Full-Funnel B2B Marketing Show Episode 74: Driving international demand in a niche market with Amir Bolouryazad
Nov 29, 2021
32:32
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Here are 5 things CitizenLab does to drive international demand in a niche market.
Ctizenlab helps governments solve a problem that's hundreds of years old (constituent engagement). Unfortunately, this also means that a lot of would-be clients are not aware of modern tech solutions.
During an interview at Full-Funnel B2B Marketing Show, Amir Bolouryazad shared 5 things they do to create that awareness and drive demand for their product:
1. Involve their customer in content creation and distribution
Next to creating case studies, CitizenLab runs webinars, bringing other civil servants from different cities who have used their platform successfully.
They get a chance to tell their peers a community engagement platform can be extremely helpful into their day-to-day lives, and how their citizens become more satisfied with how their government is engaging them into the decision-making process.
They also invest a lot in creating content that makes their customers more successful. Very often, the customers share such content with their colleagues and peers.
2. Involve the whole revenue team in content planning
The marketing team works closely with sales and government success teams to define the priority topics and content to be covered.
The sales share the most common prospect questions, trending vertical use-cases, and new legislations. By creating content about these trending topics, CitizenLab taps into the existing demand (for information) to create awareness and demand for their product.
The CS team who's more involved in day-to-day customer projects share the specific challenges that different types of customers are having with implementation. By creating handbooks for these challenges, CitizenLab helps the existing customers — while addressing the objections of the prospects considering the platform.
3. Leverage content partnerships
In each (local) market, CitizenLab identifies the most relevant publications and associations catering to their audience.
And since their content strategy is already aligned with local trending topics, very often the content partners will be happy to publish informative and educational content on these topics.
The key is to produce high-quality pieces that inform and educate their readers or members, not to promote your brand.
4. Align sales and marketing on an "allbound" approach
In a lot of companies, sales does outbound, and marketing does inbound — independently of each other.
And they are leaving a lot of money on the table by doing just one or the other and not combining the efforts.
CitizenLab takes an allbound approach:
- Their marketing helps their SDR efforts by running highly-targeted ads educating the prospects about the same topics the sales reps are mentioning in their outreach
- Marketing also targets events their salespeople are visiting to create awareness and help sales meet more prospects
- Sales uses first-party intent data about e.g. website visitors to learn about buyers and governments to understand their interest, so they can run timely and personalized outreach and follow-up campaigns
5. Localize their content and channels for local markets
The culture of governments varies dramatically from one market to the other. Add to that the different use-cases driven by different legislations and trends.
To localize their approach to each market, CitizenLab:
- Adapts the tone of voice and appearance. For example, European markets tend to be more functional and require more details about the product and features, while in the US the storytelling behind the features becomes more important
- Uses the local customer stories and case studies
- Identifies local content partners to help with content distribution
Tune in to the full episode below
👇
Amir Bolouryazad on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bolouryazad/
Here are 5 things CitizenLab does to drive international demand in a niche market.
Ctizenlab helps governments solve a problem that's hundreds of years old (constituent engagement). Unfortunately, this also means that a lot of would-be clients are not aware of modern tech solutions.
During an interview at Full-Funnel B2B Marketing Show, Amir Bolouryazad shared 5 things they do to create that awareness and drive demand for their product:
1. Involve their customer in content creation and distribution
Next to creating case studies, CitizenLab runs webinars, bringing other civil servants from different cities who have used their platform successfully.
They get a chance to tell their peers a community engagement platform can be extremely helpful into their day-to-day lives, and how their citizens become more satisfied with how their government is engaging them into the decision-making process.
They also invest a lot in creating content that makes their customers more successful. Very often, the customers share such content with their colleagues and peers.
2. Involve the whole revenue team in content planning
The marketing team works closely with sales and government success teams to define the priority topics and content to be covered.
The sales share the most common prospect questions, trending vertical use-cases, and new legislations. By creating content about these trending topics, CitizenLab taps into the existing demand (for information) to create awareness and demand for their product.
The CS team who's more involved in day-to-day customer projects share the specific challenges that different types of customers are having with implementation. By creating handbooks for these challenges, CitizenLab helps the existing customers — while addressing the objections of the prospects considering the platform.
3. Leverage content partnerships
In each (local) market, CitizenLab identifies the most relevant publications and associations catering to their audience.
And since their content strategy is already aligned with local trending topics, very often the content partners will be happy to publish informative and educational content on these topics.
The key is to produce high-quality pieces that inform and educate their readers or members, not to promote your brand.
4. Align sales and marketing on an "allbound" approach
In a lot of companies, sales does outbound, and marketing does inbound — independently of each other.
And they are leaving a lot of money on the table by doing just one or the other and not combining the efforts.
CitizenLab takes an allbound approach:
- Their marketing helps their SDR efforts by running highly-targeted ads educating the prospects about the same topics the sales reps are mentioning in their outreach
- Marketing also targets events their salespeople are visiting to create awareness and help sales meet more prospects
- Sales uses first-party intent data about e.g. website visitors to learn about buyers and governments to understand their interest, so they can run timely and personalized outreach and follow-up campaigns
5. Localize their content and channels for local markets
The culture of governments varies dramatically from one market to the other. Add to that the different use-cases driven by different legislations and trends.
To localize their approach to each market, CitizenLab:
- Adapts the tone of voice and appearance. For example, European markets tend to be more functional and require more details about the product and features, while in the US the storytelling behind the features becomes more important
- Uses the local customer stories and case studies
- Identifies local content partners to help with content distribution
Tune in to the full episode below
👇
Amir Bolouryazad on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bolouryazad/