For one Israeli B2B company, investment in inbound marketing pays off.
Bermad, a kibbutz-based company manufacturing water control valves, built itself into a successful global concern from the ground up. Here’s what Ofir Marx, VP Marketing at Bermad had to say about inbound marketing and what it’s done for the company’s business.
The conversation has changed: From top down to two-way communication
“Today, we can communicate directly with customers,” says Marx. “In the past, our way of communicating with customers was top down. HQ communicated to its subsidiaries, who communicated to the dealers, who in turn, communicated to the end users. We never got direct feedback, and even if we did, it had passed through three to four different hands and got filtered along the way. That’s changed. Now by publishing blogs, case studies, and white papers, sending out emails, and posting to social media, we have the ability to deliver messages directly to the end user and get feedback.“
Generating leads, assessing quality
Leads are collected on landing pages with targeted calls to action (CTAs). By asking qualifying questions, Bermad is able to assess the quality of the leads received. The results show that 35% are sales qualified leads (SQL), 30% are marketing qualified leads (MQL), and the balance are service requests, spare parts or vendors looking to sell the company something. In short: More than 60% leads are relevant enquiries.
Key goals versus results
At the beginning of the process, Bermad set some goals:
- Increase site traffic to 20,000
Moved from 12,000 to 20,000 website visitors per month in less than 2 years
- Generate 500 leads per month
Approximately 200 leads per month now and it’s rising - Added Revenue of $1,000,000 per year
Reached $700,000 in 2017; anticipate higher in 2018
Are we getting it right?
The ability to speak directly to the marketplace and understand what they are interested in and what questions they ask, enables the company to understand whether they need to do anything differently.
What’s next?
Marx believes that the awareness and exposure that is being gained is very important, and it’s only the beginning. There’s still much to be done, from increased involvement in Linked In discussion groups to targeted campaigns in specific locations, as well as blogging in other languages such as Spanish and Portuguese.
Leveraging the power of marketing automation
The company is just beginning to benefit from the powerful marketing tools available on HubSpot including lead scoring and nurturing. Having tripled the amount of contacts, there is a wealth of potential customers to cultivate, taking them from the awareness and consideration stages through to making the decision to purchase.
It takes time, effort and investment
Today, all Bermad’s divisions are involved, with 4-5 people at HQ contributing to content creation as well as support from professionals at the company’s various subsidiaries. Blogs are published on a monthly basis for all four segments (waterworks, irrigation, fire protection and building & construction), supported by email blasts, newsletters and ongoing social media posts. Campaigns are run to support product launches, exhibitions and special events. All marketing activities are integrated into Bermad’s CRM system, allowing the sales team to see a 360° view of potential customers and enabling them to close more deals. “Today, nobody asks why we are doing it,” notes Marx. “We’re just beginning to see the benefits.”
