 We have connected with a couple of distributor stores. We started with smaller stores that only have one location, maybe two locations, and then we would contact installers directly, introduce ourselves, and actually send samples of our products so people could actually get a good grasp for what it is and how they could benefit from using it. Welcome to the Smarter Building Materials Marketing Podcast, helping you find better ways to grow leads, sales, and outperform your competition. All right, welcome to Smarter Building Materials Marketing, where we believe your online presence should be your best salesperson. Zach is out, so I'm flying solo, but don't worry, we've got an excellent guest to help us keep the conversation rolling. We are really excited to welcome Amanda Sizemore. She's wearing many hats in her current position. She is the Business Development and Marketing Director for AmeriCote. Amanda, thanks so much for your time. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much. I am looking forward to it. Thank you guys for having me. Yeah, it's going to be great. So before we dive in, Amanda, why don't you just introduce yourself, tell our listeners a little bit about your background, and a little bit about AmeriCote. Okay, so my background is mostly in sales and marketing. I've done several different positions and work in several different industries over the years, but sales and marketing has kind of been the core. With AmeriCote, I actually helped launch this company with a proprietary product called AmeriCove, and that is a cove base used for industrial flooring applications such as apopties and urethanes. You find a lot of it in commercial buildings, government facilities, restaurants, coliseums, things along those lines, and I've been working with them for about five years in developing the AmeriCote product. The original designer of precast cove base is actually the designer of AmeriCote, so I worked with him the past few years of his life before his passing and perfecting the precast cove base product and bringing it to market under the AmeriCote name as AmeriCove base. Very cool. I mean, there's so much that goes into a successful product launch, but you weren't just part of the launch, it sounds like you were part of the product development process. Is that right? Yes, so there was a lot of learning curves and a lot of trial and error in our research and development, so we worked very hard for a few years in getting the product right. We've worked with a lot of installers and listened to the problems and issues they had with the current cove base that was on the market, so we just tried to address all of those issues and bring something better to the market, and it's taken us some time, and we did a launch for the AmeriCove base around the end of 2019, right before coronavirus hit and kind of shut down the whole country, so since everything is kind of open back up, we've certainly got it out there on the market and seeing a lot of growth daily, so it's very exciting. That's incredible, so can you tell me a little bit about what your, you know, go-to-market or product launch strategy looked like for AmeriCove? So we did a very grassroots method, and what we did because our product is so carefully manufactured is also a hand-poured product. It's not made by machine, so we actually look at every single piece and make sure there's no flaws. We want everything to be consistent because we need a nice uniform look. We don't want half of our floor to be one height and one have to be another direction, so we worked very hard on the research and development. We worked through all of that, and it took us probably about a year and a half to get the product ready. And then what type of marketing or sales collateral or strategies did you have to help get the word out there? So since it took us so long with the research and development, we didn't want to have a huge explosion of tons of orders coming in for this hand-poured product that we are paying so much attention to because it takes a lot of hands and a lot of attention there. We have connected with a couple of distributor stores. We started with smaller stores that only have one location, maybe two locations, and then we would contact installers directly, introduce ourselves, and actually send samples of our products so people could actually get a good grasp for what it is and how they could benefit from using it. Now that we have worked through this for a year or two, we've worked out our kinks, we've got our production, we've got plenty of inventory and stock. We have some bigger distributors, so PPG is actually distributing our product now, guaranteed supply. They have about 13 or 15 locations in the southeast of the U.S. They move quite a bit of products. So that has been really good for us. That's probably been something that's helped us a lot being a small marketing department here, just having those distributors and all of their sales reps reach out to the clientele. That also may not be aware of our product because there's a lot of people that are in the industry that aren't aware that that's an option or new people that are coming to the industry that is really just a good product that they can benefit from while they're kind of perfecting their skills. Let's fast forward to today. It sounds like a ton of work went into that, but as you mentioned, you guys launched right before COVID hit and it's been an interesting couple of months here in our industry, a couple of years. So tell me what this year looks like for AmeriCode. Is there anything that you guys are focusing on or specific goals that you're going after in 2022? Well, we are really just focusing more on spreading the word of AmeriCode, AmeriCode and doing more branding. Now that we've got our product where we wanted, we've got our clients, they love it. We've had no issues over the past couple of years. So we're ready to kind of do a bigger push. So you'll probably be seeing some more online marketing. Digital marketing is definitely the key for pretty much every industry this day in age. So we're going to do a lot more of that and hopefully we'll be kind of the household name, if you will, for the industry. Are there any particular channels or strategies that you could share that you're investing in or that you really believe is going to bring specific results? So yes, we do have a couple of things that we're going to be doing. We're going to be doing some online advertising. We have partnered with Concrete Decor, a gentleman named Bent Mickelson. He has been in the industry for probably 20 years or so. So he works on the concrete side. He also works in the flooring side and he has this great newsletter that he does online. And we have our product that we're going to start doing some launching and some marketing through there, since it's certainly tailored to our industry specifically. Oh, that's really cool. So you're really going the route of focusing on trade publications and trade magazines to get in front of a more targeted audience? Absolutely. And one thing we are going to be building on as well is we're kind of starting to focus more on our digital presence. So you'll probably see some social media coming along that might be a little bit more interactive and fun and showing a lot of our code-based projects that are coming through. So I have to ask TikTok or no TikTok? I think we're going to give it a try. Yes, do it. That's awesome. So I'm just going to go ahead and say my kids do TikTok. That's the only reason I have it on my phone. So this is going to be fun and interesting. I might have to ask them for a few tips. They just might think that you're cool. Like that might happen. Maybe for a few minutes. Right. It's fleeting. That's a fleeting stance with kids for sure. But that's really incredible. We're seeing so much more traction on TikTok for B2B, really even for building materials. I'm interested. Is there anyone on social or on TikTok that you guys are following or looking to emulate or anything that's kind of caught your attention there? We do have a lot of our clients that have used TikTok as well as Instagram. And that's where they get about 90 to 100% of some of their business. So it's certainly a good avenue for marketing. And I think especially that's where everybody is these days. If they're looking for something, they go straight to their phone. And if they have free time, they're probably on TikTok. Wait, you have clients. And when you say clients, I'm assuming you mean installers? Yes. You have clients that are getting 90 to 100% of their business through social? Yes, ma'am. I don't know if you know, but could you talk about what does that process look like for them? It's very simple. So a lot of them are smaller companies, residential garage floor installation companies that are finding that it works very well for them particularly. And what that kind of looks like is they just go in and take their videos before and after, take pictures of their processes and just share them. And that's where they get all of their business from everybody that sees that and their friends that share it and reach out to them on that platform. So someone sees the garage floor that they just poured, sends them a DM in Instagram and says, like, Hey, I also need my garage floor updated or I need help with some type of flooring project. And that's, I mean, they're just literally landing business. We live in the future. And it's pretty nice. I'm like, you don't even need a website these days. That's so very, very interesting. Well, that's really cool. Amanda, let me ask you this. You mentioned a couple of really interesting things that I'm sure you've got great advice on. If you what advice would you give to manufacturer going into some type of hefty product launch like you experienced with America? Just be ready because you're going to find issues that you didn't foresee. So don't get discouraged if it takes longer than expected. And definitely just you need to tailor your processes from the beginning. Have a good idea on what your vision is for your products, what you're willing to accept and what you're not willing to accept. And just to make sure that it's going to fulfill the needs that you're trying to bring to market, I think that's probably the most important thing. What happened in your product launch process that was surprising for you that kind of caught maybe caught you guys off guard and you had to go back to the drawing table a little bit? Well, our product is made from a polyurethane resin blend. So one of the issues or challenges, I'll say not so much issue because this was in the beginning was finding the right blend of resins to get our product to be very durable, but yet very flexible so that it can move along with ceilings and walls and easy for the installers to use so that they're not basically having to take the product and recreate it to tailor their needs. It's very versatile. Interesting. And I know you mentioned you also did some kind of customer research before getting started so that your product was solving problems with existing products in the market. Did I understand that correctly? Yes. So some of the products on the market currently, some of the issues the installers were having was inconsistent sizing. The pieces not being the same size. One thing I've heard a lot of is basically having to remove the pieces, alter them, and then reinstall them, which is basically not the idea of the product. And then the other thing was, is just finding a product that's affordable and will serve its purpose, but doesn't need anything additional like getting fancy adhesives. Just something that's not going to break the bank, get the job done, and basically be more help than work. We want to make your job easier. That's what we're here to do. That's awesome. That's awesome. Well, Amanda, this has been excellent. If one of our listeners wants to get in touch with you, what would be the best way for them to do that? The best way really is by phone or email, but you can go to our websites. We do have a Facebook page up as well, but they can reach us online at americotesllc.com or americotes, a-l-e-r-i-c-o-t-e dot net. And then by phone at 336-706-6775. We pride ourselves on great customer service as well. So anytime of the day is okay to call. Excellent. Amanda, thank you so much for your time and for our listeners. If you enjoyed this and want more great information like it, head to venvio.com slash podcast to subscribe. Until next time, I'm Beth Papnecolov with Smarter Building Materials Marketing, and we will see you on our next episode.