Our client is a trail-blazing fire solution manufacturer. As a progressive innovator in the market, our client’s fire suppression system was developed to save lives & high-rise buildings from devastating fires.
Dedicated to an eco-friendlier world, our client transforms certified sustainable wood into highly durable and resilient building materials. Their high-performance wood products are developed using a combination of chemistry, technology, and ingenuity, before being sold on to a global network of timber distributors. The enterprising business uses a unique chemical process to dramatically reduce the detrimental effects of water on wood, such as swelling, shrinking and decay. They are committed to providing their customers with a green alternative. Their modified timber is sought after by architects and developers to construct window frames, doors, decking and cladding.
WHAT THEY NEEDED
Our client had been administering Royal Institute of Architects (RIBA) accredited Continuous Professional Development (CPD) courses to architect firms for several years. While educating interested parties on the benefits of their modified timber, our client was also able to develop sales opportunities through CPD seminars.
However, the business saw a dramatic decline in demand for sessions following the UK’s nationwide COVID-19 pandemic. Office visits became impossible, and architects shifted their focus away from CPD training and prioritised design and development projects instead. We suggested carrying out some proactive marketing activities to address the slump.
WHAT WE DID
Blueberry completed two very successful campaigns for the company. Our team are currently working on a third campaign, generating business leads with architectural firms, arranging CPD appointments and helping our client to secure more trade.
We commenced the first calling campaign in 2021 by purchasing 600 GDPR compliant and TPS screened records for architectural firms across the country. Since the CPD sessions were going to be held online, we were not constrained by any geographical limitations. We spoke to CPD coordinators from a wide range of firms, ranging from small establishments with only a handful of employees right the way up to businesses boasting a 500-strong workforce. After the success of our initial dataset, we went on to secure additional records, enabling us to call and promote our client’s work to even more organisations. We pursued this further by sending out follow-up emails to our prospects, outlining the CPD course content, dates and times.
Our client was keen to keep momentum going, so once COVID-19 restrictions were reduced they aimed to secure both virtual and in-person CPD meetings. So, in 2022, we embarked on a second telemarketing campaign, using a combination of profiled, purchased, and historic in-house records to reach a wider audience. This included a new GDPR compliant database, comprising of architectural businesses based in London, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, and Berkshire. Targeting these affluent regions meant we could reach even more architects and developers interested in using our client’s high-quality wood products in their designs.
WHAT WE ACHIEVED
Our team spoke with a whopping 334 relevant decision-makers during the first campaign, which amounted to numerous CPD sessions being set-up across 72 firms. A further 218 firms requested more details before signing up for a session. Another 20 firms said they would be likely to engage in a session at a later date. In short, an additional 71.26 per cent of decision-makers expressed their interest in the seminars and were open to more discussions on the matter.
Simply put, a staggering 92.52 per cent of our target market either arranged a session, were very interested in enrolling, or requested more details on the session content before registering. Such a huge conversion rate not only demonstrated Blueberry’s proficiency, but also highlighted the strength, validity, and quality of our targeted data. We also provided our client with 609 newly cleansed email addresses of prospects that had been sent information about the CPD offer and could also be used by our client for any email marketing endeavours going forward.
We uncovered valuable information, such as the contact details of firms’ key decision-makers, the type of building projects they undertook and whether they’d worked with alternative building materials before. This helped our client to understand the project landscape better, discover what their prospect’s interests were and ensure that both parties could capitalise on each session. Our due diligence meant that our client was running up to four CPD sessions per week for more than six months. Not to mention working with a fully up-to-date bank of information on potential prospects.
As COVID-19 restrictions were reduced, our client was able to offer both on-line and in-person CPD sessions. The 2022 continuation campaign saw Blueberry identify 626 CPD coordinators, talking to 402 relevant decision-makers, of which 50 firms registered for a CPD session. A further 297 firms requested more information before signing up and 19 others were keen to take part later on. Again, more than 89 per cent of our target audience either enrolled, were very interested in signing up, or required more details on the classes before registering. A further 698 email addresses of prospective customers were also obtained and shared with our client for future use.
Ultimately both projects helped our client reach a significantly high number of targeted prospective buyers through bespoke CPD seminars. More than 122 architectural organisations (and rising) have accessed our client’s CPD sessions to date. Our working relationship with our client has gone from strength to strength this year as we continue to champion their work and CPD courses to firms in and around London. Our client is now armed with a comprehensive, updated directory that includes more than 1,307 emails of potential clients, buyers, and traders. In terms of worth, this data will prove invaluable to our client going forward.
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[1] GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation. It is a European Union (EU) law that came into effect on 25th May 2018. GDPR governs the way in which we can use, process, and store personal data. [2] TPS stands for The Telephone Preference Service, which is a central opt-out register where people can register their wish not to receive unsolicited sales and marketing telephone calls. [3] Source: https://www.cic.org.uk/policy-and-public-affairs/climate-change