Teaching A Search Giant How to Make Small Talk

How we changed the conversation to spark demand.

Challenge:

Sometimes when you’re as big as Google, you can forget how to talk to small businesses—especially when they aren’t convinced that digital works as a marketing channel.

Solution:

We helped change the conversation for Google, creating a thoughtful program that taught the benefits of digital marketing… and it started all started with a handshake.

We Made It Human:

When you’re talking to people who aren’t convinced about marketing digitally, you have to meet them face-to-face. We co-created a series of “Think Digital” events in both the UK & US to talk with small businesses and gave away tablets loaded with great content on digital ROI 101.

We Made It Relevant:

Post-event, we followed up with a series of personalized emails, moving Google away from a “batch & blast” approach to a more targeted nurture stream and kept them moving toward the Google sales team. Educational content rounded out the experience, and was made available through a robust content portal online.

We Made It Integrated:

As small business leaders began to move through this journey, Google’s inside sales teams gained unprecedented insights they applied to their ongoing outreach. By focusing first on the journey a buyer takes, and building the right messaging, conversation and cadence to support it, we positioned Google as a trusted resource for SMBs and brought a stalled marketing pipeline up to speed.

And It Worked:

• 33% improvement in lead velocity and shortened sales cycles
• 20% improvement in sales conversions
• Silver Medal Winner, CMI Content Marketing Project of the Year