Marketingsherpa Top 5 Lead Gen Case Studies

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MarketingSherpa’s Top 5 Lead Generation Case
Studies
Copyright © 2011 by MarketingSherpa LLC

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
MarketingSherpa’s Top 5 Lead Generation Case Studies 4

TOP 5 LEAD GENERATION CASE STUDIES

Leads Tripled, Conversions Doubled with Revamped Web Content   5

Generate Leads with Social Media Strategy:
6 Steps to Fill Up Sales Funnel 14

Lead Gen Overhaul:
4 Strategies to Boost Response Rates, Reduce Cost‐Per‐Lead 23

Social Media, Online Videos and Contest Change Brand Perception:
7 Steps that Connected with Prospects and Increased Leads 30% 32

Combine SEO and Social Media to Generate Web Leads:
5 Steps   42

© 2010-2011 MarketingSherpa LLC

INTRODUCTION:
MARKETINGSHERPA’S TOP 5 LEAD GENERATION
CASE STUDIES

B2B marketers know that at the end of the day, it’s all about lead generation. The sales
team could care less about brand awareness and value propositions. What they want
are leads. And not just any leads; but good, high quality ones.

That’s much easier said than done.

Our friends at MarketingSherpa have been writing B2B case studies for years, publishing
them in their Business‐to‐Business Marketing Newsletter. We’ve handpicked 5 recent
ones that deal specifically with lead generation.

In these case studies you’ll get practical advice from a subscription‐based software
company, a start‐up networking‐equipment testing system provider, a large software
company, a temporary office space provider and an accounting and consulting firm.
They will show you how they generated leads, reduced costs, increased conversion rates
and more.

As you read, we hope you’ll be able to take their success and apply it to your marketing
efforts.

Enjoy!

The HubSpot Team


Leads Tripled, Conversions Doubled with
Revamped Web content

SUMMARY:  This case study shows how a subscription‐based software company
revamped itself as a premier Web destination by using SEO tactics and online
registration forms. The team tripled leads through a free trial program and saw traffic
jump 200%.

CHALLENGE

Arthur Gehring, Director, Marketing, Makana Solutions, faced two hurdles in marketing
his company’s subscription‐based software that helps organizations perform sales
compensation planning. First, their online service was a new category for most
prospects, who set sales compensation goals and plan for those expenses using manual
processes. Second, their target market was organizations with 50 or fewer sales reps.

Reaching these smaller businesses with traditional outbound marketing, such as email
and advertising, was difficult and expensive. Instead, Gehring wanted a strategy that
helped frustrated sales executives find Makana on the Internet. But since few prospects
knew the software‐as‐a‐service solution was available, they weren’t actively looking for
it.

"What they’re out looking for is best practice information and advice about what to do
with sales compensation planning," says Gehring.

Gehring and his team needed a strategy that would attract those Web users looking for
sales compensation planning information and enter them into a marketing funnel that
pushed them this way: Capture their contact information for qualification; move them
into a free software trial for eventual conversion to a paying subscription.

CAMPAIGN

Gehring’s team revamped their website as an online destination for sales compensation
planning best practices and practical advice. They created content, such as sample plans
and webinars, and used SEO tactics to make sure those resources would be found by
prospects searching for advice online.

By capturing leads through online registration forms and using targeted email follow‐
ups, they moved those prospects into free trials that could be monitored by the sales
team for possible subscription conversion.

Here are the seven steps they used to create and manage the strategy:

Step #1. Create content for planning best practices

To attract traffic, the team created content that helped prospects answer questions
about their sales compensation planning challenges. They created several resources that
offered valuable information that wasn’t directly promoting the company’s software.

"When we offer best practice content, it’s not a veil to give them a product
demonstration," says Gehring. "We offer real content."

Resources included:

• Sample sales compensation plan. This document provided an example of a well‐
organized plan that clearly laid out goals for a sales team and demonstrated how
they would be compensated.

• Educational webinars. These online presentations offered general tips and best
practices for sales compensation planning, such as "Common Pitfalls in Sales
Compensation Planning." Other programs focused on particular industry
verticals with unique sales compensation planning challenges, such as software
companies moving from a packaged sale to a software‐as‐a‐service model.

The team recruited expert speakers for its webinars, such as consultants whose
services might be too expensive for their typical small‐business prospect.

• Survey results from a third‐party research firm outlining common industry
practices in sales compensation plan design and implementation.

• A sales compensation planning glossary.

Step #2. Optimize website around high‐value search terms

With the content in place, Gehring and his team optimized their website pages around
key terms that prospects would be using to search for sales compensation planning
advice.

Using keyword research, they identified broad, general terms, such as:
• Sales compensation planning
• Sales comp planning
• Commission sales agreement


They identified longer‐tail key terms that reflected more targeted searches or specific
industry verticals, such as:
• Sample sales compensation plan
• Sales compensation planning SAAS
• Auto dealer sales compensation planning

With a list of 600 keywords identified, they began optimizing specific pages of their site
around two or three relevant terms per page.

The homepage was optimized for broad terms, such as "sales compensation planning."
Internal pages, such as the "Best Practices" resource page, were optimized around more
specific terms, such as "Sample sales compensation plan," or terms related to the
particular industry targeted in a webinar.

Working through their content management tool, which also provided keyword analysis
features, Gehring optimized those pages by using key terms in:
• File names
• Page descriptions
• Keyword metatags
• Page text

Any time the team created a new page, they first analyzed their existing keyword list to
find terms for which the site wasn’t already highly ranked. They could then optimize
that page around gaps in their search rankings.

Step #3. Boost inbound links to improve search rankings

While optimizing their own site pages, the team looked for opportunities to add
inbound links from highly ranked external sites. These additional links would, in turn,
boost their own site’s relevance for search engines.

First, they used their marketing optimization and content management platform to
analyze inbound links to major competitors’ websites.

After identifying links to competitors’ sites with a high page rank in Google, they sought
out sites from which they could also get a link for their own website. Sites they targeted
included:
• Online directories
• Information sites about sales compensation planning or sales business best
practices
• News sites to target for their press release distribution list


Step #4. Paid search advertising to supplement SEO efforts

SEO tactics often take time to make an impact on search rankings. So, the team
employed pay‐per‐click advertising to drive traffic around specific events or campaigns.

For example, they used paid search advertising to promote their monthly webinars. Ads
pointed visitors to the appropriate registration page for the event.

Step #5. Follow up on Web leads

Visitors who landed on the company’s website had to fill out a registration form to
receive a piece of educational material, such as a sample sales compensation plan. The
online registration form included the following fields:
• First and last name
• Job title
• Company name
• Corporate email
• Phone number
• Number of sales people on a compensation plan
• Top compensation plan issue, such as "Alignment of plans with corporate
strategy," or "Lack of modeling functionality"
• Blank field to provide additional information
• A "how did you find us" list of options, such as "Internet search"

Visitors who filled out a registration form were considered a lead ‐‐ which the team
could then target for additional marketing to move them into a free software trial.

All visitors who filled out a registration form received an automatic email that thanked
them for their interest in the company’s best practices materials and outlined the ways
Makana’s software can help them with their planning process.

Those emails included a link to start a free trial of the software.

Registrants could also be included in outbound promotions for future marketing
collateral, such as invitations to webinars.

Step #6. Add lead information to CRM system for sales calls

Prospects that filled out registration forms or signed up for free trials were
automatically added to the company’s CRM system. From there, sales people examined
leads to find the best prospects for follow‐up calls.


For example, prospects that started a free trial would be monitored by a member of the
sales team. Follow‐up included:

• Phone calls to free‐trial members to encourage them to make use of the system.

If a prospect wasn’t using their free trial very often, a sales rep could call to ask
how they liked the software, and if they had taken advantage of any of the free,
online training tools to help members get acquainted with the system.

• Phone calls at the end of the trial period to attempt to convert trial members to
subscribers.

The sales team monitored free trials and began calling prospects at the end of
the 14‐day trial period to ask if they were ready to upgrade to a paid
subscription or needed any questions answered.

Because it was sometimes difficult to get trial members on the phone
immediately, the team did not shut off free trials immediately. Instead, they kept
the trial account live until a sales representative had made contact with the
prospect to discuss an upgrade to a paid subscription.
• Step #7. Continually monitor keyword and outbound campaign results

Gehring monitored campaign results weekly so the team could determine which
keywords, inbound links or outbound marketing efforts were delivering the most
traffic, leads, or free‐trial starts. Their goal was to highlight the best performing
tactics so they could repeat them.

"Repeatability is the key," says Gehring. "As a young company, we have to keep
growing our traffic and leads."

RESULTS

Gehring’s team has succeeded in becoming a top destination for advice about sales
compensation planning, and leads and conversions have jumped along with the traffic.
Three months after adopting the strategy:

• Website traffic increased 200%
• Lead generation rate tripled
• Lead conversion rate doubled

"I’m really pleased," says Gehring. "And the thing to keep in mind is, we’re a small team.
I don’t spend every day on this stuff."


SEO efforts have been a major reason for the boost, and have helped the team dial back
on expensive paid search efforts:

• Paid search has dropped to 30% of traffic from 75%.
• The company’s website ranks on the first page of Google search results for key
industry search terms, such as:
• Sales compensation plan
• Sales comp plan
• Sample commission plan

What’s more, the team’s outbound marketing is now more efficient because they’re
working off a qualified list of prospects.

For example, a webinar invitation sent in June to a list of visitors who had registered for
company information achieved:
• 14% open rate
• 4% clickthrough rate

"We’re very happy with our success, but I’ll be honest and say we haven’t even touched
the potential." Gehring says. "The potential is tremendous to be even more successful
with the realm of content we can develop for various verticals. The possibilities just go
on and on."


Makana’s Best Practices Resources Page


Registration Form For Educational Content


Free‐Trial Email Promotion Sent After Visitors Register


Generate Leads with Social Media Strategy:
6 Steps to Fill Up Sales Funnel

SUMMARY:  This case study shows how BreakingPoint used a wide‐ranging social media
strategy to generate leads. It demonstrates how the team tested and measured activity
from several social media channels. The results included 55% of all leads coming from
inbound Web visits, and 75% of marketing‐influenced pipeline coming from inbound
Web leads.

CHALLENGE

Pam O’Neal, VP Marketing, BreakingPoint, didn’t want to adopt a typical demand
generation strategy after she joined the networking‐equipment testing system provider
in April 2008. The startup company had a limited budget, and their target audience of
security and quality assurance professionals in R&D laboratories wasn’t merely skeptical
of marketing – they hated it.

O’Neal and her team wanted to supplement traditional PR, events and demand‐
generation campaigns with a social media strategy that created strong relationships
with hard‐to‐find prospects. But they wanted to make sure those efforts were reaching
the right audience and turning them into leads.

"It was either going to work big or be a huge failure," says O’Neal. "We didn’t know, but
we wanted more than anything to have a good solid case study and have metrics that
prove social media could work in this climate and with this audience."

They took six steps to develop their social media strategy and measure its impact.

CAMPAIGN

O’Neal and her team tested several social media channels while revamping their public
relations tactics to drive visitors to the company’s website. They tracked growth and
engagement metrics from those initiatives. They then correlated those results to
traditional metrics, such as unique visitors, leads, and pipeline activity. Here are the six
steps they took.

Step #1. Create blog to start and join online conversations

O’Neal’s team began its foray into social media by launching a company blog. They
didn’t wait to finalize a blog strategy before launch, however. Their blogging approach
evolved over time, based on observation of online conversations related to their
network equipment testing niche.

First, the team set up an online monitoring system that scanned the Web, the
blogosphere, online forums and communities to find conversations relevant to their
industry and their technical audience. The results were consolidated into an RSS feed
that a team member could review each morning.

Scanning tools included:
• TweetScan, for Twitter posts
• Google Alerts for industry terms, such as "security threats" and "equipment
testing"
• Boardtracker.com, which monitors technology forums and message boards

When the scanning tools found a relevant conversation, such as a blog post about cost
of network equipment‐testing tools, a team member would join that conversation. They
would comment on the blog post and point readers to content on the same topic at the
BreakingPoint blog.

The team also used their blog to break stories with the potential to go viral. For
example, the company’s security research team published tests and research related to
click‐jacking – a recently discovered security flaw within websites that takes clickers
from a legitimate‐appearing button to an illegitimate site.

Those stories generated links from other industry blogs and articles in major trade
publications.

Step #2. Establish a Twitter account

The team supplemented their blog with a company Twitter account. It allowed them to
post shorter, more frequent updates to their niche audience.

Company "tweets" included:
• Notices of new blog posts, webinars
• Fun entries (e.g., trivia questions, quizzes)
• Informal focus group questions (a poll of Twitter followers about potential
names for the company newsletter)

As they did with the blog, the team used their scanning tools to find and participate in
Twitter conversations relevant to their industry. They were particularly interested in
community members asking for advice about equipment testing, so they set up alerts to
find key terms, such as:
• "Bake off," an industry term for a head‐to‐head equipment test
• "Test methodology"
• Competitors’ names (along with the word "sucks")

"People are complaining a lot more on Twitter than in the blogosphere," says O’Neal.
"It’s a place people go to vent, as well as search for solutions."

They also retweeted relevant information found through their scans, such as reports
about equipment testing results or interesting industry news. "It gives us a reason to
stay in front of our followers and stimulate conversations."

Step #3. Create LinkedIn group

To explore an array of social media channels, the team created BreakingPoint groups on
LinkedIn and Facebook. They quickly realized that their target audience wasn’t well
represented on Facebook. But the LinkedIn group began attracting members with the
right professional backgrounds.

The team established the group as an open forum to discuss issues related to network
test equipment and security – not to the company or its products.

Group members took the lead in starting conversations among themselves. Typical
topics included:
• Advice on vendors
• Reviews/suggestions for industry events
• Feedback on new testing approaches or programs

O’Neal’s team acted as hosts, joining discussions when they had a pertinent point to
contribute, or sharing relevant industry news, blog posts or other content to keep
members engaged.

Step #4. Modify press release strategy for blogger coverage

The team revamped its press release strategy to encourage more online coverage for
the company. Actions they took:

• Release at least one new press release each week.
• To encourage inbound links, press releases were shorter and contained more
links to sections of the company website.
• Shift their release time from 8:00 a.m. EST to late morning/early afternoon,
when West Coast bloggers were most likely to begin scanning for news.
• Publish press releases using a service called PitchEngine, and post releases to
social media channels, such as their Twitter feed and LinkedIn group.


reduStep #5. Promote social media channels on company website and in email
signatures

To encourage customers and prospects to participate in their social media channels, the
team included links to different accounts from the company’s website and in their email
signatures.

The news section of the website, for instance, included links to the company’s Twitter
feed and LinkedIn group under a "join us" headline. They also included updates from the
company Twitter account in the right‐hand column of the company blog.

Employees’ email signatures could include links to the blog, Twitter account or LinkedIn
group, along with name, email address and phone number.

Step #6. Measure growth of social media accounts and Web traffic

O’Neal was determined to measure the contribution social media efforts made to the
company’s marketing and sales activity. So, they tracked metrics to determine the
growth of their various social media channels, such as:
• Unique blog page views
• Twitter followers
• LinkedIn group members

At the same time, they tracked a series of marketing metrics, such as:
• Unique website visitors
• Traffic generated by SEO
• Leads
• Leads by source (inbound Web, email, trade shows, seminars)
• Marketing‐influenced pipeline activity, by source

When comparing the metrics side‐by‐side, they looked for correlations between activity
in social media outlets and an increase in leads and sales pipeline activity.

RESULTS

"After six months, we saw some amazing results," says O’Neal.

The team’s analysis showed a dramatic correlation between the use of social media
channels and the growth of the company’s Web traffic and leads. (See creative samples
for a chart illustrating growth trends.)


By the end of Q3, their social media campaign resulted in:
• 10,230 unique blog page views in Q3
• 280 Twitter followers
• 141 members of their LinkedIn Group
• 155% increase in unique Web visitors

Most important, that Web traffic is now contributing the majority of the team’s leads
and pipeline activity.

Leads by source:
• 55% inbound Web
• 23% trade shows
• 20.5% email
• 1.5% seminars

Marketing‐influenced pipeline by source:
• 75% inbound Web
• 17% email
• 4% seminar
• 4% trade shows

The amount of leads and pipeline activity generated from Web traffic demonstrates to
O’Neal that their social media strategy is reaching their marketing‐averse audience.

"In my prior position, I felt like I was on a treadmill when every quarter I had to come up
with more and more clever campaigns to drive demand generation," says O’Neal. "I’m
not saying that there isn’t a lot of work that goes into social media, but I’m not
constantly [doing] these elaborate demand gen campaigns anymore."

The team’s social media efforts also support their ongoing search‐engine optimization
strategy. By engaging in conversations about industry issues, they’re generating more
links on non‐brand search terms that help boost their search engine results positions.
Non‐brand search terms are typically those used by prospects when searching for
testing equipment.

When O’Neal joined the company, the ratio of Web traffic from brand terms to non‐
brand terms was 2.5 to 1. "That’s really bad. It means more than twice as many people
were searching for our company name versus their own pain point."

Now, the ratio of brand to non‐brand search traffic is 0.6 to 1.


CREATIVE SAMPLES

Chart showing growth of social media channels, Web traffic and leads


BreakingPoint blog, with Twitter updates in right column


BreakingPoint Twitter Homepage


BreakingPoint News Page, with links to join online communities


Lead Gen Overhaul: 4 Strategies to Boost Response
Rates, Reduce Cost-per-Lead

SUMMARY:  Check out how a software company boosted campaign response rate from
0.5% to 17.5%. You’ll see how their segmented, three‐touch nurturing response program
delivered more than double the open rate of traditional, multi‐touch campaigns to the
entire house.

CHALLENGE

Like most marketers, Dave Laverty, VP Marketing, IBM Cognos, was experiencing
changes in the B2B lead‐generation landscape. Factors, such as lengthening sales cycles
and expanding buying committees, were making traditional tactics less effective at
generating demand for the company’s business‐intelligence software.

Rented email lists weren’t performing as well as they once did. The company’s house
email list was being bombarded with offers, and as a result, open and clickthrough rates
were dropping. Laverty and his team needed to work differently.

"A couple years ago, we took on an initiative we called Marketing 2.0," says Laverty. "It
was a challenge I gave to our Web team to think about how we reach, engage and
deliver more information to prospects that could be out there that we hadn’t touched
yet."

CAMPAIGN

The team’s Marketing 2.0 initiative examined their marketing strategy in the context of
three major goals:
1. Presenting the company as a thought‐leader
2. Generating demand
3. Supporting and enabling the sales team

They saw a lead‐nurturing strategy as the common thread connecting those three goals,
and developed a new process to shape outreach efforts, engage prospects, and qualify
them for the sales team.

Here are four key strategies they used to refine their lead‐nurturing process:


Strategy #1. Revamp website with additional offers

Laverty and his team first examined how well their website functioned as an entry point
into the lead‐nurturing funnel.

"We looked at [our website] as a demand‐generating tool," says Laverty. "We have a lot
of people passing by our window, so to speak. What are we doing to encourage those
people to come in, browse and engage with us?"

With engagement in mind, the team overhauled its website to provide additional offers
and features for prospects. Their goal was to appeal to a wide range of prospects and to
determine which types of offers or content strategies created the most interest.

The result was a site that included:

Varying types of content, such as:
• Whitepapers
• Online demos
• Events
• Online communities

Information organized by product line or business task, such as:
• Performance management
• Budgeting and forecasting
• Measurement and reporting
• Scorecarding

Information organized by industry, such as:
• Finance
• Government
• Retail
• Manufacturing
• Health care

Prospects who wanted to download content or register for events were required to fill
out a Web form, which helped establish a prospect profile.


Key fields included:
• Name
• Company
• Industry
• Department
• Job title

Strategy #2. Create lead‐nurturing program based on prospect profile

The website served as the entry point for the team’s new lead‐nurturing program, which
sent additional relevant offers based on the prospect’s profile and previous activity.

Information from registration forms was sent back to the team’s central data
warehouse. There, the data was analyzed for variables, such as:
• New or returning prospect?
• Frequency of visits?
• Additional contact within company?
• Previous actions taken?

Each prospect then received an initial follow‐up response that was relevant to the offer
to which they had responded. For example, if a prospect viewed an online demo on
reporting, they would receive a follow‐up offer for a reporting whitepaper.

Two more follow‐up emails pointed prospects to additional relevant content, and
invited prospects to contact a member of the sales team, or sign up for an email
newsletter.

The follow‐up touches were automated to deliver a flow of offers based on three major
categories:
• Key marketing program, such as promotions around an annual event, a product
launch, or a campaign aimed at prospects using SAP or other software
• Key industry, such as retail or banking
• Job title targets, such as IT or line‐of‐business managers

Within each of those three primary categories, the team created a custom sequence of
messages that were further organized according to three major product focus areas:
• Reporting
• Scorecarding
• Planning

The result of that segmentation strategy was 1,460 unique lead nurturing paths for
prospects to enter.


Strategy #3. Conduct statistical analysis of marketing interactions

To further refine their lead nurturing program, the team examined historical data for
correlations among variables in the marketing cycle and their outcomes.

Working off a database of more than 200,000 marketing interactions, the team
conducted a statistical analysis to help them prioritize their marketing tactics and
investments.

Trends uncovered during this analysis included:

• Online demos had the highest rate of opportunity creation.
• Face‐to‐face events had the largest impact on increasing deal size and close
rate.
• The conversion rate from lead‐to‐opportunity virtually died ten days after the
prospect first engaged with an offer or piece of content.

"We were finally getting some definitive answers to those questions about response
rate and types of offer to provide," says Laverty. "We saw that the faster we can get
someone in front of an online demo, [it generates] the highest success rate for
opportunity creation."

Strategy #4. Test response time for three‐touch nurturing program

Statistical analysis gave the team a new hypothesis to test with their automated three‐
touch email protocol.

Historical data indicated higher lead‐to‐opportunity conversion rates when prospects
had repeated interactions with the company within 24 hours of registration. So, the
team decided to condense the time between its automated response emails.

The tested the following nurturing schedules:
• First response email – two days vs. four hours after registration
• Second response email – 10 days vs. 24 hours later
• Third response email – 20 days vs. 10 days later

RESULTS

The team’s adoption and refinement of its lead‐nurturing strategy has yielded dramatic
results.

Thanks to the new website, roughly 11% of website visitors now complete a registration
form. That compares to an average industry capture rate of 3%.


The team compared results from its segmented, three‐touch nurturing emails to those
of traditional multi‐touch campaigns to the entire house list. The improvement was
remarkable:
• Open rates increased from 13.2% to 33.3%
• CTR increased from 0.09% to 15.5%
• Response rate increased from 0.05% to 17.5%
• The team has reduced its cost‐per‐lead 30%‐40%

Better alignment between sales and marketing goals means that Laverty’s team
generates 30% of the company’s pipeline per quarter.

"We’ve been able to hold our investments relatively flat, as well as increase our
productivity," says Laverty. "I would say that’s a pretty big contributor to marketing
having a seat at the table."

Laverty notes that the changes reflect an ongoing process that’s not yet complete. Their
approach requires a series of smaller steps and tests, which can then be rolled out
across the enterprise.

For example, the team adopted shortened response times for their three‐touch
nurturing program after testing it against their standard schedule.

The four‐hour/24‐hour/10‐day schedule achieved:
• 100% increase in open rate, compared to the company average
• 1,600% increase in CTR, compared to the company average

"It’s a combination of all these things – having the data in place, the systems in place to
execute, and then staying on top of the data – that’s turning our marketing efforts into a
science."


CREATIVE SAMPLES

Sample first response email, sent four hours after registration


Sample second response email, sent 24 hours after registration


Sample third response email, sent 10 days after registration


Lead Nurturing Program Flow Chart


Social Media, Online Videos and Contest Change Brand
Perception: 7 Steps that Connected with Prospects and
Increased Leads 30%

SUMMARY: Having a high‐end, prestigious brand is usually a good thing ‐‐ unless that
image is preventing you from attracting certain desirable prospects.

Read how the team for a temporary office space provider designed an edgier marketing
strategy to counter their image as a high‐cost, unattainable solution for New York City
startups and entrepreneurs. Using social media, online videos, a contest and in‐person
events, they boosted leads 30% and revenue 114% ‐‐ and got the green light to try
similar tactics around the country.

CHALLENGE

Rebecca Tann, VP Marketing, Regus, oversees the team that generates leads for the
company's office space, meeting rooms, and other temporary workplace options in
cities across the U.S. In late 2009, the team was tasked with developing priority
campaigns to boost revenue and occupancy in a handful of specific markets, including
Manhattan.

The team's previous marketing strategy for the New York region had been focused on
traditional media, such as TV and radio advertising. But this approach wouldn't fit within
the constraints of the team's new mandate.

"Based on what we had done in New York City, we knew that media is extremely
expensive," says Tann. "We had a limited budget, but we needed to make the same kind
of noise."

Tann and her team saw an opportunity to develop a new marketing strategy that went
beyond the company's traditional marketing comfort zone ‐‐ and was more in tune with
the personality of the New York entrepreneurial market.

CAMPAIGN

The team focused its lead‐generation campaign on startups, entrepreneurs and small or
sole proprietor consultants. Connecting with these smaller, "scrappier" companies
required new messaging delivered through new media.


The integrated campaign included:
• A sweepstakes
• Viral videos
• Social media outreach
• In‐person events

Here are the seven steps they followed:

Step #1. Conduct market research to develop messaging strategy

In order to attract small startups and entrepreneurs, Tann's team needed to understand
what these prospects were looking for in office space ‐‐ and what they knew about
Regus.

The research project included:
• Demographic analysis of Regus' existing New York tenants, including company
size, industry breakdown, etc.
• Analysis of competitors' marketing approach
• Online and social media monitoring of entrepreneurs' conversations around
Regus, or office space in general
• A survey of companies with the target prospect profile, asking questions about
their perception of Regus

This research produced a key insight: Many entrepreneurs perceived Regus locations as
high‐end, high‐priced, "prestigious" office space, more appropriate for larger businesses
than startups.

"These folks might be viewing Regus as higher‐end, more costly alternative ‐‐ and that's
not the case," says Tann. "We had to cover that with the campaign."

To counter this impression, the team decided that its messages should stress that Regus
office space was attainable, affordable and in‐tune with the needs of startups and
entrepreneurs.

Step #2. Create campaign microsite to receive traffic and capture leads

Another insight from the team's pre‐campaign market research was that roughly 90% of
its prospect inquiries in New York came from search or direct visits to the Regus
website. This statistic reinforced the team's decision to create an integrated campaign
with a strong online focus.


The team created a campaign microsite to receive traffic and capture leads from its
online and offline outreach:

• The microsite, www.regusnewyork.com, used text and imagery that reflected
the New York City business environment, to reinforce the local nature of the
campaign.

• The site also supported:
o The registration form for an online sweepstakes (described below)
o Links to other campaign creative (described below)
o An offer for two months of free office space with the phone number and
link to an online inquiry form

Step #3. Conduct "free office space" sweepstakes

The team created a sweepstakes as one of the anchor elements of the campaign. The
contest offered one year of rent‐free, furnished office space in a Regus building in New
York.

The sweepstakes was designed to:
• Build buzz and generate media attention
• Fit with the campaign's theme of "attainability"
• Provide content to share on social media (more on this tactic, below)

Press outreach and online promotions for the sweepstakes directed visitors to the
campaign microsite to enter the contest.

Step #4. Create humorous video series

Another anchor element of the campaign was a series of online videos that positioned
Regus as an option for small, startup companies.

The three videos offered a lighthearted take on the problems entrepreneurs and
startups face when trying to conduct business without a permanent office.

Scenarios included:
• A small company trying (with great difficulty) to hold a meeting on a subway
• An entrepreneur struggling to work out of a coffee shop
• A startup trying to court an investor in a public park, with disastrous results


The end of each video included a tagline about the need to get "a real office," and
presented the phone number and URL for the online inquiry form. The team also
included mentions of the office space sweepstakes in text descriptions beneath videos
or within on‐screen advertisements.

The team promoted the videos in several ways, including:
• A RegusNYC YouTube Channel
• Links shared on social networks
• Email messages to customer and prospect lists
• An advertising buy on Taxi‐TV, a network of television monitors in the back of
New York City cabs

Step #5. Participate in social networks

The team incorporated social media as a key channel to spread word about the
sweepstakes and videos ‐‐ and to engage with their entrepreneurial prospect base.

The team created new accounts and developed specific communication strategies for
the following social networks:

Facebook
The team used its Regus NYC Facebook page to share news and promote discussions
about business, entrepreneurship and work life. The page was updated two to three
times a week, and posts included links to interesting articles, resources and events for
the New York City business community.

Twitter
The team created a Twitter account to act as a resource for New York entrepreneurs.
Like the Facebook page, the Twitter feed shared links to articles and resources for
business people, alongside occasional reminders about the sweepstakes and online
videos. The team updated its Twitter feed several times a day.

LinkedIn
Rather than creating a corporate LinkedIn group, the team chose to interact with
existing, relevant LinkedIn groups.

Using her personal account, Tann joined LinkedIn Groups dedicated to New York small
business networking, or for specific New York industries, such as accounting and law.
She then participated in discussions, or responded to individual user's questions about
topics relevant to Regus, such as discussions of how much small businesses should
spend on office space.


Step #6. Sponsor in‐person events for entrepreneurs

The team also participated in old fashioned, in‐person networking with its target
audience by sponsoring nine business events in New York City.

Rather than hosting the events themselves, the team partnered with established small
business organizations in the city, such as:
• NY Tech Meetups
• Gotham Media Ventures

Those groups hosted networking events at Regus office facilities in Manhattan, which
brought prospects into Regus facilities and gave the team's sales representatives a
chance to network with the target audience.

Step #7. Monitor response and track leads from all channels

With so many campaign elements in play, the team had to carefully measure and track
response during and after the 90‐day campaign.

Measurement tactics included:

• Tracking requests generated through the inquiry form on Regus' New York
webpage. The online form included a drop‐menu for prospects to specify how
they heard about Regus.

• Tracking entries into the office space sweepstakes. These names were not
handed directly to the sales team, but marked for future nurturing campaigns, so
the sales team would not be inundated with unqualified leads.

• Measuring the source of visits to the sweepstakes microsite.

• Measuring clicks on YouTube ads, Facebook posts and Twitter updates.

• Using unique phone numbers for the calls‐to‐action related to the New York
campaign. The call center team was also instructed to ask callers how they had
heard about Regus.

• Conducting weekly calls with the sales team to track offline impact of the
campaign. For example, if a representative in one of the Manhattan locations
met a prospect who said they'd seen a Taxi‐TV ad, the marketing team could
gather that anecdote as an evidence of the buzz generated by the campaign.


RESULTS

Changing both the medium and the message paid off for Tann's team, as the campaign
exceeded expectations.

After the 90 day campaign, the team saw:
• An overall 30% increase in lead flow, spiking to 60% during the height of the
campaign
• A 33% conversion rate on leads generated through their New York webpage,
compared to a 12% conversion rate in 2008
• A 114% increase in revenue generated, compared to the same period the year
before

"It was a wildly successful campaign that gave us the freedom and approval to do this on
a larger scale," says Tann.

Thanks to the success of the New York campaign, the team has rolled out similar efforts
in other markets around the U.S. They've been able to repurpose the online video and
develop free office space sweepstakes in other cities, and have begun a national social
media strategy to connect Regus with prospects.

"Truth be known, this is something I wanted to try on national level for some time with
Regus," says Tann. "This was my testing zone to prove it in one market, before selling
internally."


Sweepstakes Microsite


Regus New York inquiry Form


Regus New York YouTube Channel


Regus New York Facebook Page


Combine SEO and Social Media to Generate Web Leads:
5 Steps

SUMMARY: Your prospects are using search and social media to evaluate potential
vendors. Are you doing enough in those channels to demonstrate your expertise?

See how the marketing team at an accounting and consulting firm shook up their staid
marketing tactics and adopted a new, online thought‐leadership strategy. Besides
revamping their website for SEO and lead generation, the enlisted their firm’s partners
as subject matter experts to create new blogs and participate in social networking
groups.

CHALLENGE

Elizabeth Hailer, VP Client Development and Marketing, Caturano and Company, says
that for most of her 25‐year career, clients did not choose an accounting or consulting
firm by going on a website. But prospects’ habits are changing. More and more, they are
using search, social media, blogs, and corporate websites and find and assess
professional services firms.

The problem was that Hailer and her team were still relying on traditional marketing
tactics, such as print advertising and direct mail. Those tactics were very expensive, hard
to measure, and becoming less effective.

"Traditional marketing has changed, period," says Hailer. "Anyone doesn’t understand
that or believe it shouldn’t be in marketing."

The team needed to shake up their marketing strategy. They realized that online
outreach and a revamped website were needed to generate new leads – and gain
additional business from existing clients.

CAMPAIGN

Hailer and her team focused on their website as a new hub for outbound and inbound
marketing based on thought‐leadership content. Then, they looked to SEO and social
media as channels to reach prospects and customers, engage them in conversations,
and bring them back to the firm’s site.

Here are five steps they took to raise their profile and start generating web leads:


Step #1. Redesign website to capture leads

The team needed a complete website overhaul before making a push into online
marketing channels. Their existing website read like a brochure, Hailer says, and offered
little customized content to appeal to specific prospects. Worse, it had no online lead
capture mechanism.

The team implemented a new content management system. Then, they developed
content that demonstrated their expertise in specific accounting and consulting services
and provided value to customers and prospects.

New content included:
• An article assessing the impact of a new state tax incentive program for life
sciences companies
• An article outlining tips on lowering estate tax for its wealth management
practice

They also added more ways to contact the firm’s partners, adding the appropriate
partner’s name, phone number and a request for information link on pages dedicated to
specific services or industry focus areas.

They added lead generation capabilities by creating online tools that required prospects
to register and provide information about their needs.

For example, they added a Rapid Assessment tool for their management and IT
consulting divisions, which offered prospects a high‐level analysis of their current
operations and suggested areas for potential improvement.

Step #2. Use SEO to attract more visitors

Prior to the redesign, the company’s website rarely landed on the first page of search
engine results for their top keywords. So as the team developed new content and
revamped their site architecture, they optimized those pages for roughly 25 key terms,
including:
• Boston tax firms
• Boston CPA firms
• Management consulting Boston
• IT outsourcing Boston

They made sure those keywords were represented in the website’s content, page titles,
metatags, and other elements.


They also increased the number of links pointing back to the firm’s website. The firm’s
professional alliances provided dozens of linking opportunities:

The team created a new "Sponsorships and Affiliations" page that linked to the websites
of major partners and organizations the firm sponsored, including:
• The Association for Corporate Growth, Boston
• The Family Business Association
• The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce
• The Smaller Business Association of New England
• The Massachusetts Society of Certified Public Accountants
• The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants

They asked each sponsored organization or partner to also put a link to the firm’s site on
their own Web pages.

Step #3. Create thought‐leadership blogs

The team bolstered the firm’s online presence by adding several new blogs on topics
related to their key service areas. Their goal was to supplement the broad‐based
information about firm’s capabilities with in‐depth, highly targeted content that
presented firm personnel as thought‐leaders in specific areas.

"Auditing, accounting, and tax are so general and broad it’s hard to blog about them"
says Hailer, "So we assigned content leaders around discreet service areas."

For example:

• Jeff Korzenic, Chief Investment Officer, created the "Inefficient Frontiers" blog to
discuss topics related to "less‐than‐efficient markets" and dealing with risk in the
investment world.

• Jack Notarangelo, Director, Information Management, created an application
engineering blog to discuss software development techniques related to project
management, estimation, resourcing, and communication.

• Mauro Cardarelli, Director, Portals and Collaboration, created a blog focused on
using Microsoft technologies for collaboration and Business Intelligence.


Each blogger was free to cover their niche content area in ways they deemed
appropriate. Typical posts included:
• Industry trend and news analysis
• Links to contributed articles and other press mentions on external sites
• Opinion pieces on topics of interest to the audience
• Advice and how‐to on specific tasks
• Links to relevant company whitepapers and webinars

Step #4. Participate in social networks

Next, the team looked for social networks where CFOs congregated. They wanted to join
those online conversations and develop new channels to promote articles, webinars,
whitepapers or other relevant content.

The firm’s existing clients were an invaluable resource for finding the right social
networks to join. They asked clients where they spent time online, and looked for their
clients’ profiles on social networking sites.

LinkedIn, the business networking site, proved to be one of the most popular sites with
the team’s clients and prospects. They looked for relevant discussion groups to join,
including:
• The Chief Financial Officer Network
• CxO Community

They also created their own groups, such as:
• New England CFOs

The team encouraged partners with expertise in specific practice areas to join relevant
groups. The goal was to establish individuals as thought‐leaders in the industry, while
also demonstrating the firm’s expertise with certain industries or service areas.

For example:
• Jim Cashin, Partner, Consulting Practice, joined groups such as Worldwide
Management Consultants
• Bill Krakunas, VP Technology, joined groups such as Boston's Future Leaders
(Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce)

Following best‐practices in social media engagement, participants in LinkedIn Groups
did not simply post information about the firm’s events and resources. Instead, they
participated in online discussions as community members and provided relevant
answers and opinions that weren’t self‐promotional.


However, they looked for opportunities to share notices about upcoming events or
company content that were relevant to ongoing discussions.

Step #5. Monitor social media conversations and Web traffic

The team began using monitoring tools to help them broadly track conversations
happening in social media channels and on other websites.

They set up a monitoring service that sent real‐time alerts related to specific phrases or
conversations of interest, such as:
• Key services the firm offers
• Competitors’ names
• Problems or questions about professional services providers

Once a team member received an alert, they examined the context to see if there was a
way to join the conversation, or steer the original commenter toward a content offer.
For example, if the team received a Twitter conversation about how to choose an IT
consulting company, they might send a link to their IT management Rapid Assessment.

The team also used their web analytics tool to assess whether their social media efforts
and SEO were driving prospects back to the company website to engage with content.

They monitored standard metrics, including:
• Unique visitors
• Page views per visit
• Referring sites
• Keyword performance

RESULTS

The new strategy has raised the firm’s profile and is capturing the attention of prospects
using the Web to seek out professional services firms. Their once‐static website that
generated no leads is now generating 10‐15 leads a month and already resulted in some
closed sales – especially for their consulting division.

"We have more than covered our investment," says Hailer. "More important to me, we
keep cranking up that investment so everyone wins."

Web visitors have increased 68% since adopting the new strategy.

SEO efforts have landed the company on the first page of search results for its 25
targeted keywords


The niche blogging strategy is paying dividends. Jeff Korzenic’s "Inefficient Frontiers"
blog alone drives roughly 4%‐ 5% of monthly traffic to the firm’s website.

Now, the team is planning to refine their strategy in 2010. They plan to adopt a more
rigorous measurement methodology to analyze which points of entry to the site
(LinkedIn, blogs, SEO, etc.) are driving the most visits and leads. They also plan to
develop additional landing page strategies to customize the experience that visitors
have depending on their referring channel.

"We want to know very specifically whether a content offer on LinkedIn generates as
much response as another channel," says Hailer. "We know the overall strategy is
working – leads are coming in at a good enough rate to justify the campaign – but we
need more granular detail. We need to know more.”


CREATIVE SAMPLES

Rapid Assessment lead‐gen offer on Management Consulting web page


Though‐leadership article on Life Sciences industry page


Sponsorships and Affiliations page for link‐building


Marketingsherpa Top 5 Lead Gen Case Studies

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