Unlocking the Customer Journey with Katie Smith: From Chaos to Clarity

Freddy D: 00:00:56

Hey, superfan superstar Freddie D. Here in this episode 94, we're joined by Katie Smith, the queen of customer journey. A visionary marketer and the founder of Wildpath Consulting.

Katie specializes in turning stagnation into strategy and the chaos into clarity.

With a background in environmental science and psychology and a passion for adventure rooted in the wild beauty of Livingston, Montana, she brings a one of a kind perspective to marketing. Katie empowers bold brands to connect with purpose, spark meaningful conversations and thrive in ever changing landscapes.

Nestled near Yellowstone National Park. She blends her love for the outdoors with sharp marketing insight to help companies shatter stagnation, ignite change and reach new heights.

Get ready to be inspired by Katie's trails blazing approach to redefining B2B marketing. Welcome, Katie, to the Business Superfans podcast.

Katie Smith: 00:01:59

Thank you. I'm really excited to be here.

Freddy D: 00:02:01

Yeah, we're excited to have you. We've got an interesting story of how you moved from New Hampshire to Montana. What's the backstory of how you came up with Wildpath Consulting?

Katie Smith: 00:02:13

Well, I think my life has had a very wild trajectory and so I think that really fits.

If you talked to me when I was 20 and told me that I was going to be in business, I would have thought you were crazy, wouldn't have seen that at all. I was really into environmental science, psychology, the outdoors.

I spent 10 years as a guide in the outdoors, leading people on horseback rides through Yellowstone national park, cross country ski adventures, a little bit of rock climbing, guiding, and I really never would have thought that related to business.

What I love about marketing, what I love about business, is that you're connecting people with a need with a solution, which is your product or service. So that connection piece is really important.

When I was a guide, I was taking people into places that I love, doing activities that I love and making sure they had every opportunity to see the beauty in it, to have a good time to enhance their lives. I kind of feel that parallel.

Freddy D: 00:03:14

That's a great story because messaging is really important in marketing and you've got to be able to resonate with the reader so that they can relate to it. And it says, oh, yeah, that's me. I could use something like that.

So I think with the outdoor stuff, I used to be in Scouts when I was a kid and so I can appreciate where you're coming from. You know, I did when I was in Boy Scouts. I'm one of the guys that actually finished the 22 mile hike the first time out. Not a lot of us did.

I think there Was like five of us that actually finished it that day because most kids dropped out. What you did with the outdoor stuff leads to where you're at today with Wildpath Consulting, a marketing agency.

So let's go further into what the agency provides and what differentiates you from other marketing agencies.

Katie Smith: 00:04:03

Sure. I am your guide through the wilderness of marketing. A fractional chief Marketing officer, which is a new term in a relatively new position.

I am able to be in your business for a period of time as that fractional piece.

So I can provide high quality, high level marketing strategy to businesses that maybe can't afford or don't have the need yet for a full time chief marketing officer, but they can still use that guidance to grow. It's really bridging that gap.

So when companies are ready to scale, I can come in for a period of time and help build their marketing strategy in a really lean, intentional, sustainable way. Important that we don't just focus on trends and crash with them. We build our marketing in a sustainable way that helps us grow.

It's a cost effective way to do it and really helps companies cut out a lot of that wandering around blindly in the wilderness. I can be that leader for your company in the marketing department. My goal is not to stay with a company for a long time.

My goal is to build them up, make themselves self sustaining in a very lean and efficient way.

Freddy D: 00:05:16

So share a story of how you stepped into a company and they were in disarray in their marketing strategy. A lot of companies think they have a marketing strategy, but they're really not structured in an effective, quantified, branded message.

Share a little bit about how you stepped in and helped transform that whole messaging for that company and what the results were.

Katie Smith: 00:05:42

Yeah, so I've been working with a metal manufacturing company for quite a while now. When I first started working with them, they had no organized marketing.

They had the business plan, getting the business, the manufacturing piece in place, and they had hired a company to do some advertising and to have their website. But they knew they're like, okay, we need a little bit more. When I came in, what we found was the company they were using owned their website.

They didn't own their own website. They had paid this company and the company owned the website. I call it kind of iffy SEO where they're getting people to come.

They're just kind of filling pages with keywords. But the webpage didn't really have a lot of information on it. And what we know is that especially nowadays, people want to do their own research.

Before they talk to you, they want to get farther down that sales pipeline before they want to talk to somebody. So if you have webpages that aren't really helping the customer, they're either going to call you when you have to answer a lot of simple questions.

They could have found out when they're not ready to buy or they leave and go somewhere else. They really also didn't have a brand identity. They had a logo, but there wasn't really anything.

A brand identity is what you use to differentiate yourself from the competitors and to really make a connection with your potential customers. That's that first part of that superfan recipe, right? They have to know who you are and know how you identify so they can identify with you.

So the first thing that we did, and because I'm not a full agency, I collect, I assemble teams, and I assemble everything that we need. Every company is different. But I knew we need someone who can do advertising, we need someone who can do design, someone we need somebody who can do.

And we want it all to be collective. So I got busy on brand strategy, creating their brand identity, their brand architecture that our super fans could connect with.

I reached out to an agency that I collaborate with, just an ad agency. I think the difference why there was some issue with the first people they worked with is because these guys are metal manufacturers.

They know construction, they know metal, they don't know marketing. So they didn't have the right way to interpret what the agencies were were saying. The agencies didn't really know about metal.

There was this disconnect. And I think that happens a lot with folks.

If you're working with an outside agency, a contractor who's really good at what they do, you don't know what they do and they don't know what you do. As a fractional cmo, I know what everybody does. I know what's most important because I get to know my clients.

I'm on the client side, but I speak all the language of the marketing people. So I assure that everybody gets what they need and that we're getting a good deal.

So I have a partner that I trust and, and I brought them in and we redid the website. I was very specific, very clear on what it needed to be, what was the point. And the first thing that I did was outline who is our customer.

That is the most important part.

Freddy D: 00:08:42

I mean, a lot of people don't have a customer avatar. It's amazing. Who's your target audience? That's one of the most important aspects.

Defining who is your target audience and then creating the messaging for that audience. Otherwise you're just throwing stuff to the wall and hoping it sticks. Another thing I really want to emphasize, Katie, is hijacking websites.

've been doing websites since: 1997

I was in charge of global sales and marketing for a software company and the website sucked. And I figured, well, I can't screw it up any worse. And I did it. And then some of the distributors said, hey, who did the website?

And so this is how much you wanted to do mine and threw them a number and they said, yeah, that works. And I had a little side hustle and that was it. It was, you know, a hobby really. Never.

But there was a couple times where I ran into two businesses that we were, we were helping people get listed in all the online directories before it became a thing. And YEXT popped along and we were competing with YEXT when it was just getting started. Never lost to them.

But these people were locked out of their websites and were held hostage. And they had paid for the site. And one individual wanted a significant amount of money turn over the website. The other one was a restaurant.

They shut their website down because they said, we don't want to work with you anymore. And he says, well, it's ours, so we're taking it down. It was a complete disaster.

They had to get lawyers involved because they had spent thousands of dollars for a restaurant style website. I can appreciate the integrity you bring to the equation. Unfortunately, people don't know what they don't know.

Katie Smith: 00:10:31

Yeah, that's a big piece of it.

And luckily our partner agency had dealt with this before, so they were able to set everything up so that we could make the switch as painlessly as possible. Was really helpful. But yeah, you have to have somebody on your side who can look at a contract, understand if it's right.

Majority of contractors out there are really great their craft, but they don't know your business. They're just going to be looking at what trends are. Because I don't deal with trends. I'm looking at the long term.

And I'm always focused on who's our client and what do they want. I can help tweak things.

So for example, when we talk about metal roofing and siding, a lot of people's initial thoughts would be like you're on Pinterest or a home decorating show. But our clients are contractors. Totally different way of talking. Our company had a high level and I had to step in quite a bit.

And we put that in our brand architecture, our tone of voice. These are words we use, these are words we don't use. This is how we want to sound. This is how we don't want to sound.

And having a blueprint like that, where you give it to your contractors, you're already saving so much time of back and forth for them, learning how you are, what you want to do, and then the tweaks are small, but you have to be pretty consistent. Because I understood what the company really wanted and needed, I could talk to our contractors and make sure that they are fully aware of that.

Like they know exactly what we want.

Freddy D: 00:12:04

Yeah.

The messaging is in line and you understand the messaging, but that's the other thing that you've got to do is you've got to help convey the vision of the company to the contractors that are going to be doing the work and making sure that they're doing a good job. Like the conductor of an orchestra, keeping it together and saying, okay, you hit this note, you hit that note, and collectively we make music.

Katie Smith: 00:12:28

Yeah.

If you don't have somebody like that in your company, especially if you're using multiple contractors, as you're growing, it can start to get disjointed. Because if everybody's not on the same page, a big part of my job is herding cats.

I've got to make sure that we're all moving in the same direction, working on the same goal, going to the same place. I do that internally within a company and externally as well.

One of the great things of having a CMO in the C suite, it's a different than having marketing director is that I work in collaboration with the other executives. So it's important that I understand what's going on with finance. I learn a lot from business operations.

Things like that helps me understand and tweak where we need to go, where we need to focus, what's most important. And I think that's something people sometimes forget, like, why does marketing need to know any of that?

It's because marketing runs throughout a whole company. Everybody has a piece to do with this. If I'm talking with finance, I know what products or services are selling well, what's struggling.

I want to know what's bringing in the best revenue. I want to understand what should I be talking about to help our company grow business operations.

I want to know our lead time for products, for services. I want to set the the expectation. I want to have transparency and tell the truth to our customers. I Want our customers to have a seamless experience.

So I say, even with this metal manufacturer, the guys on the ground who are bending the metal and then delivering it to the contractors, I tell them they're part of my marketing team, because the experience that the customer has directly with those people can make or break. That's part of that business. Super fan, right? Yeah, we make the sale. But. But how do you delight them?

How do you make them feel like, okay, this was worth my time. This is worth my money? I feel good when I come here. I like being here. That's what we wanted to do.

Freddy D: 00:14:30

Because people have a misconception on sales, I think. And having been in sales for decades, signing the contract is not the sale.

To me, signing the contract is, okay, you have an agreement to work together. The sale begins after you sign the contract. Everything that takes place after that piece of paperwork is signed is the sale.

Just like you're saying, Katie, how your people are dealing with the contractors. And because they're the front line, so they're really becoming the salesperson of that pink.

It goes back to where you're talking about the importance of a CMO in the company. Part of your job is getting everybody onto the same page of what the story is, what the vision is of the company, and then getting everybody.

Like a racing rowing team, where you've got eight people and everybody has one, or you got to get everybody in synchronization, otherwise you ain't going too far too fast. Yeah, you start getting super fans internally because they're appreciating what you're doing.

That transcends to when they're talking to prospective customers, subcontractors, suppliers. Now you start getting super fans from the customers and everybody else saying, this company's got a great story. Their people are great.

They love where they're working, and the business just starts to take right off.

Katie Smith: 00:15:56

It's all of those little pieces from the kinds of video advertisements that we do. I have a video contractor that I work with, but I write and creatively direct all of it. I say, this is what I want. This is the feeling that I want.

These are the shots that we need to get. I arrange them all, and then our incredible advertising team is the one who puts them out.

We just keep getting incredible traction from that because it's all directed to what our customer want to feel. What are their problems, and how can we show them that we will solve them and we'll make it nice?

We tell them exactly what it's going to feel like, and then we deliver on that promise when they show up. So the continuity from the outward advertisement to any interaction that they have is really important.

And CMO or fractional CMO can align all of those pieces.

Freddy D: 00:16:53

Absolutely.

Katie Smith: 00:16:54

Part of that is listening. I think that's really important.

Freddy D: 00:16:57

That's why we have two ears and one mouth, right?

Katie Smith: 00:16:59

Yep. Two way conversation. I need to know what's going on at the customer level. What are you seeing? What are you feeling? What do you wish they knew?

And then I can create things that can help. I think that marketing should also be of service internally. So it should serve sales.

Getting them the materials they need, helping educate their customers better where they get there, and then also a customer service side. What do you wish people knew? What do we need to tell people? What's the reality of the situation?

I think the best marketing is really understanding the business from top to bottom and molding that into a customer experience. Outwardly project. And when the customer comes to you, they feel that throughout.

Freddy D: 00:17:44

That's important. You talked about earlier that you direct the videos. One video that I saw was brilliantly done in that it edified the customer.

The video was for the customer, and the customer mentions the company as the people behind the scenes that enable the customer to do the cool things they're doing. It was clever because it wasn't about how wonderful we are. Nobody cares. Here's the situation, what this business was doing.

And they were able to do things because of this company and how they helped them. So it was a double win because it was a marketing video that the customer could utilize for themselves.

But at the same time, it was for the company that provided the help to use it to show how wonderful they make their customers look.

Katie Smith: 00:18:43

Yeah, testimonial videos are really important. Actually, for this year's video, we're doing some testimonial videos. So I'm excited to get that going through this process.

There's all kinds of little things right by their door. We have branded contractor pencils and graph paper. And then we have a snack station. They can just come in, grab what they need and go.

All of those pieces fit together. We've had between 25 and 50% growth from the past three, four years now. And it's, you know, we are definitely in a good economy for that.

I think we've got some rocky times ahead.

But the goal was to build this incredible foundation with customers really understanding their needs so that when rocky times hit, both our customers and also our staff will stick with us.

Freddy D: 00:19:39

Once you transform superfans, super fans, Stick with you. Here's a perfect example. Look at the Chicago Cubs. They had super fans for decades and finally won a World Series after a bazillion years.

But those were die hard super fans that loved the Cubs no matter what. If you build super fans, it doesn't matter what's happening outside, they're going to stick with you.

And that's one of the secrets of sustainability in business. You need to have that team of super fans throughout all of it. You need to have an employee to say, okay, hey, company's going tough times.

You know what, I'm going to stick with it because this company stuck with it when I was going through some challenges. You got your customers that say, hey, I love you. You know, you've helped us grow. So, you know, that's really the glue.

Superfan is really the glue that keeps it together and helps accelerate it collectively.

Katie Smith: 00:20:39

Yeah, I think that was our whole goal to set up a really strong foundation to take advantage of the spot we were in. We were in a building boom. We had no competitors. And so the goal was to build that really strong foundation so that, you know, markets go like this.

Our goal is to be able to just run steady, so not going to follow trends. We're going to set up a strong foundation, build up our reputation and loyalty and then use that no matter what happens.

Freddy D: 00:21:11

So let's talk about some things that our listeners, which are a lot of SMB owners.

What are the things that give me like three to five tips that they should be looking at their own marketing strategy right now that could be a benefit to them?

Katie Smith: 00:21:27

Sure. I think it's important to invest in a brand architecture, a brand identity that will differentiate you from somebody else.

And within that is who are your customers. You don't want to isolate anybody. Right. You feel like you should talk to everybody. That's not what customer identification.

Does your ideal client or Persona or whatever term use the tool for you to have clear communication. If you are trying to talk to everybody, your message gets diluted and doesn't really resonate with anybody.

But if you have one ideal customer or person that you're talking to is to create a really clear message. That message could resonate with people. Outside of that, if somebody outside of your customer Persona comes in, you're not going to deny them work.

But be clear, concise and connect with that identity. I think is really important and that can feel intimidating to take that risk.

Business owner, one of the hardest things to do is to clearly identify who you're talking to. But it is well worth it.

Freddy D: 00:22:34

What else?

Katie Smith: 00:22:35

So the next thing to do is build your customer journey. We know that unless you're an emergency plumber, people are going to take some time to make a decision to interact with your business.

You need to understand, you know, what that process looks like. Do you have a high ticket item? Sales journey is long. You're going to have longer steps in that customer journey.

If you are more of an impulse buy, it's going to be shorter. But you need to understand what that journey looks like from first discovering who you are to wanting to buy.

You know, the customer journey, think about it as like you're building a map for them through the forest and you need to give them the right information at the right time. For instance, if you are selling appliances, it's kind of like a longer term thing.

People might be in an emergency situation, but they're going to take some time to think about it. So when they first come to your store, you don't give them all the sales information all at once.

You've got to gauge where they are, give them a little bit more information. You have to trickle your information down through their journey so that they don't feel overwhelmed.

You don't leave them to follow the journey on their own because they might leave and go to someone else. You have to figure out what kinds of information people need at different stages of their decision making process. I think that's really key.

And what that does is it helps you clearly understand what kinds of marketing you need and how much money to spend. And it really eliminates that feeling of just throwing things out into the air and hoping that they work.

Having that clear roadmap helps you identify exactly where you need to spend your marketing dollars, what kind of contracting work you might need, and make sure that your people are interacting with you in a good way. Feel supported throughout the whole journey.

Freddy D: 00:24:33

Oh, absolutely. You got to track your ROI and see if that marketing is generating what you're hoping it should be generating.

And if not, you've got to be able to pivot. Say, okay, we tried this approach and we got X result. We were really after Z. So we need to tweak it so that we get to Z first. We gotta get the Y.

So we're gonna tweak it and improve it. Now we're at Y. All right, now tweak it again and then you get to the end result.

But because the first time you don't always hit a home run, you might strike out, you might get on base, you might get thrown out but you gotta keep tweaking and tracking what's happening within the marketing messaging.

Katie Smith: 00:25:18

Yeah, exactly. That's really important. And with roi, you can track it.

You need to track it at different stages of that journey so you can pinpoint exactly what's working and exactly what's not working. And then you can make that decision with a much clearer confidence.

Freddy D: 00:25:37

Yeah. Because the data gives you the direction and the roadmap to be able to do the tweaks that you need to tweak.

I remember when I was in the software industry, one of our marketing person was in charge once we had success, where the inquiries for the product started to peak. He shared that with everybody. So you also got to share all that information with the team. It's working. We're getting traction, we're studying.

Because then that gets everybody fired up. And you need that energy to say, okay, cool, this is working.

Everybody starts to have a different mindset and it just changes the whole dynamics of the company.

Katie Smith: 00:26:18

Yeah, it's part of that transparency piece that's really important. You have to think about your external marketing, but you also need to think about your internal marketing.

Freddy D: 00:26:27

Yeah. And sometimes you got to do the internal marketing first before you can get to the external.

Because like we talked earlier, you got to get to the buy in. I was running a company two years ago and we had to transform because they were flatlined for about 20 years. We grew at a million in one year.

And this is small dollar transactions, but we started out with who our audience was, like you said earlier. And then we crafted the messaging of who we are. It wasn't who we were or who we were trying to be. Because if you're trying, you're not there.

And were is past tense. So this is who we are. Then we need to act like who we are. And so that started changing the mindset in the company.

And then we said, okay, if we're the premier company in this market space, then our messaging has to present ourselves as the premier company in that market space. So like you were saying, it needs to encompass the whole aspect of it because that changes the mindset of everybody. That changes the messaging.

And you start acting like who you are.

Katie Smith: 00:27:48

Yep.

Freddy D: 00:27:49

And the game just gets elevated to a whole other level.

Katie Smith: 00:27:53

Yeah.

The other thing you're touching on here is that if we don't clarify the company is who, then you're going to have a slightly different idea, I'm going to have a slightly different idea, and that guy over there is going to have a slightly different idea, and then it's just going to get kind of murky.

If your employees can't clearly identify who your company is and what they are to anybody at a dinner party, then you've got a little bit of a problem there. Because if your employees can't clearly explain it, how are your customers going to know who you are?

Freddy D: 00:28:28

There's zero chance. And it goes back to the rowing team.

Your boat's going to be going like this, trying to figure out how to get to there, because everybody's rowing, not in synchronization, at their own speed, their own thoughts, and it's going to be a disaster.

Katie Smith: 00:28:42

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:28:43

And that's where you see companies. You know, you wonder why all of a sudden some companies just skyrocket and everybody's having fun. I think of, again, I tie things to sports a lot.

But you look at the super bowl, one team was having fun. They were all in sync. They were having a blast. They were laughing and everything else.

And the other team, you looked at it and they were discombobulated. I mean, they were stressed. You could see the stress in their faces. They were unhappy. They were making mistakes.

Everything else, because they weren't all on the same page. And they didn't believe who they were anymore. And the other team believed they were the champions, so they acted like champions. And guess what?

We're champions.

Katie Smith: 00:29:31

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:29:32

Same in business. Yep, same in business. Katie, it's been a great conversation as we come to the end here. How can people find you?

Katie Smith: 00:29:45

You can find my website, which is followthewildpath.com I really like showing up on LinkedIn. It's where I have all my conversations. I can talk marketing forever.

My name is Katie Smith, so you have to search Katie Smith Wild Pack and then connect. I love having conversations, meeting new people, so that's really where it's all happening for me.

Freddy D: 00:30:05

And then do you have an offer for our listeners by chance?

Katie Smith: 00:30:09

Sure. If you reach out, you can mention this podcast and I'll give you one hour free consulting.

Freddy D: 00:30:17

Wow, that's very generous of you.

Katie Smith: 00:30:18

Yes.

Freddy D: 00:30:19

We'll make sure that we have that into the show. Notes for our audience, Great conversation and a lot of good insights for our listeners.

Appreciate your time, Katie, and we look forward to continuing the conversation down the road.

Katie Smith: 00:30:33

Thank you. It was great chatting with you today.

Freddy D: 00:30:36

Pleasure. Hey, superfan superstar Freddie D. Here.

Before we wrap, here's your three A playbook power move to attract ideal clients, turn them into advocates, and accelerate your business success. Here's a top insight from today's episode. If your brand doesn't clearly define who it's for and why it matters, your message disappears in the noise.

Clarity is your competitive advantage. So here's your business growth action step.

Build one page brand architecture that names your ideal customer, defines your tone of voice, and lists the words your brand does and doesn't use. Then share it with every contractor and team member to align messaging instantly.

If today's conversation sparked an idea for you, or if you know of a fellow business leader who could benefit, share it with them and grab the full breakdown in the show. Notes let's accelerate together and create business superfans who champion your brand.