00:00:00 Speaker 1
This episode of The Energy Pipeline is sponsored by Caterpillar Oil & Gas. Since the 1930s, Caterpillar has manufactured engines for drilling, production, well service and gas compression. With more than 2,100 dealer locations worldwide, Caterpillar offers customers a dedicated support team to assist with their premier power solutions.

00:00:27 Speaker 2
Welcome to The Energy Pipeline Podcast with your host, KC Yost. Tune in each week to learn more about industry issues, tools, and resources to streamline and modernize the future of the industry, whether you work in oil and gas or bring a unique perspective, this podcast is your knowledge transfer hub. Welcome to The Energy Pipeline.

00:00:51 KC Yost
Hello everyone, and welcome to this episode of The Energy Pipeline Podcast. Today we'll be discussing digital marketing in the energy industry. Our guests are Brandy Roberts, an old friend of mine, and Meagan McDow, a new friend of mine from MVP Digital World. So welcome to The Energy Pipeline Podcast ladies.

00:01:09 Brandy Roberts
Thanks KC.

00:01:10 Meagan McDow
Thanks for having us.

00:01:11 Brandy Roberts
Yeah, thanks for having us.

00:01:13 KC Yost
Great to have you guys here. Thanks so much for taking the time to visit with us today. So before we get started talking about digital marketing and understand, I talk about the first technology I ever saw was when I was a kid and my uncle had a Royal typewriter that had not only a black ribbon, but a red ribbon as well. So that's the generation that I'm in, and you guys are light years ahead of us with digital marketing. Anyway, before we get into that, let's take a few minutes to talk about your background and share it with our listeners what you've been doing. So Brandy, let's start with you. I've known you for well over 15 years through the Pipeliners Association of Houston. I know you're from Thibodaux, Louisiana. I lived in Homer for quite a while, so I know exactly where that is. And anyway, tell us a little bit about yourself, please.

00:02:06 Brandy Roberts
Absolutely. But first, I want to thank you for having us. We're really excited to be here to share some insights about digital marketing with your audience. I feel like digital marketing can be very confusing and a lot of times it gets confused with a sales or business development role. I'm really excited about introducing some digital marketing aspects that's important to today's business in your space. I love what you do. I feel like these pipeline podcasts are so important. I've learned so many different aspects about the industry that I didn't know previously. So I think you're doing a great job, and thank you for having us.

00:02:40 KC Yost
Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

00:02:42 Brandy Roberts
So I have been involved in the pipeline industry for the last 17 years. I got started in a business development role and really served in a sales perspective trying to help mostly pipeline and facility construction companies grow and develop new business. Every single role that I've had, I served in some form of marketing capacity because we never had the luxury of having a marketing person on our team. I've been heavily enthralled and passionate about my involvement in the Pipeline Association in the Houston area, but I've also championed and supported other pipeline associations in San Antonio, West Texas and the Permian, out in Louisiana for their association and the Oklahoma associations as well. So a lot of people know me from that. But yeah, so that's pretty much my background and why I'm here today.

00:03:40 KC Yost
Well, just to make sure, you're a past officer of the Houston Association?

00:03:45 Brandy Roberts
Yes.

00:03:45 KC Yost
And past chairman of the scholarship committee.

00:03:49 Brandy Roberts
Yes, sir. I've ran the golf tournaments for about five or six years. I've served in pretty much every volunteer role capacity. I have been involved in the fishing tournament probably about two or three years after its inception. I helped get started the PYP for the young professionals. I championed and supported Jesse Vasquez whenever he started the veterans program for the pipeliners.

00:04:19 KC Yost
Right. I remember that.

00:04:20 Brandy Roberts
I helped bring the association from a paper process to conducting business to a digital landscape and helped develop and use the app that the Pipeliners Association has. So served in a lot of volunteer roles and capacities.

00:04:36 KC Yost
Well, I just wanted to make sure the listeners know that you took guys my age kicking and screaming into the digital world and the pipeliners. So that's why I'm so tickled to have you here. So thanks for being here.

00:04:48 Brandy Roberts
Absolutely.

00:04:49 KC Yost
Meagan representing the Aggies. inaudible?

00:04:53 Meagan McDow
inaudible all the way.

00:04:55 KC Yost
Yeah. So explain this. I got a couple of things. One, agriculture and communication and journalism. What a cool degree mix.

00:05:07 Meagan McDow
Yes, sir. For the first three semesters of being in that, it was, "So you're learning how to talk to cows?" So nobody really understood what that meant. So actually at the time, there was no communications degree at A&M when I was in school. And so I actually am very proud to say I have a bachelor of science in communications and journalism. So it's interesting. But yeah, I started out in animal science when I got to A&M, and then I quickly pivoted into ag com and journalism mostly because I wanted some opportunities with Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and their close relationship that they had with internships, but also because I was looking more into a role that would emphasize my skills in photography and writing and more creative aspects of my life. So really enjoyed my time there. But yeah, basically I served as editor in chief of the magazine while I was there. I honed in on podcasting and radio skills, but I also spent a lot of time with Rodeo Houston and interning with them before I interned with Troy Construction with business development.

00:06:07 KC Yost
Shout out. Shout out.

00:06:08 Meagan McDow
Yeah, I was an intern a long time ago. I won't say when, but yeah, I was a business development intern there. And then I also was a QA intern for DCP Midstream at their Goliad gas plant when it was still under construction. So started my roots in oil and gas and here I am today, just in a new capacity in the marketing realm. So it's been very exciting.

00:06:27 KC Yost
That's great. That's great. We did get to talk a little bit before the podcast recording started about your connection with Troy Construction and all of that, and David Dacus and I were connected at the hip for, well, what was it? 1998 through 2002, 2003, something like that, working on the Houston chip channel projects, which was a great, great time for me. So shout out to them. If you see those people, please tell them I said hi. All right.

00:06:56 Meagan McDow
Absolutely.

00:07:00 KC Yost
And glad to have you here. So glad you're here.

00:07:03 Meagan McDow
Glad to be here.

00:07:05 KC Yost
So let's look at this from an engineer's perspective. Engineers are engineers. Let's talk about the difference between sales and marketing. What is the difference between sales and marketing? Can you give me a two-minute synopsis?

00:07:23 Brandy Roberts
Yeah, sure. I'll take this one. Marketing basically focuses on creating awareness about your products and services. The goal is typically to attract potential customers to let other people know what you do by communicating that and using content to display those products and services in a way where a lot of people have access and reach to that. Sales is more concentrating on actually turning leads into actual customers. It's about getting opportunities, nurturing those leads up and till you are closing a deal. So it's more from prospecting to the close of some form of deal for customers, but you don't really close a lot of deals from a marketing standpoint, especially in our industry, not million dollar deals anyway.

00:08:17 KC Yost
Yeah, I understand. So I got my MBA in 1983, so it's really quite outdated, I'm sure. But we used to talk about the idea of name recognition versus name recall. The idea was that if you hear a company's name three times, MVP, MVP, MVP, you'll recognize it the next time you hear it. Name recall, you have to hear it, I think they said seven times was the rule of thumb at the time. So the marketing people's job is to work on that name recognition, name recall, and then the salesperson's job is to go out and sign that contract. Am I simplifying it too much or is that pretty close?

00:09:02 Brandy Roberts
Yeah. Meagan, what do you think?

00:09:05 Meagan McDow
That's very close.

00:09:05 Brandy Roberts
I think that's great.

00:09:06 Meagan McDow
Yeah, and I think part of that is too is also the brand story and who they are as a company, who works for them, what exactly can they bring to the table that other competitors in their industry cannot? That's a big thing to be discussing on marketing is not only your services and your products, but basically providing a voice of authority in the space and differentiating yourself from your competitors, but also a little bit more of the humanization of the brand and understanding who they're going to be working with, especially for the younger generations, they care a lot about that. And that's why it's so important to have those pieces of content on different channels, social media, your website, having better search results on Google, having a podcast. That's where they're going to be looking for that information because a lot of them really care about who they're working with, what they represent, what charities they're going to be contributing to in their local areas and supporting their community. It's just a whole other side of things outside of promoting your products and services as well.

00:10:00 Brandy Roberts
Yeah, a lot of people think about the company name and they're not even putting together that your company name is your brand. It's what comes to mind when people see your logo or they hear your company name. That's what the digital marketing aspect and how important it is and essential for your business because it's almost like introducing yourself to the world. And when they see that logo or they hear that company name, then they associate what products and services you offer to your brand.

00:10:30 KC Yost
Okay, good. Good. So how did you guys get started in this? How did MVP come about? And how did you guys get together and create this company and what you guys are doing now? Give me some background. I want more than an elevator speech.

00:10:51 Brandy Roberts
Okay. So MVP was basically birthed from my years of serving in a sales position and not getting the marketing support that I needed. And so every sales role that I served in my question to my direct report was, "Who is helping us on the marketing side, because I don't have time to do this? How many more deals can I be closing? How many more meetings can I book if I have someone else taking care of the marketing aspect?" And that at the time was almost a luxury. It's no longer a luxury in today's business world. It's a necessity. And the more this digital world evolves and the more the industry is seeing an influx of these younger pipeline professionals who are digital natives, they have grown up with the internet and social media their whole lives, the more I started realizing that there's a huge gap in the need. And that's when-

00:11:56 KC Yost
Are you saying that the generation that's out there now doesn't get excited when there's a red ribbon on the Royal typewriter? Oh, my.

00:12:05 Brandy Roberts
Typewriter.

00:12:05 Meagan McDow
KC, I have no idea what you're even talking about.

00:12:12 KC Yost
Okay. Sorry. Didn't mean to interrupt you.

00:12:14 Brandy Roberts
No, no, absolutely. No, but one of the main things is trying to identify the younger generation and what their needs are and how they are changing the way we currently conduct business in our industry. And with my sales background, I knew that everything that I had learned along the way was self-taught because through my positions, I would have to take off my sales hat, okay, now it's time for me to put on my marketing hat. And then my sales role was getting the attention that it deserved and vice versa. Okay, now I need to take off this marketing hat and put back on my sales hat. But Meagan was a huge advancement in me starting MVP because she does have that marketing background and she's also from that younger generation. And so we have come together to build MVP in a way where we are not only targeting the older generation to help them understand what digital marketing really is and why it's so important in their business. But also for Meagan to have a voice of authority to talk to the younger pipeline professionals who don't communicate the same way and those historical B2B, I'm going to book a meeting, shake your hand, look you in the eye, old school relationship driven type of way to do business.

00:13:36 Meagan McDow
And there's still something to be said for that networking strategy. There's still a huge portion of people who are in the industry that are going to be networking face-to-face, making phone calls.

00:13:45 Brandy Roberts
Absolutely.

00:13:46 Meagan McDow
That's going to still be a strong, prevalent communication channel. The problem is that you're going to have a time where a lot of those people have moved into the Millennial generation or into the Gen Z generation as that's going to progressively happen through the years, and where are they spending most of their time? Because the average user spends over almost three hours a day on social media. And if you're looking at the Gen Z and the Millennials, it's even more than that. And that's where they are. That's where they spend their time. And that's just social media as an example. They also are looking at Google when they do looking up the company, whether they're interested in being hired or they're interested in even combating PR. If they're seeing bad PR about a company, and there's no proactive content that's being put out by that company to either educate or highlight their combating messages for that PR, which we know the media can go crazy. I won't go down that rabbit hole. But there's a lot of information out there that as part of their initiatives to target and communicate and network with that industry in that generation, it's important to have that information. So SEO is a part of this too, not just social media, which when I say SEO, those who don't know, that means search engine optimization.

00:14:53 KC Yost
Thank you.

00:14:53 Meagan McDow
Which in a nutshell is how you show up on Google. And honestly, 75% of people don't scroll past the first page on Google. So you better be up there.

00:15:02 KC Yost
Gotcha. Gotcha. So just to be clear, relationships are still important in making deals in the industry. It's just how you plant the seed for a relationship and then grow that relationship has gone from less pressing the flesh and more digital. Is that-

00:15:28 Meagan McDow
Digital engagement. Yes, sir.

00:15:30 KC Yost
Digital engagement.

00:15:31 Meagan McDow
Yes, sir. That's what I would say. I think that's what you're trying to reference is the engagement side of things, which is just as important as publishing the content. And in fact, I'd say it's more important.

00:15:39 KC Yost
I built a pipeline. Well, I built pipelines all over the world, and when it came to sales or marketing, I always consider myself a pretty good wing man, not a sales or marketing guy. So I'm going to use terminology that's not correct. So I appreciate you clearing me up there. Thank you. Thank you.

00:15:57 Meagan McDow
Absolutely.

00:15:57 Brandy Roberts
No, it is so important. And when you think about, for instance, the operator side of things, you are looking at the Exxons, the Shells. They not only have a strong digital presence online, but it's constant and consistent. They're always putting out the narrative of who they are, what they do, and making sure that when they represent themselves and the team that works in their company, the projects that they execute, that they are taking that offensive approach. So they're not constantly just worried about old school advertising like magazines and newspapers and billboards. It's just making sure that they have a digital landscape so that way they can connect with the younger audience. And so the service companies in our industry, unfortunately they haven't caught onto that. They know they need it KC, but they just don't know how to get it. They don't know what knowledge or experience that they need to bridge that gap. The rest of the larger service companies have jumped on that bandwagon, and you usually will find a marketing manager or a marketing department, small as it may, within these companies. And MVP was basically started to offer part-time digital marketing services to the smaller service companies who really don't even know how to get started, and they can't afford full-time support, but they do know how important it is, and they need it at least on a part-time basis.

00:17:28 KC Yost
What a great strategy to fill that void. Good on you guys. Good on you guys. So now we touched briefly when we were talking about sales versus marketing and all of that kind of thing, we were touching on the importance of marketing. Is there anything else you want to elaborate on when it comes to talking about the importance of marketing?

00:17:51 Meagan McDow
I mean, yeah, just back to the digital presence. So as you're building those relationships, I'll go back to the fact that it's more than just the face-to-face interactions at events or conferences and things like that. The brand visibility is where you're going to get that trust from the audience, where you're going to build that rapport and really get them hooked on your brand and believing in your services after that. So it's really starting in a different phase of that process, but also the young professionals are relying on those platforms for networking and decision-making. So that's something where you're having to understand their journey. So that's the biggest thing that I can bring to the table is that was my journey when I was looking into internships, when I was looking into job opportunities. I'm not going to walk into somebody's office and give them my resume and try to do an interview right then and there. I'm going to want to go on their website and submit my resume, hopefully not filling out another form that ask the same questions that are on the resume, but that's a whole nother story. But yeah, those first impressions are super important online. And like Brandy said, people know that they need it. They've already been convinced of that. It's just that the proficiency isn't there, and it's a lot of hard work, and it's something that takes a lot of research and a lot of time and investment to even understand how it works, much less create the content that you know is going to work because the algorithm itself can be a monster. And you could see something that works for somebody and it doesn't work for you, and you give up pretty quickly because you've put a lot of work and time and effort into it, and it just seems to flop every time. And that happens quite a bit. So not having those resources to test different strategies, to really dive into the analytics and understand what that means and make adjustments to that strategy is super important.

00:19:31 Brandy Roberts
And I would like to note too, that a lot of people in our industry is only conducting their business in that traditional B2B relationship driven way, and that's great. That's always going to be the way our industry operates. We're very close-knit grouped. But what I would like to make sure that I stress to your audience is that that can't be the only way that you're conducting business anymore. And the reason why it's changed so much is basically a numbers game. It's almost like comparing a David and Goliath type of scenario. At MVP Digital World, we have one salesperson, and that's me. And so I think about trying to build my business and get the exposure and the reach that I need in order to successfully do that. And I can only book so many meetings in a week. I only have so much time. It's my most valuable resource, like a lot of other companies, and I can only make so many phone calls. But I think about the expansion of that reach and that exposure if I use content marketing to advertise who we are, what we do, what we stand for, who our values are, what our products and services are, and how we can help other companies be successful growing their business. And that reach goes up to hundreds and then eventually thousands of people. So it's just another way to conduct business. It's casting that wider net that I don't think a lot of people are realizing that they're missing, but I guarantee you if they do that research, they might find out that their competitors are already jumping on and they need to keep up. Companies who have not figured that part out of our business really are missing a huge advantage in sales. From my perspective, we never want to give our competitors an advantage.

00:21:31 KC Yost
So what I'm hearing you say is that an online presence and the visibility, not only does the name recognition, name recall thing that my 1983 MBA told me about, but it builds trust and credibility and gives you a leg up on the people that are not following that process. Is that fair?

00:21:56 Brandy Roberts
Yeah, absolutely.

00:21:57 Meagan McDow
Yes.

00:21:58 Brandy Roberts
Yeah.

00:22:00 KC Yost
So let's go into that a little bit more. Anything else you want to add regarding the visibility and online presence? We've pretty well covered all of that, I think.

00:22:12 Brandy Roberts
Yeah, I think so.

00:22:13 KC Yost
But I wanted to summarize it that way.

00:22:15 Brandy Roberts
Yeah, I just want to make sure everybody understands whether they know it or not, they have an online reputation. And the question is-

00:22:24 Meagan McDow
If you're not ahead of it-

00:22:25 Brandy Roberts
Who's managing it?

00:22:28 KC Yost
Really?

00:22:28 Meagan McDow
That's a very good point.

00:22:29 Brandy Roberts
Yeah. When you hear about a new company, if somebody says, "Hey, have you ever heard of MVP Digital World?" What is usually the first thing that they do when they have not heard of a company before, but they need to find more out about them?

00:22:44 KC Yost
Google them.

00:22:45 Meagan McDow
Yes, sir. Absolutely.

00:22:48 KC Yost
Yeah, absolutely.

00:22:48 Meagan McDow
And what happens when you only have maybe a website that's outdated that you haven't looked into the analytics of or the SEO behind your copy? You're going to have competitors that show up who has the same keywords, the same services, and you may have one piece or one listing on that page, whereas you could have seven. You could have a Facebook one, you could have a YouTube, you could have a LinkedIn. I mean, every single time that you invest your time and efforts into a social media platform, for example, that's a piece of real estate on a Google search engine. If you think about it that way, it's a little bit more simple to understand.

00:23:25 KC Yost
You guys are just broadening my horizons left and right here. I think this is amazing. It's amazing. So do we want to talk a little bit about B2B type discussions and exposure related to marketing budgets? You're saying you're targeting the smaller companies that don't have a huge marketing budget, and you guys work part-time on that. How does that all correlate and do you have some pretty good numbers that show a level of success?

00:24:01 Meagan McDow
Sure. I'll let Brandy speak a little bit about... This is her philosophy, just because she shared this with our team and we've been taking this above and beyond what I believe any other marketing firm offers. But specifically, I think everybody knows if you're in social media that LinkedIn is going to be the platform where you're seeing the most professional engagement, you're seeing the most business conducted if you would say that. But it's the number one platform for B2B networking by far, and it's actually only getting better by the year. And so you can target who you want to target on that platform very easily. You can easily find out who the CEO of your target company is by just searching it, and there they are. You have full access to them to engage with them. So it's unique in that way. It's not something where you're having to research and find out who they are. It's very apparent who they are, and being able to target them is really unique in that aspect. So a lot of the B2B leads across in all industries come from LinkedIn when it comes to digital marketing. It's steadily growing in our industry as we shift more toward digital marketing, but it's one of those areas still where the importance of keeping that up to date as far as your bio, your job history, much less your business company profile. It's like that's the next step. So having that connection of content between not only being a thought leader in your own LinkedIn profile, but also in the secondary business profile as well is so important. And being able to share and engage with the audience, not only from the business side, but also from your professional network that you create on your LinkedIn profile is so important, especially in B2B.

00:25:32 Brandy Roberts
Yeah. Marketing should never replace your salespeople, especially in our industry, our deals and our proposals and the work that we do is too important. And some of our projects are way too big. It's not like, what pair of Nikes should I buy? It's not retail, but marketing from a standpoint of how it compares and works with B2B is you're highly unlikely to close a deal on LinkedIn or through a social media Facebook message board. But what it does is it helps you control that narrative and it shapes what people think about your company, what your products and services are really about. It helps you tell that story about how you got started, how hard you work, how involved you are with industry associations and industry events, how you champion and support community charities, and how your business and the people on your team impact and really make a powerful impact in a way that typically you don't just get from a meeting on a cold call. And these are things that sometimes come out eventually after years of trying to evolve these relationships. It is just a different way to basically support and market what it is you do. And one of the things that I love about our industry is that we are charitable and we are hardworking, and we are resilient, and we are proud to be in the oil and gas industry because unlike what some people think, we can't just snap our fingers and overnight we don't need oil and gas anymore. And having a space to control that narrative and to share that with others, it's really a powerful tool that unfortunately I don't think we take advantage of enough in this industry.

00:27:25 KC Yost
Well, that leads right into one of my questions. A couple of weeks ago, I got to visit with Mike Howard of Howard Energy Partners.

00:27:34 Brandy Roberts
Oh yeah.

00:27:35 KC Yost
And it was a wonderful conversation. I enjoyed it immensely. One of the things that he's pushing hard on is energy advocacy.

00:27:48 Brandy Roberts
I heard that.

00:27:48 KC Yost
And the idea that oil and gas isn't bad.

00:27:56 Brandy Roberts
Right.

00:27:56 KC Yost
I remember getting on an airboat in the Everglades with other tourists, and they went around the boat and asked, "Well, what do you do for a living?" And went around, got to me, and I said an engineer. "Oh, do you build skyscrapers, bridges?" "No, I build pipelines." And no one wanted to talk to me after that.

00:28:22 Brandy Roberts
Yes.

00:28:22 Meagan McDow
Yes.

00:28:22 KC Yost
And it's become a bad name. So what do you see the energy industry needing to do to take the blemish away from, let's face it, yes, I understand what people are trying to do when it comes to renewable energies and that type of thing. But I'm not going to cut off my nose despite my face and say, no more oil or gas production and everything has to come from a wind turbine or a solar panel. So what do you see the industry doing, or what can the industry do to help the younger generation? You mentioned the young pipeline professionals, and what do they need to do to help get the word out that we're not terrible people, we're good people trying to help the industry, trying to help the world?

00:29:23 Brandy Roberts
I'll start off with that KC, because I think it's so important, and I did listen and was so appreciative of the work that you're doing, because that podcast was very interesting, and that was one of the things that piqued my interest right away because it is a challenge. I think it's something that has challenged our industry for years. Meagan will be able to speak more about how the younger generation influences, but what I can say is that we need more of it. I mean, the message that we put out is so important. It matters, especially because we are still today constantly trying to defend what we do. And being assertive in controlling that narrative, and I think that's what Mike was speaking about is so important because the younger generation are deciding where they want to take that education and what career they want to go in. And because of that, our industry is competing for that talent. So that way we continue to grow as an industry for years to come. The problem with, I think that we are not seeing enough of us take a strong offense and shouting out and being proud of who we are, what we do, where we've been, and where we're going. Because let's face it, Texas is the largest growing state on the renewable side of our energy industry, and we should be proud of that. I think we need to embrace that. I think we need to understand that putting the message out that, of course, the energy industry is evolving and is changing every single day. But until we get this Nikola Tesla insight of energy changing, that is going to happen, that is years to come. And this is the time now to start educating not only the younger generation, but everybody across the globe about why it's so important. And content marketing is definitely a way to do that. And I think more both operators and service companies who can change that message and put out more facts about how often it's used, how much we're growing, and stop fighting it and just embrace it instead using that offensive type message. But I know Meagan probably can speak more about the way the younger generation identifies this industry and how they see us for the future and how impactful it is for the changes coming.

00:32:00 Meagan McDow
Yeah, and I would agree with you wholeheartedly that one of the biggest initiatives is what you would call online reputation management, if you want to put it in layman's terms. So what it is, is basically getting ahead of that on the offense or making sure you're being proactive. And a big piece of that, again, like Brandy said, is education. Being that voice of authority, like I mentioned, making sure that you have a leadership in those areas of educating, but also providing real life examples of the sustainability efforts that you have, whether it be for the environment or for the safety of your team. There's a lot of different things that you can do to get ahead of it. I mean, that's what I mentioned earlier is that there's so many things out there that are... A lot of negativity. I mean, that's really what... The bad news sells kind of thing. So making sure that you are ahead of that, you have a way to combat it if somebody Googles you after they see a bad headline. I mean, that's what they do though. I mean, a lot of Millennials do that is they basically say, "Well, let me go do my own research," which I'm not sure if that's something that I'm assuming you guys don't do in your own ways, but there's so much more information out there. And so take that opportunity, be part of that conversation. Don't just kind of wait until it's too late and now you're defending yourself and you're on the defense instead of being on the offense in the beginning and being proactive. So it's very important in this industry, I think a lot of people are starting to realize that it's not all about who you are and what you do, but it's also part of who you are is how you're protecting the environment, what proactivities you're making within your operations out in the field to protect that. And so it's one of those buzzwords, environmental sustainability, things like that. That's something that you'll see a lot of websites and SEO favoring when it comes to search terms for that very reason people are looking for it.

00:33:44 KC Yost
So the idea is to be proactive, stay in front of it, and don't-

00:33:51 Brandy Roberts
Shy away from it.

00:33:52 KC Yost
Read an article, don't read an article that says you've done this, this, and this, and then respond back saying, "No, that's not true, blah, blah, blah." The whole idea is you get ahead of it and say what you're doing before those articles have a chance to manifest themselves.

00:34:13 Meagan McDow
Correct.

00:34:13 KC Yost
Stay proactive.

00:34:13 Brandy Roberts
Yeah. Empowering and embracing all the technologies that are coming out today and trying to show through photos, through videos, through images, that when we go in and we install a pipeline, we're not tearing everything up. We're not trying to damage the environment or the land or how we're conducting this business. I've been able, thankfully, to work with tons of people on the operator and on the service side, and you would not believe how strong, how much integrity some of these pipeliners have when they say, "When we show up to a job site, we're going to leave, when we finish conducting our pipeline work, that property and that land is going to be left better, or at least the way it was when we showed up on that project site." And small messages like that KC, you wouldn't believe that people just don't believe that, like the general masses.

00:35:17 Meagan McDow
And they're already doing it. It's already part of your processes. So it's just a matter of telling that story, and that's where marketing comes in.

00:35:24 Brandy Roberts
Exactly.

00:35:25 KC Yost
Super, super, super. Guess what?

00:35:28 Brandy Roberts
What?

00:35:29 KC Yost
I've thoroughly enjoyed this conversation, but we're running out of time.

00:35:33 Meagan McDow
Likewise.

00:35:33 Brandy Roberts
Yeah.

00:35:34 KC Yost
So anything else you'd like to add before we wrap things up? God, I've enjoyed this conversation so much. Thank you.

00:35:44 Meagan McDow
Yeah, no, I think we have just maybe some actual steps for your audience, if you are looking into expanding your digital marketing efforts and you just don't know where to start. There are some brands who have the resources to hire an in-house marketing professional, so that's definitely a go-to as well. But be sure you do your research on their background and where they've been and who they've represented in the past, but also there's marketing firms like MVP Digital World. So there's two different options that you could look into. But if you were to starting out on your own and you really want to do some research on your own, making sure that you A, have social media platforms, you're looking into your current website. If you don't have one, I would start there. Make sure you have a website. On that website, you do a little bit of research on that SEO that I mentioned, the search engine optimization to make sure that just because you're posting a website doesn't mean it's going to rank on page one of Google. So be friendly with Google. They still are the king when it comes to content searching and searchability online. But then also making sure that you understand once you've created your website, once you've created your social media platforms, are those posts and is that content leading to more visits to your website? I preach this all the time. Social media platforms are very volatile. They've been around for a while, like Meta's been around for a while, which owns Facebook and Instagram. But as you all know, TikTok is a platform that's very popular. However, it is under a lot of scrutiny and it could be gone tomorrow. So my biggest point is when you create your website, that's why I stress it so much, you own that landscape. That is your domain, that is your website that you're hosting, whether it be in-house on your servers or with another developer. That is so important that all of your marketing efforts on social media and otherwise are leading into your website where you can better control that nurturing experience of that customer. Yeah. So I mean, that's the biggest point that I have of where to start.

00:37:33 KC Yost
Cool. Cool.

00:37:35 Brandy Roberts
Yeah. I would like to end by saying over this last decade especially, I've been really passionate about bridging the gap with the younger pipeliners and making sure that we give them all the tools that they need to succeed. But I do want to put out a little challenge out there to the older pipeline professionals, I call us the experienced professionals, to be open-minded. There is a transition happening with the new generation of pipeliners, and that means that their consumer is changing. Their behavior and the way they connect business is not happening the same way. And when you hear about all these experienced professionals that you've worked with for years and you hear about them retiring, it can be devastating because when they retire, they're taking their knowledge and their experience with them. But what most people don't realize is that they're also taking that relationship with them. And I ask my customers all the time, "What are you doing to proactively tap into those younger pipeliners?" Because yeah, we think about safety all the time because it's so important to our business and making sure that that key decision maker on the project site has the knowledge and the experience to back it up. But that retiree is getting replaced with a younger pipeliner. So making sure these younger pipeliners have the tools that they need to succeed, and it is really important and making sure that they are knowledgeable and competent, and that we are tapping into that younger generation and that younger generation lives in this digital world. And that's why it's so important for businesses to stay open-minded and try to figure out how you can connect and support those younger pipeliners through this digital transition that we're experiencing. Don't miss that opportunity. Connect.

00:39:29 KC Yost
You've taken me kicking and screaming all the way into the digital world. So thank you all very much. So again, thank you both so much for a wonderful conversation. I've thoroughly enjoyed this. I appreciate you taking the time to visit with us.

00:39:43 Brandy Roberts
Thank you, KC.

00:39:44 Meagan McDow
It's been a pleasure.

00:39:45 Brandy Roberts
Absolutely. We're so proud. We're so happy to be here.

00:39:48 KC Yost
Good. So if anyone would like to learn more about MVP Digital World, you can find them on the web at mvpdigitalworld.com. It's mvpdigitalworld.com, all spelled out. Thanks to all of you for tuning into this episode of The Energy Pipeline Podcast, sponsored by Caterpillar Oil & Gas. If you have any questions, comments, or ideas for podcast topics like someone suggested this and it's a great conversation, I think, feel free to email me at kc.yost@oggn.com. I also want to thank my producer, Anastasia Willison-Duff and everyone at the Oil and Gas Global Network for making this podcast possible. Find out more about other OGGN podcasts at oggn.com. This is KC Yost saying goodbye for now. Have a great week. Keep that energy flowing through the pipeline.

00:40:44 Speaker 6
Thanks for listening to OGGN, the world's largest and most listened to podcast network for the oil and energy industry. If you liked this show, leave us a review and then go to oggn.com to learn about all our other shows. Don't forget to sign up for our weekly newsletter. This show has been a production of the Oil and Gas Global Network.