We hate to say it, but marketing isn’t always glamorous. All products and services, from shiny objects to mundane essentials, need promotion to reach their target audiences and build relationships with them that drive sales and brand loyalty. And with enough creativity, it’s completely possible.

Just ask Jessica Wagner, Lindsay Ojeda, and Mike Schuster. These three marketing professionals have marketed everything from sheet metal to energy efficiency and more, and done so with clever tactics that have impact.

Want to learn more about how they’ve done it? Join your fellow marketers February 4 at 8:30 AM at MYArts for the panel, “From Functional to Fabulous: Marketing Everyday Products”. Jessica, Lindsay, and Mike will be there to answer all the questions you may have and share tips they’ve found success in. Plus, you’ll get to connect with other local marketers over a complementary coffee, juice, and continental breakfast. What better way to start the day?

In the meantime, get a preview of what to expect at the event in the Q&A conversation below with Jessica, Lindsay, and Mike:

What to expect: Q&A with Jessica Wagner, Lindsay Ojeda, and Mike Schuster

1. AMA: In your presentation, I know you’ll be telling us all about your marketing experience, but specifically how you’ve successfully marketed everyday, sometimes ultra-niche or seemingly mundane products or services. Tell us a little about yourself, your current marketing niche, and how you came to find that niche.

Jessica Wagner: I’ve been in marketing 20 years this year – saying that makes me feel old! When I graduated with my marketing degree way back when, I really didn’t have any idea what I wanted to market – I just knew I liked the idea of developing tactics to get people to do what I wanted them to, well more like what the company wants them to do. My first marketing job was at a civil engineering firm and a lot of my work was focused on proposals, the occasional conference, and a lot of miscellaneous projects. I learned there just how hard it is to market something not a lot people can actually see and what they do see may not be the most exciting thing – a new county road, a water tower, sewer lines, you get the picture. Looking back, I learned that it’s all about the people and the results (a safer road, safe drinking water, etc). After that I fell into energy efficiency with Wisconsin’s Focus on Energy program and energy efficiency is where I’ve been ever since. I’ve pretty much come full circle now that I work at an engineering firm focused on energy efficiency and decarbonization. We work with two main audiences – utilities and local governments to research/design/administer/implement energy efficiency programs and the direct end users, like manufacturers and higher ed.

Lindsay Ojeda: Absolutely! I’m Lindsay Ojeda, and I am the Director of Marketing and New Business Leads at Maysteel, a custom metal enclosure manufacturer. We fabricate custom enclosures to our customers specifications, and they are essential to industries like utilities, data centers and renewable energy. I’ve always been drawn to the challenge of marketing B2B products that aren’t inherently “flashy” but are mission critical. My journey to this niche came from a deep appreciation for problem-solving—taking complex, highly engineered products and finding ways to connect them with the right audiences by highlighting their outcomes, not just their features. Over time, I’ve refined our marketing strategy to focus on showing how our solutions empower industries and drive real-world applications, while also incorporating the “people factor.”

Mike Schuster: With over 30 years of experience in marketing and operations, I spent the bulk of my career helping family-owned businesses navigate the complexities and challenges of selling products and services in niche markets such as theatre, crafts and collectibles.

While in a career transition, I realized I didn’t want to keep working in the system and simply help another company make money. After seeing entrepreneurs in my community feeling overwhelmed and stuck by ineffective marketing, I launched FiddleSmart Marketing in 2018 to offer tailored solutions that help small business entrepreneurs articulate their value and use marketing to build authentic connections with their audience.

2. AMA: In your experience, what’s a tip for identifying and connecting with a niche target audience that you think should be talked about more?

Jessica Wagner: Connecting with a niche audience in professional services like engineering, comes down to really understanding them well, understanding their motivations, and selling outcomes. There’s a lot of different motivations for a business, like a manufacturer, to want to save energy or decarbonize – lower utility bills, local building performance standards that could result in fines, outdated/unsafe equipment, or meeting corporate goals for sustainability efforts. But there’s a ton to learn about your target before you approach them to spend thousands and thousands of dollars – a data center doesn’t care about the same things a manufacturer does. 

Lindsay Ojeda: One tip that should be discussed more is the importance of leveraging subject matter expertise within your organization. Your engineers, ops team and sales teams are goldmines of information about your niche audience’s pain points and needs. Engaging with them and turning their insights into content—whether it’s technical blogs, video explainers or customer stories—helps create messaging that resonates deeply. It’s not just about demographics; it’s about understanding the challenges your audience faces daily and positioning your product as the solution in their language.

Mike Schuster: Taking the time to get to know the audience and, maybe more importantly, the products.

3. AMA: It can be easy to feel uneasy or even a little stumped at the prospect of marketing an everyday object or service. What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone trying to market a product that’s not traditionally seen as “cool” or “exciting”?

Jessica Wagner: Good question! In my work, we do a lot of marketing on behalf of our clients. Too many times in working with utilities or government to promote their energy efficiency programs, we get hung up on the details of how a customer can participate in order to get a rebate – equipment specifications, business size (sq footage and revenue), which contractors can or can’t perform the work, and how does the application get filled out. Instead we should be focused on what the customer gets out of participating – a path forward to saving energy/decarbonizing, a more comfortable and safe work environment, positive PR for their efforts, less equipment maintenance, etc. It’s hard to make someone care about the outcome if all we talk about is the process of getting there. Car commercials don’t focus on the time spent at the dealership, doing research, test drives, filling out paperwork, negotiating – they focus on what you get at the end, a new car.

Lindsay Ojeda: My advice? Shift your focus from the product itself to the problems it solves and the value it brings to the people who need it most. People might not get excited about a metal fabrication (unlike myself who lives for the industry 😊), but they do care about uptime, security and reliability—things our enclosures help ensure. By focusing on the bigger picture and how your product fits into industry trends or solves mission-critical challenges, you can turn even the most mundane product into a compelling story.

Mike Schuster: Leave behind your definition of “cool” or “exciting.” And get curious. There’s an interesting, and potentially “cool” or “exciting,” story in everything. You simply need to find it.

4. AMA: Can you share a sneak peek of one of the tips attendees will learn at our event?

Jessica Wagner: Hmmm…..I’d say one tip would be, as a marketer you should immerse yourself in the world of your clients. It’s really hard to sell a niche service/”uncool product” if you don’t understand them and the nitty gritty of the industry. I know way more about heat pumps than I probably care to but it’s a lot more satisfying to me to understand the ins and outs of them so I can talk intelligently to a potential client – or drive my kids batty, but it’s a win win either way! 🙂

Lindsay Ojeda: Sure! One key takeaway I’ll be sharing is the power of storytelling in B2B marketing. Even in technical industries, people connect with stories—whether it’s showcasing how your product helped a customer overcome a major challenge or how it’s shaping the future of an industry. Authenticity and real-world application go a long way in making your product stand out, even in a crowded or seemingly mundane market.

Mike Schuster: It ties into the one above. But “find and tell the story.”

See You February 4 at MYArts!

If you haven’t yet, register here. We can’t wait to learn and network with you.

Location: MYArts, 1055 E Mifflin St, Madison, WI 53703

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