About Us – Industrial Marketing, AI Marketing
The Short Version
We’re OnYourMark.com LLC, a Greater Milwaukee web and marketing firm that has worked with manufacturers since 1988. We understand how industrial buyers think, we build websites and marketing systems that speak their language, and we now use AI to deliver more value faster than ever. Manufacturing marketing is what we do best — and frankly, it’s what we love.
How Our Industrial Marketing Started
In 1988, I signed on as an independent contractor representing the Thomas Register of American Manufacturers across Wisconsin. On my very first call — a maker of portable polyurethane foam dispensing equipment and supplies — I spent about an hour learning everything I could about the business and their competition. I was so eager to get started that I couldn’t wait for formal training. The other two Wisconsin reps hadn’t even been hired yet.
I devoted dozens of hours over the next week to preparing a proposal — mapping out exactly what I would do if it were my own business in Thomas Register. When I returned with my recommendations, the client was so impressed that the Thomas Register territory manager received a letter the next day describing how well-prepared I was and how surprised he was to learn I was new. I had let that slip while completing the paperwork for his order. That relationship produced outstanding results for decades. That same client would later become one of our first seven web clients, until the company relocated out of state.
Thomas Register was known as “The Bible of Industry.” It carried over 50,000 product categories. A large metropolitan yellow pages in 1995 had about five thousand headings. Proper placement of advertising dollars by category was both an art and a science. Those skills translated remarkably well to the web — and they still inform how we approach search engine optimization and content strategy today.
The Leap to the Web
By 1994, we were giving internet advice to manufacturers. In 1995, we founded OnYourMark.com LLC and built our first websites. Seven of the first seven sites were for manufacturers. Nineteen of our first twenty-one were likewise industrial marketing flagships. We like to work with people who make things, and with engineers who design them.
From 1995 through 1997, we ran both businesses simultaneously — representing Thomas Register and building the web practice. The hours were relentless. But something became clear very quickly: we could deliver more value to manufacturers for far less cost online than we ever could in print.
When we left Thomas Register at the end of 1997, we predicted the books would be gone in ten years. They were gone in nine.
Our firm became the de facto web supplier for many fellow Thomas Register associates across Wisconsin. We helped them with Thomas Register sales and internet solutions for their clients — a natural extension of the relationships and trust we had built.
Why Manufacturing Marketing Is Straightforward (When You Know the Business)
Here is something we tell every manufacturer we work with: marketing a good manufacturing company is one of the most straightforward things in the world. Industrial buyers are not looking for flash. They want specifics. Quantities and capacity. Capabilities and equipment lists. Facilities information. Quality certifications. Lead times. Materials. Tolerances.
We deliver those specifics in spades — organized the way buyers search, written the way engineers and purchasing agents think, and optimized so search engines put our clients in front of the right people at the right time. When you make a quality product and run a solid operation, our job is simply to make sure the world knows about it. Easy, peasy.
The Premium Hosting Model — Since 1995
From day one, we built our business on a premium hosting model that set us apart. Every client receives dedicated service time each month — not for swapping a few words of text or dropping in a new image, but for whatever we believe is in the client’s greatest interest behind the scenes. With our clients’ blessings, we invest that time in security, search optimization, content freshness, performance, and anything else we believe will make their sites more successful.
We launched this model in 1995 and we still do it today. For the last few years, we have been averaging about two and a half hours per month per client for the same modest cost we charged three decades ago. That time splits roughly equally between marketing improvements and the security and platform updates that keep sites safe and running fast.
Growing the Business — and the Community
In 2004, we acquired another web business. That company ran a small networking group of about two dozen members. A handful of whom would meet monthly for lunch to swap stories and swap leads. We were busy integrating the new clients into our systems, so we sent a different associate to the group each month. When we sent one of our most senior people — one of the best colleagues we have had the privilege of working with, personally and professionally — he came back and said, “Keith, I really think you should go to this yourself. I believe you could really do something with it.”
That was the beginning of Wisconsin Business Owners at WisOwners.com. Twenty-plus years later, we have grown to over 2,500 members. We still meet monthly for a Lunch and Learn, and it remains one of the best ways we know to meet people, learn, and stay connected to the Wisconsin business community.
Weathering the Storm
During the Great Recession of 2008 through 2010, our manufacturing clients took a heavy hit. Our receivables ballooned from an average of 25 days or less to collect to more than 120 days. We continued to work with our clients as they struggled with collections themselves. Our patience and perseverance paid off — every one of those relationships survived, and most are still with us today.
The recession also led us to WordPress. We found we could use the number one website platform in the world to our clients’ and our advantage — creating sites that clients could easily update themselves when they wanted to, and that we could maintain and improve more cost-effectively than ever when they preferred we handle it. Most still prefer we handle it.
Social Media and the SEO Advantage
Around 2010, we expanded the scope of our work to include social media. We were pleased when clients landed five- and six-figure deals directly through LinkedIn, but honestly, we were even more interested in the SEO boost. By establishing our clients on high-authority platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and others, we created valuable backlinks from extremely high-traffic sites. Link popularity, link relevance, and domain authority remain among the most heavily weighted parameters Google uses for indexing Search Engine Rank. Plus, a strong social media presence, matched in look and feel to the client’s website, extends their brand across the web while strengthening their search position.
The AI Marketing Chapter
We got into artificial intelligence in the early 2020s. It was a curiosity at first, but our interest kept evolving as the tools matured and the practical applications for our clients became impossible to ignore.
In 2024, we created our first WordPress plugin — Audible Site Search — a site-specific search engine now used across all of our clients’ sites to enable voice and text-based search. That project would have taken five or six hundred hours of development without AI. We completed it in about 125 hours. That experience confirmed what we had suspected: AI was not a gimmick. It was a force multiplier for everything we do.
In November 2025, we became a top-level GoHighLevel agency, giving our clients access to an enterprise-grade CRM and marketing automation platform enhanced by AI — intelligent lead response, automated follow-up, conversational AI, pipeline management, and more.
Today, AI makes every service we offer better. We use it to draft technical content that our team then edits for accuracy and voice. We use it to analyze competitive landscapes and identify opportunities. We use it to monitor client sites and catch issues before they become problems. And we use it to help manufacturers respond to leads faster, nurture prospects more effectively, and close more business.
The through-line across nearly four decades has never changed: we put our clients first, we learn constantly, and we bring the best available tools to bear on the work. In 1988, that meant Thomas Register. In 1995, it meant the web. In 2025 and beyond, it means AI.
Let’s Talk
Every manufacturer’s situation is different. If you are looking for a marketing partner who understands your world — the buying cycles, the technical language, the distribution channels, and the real-world pressures of running a shop — we would welcome the conversation.
Manufacturing.Website is a division of OnYourMark.com LLC, Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. Serving manufacturers since 1988.