How CADENAS PARTsolutions grew inbound leads by 700-900% by publishing helpful content
As a consultant for B2B manufacturers, I see my share of cringeworthy websites and self-serving content on a regular basis. But every so often, I cross paths with a manufacturing organization that just gets it.
Recently, I had the pleasure of connecting with Adam Beck of CADENAS PARTsolutions – a sharp and forward-thinking manufacturing guy who made me say, “Heck yeah. This is what I’m talking about”.
In my discussion with Adam (Director of Marketing) and Jay Hopper, we dove into their content and lead nurturing strategies — and how each are driving quantifiable success.
Now, to clarify what I mean by “quantifiable success”, I’m talking about 700% to 900% growth in inbound leads. That’s no joke!
Above, you’ll find the full 27-minute video interview. And below is a written summary of my three biggest takeaways.
Before you jump in, I want to call attention to what should be an incredible event the CADENAS crew is planning this September (2019) at Content Marketing World in Cleveland:
Taking place on Friday, September 6, 2019, the Industrial Marketing Summit is the event for sales and marketers to connect, inspire and grow their business.
Click here to learn more about the Summit.
If the event has already passed by the time you’re reading this, visit the CADENAS site and subscribe to their newsletter to be sure it’s on your radar come next summer.
Now on to my key takeaways…
Takeaway #1: Let your customer — their success stories, their FAQs — do the talking
Talking about yourself and how great your products and services are doesn’t attract or engage anyone.
The CADENAS crew understands this, and instead, they’ve committed to consistently publishing content that speaks to their customers’ problems and common questions.
“People are engaged with people who are asking questions about them, providing something of value or telling an interesting story,” Jay Hopper said.
And that’s how we want to approach our marketing. We don’t want to talk about ourselves. We want to talk about our customers.”
To help them identify and produce exceptional customer-centric content, CADENAS keeps a running list of customer questions, objections they hear from manufacturers, stumbling points, project roadblocks — anything relevant to a buying and usage experience.
From there, creating the content has been simple for them:
“We take each of those [questions and objections] as an opportunity to tell a story, understand why this manufacturer is having a problem, or why their website launch is holding up projects.”
The result? A learning center filled with helpful content about the topics they know matter to their customers and leads. Here are a few examples:
Takeaway #2: Offer premium resources to generate tangible leads
Not only has the CADENAS team committed to the consistent production of helpful content, but they’re using it to generate leads.
And really good ones too.
The articles in their learning center drive traffic to their site via search engines and social media channels. And because the content is genuinely helpful, visitors happily exchange contact information for premium content like CADENAS’s B2B Guide to the Digital Customer Experience.
“We’re just trying to help them as thought leaders and say, ‘Hey, here are some ways that you can go about your job to make your job better, easier and get better results,’” Jay Hopper said.
The potential customer gets a resource to address his or her pain points. CADENAS gets a lead.
In the example below, CADENAS published a 64-page guide with chapters on the elements of the digital customer experience, 12 customer case studies and a glossary of terms.
They put the guide behind a gated form and use eye-catching calls-to-action to encourage downloads.
Takeaway #3: Nurture leads immediately — and for the long-term
Long, complex buying processes and consultative sales involving buying committees is the norm for a lot of manufacturers.
Sometimes weeks or months of research, analysis, comparison and evaluation can pass before a future customer is ready for a sales conversation.
After CADENAS’s website visitors fills out forms to grab their resources, they’ll get an email and a phone call from Adam simply starting a dialogue and showcasing CADENAS’s value as a resource during the buying process.
This approach creates trust and positions CADENAS as an expert advisor in the minds of prospects so when they’re ready to talk, CADENAS will likely get the first call.
Adam referenced a firsthand example of a lead they nurtured not just over the course of weeks or months, but years:
“[The visitor] would come to our website and download an eBook. They kept getting our emails. They would visit our social sites and watch our videos.
And then lo and behold, something changed and they were ready to become a customer. We love just keeping them in our community, keeping them in the loop.”
Drum roll, please: The results
A robust marketing strategy doesn’t mean much if it’s not driving verifiable results.
But with CADENAS’s content marketing and lead nurturing strategies, they saw a 5x increase in monthly website visits over the course of two years, which has translated into significant lead generation growth.
“We’re talking numbers like 700% to 900% increases in inbound leads” Jay Hopper said.
“We don’t have a floodgate of leads coming in, but the ones that we do are qualified. And we know we’ve reached the right person.”
What we can learn from CADENAS PARTsolutions
It was genuinely exciting to speak with Jay and Adam at CADENAS. This organization has fully embraced a changing industrial buying process – rather than ignoring the shift that’s clearly underway.
Keep up with they’re doing here – CADENAS PARTsolutions. And consider joining them at the Industrial Marketing Summit on September 6, 2019 in Cleveland.
