When your target market niche is very small and specific, can you do B2B lead generation successfully? The answer is yes!

But before going into detail, let’s get the context right.

Initial premise

The client, Saponificio Pachys, came to us presenting the need to promote its e-commerce of Made in Sicily artisanal products for Italian-style shaving, so with shaving brush and freehand razor.

During the fact-finding call, it became apparent that the company was also doing very well in the B2B channel, introducing its products to professional barbers through industry marketplaces and a few sales agents.

And here, faced with a limited budget to invest, the objective difficulties of getting results quickly with such a niche e-commerce and without any brand awareness activities initiated, the light bulb went on.

Why not start with B2B, to create a virtuous circle that can also positively influence B2C sales in the medium term?

So we proposed to the client to undertake a B2B lead generation strategy, managed directly by the company, intermediaries, with the goal of acquiring contacts in target professional barbershops that could be converted into customers.

The strategy

We knew we were not facing an easy challenge to overcome. With such a small and specific niche market, we would have had to work really hard at strategizing.

The first thing we focused on was defining the hook to get the contacts.

The customer once told us, “Once you try it, the product sells itself.”

This phrase kept buzzing around in our heads for quite a while until it resulted in the winning idea: let’s create a small stock of shaving soap samples to offer for free in exchange for contacts. And so we did.

We have enough experience in the industry to know that a strategy with free product delivery could have turned into a real drain on the customer, which is why we took every precaution possible to prevent this problem and, surprise, it worked!

First of all, we made it explicit in the text of the ads that the sample would be sent only after a brief telephone consultation, with the purpose of helping the barber choose the type of soap to try.

Second, we created a Facebook Lead Ads form with a conditional question.

Are you a professional barber?

In case of a negative response, there was no possibility to continue the course.

If, however, the answer was yes, it became necessary to enter the name of the barber shop/salon.

This approach allowed us, on the one hand, to pre-qualify the lead very well, ensuring that we only paid for contacts that were on target, and on the other hand, to immediately prepare the contact for the next step of telephone counseling in order to receive the sample.

It is clear that the consultation was yes aimed at choosing the product to try, but it was also an important first moment of business contact, product exposure, and so on.

The creative part

Obviously, the implementation of the creative part of the campaign played a key role in gathering contacts the target audience.

In both the copy and the visual part of the ads, we worked to make the targeting of the ad unambiguous so that the algorithm could process the information correctly and show it to the right cluster of audiences.

We worked with various types of creative, from static ones to videos, testing various communication angles and making the most of the social proof that video reviews of barbers already clients kindly created for the occasion.

Follow up

Given the need to physically call each contact on the phone, we felt that we should also complement the advertising strategy with a follow-up via email marketing, enrolling the contact in a 3-day nurturing sequence with specially designed content to introduce the company and products.

Also, in the last email we announced to the contact that inside the package containing the sample would be an exclusive discount code for the first order on the shop.

Automation

This was all made possible by marketing automation. In fact, we integrated in the same automation scenario the lead ads modules, a small management system created in Google Sheet for commercial management and Brevo, the auto responder chosen for the occasion.

In addition, again through the Google Sheet, we created a checkbox to be checked once the sample had been submitted. As the box was checked, the contact was added to another follow up automation, with an email sent 7 days after sending the sample for a request for feedback on the product and to remind of the possibility of using the discount code.

Results

In just one month of activity, we collected 233 barbershop leads on target, with a cost per lead of €1.43. which resulted in the sending of 123 product samples, with more than 15 orders completed.

Now the client is in possession of a list to work commercially in the future as well, continuing to follow up even on those who did not want to order for the time being because of inventory issues.

We will continue with this activity in the near future, also flanking other initiatives aimed at B2B, but always with an eye on brand development on the B2C side as well.