Increased Leads & More Website Sessions with a B2B Inbound Marketing Strategy

Case Study

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Founded in 1983, Leesburg Concrete Company is a precast concrete manufacturer that prides itself on high quality precast concrete products. Its offerings include architectural precast cladding, ramps, steps and decks, precast concrete classrooms, restrooms and other precast concrete buildings and metal fabricated products—all designed for commercial use with federal, industrial, educational and municipal clients.

Through early 2019, much of Leesburg’s marketing efforts focused on ads in trade publications, a membership to an industry listing service and referrals based on their reputation for quality.

The Marketing Challenges

Industry and business shifts prompted Leesburg to reevaluate their marketing strategy

Construction product companies that secure business often do so by getting specified for a project early on. With more awareness and exposure on the front end, Leesburg felt there was an opportunity to be specified earlier and ultimately earn business.
When comparing products, target buyers tended to compare the Leesburg product with lower quality alternatives, or weren’t aware of the precast concrete solution at all. In these cases, it would be advantageous to educate the market on Leesburg’s competitive advantages.
Leesburg didn’t have the in-house bandwidth to create or publish marketing material to their website, i.e. case studies, project photos and technical content. It became a struggle to show their latest projects for credibility, or to share relevant articles or videos which could attract the right prospects and generate leads.
Leesburg’s website leads were of varying quality and inconsistent, which worked against their goal of stabilizing their revenue stream.
Hiring more outside sales reps without a steady flow of quality leads proved inefficient and costly.
Modern day buyers are averse to being directly marketed to, preferring to educate themselves on potential solutions and seeking personal referrals.

With a sales cycle that can extend up to three years, Leesburg needed a cost-effective, strategic plan to stay engaged with potential customers. In a state where strong storms are common and lockdown scenarios are at the front of people’s minds, having durable buildings that are weather and bullet resistant is a draw for many school districts. Leesburg wanted to focus on a strategy for marketing to these school districts, driving awareness around precast concrete classroom buildings as an alternative to the traditional portable trailers.

The Craft Impact Solution

The Content Marketing Toolkit - a B2B inbound marketing strategy

market-research-comic Craft Impact conducted interviews with Leesburg employees and clients, and took a deep dive into keyword analysis, competitor research, product use case and value proposition.

This background allowed Craft Impact to develop a unique Content Marketing Toolkit for Leesburg, which applied situational context to our proven inbound marketing processes. The toolkit lays out a 90-day strategy, focused on two very specific types of individual buyer personas and ideal company buyer profiles, to attract more website visitors, arm the company’s sales team with more qualified leads, and engage those leads over a long sales cycle.

We realize that’s a mouthful! Let’s dive into the three core sections of the Content Marketing Toolkit.

Content Marketing

Craft Impact developed marketing campaigns with targeted blog topics designed to answer common buyer questions identified through interviews and research. The blog posts are intended to attract website visitors and provide them with the information they crave during each stage of their buyer journey.

Note: A buyer’s journey maps the stages a prospect goes through when they make a decision on what product to specify and what company they want to work with.

Lead Generation Strategy

By providing relevant, helpful website content, the main goal of the Content Marketing Toolkit is to generate inbound leads that the sales team can contact. Craft Impact recommended downloadable material and offers to accompany the blog articles. Each of these offers is packed with educational, relevant information that builds upon the blog article topics.

For example, as you’re reading on Leesburg’s website about various classroom construction solutions, there will be a downloadable guide entitled, “Classroom Options: The Ultimate Guide to Durability, Security, Cost, and Beautification”. The Ultimate Guide PDF will be easily downloaded and emailed to the visitor once they submit their first name, last name and email address. At this point, Leesburg can continue targeted marketing efforts to this prospect via automated lead nurturing.

Lead Nurturing

For leads that download information but aren’t yet ready to specify a product or buy outright, a lead nurturing strategy was developed. With the long sales cycle, this stage of B2B inbound marketing is crucial. Depending on the offer that was selected, leads will be enrolled in email campaigns, spread out over several weeks to several months, that send helpful and relevant information. This content marketing automation keeps Leesburg top of mind and moves the prospect further along the sales funnel, all without manual reminders or the potential for follow ups to slip through the cracks.

The Results

Partnering with Craft Impact, Leesburg added strategic direction to their marketing efforts. The Content Marketing Toolkit positioned Leesburg to grow their sales.

Markers of success include:

Building the company’s online brand and authority, differentiating them from competitors
Publishing quality content that attracts the target audience
Converting website visitors to leads through various calls to action and offers, outside of the Contact Us form
Improving lead and client engagement through highly targeted marketing efforts
Utilizing analytics to understand marketing effectiveness and return on marketing investment
Equipping Leesburg to make simple website updates in-house

Over the course of 16 months, Leesburg's monthly average of leads generated from the website grew by roughly 9X (see left below), and their monthly average number of website sessions grew by roughly 16X (see right below)