Introduction
Why Kuno Creative?
The global professional services company provides food service to hospitals, universities, school districts, stadiums and other businesses. They initially were looking for an agency with expertise in content marketing, sales enablement and HubSpot.
Expectations of partnership
The Fortune 500 company sought an agency that could work strategically in the B2B space, bring new ideas to the table, execute at scale, all while remaining within the established brand. Kuno’s team of strategists, brand journalists, graphic designers and paid media experts provided needed proficiencies and speed to market.
Benefits Kuno offered
A well-documented process, in addition to industry experience allowed Kuno to make an immediate impact in reaching the company’s target market. Creativity, informed by audience insights, helped the Kuno team create content and campaigns that attract attention, driving engagement and cultivating sales-ready leads. The partnership, now more than seven years strong, has grown to cover numerous verticals, including professional services, healthcare and education.
The Challenge
The organization had approached marketing only in a traditional sense—tradeshows, flyers, conventional advertising and so forth. At the beginning of our relationship, the goal was to launch a strategic digital marketing plan to help shorten their admittedly lengthy sales cycle.
Over the years, challenges have become more pronounced: standing out from the competition, engaging buyers throughout the sales process, establishing numerous touch points in a crowded digital space, navigating a pandemic and tracking everything to demonstrate ROI.
Kuno provided a full team of digital experts, including strategists, brand journalists, designers, paid media managers and HubSpot experts. Our process provided speed to market and our deep experience in the B2B, healthcare and educational spaces helped us craft and deliver compelling content that appealed to targeted audiences.
The Strategy
At the Start
Kuno started by developing buyer personas for each target audience. Our brand journalists conducted one-to-one interviews with internal stakeholders and customers. These buyer personas ensured our messaging was on point and we leveraged appropriate digital channels to reach the right audiences.
Ongoing Services
From there, we charted customer journey maps detailing the awareness, consideration, evaluation and decision phases, and how we can effectively reach these audiences at each stage. Campaigns included creation of more than 200 pieces of thought leadership content over the course of the relationship, including guides, case studies, video production, email communications, digital advertising/optimization, and in-depth landing pages that engaged visitors. The team also managed the organization’s HubSpot portal, creating automation and reporting. Recently, the strategy has also grown to include account-based marketing efforts, connected TV (CTV) ads and association partnerships.
Results
Last fiscal year, the B2B marketing team reported a total of 972 marketing qualified leads, $209.9 million in open opportunities and 55 wins where contacts showed increased engagement through marketing content.
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