A blueprint for growth: how a B2B firm used digital marketing to go from 50 leads to 500
by Lisa Shepherd
Sponsored by Mezzanine Growth
In 12 months, BuildingPoint transformed their business, going from no marketing strategy to one that has dramatically improved their reach and their ability to help customers.
A blueprint for growth: how a B2B firm used digital marketing to go from 50 leads to 500
What happens when a company that’s only ever done trade shows moves to digital marketing and lead generation? They go from 50 leads a month to over 500 in less than a year – and completely change the game in terms of growth.
That company is BuildingPoint Canada, a key player in the emerging building information modeling (BIM) industry. They provide software and hardware that connects everyone involved in a construction project – engineers, architects, contractors, trades – and enables them to work together to optimize the design/build/operate cycle.
Moving away from old-school tactics
In early 2020, BuildingPoint implemented a digital marketing strategy. Their timing couldn’t have been better: they launched their new lead generation initiatives a few months before COVID-19 made digital the only option.
“When COVID hit, traditional sales and lead gen activities disappeared,” says David Davidson, General Manager of BuildingPoint Canada. “But we had set the stage for digital, so we were able to stay connected ‒ and dramatically increase our engagement with customers and prospects. We were ready, while our competitors were scrambling to catch up.”
That new approach has been incredibly successful, yielding far more leads than the company was expecting. Today, new leads are streaming in via Google ads, email campaigns and virtual events: 2020 saw BuildingPoint Canada increase its leads tenfold from smart digital marketing.
“We went from no marketing strategy to one that has dramatically improved our presence. In 12 months, we totally transformed the business. We’re now seen as the company’s lead generation leader,” said Davidson.
5 best practices for successful B2B digital lead generation
How did BuildingPoint achieve these results? Here’s a quick list of digital marketing best practices that helped the company succeed.
- Be proactive
Instead of tackling marketing as a series of single events and projects, focus on the big picture. “Our prior marketing efforts were more along the lines of ‘we’ve got a trade show coming up next month and we should do something for it,’” says Davidson. “There was no long-term plan for building relationships, and nothing we could measure against. As a sales organization, we’re good at setting ROI: we just needed to apply that approach to our marketing. That shift in attitude has taken us from being just a supplier to being a trusted advisor and an expert our clients rely on.”
- Think long-term and short-term
In B2B, it takes time to build relationships, get processes in place and start seeing results. People get understandably antsy after a few months, so it’s important to get in some quick wins early on. While BuildingPoint was building their new website, they also found ways to get quick wins. One example is a simple email campaign that reminded existing customers about renewals and reconnected with those who had let their subscriptions lapse. That one campaign led to a 15% jump in renewals, and buoyed confidence in the larger initiative, keeping momentum going until the site could be launched.
- Automate your marketing
Manual processes don’t cut it when you’re scaling your lead generation. So BuildingPoint implemented HubSpot, and now, whenever a customer engages with a campaign, they’re immediately entered in Salesforce and assigned to an account manager for follow up. “Automation makes lead nurturing easy and has allowed us to scale up in a big way,” says Davidson. “With the number of leads we’re getting, there’s no way we could keep on top of it otherwise.”
- Use tools that are already in your arsenal
Creating great content is time-consuming and expensive, so using what you’ve already got is vital ‒ and offers another opportunity for quick wins. BuildingPoint reused content from their parent company Trimble, turned webinars into ebooks, and even bought Trimble keywords for their Google Ad campaigns (as Trimble’s only presence in Canada, they weren’t competing for keywords). It allowed them to expand their content offering faster, and reach more of their audience.
- Identify a senior-level champion
It has to be someone with clout and a direct line to the CEO, who understands that laying a foundation is part of the process and seeing significant results may take time. Davidson is that champion for BuildingPoint: he understands and evangelizes the value of these initiatives. “I can invest $100K in an account manager to go knock on doors – or I can invest in marketing,” he says. “These new strategies and tactics generate probably 100x more touches than a single account manager could. So now, instead of spending time on cold calls, my account managers are nurturing warm leads.”
Nothing Succeeds Like Success
Davidson worked with Mezzanine Growth, a B2B marketing and lead generation specialist, to help BuildingPoint skip the learning curve and achieve results quickly. Davidson commented on Mezzanine’s approach to digital marketing, “Mezzanine’s plan was about accelerating our lead generation and supporting sales growth, with strategies and tactics that generate more touches.”
In 12 months, BuildingPoint transformed their business, going from no marketing strategy to one that has dramatically improved their reach and their ability to help customers. “I only wish we had done it sooner!” says Davidson.
Lisa Shepherd
Lisa Shepherd is the founder of Mezzanine Growth, a B2B lead generation specialist. Mezzanine has worked with complex and technical B2B companies for over 20 years and has helped over 250 businesses successfully grow their pipelines. Shepherd is the author of 3 books on B2B sales and marketing, including The Radical Sales Shift and Market Smart. Email lisa@mezzaninegrowth.com or visit www.mezzaninegrowth.com.
