Meet Jaclyn Kolodziej

Jaclyn Kolodziej, Client Growth Services Specialist at the Illinois Manufacturing Excellence Center (IMEC), has worked on over 220 marketing projects over the past two years.

With a diverse background in various manufacturing sectors, Jaclyn has amassed a wealth of experience driving progress and innovation through marketing. Her unwavering goal has always been to propel momentum by executing marketing projects and crafting strategic growth plans for manufacturers.

Jaclyn blends her passion for achieving tangible results with her expertise in marketing playing a pivotal role in assisting manufacturers across Illinois to enhance their top-line growth. Leveraging a robust business development and marketing background, Jaclyn excels in identifying growth opportunities and meticulously constructing roadmaps for success.

Connect with Jaclyn!

LinkedIn

imec.org

imec@imec.org

IMEC LinkedIn 

Highlights

00:00 Benefits of Mushroom Elixirs

02:10 Introducing Our Guest: Jaclyn Kolodziej

03:22 What is IMEC?

06:29 Marketing Trends in Manufacturing

11:45 The Importance of Marketing for Manufacturers

15:27 Tips for Manufacturers on Marketing

19:58 Fun Facts and Personal Insights

20:59 I Just Learned That Segment

27:23 Conclusion and Contact Information

Connect with the broads!

Connect with Lori on LinkedIn and visit www.keystoneclick.com for your strategic digital marketing needs!  

Connect with Kris on LinkedIn and visit www.genalpha.com for OEM and aftermarket digital solutions!

Connect with Erin on LinkedIn!

But anyways, it's supposed to.

[00:01:42] Lori Highby: Oh, the Dr. Pepper thingy?

[00:01:45] Kris Harrington: You're changing it up on us, Lori.

[00:01:48] Erin Courtenay: They didn't sponsor us and now.

[00:02:00] Erin Courtenay: So, interesting. Is it has psilocybin in there? Like are you microdosing?

[00:02:15] Kris Harrington: Okay. There you go. So yeah.

[00:02:17] Kris Harrington: Yeah. We have an alternative in the form of coffee. It's a mushroom, it's supposed to substitute for coffee in the morning, and it's called Rise. I think it's spelled R Y S E.

And it's a good one as far as, I love my coffee, so it's very hard for me to ever do something different. But if I'm not feeling well and I don't want the full impact of caffeine, I will do the alternative. Mm hmm.

[00:02:45] Kris Harrington: Well, good. Let me introduce our wonderful guest today. Her name is Jaclyn Kolodziej. Jaclyn is the Client Growth Services Specialist at the Illinois Manufacturing Excellence Center and has worked on over 220 marketing projects over the past two years. With a diverse background in various manufacturing sectors, Jaclyn has amassed a wealth of experience driving progress and innovation through marketing.

Her unwavering goal has always been to propel momentum by executing marketing projects and crafting strategic growth plans for manufacturers. Jaclyn blends her passion for achieving tangible results with her expertise in marketing, playing a pivotal role in assisting manufacturers across Illinois to enhance their top line growth.

Leveraging a robust business development and marketing background, Jaclyn excels in identifying growth opportunities and meticulously constructing roadmaps for success. Jaclyn, welcome to the broadcast.

[00:03:50] Jaclyn Kolodziej: Thanks for having me.

So let's talk a little bit about IMEC. Can you tell us, you know, what is the organization and what do you guys do?

So outside of marketing and growth topics, we help with the number of different things from being successful in growing the business, helping work on people and finding the right type of people, improving processes and operations and really helping manufacturers drive their business forward with informed data.

So we have a really great robust team of experts that come together and are able to assist in whatever area is needed.

[00:05:09] Jaclyn Kolodziej: Yeah, absolutely. So typically we target small to midsize manufacturers. Every now and again we'll get a larger manufacturer or a segment of that company that's a larger company that we can come in and support, but our target is those small to midsize businesses.

[00:05:32] Jaclyn Kolodziej: No, as long as they're a manufacturer, have a manufacturing NACE code, we're here to help them and support them.

[00:06:06] Jaclyn Kolodziej: Where's the action? Well, all over the state of Illinois. Certain pockets that are definitely more concentrated Chicago and the Chicagoland area. We always have a joke, everything above I 80 or I I 80 has a higher concentration. So the manufacturers and folks down south feel a little left out at times. But IMEC serves the entire state wherever they are. So at times I'll drive from the most Northern part of the state, down to the most Southern tip of the state to see a manufacturer that might be in need.

What do you think, like, what's the lay of the land? Where's some of the trends that are emerging, especially around marketing? That's just a special interest that I know you have, and our team does as well. What are you seeing? What's hot? What are the trends?

[00:07:18] Erin Courtenay: Oh! There's nobody here that's interested in this.

[00:07:29] Jaclyn Kolodziej: So it varies. You know, I serve a lot and meet a lot of manufacturers throughout the year and it's very interesting. You'll get a mix of different levels of manufacturers who experience marketing in their own ways. So I might meet a very small company where there's a handful of people wearing several hats across, you know, running that business. And so with that bandwidth and, and trying to figure it out and be everything. A lot of times, those mix of, of manufacturers aren't super concentrated on marketing and understanding the ebbs and flows of marketing. I'll meet with a different manufacturer who has a well developed marketing team of say five, for example. And so their team is doing all different types of marketing related stuff.

So it's really a spectrum. But I think AI has definitely been the, the question, the concern, the excitement for, I'd say at least the past six months, it's definitely gotten its buzz.

And like, sales and marketing was just off the charts. I don't even know if any, if operations or I can't remember what the other options were, got any clicks at all. So it's kind of interesting that the AI is permeating that part of the business that has traditionally been like maybe the more overlooked part of the business.

And yet it's really going to have an influence across the board. So that's really interesting that you're seeing that right on the ground as well.

[00:09:49] Lori Highby: Yeah. And I, I'd also add that it's probably the easiest part of a business to adopt AI because it's heavy, it's heavy content. I mean, there's a lot of use cases for other segments in manufacturing, you know, related to like supply chain and, you know, resource management and whatnot, and just even running the machines and the equipment and ensuring that, you know, there aren't weird anomalies and identifying that.

So but that takes a lot of sophistication to get it implemented where, you know, on the sales and marketing side, it's. It's, it's heavy content and the tools right now that are being mass produced and easily available are focused on, on content. So that totally makes sense.

[00:10:32] Kris Harrington: I'm curious in the small to mid size, since that's a lot of the companies that you're targeting or that are reaching out. I think it's true too when I'm talking to that size organization that they do have much smaller marketing teams. Do you find that they're outsourcing their marketing activities? And I'm just curious. Is that part of what IMEC helps with as well?

[00:12:02] Lori Highby: Yeah, that's awesome. I mean, when I heard Kris say that 220 marketing projects over the past two years, I'm like, my goodness, that is impressive. That's a lot. That is a lot. How do you even keep track of all that? Like, that is, that's impressive. But, you know, one thing that's important, obviously, is, is marketing.

So I'd like to hear your words, why should manufacturers care about marketing? Because I feel this is a really hard sell in my experience with manufacturing and marketing. And the experience I've had oftentimes is manufacturers, you know, they'll, they'll drop half a million dollars on a new piece of equipment without thinking twice about it, but to spend, you know, even, even a quarter of that dollar amount on an annual marketing budget is a huge lift and very scary.

So why is it so important for manufacturers to care about marketing?

[00:12:59] Lori Highby: I'm all ears. I want to hear you say it because I know it. I know the answer, but I love hearing others talk about this.

A lot, right. It's, it's who it helps to bring that identity, that brand awareness, who they are, especially digitally, right? Online so that people can find them. People know who they are. They can see that they're reputable. They know that they're the experts. They can find them quickly. When they find them, they look great online.

You know, if I find a really outdated websites and I'm looking to buy something, I'm going to question if I want to buy that or not. So you know, first step is really getting them to understand that their online presence is so important, and marketing carries that, that heavy lift to make that happen. You know, I get, I get questions like, well, you tell me I need a new website. What's the ROI on it? So I say, okay, well, If you do nothing and you just stay where you're at right now, you're never going to see any ROI. There will be no difference to your sales. Even developing out your workforce and attracting, attracting employees.

[00:14:36] Jaclyn Kolodziej: So I approach it from kind of two different angles like, well, what's your pain point right now? Is it, is it more of a customer, customer attraction and acquisition problem? Is it a workforce? A workforce attraction issue. Well, either way, you need marketing on your side to be able to put you out there into the, into the world so that you can attract both sides of both sides of it. So that's one of the, one of the things that kind of lead with depending on where they're at.

Having that conversation about investments. So, how fast do you want to grow? What are, what are those goals? Oh, you want to grow your business by 5 million dollars in the next year. How much are you willing to invest in your marketing program? So I, I kind of leave that open ended. Well, how much should I be investing?

[00:15:31] Jaclyn Kolodziej: Well, I don't know how much you're investing in a salesperson or a new piece of equipment. Like let's start having these conversations that it's not a, 5,000 dollar project or a one and done. We need to start building out based on your goals, that, that structure. So that we can start really figuring out those tactics to get you to where you want to be.

[00:16:03] Lori Highby: So what tips do you have for some manufacturers then?

What do you look like online? What is your message? And so really take a, an honest view of yourself. Do you have an up to date website? Are you present and active on the appropriate social media platforms? What's next? How are you engaging with your existing customers? Are you engaging with them at all?

If not, well, let's start. You already know their names, who they are and have that relationship. Let's start working on building that out through maybe an email marketing type of campaign. You know, next level, getting new customers, let's start working on building out those new customers and those leads to pull them in and start engaging with them via, you know, automated email, marketing, social media engagement, connecting.

And then I really ask, how does your sales team fit into this equation too? What are they doing and how can marketing and sales really work together to help build more of your business and support your existing business.

Are you getting the experience you are expecting to get? You know, even call the, call the number that's on the website. Are you getting the experience you expected to get? Visit the social media channels and just, yeah, getting kind of a landscape of where we are today, and then getting clarity on where you want to be and building that roadmap to get from point A to point B.

So really just helping them understand that, that there is a way to track. There, there are sophisticated data points that you can reference and help you either keep moving in that direction or pivot when things aren't going the right way. So it's much more than just having a website and social media. There's data behind it. It's connected. It's a, it's an integral part of your business.

It's one of those organs, like of your body, so to speak, that you need to take care of.

[00:19:30] Jaclyn Kolodziej: So, yeah, I, you know, I have a lot of conversations and, and someone I was talking to the other day is trying to justify and work with their leadership team to develop a plan, develop a specific marketing budget. And I think a lot of times the leaders want to connect it to, well, how much revenue will this activity generate?

So we got to be like, well, let's pull it back. Probably like at the baseline, none. Guess who's generating the revenue. It's your sales people. Like marketing is going to take you so far, but at the end of the day, the marketing is not going to land that, that deal. So, you know, after you get that deal landed, I said, let's start talking about how much is a lead worth to you? A really good quality lead that can be handed to your sales team and they can carry, carry it over the finish line.

Oh, man. Probably too much.

So a lot of people don't know that when I was in college, long, long time ago, I studied cults. So I studied non traditional religions. Fascinating. Yes. And so, I get really hooked on some of the shows that are on TV now and the docu series. And so people, people raise their eyebrow and say, what, why are you watching that?

I'm fascinated.

[00:21:32] Kris Harrington: Yes. Go for it, Erin. You kick us off.

The headline says, Ultra Processed Foods Linked to 50 Percent Higher Risk of Dying From Cardiovascular Disease and Developing Other Health Conditions. It's like poison. That is toxic. The question, the thing I don't under What is it? What is it? An ultra processed, like, what is that? How do you know? Is the mushroom coffee? Is it ultra I don't know. Anyway, I'm just, I feel like I don't, I'm just gonna eat what I want to eat, basically, even though this is lurking out there trying to kill me because it is too confusing for me to figure out what qualifies as ultra processed.

What? I just learned about this app. It's called, I don't know if it's Yuka or Yuka, Y U K A. But what you do is you scan the, the UPC code of both food and products.

[00:22:41] Lori Highby: But it gives you a rating of the quality, and it kind of dives into other additives. Is it good protein, fiber, fat, sugars, calorie, sodium? And it's like, oh, this is excellent to eat. So like I scanned rosemary and olive oil triscuits and it's like, oh, these are really good. And then I looked at Peanut M& M's, and it's like, these are bad.

[00:23:10] Lori Highby: What's cool about the app, then, is it's like, these are bad, but here's an alternative chocolatey, nutty thing that you might eat that would fall under the good category. So, it's a free app. I just learned about it. Anyway, so, sorry.

[00:23:28] Lori Highby: That's what I just learned that.

[00:23:33] Lori Highby: Oh yeah. Hello. Let me.

[00:23:45] Lori Highby: There's a bunch of like dark chocolate almonds, like Good Gathers the brand or Wesley Farms. That's Target. Yeah. Yeah. So that's a way better alternative than the peanut M& M's.

[00:24:06] Erin Courtenay: Oh, perfect. That means I'll eat nothing. But that's fine. At least I won't get cancer or whatever.

[00:24:15] Erin Courtenay: No eating diets, guaranteed. Okay, sorry, Kris, Kris, I'm going to pass it to you.

[00:24:35] Lori Highby: Nope. Nope.

[00:24:38] Erin Courtenay: Leaplings.

[00:25:18] Lori Highby: Interesting. Yeah. Love it.

[00:25:22] Lori Highby: No. Okay. I mean, I did just learn that, but mine is AI related, so that's fine.

Okay. There's a new study done by Yahoo and publicist media that talks about the transparency with AI, especially when it comes to ads. The sh study showed that AI generated ads with notice disclosure stating this was created by AI increased brand perceptions and at a 47 percent lift in ad appeal, a 73 percent rise in ad trustworthiness and a 96 percent increase in overall trust for the company.

Wow. Like that's fascinating. I mean, business is based on trust. So transparency and trust definitely go hand in hand. And, you know, where there's a lot of uncertainty with regards to content that you can trust. You know, I would, I, I'm a fan of this. I think this is great. Let's, let's be transparent about AI generated content ads and all of the above.

[00:26:27] Jaclyn Kolodziej: Oh, man. So I'm a very gullible person. And when people tell me things, I just I'm quick to say, Oh, really? That's cool. So recently, I was told that you can only breathe out of one nostril at a time. And it took me a minute. I'm like, okay. And then about 30 seconds later, I have to ask, are you lying to me? Is this a fact like, don't tell me this cause I'll go and repeat it to everybody that I talk to. So I did a little investigating and the airflow through your nose is not always equal at all times. So the levels of airflow fluctuate between nostrils.

[00:27:29] Jaclyn Kolodziej: I didn't go further.

[00:27:36] Lori Highby: Or, or keep it to yourself. Yeah.

[00:27:44] Erin Courtenay: All the holes. Yeah.

[00:27:47] Erin Courtenay: Yeah. Totally different. There's the cult one and then the hole one. We got a lot of work to do, ladies. Anyway, this is so hilarious. Thank you for that. Yes.

[00:28:06] Jaclyn Kolodziej: On LinkedIn, that's an easy place to find me. If you're, if you're an Illinois manufacturer looking for more information, you can reach out to IMEC@imec.org. If you're outside of the Illinois manufacturing circle, if you're at a fellow marketer, whatever, find me on LinkedIn definitely, and let's connect.

[00:28:37] Jaclyn Kolodziej: Wonderful. Thanks for having me.