon Best Seller. She helps companies create content, earn media coverage, and position themselves as thought leaders in their industry. Michelle’s articles have been featured by Entrepreneur, Content Marketing Institute, Muck Rack, and Ragan’s PR Daily, among others. She’s a frequent speaker on public relations, marketing and content. Michelle has been repeatedly ranked among the top ten most influential PR professionals.
Learn more about Michelle’s freelance PR consulting services here. Book a no-obligation call to talk about your needs here. Buy Michelle’s book here.
