Ericka Lewis
It is not uncommon in B2B marketing to have businesses that rely mostly (or in some case entirely) on old school marketing strategies. Most well-established B2B brands have built their empire through years of forging client relationships via tradeshows, cold calling, Rolodexes and even directories. That being said, established B2B brands have over time perceived these old school marketing methods as a sort of standard operating procedure when it comes to marketing pursuits in their industry. As is the case for PHP Systems/Design.
Industrial and commercial roofing is, one might say, an old school type of industry. For years, PHP has been spending incredibly large sums on pursuing traditional forms of marketing and advertising. The company was not engaged in any social media activities, had no PR pursuits, had a website that was designed solely as a catalog — offering no chances to nurture leads down the buyer’s journey, did not reflect their brand identity, had no conversion points and did not take buyer personas into account, did not pursue any forms of SEO nor PPC.
Here are a few snippets of their old site components:
PHP’s leadership always had a sinking suspicion that their significant spend on their traditional marketing activities had little yield and weak ROI. With little to no analytics offered by these traditional channels, one of PHP’s frustrations was that they were not even able to track the impact of their efforts. PHP’s excellent leaders soon realized they have to break away from outdated marketing practices to turn their sales around and enjoy greater success. After all, a good product line can only go so far without the means to reach its intended audience.
The Goals
PHP felt that their efforts were getting them nowhere fast. They were in all the right places but felt that they weren’t getting any substantial gains from the money spent. And they were right! We hit the ground running and pushed PHP into a sustainable, measurable, and powerful form of marketing — inbound marketing.
Adhere Creative set out to measure the following goals to prove the prowess of inbound marketing. After spending way too much money over the years with less than stellar results, PHP was understandably looking for accountability and proof that what they are about to embark on actually works for their needs. We based the effectivity of our strategy by tracking the following:
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Increase qualified sales leads by “X”
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Improve online brand presence
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Track the ROI on a $200,000 marketing budget
The Strategy
1. A New Site On The COS
Developing a new website built on the HubSpot COS designed for lead generation specific UX of each buyer persona, was the first order of business. We conducted a thorough keyword research to strategically plan our content, site pages, and SEO. After discovering what was most important to the user we were able to develop a valuable resource center for the audience.
From there, we leveraged content to nurture visitors down the sales funnel. We have also strategically placed PHP’s primary call to action, request pricing, throughout the website. Along with the launch of the new website, Adhere Creative initiated and implemented PPC for the client as well as retargeting campaigns to capture even more new visitors and leads.
2. Tracking Old Marketing Activities
Once PHP’s new site was up, we honed in on their then current (old) marketing activities. By placing HubSpot tracking codes on the online directories PHP were advertising on, we collected data for over a 3-4 month period and finally had enough information for the client to review CTR and lead conversion rates of their old marketing activities. The results were extremely poor and as a result, we urged PHP to suspend involvement with these outside parties which they were more than happy to do. This allowed PHP to refocus their marketing efforts and budget in more important areas that yield ROI.
3. Engagement
Building on our SEO momentum we began our engagement strategy for PHP. We branded their social media assets and began to encourage user engagement through postings and conversations, we implemented content marketing activities such as blogging and other advanced content, and pursued active PR to establish the company’s thought-leadership and influencer status in their industry.
Every activity conducted in these three categories were focused on generating new leads and increasing brand exposure. Our content marketing efforts were a success and was well- received especially since no one else in their industry was offering any type of valuable content in this manner.
4. Making Adjustments Through Measuring And Testing
Since going live we have continuously updated the website to improve conversion rates and user experience. Part of this has been adding new advanced content to the website and tweaking the layout of landing pages. We found that by changing the design of our landing pages (request pricing), colors of submit buttons, and the layout of forms we could increase conversion rates of our most important CTAs. Because inbound marketing allows PHP to track, measure and analyze different facets of their campaigns, we are able to adjust the strategy as needed to ensure results are positively increasing.
By the Numbers: PHP’s Growth In Metrics
Since Adhere Creative created PHP’s new website on HubSpot’s COS and implemented active inbound marketing strategies, PHP has grown significantly. Among the highlights of this growth are the following:
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50% of PHP’s online leads now consist of new customers according to the client.
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Site traffic continued to increase at a steady rate since launch.
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Their request pricing CTA converts at an average of 16-20%
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PHP had 31 keywords ranked on the first page of Google and a total of 38 within the first two, which is amazing considering their industry competitors are much larger than they are and they have never conducted SEO before.
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Since the beginning of the PPC campaign in January up to now, their PPC efforts have increased from 1.14% to 4.36%. Additionally, through call tracking we were able to close the loop on PPC ROI.
PHP is now going head to head with the biggest names in their industry with inbound marketing on their side. They are definitely not going back to old school marketing set by their industry. This time around, they are setting the new terms for a new competitive landscape.
