Find out how Stein IAS helped Trelleborg gain 5,216 unique opens, 2.54% unique clickthrough rate for its creative and technical campaign.
About the client company
Historically, Trelleborg Marine and Infrastructure are global leaders in engineered polymer solutions. Recently, they have become Technology leaders in the Marine industry with the invention of SmartPort.
Port operators struggle with outdated manual systems. The multiple touchpoints of approach, docking and mooring vast amounts of cargo, and the swift unloading, is of utmost importance. SmartPort is an integrated solution, giving port operators 360-visibility. It monitors the movement of both the ocean and other ships, enabling vessels and goods to flow freely.
Strategy – broader business issues the company is facing
With a relatively small but extremely high-value B2B market, qualitative research was carried out. They reached out to high-level stakeholders around the globe.
The top issues identified were clearance delays, increased freight rates, port congestion and a lack of technology to deal with these issues. Ports were also under immense pressure to solve these issues in a highly competitive market. Technology was the answer but changing anything in a port has huge consequences. They needed to enable Trelleborg’s sales team with both inspirational content and factual data to convince their customers to make huge purchase decisions.
Objectives of the campaign
The objective was to educate/empower the internal team as well as the customers they engaged. Working with subject matter experts, they created detailed, buyer-journey aligned content that gave the sales team the knowledge and confidence they needed – as well as the right tools at the right times to initiate and progress conversations and ultimately close business.
The video’s objective was to provide them with awareness content that would enable them to approach already-engaged and highly qualified leads. For a salesperson, qualified, emotionally engaged leads and the technical knowledge to make high-value sales are as good as it gets. That was their objective, and it was met. Technical objective metrics will be addressed in the ‘results’ section.
The target audience
Stein IAS has worked hard with Trelleborg to ringfence a high-value pool of port contacts. When it comes to particular products within the SmartPort offer, the audience can be in the low thousands. The target audience for the full SmartPort offer is 10,000 stakeholders including Port Owners, Port Operators, Harbor Masters, Marine Consultants and Contractors.
Through research and engagement, they know the audience and they know what kind of information they need to make a purchase decision.
Media, channels or techniques used
10,000 stakeholders were targeted via an omnichannel campaign, including an Eloqua nurture campaign. 12 unique sales enablement assets were created, along with the integrated campaign communications assets.
The tactic was to engage them with the Smartport video, promoted by an Eloqua Email nurture program. This was augmented by sponsored LinkedIn updates and InMail that could pinpoint communications to the most relevant job titles.
For wider awareness, banner advertising was placed in the trade websites; “Port Technology” and “Port Strategy”. These pushed people to a landing page featuring Stein’s video and the deeper content detailed below.
The next step in the sales enablement strategy was a rich set of content. The sales team were supplied with brochures, data sheets and whitepapers for the key Smartport products: Automoor, Dynamoor, Quick Release Hooks and Mooring Load Monitoring. With MQLs primed by creative video content, the team were armed with all the tools they needed to push clients along the buyer journey with pace.
To express the Smartport idea, they created 3D imagery of connected port operations and a video with footage mostly shot with drone and on-the-ground camera operators. This asset was key for sales enablement as it was used as a tool via campaigns and sales outreach to customers aware of the overall offer.
Timescales of the campaign
- Messaging developed in January 2020
- Campaign GTM planning in February 2020
- Launch in late Q2 2020
- Reporting in September 2020
Results
- 5,216 unique opens (engagement with 50%+ of the TAM; an average open rate of 17.34% over the three emails; close to 3X above 5.95% industry average)
- 2.54% unique clickthrough rate (2.5X+ greater than the industry average)
Results for LinkedIn InMail were:
- 2,910 sends and 1,459 opens
- 3.51% clickthrough rate (7X greater than the industry average)
- The landing page for the video got 3,177 page views, representing 30% of the TAM.
This campaign engaged our salespeople and our audience with the right balance of creativity and technical know-how. The video production is an accurate and apt representation of our brand and the innovative technology we develop. SmartPort needs smart marketing that enhances both brand awareness and demand for our offer. This campaign connected with our high value stakeholders and helped the continued growth of our SmartPort solutions. Good creative and great results is what makes it award winning in our eyes.
Scott Smith, President of Marine Technology