Despite the crisis: to win the interest of the client with the help of a blog. Case of the b2b industry, where everything was reduced

In this article, we talk about how we managed to play against the trend during the pandemic and win the attention of new customers using the tools of the blog and knowledge base.

In the world of business with a touch of pandemic 2020, the implementation of any offline projects is a risk or a great luxury. Caution has become almost a hygienic trait of companies from all sectors. If earlier our clients could afford to at least “try” something new, now experiments are a thing of the past. Only proven and preferably inexpensive solutions. Such times.

Our business, although called digital, belongs purely to the “offline” segment: we produce light-emitting diode (LED) screens for advertising and decoration.

Among our clients there are owners of shops, pharmacies, restaurants and beauty salons. We equip their premises with bright video screens. In the spring of 2020, for well-known reasons, they were forced to reduce or even stand idle. Along with this came a reduction in advertising budgets (and who else is the first thing they cut in difficult times?). The management of our clients found themselves at home, in self-isolation, and did not want to think about new video screens for their empty facilities.

In a pandemic, business is looking for solutions

Self-isolation is not only the time of endless series and games with a free subscription. For business, this was a time of unscheduled improvement of competencies: both we and our partners, and many other companies where friends and relatives work for us, were all engaged in (self-)education. When else could you find so much time to “pump” in the area of ​​​​interest? And also: to review strategies and plans, approaches and processes.

The sphere of business knowledge has attracted considerable attention during the pandemic. At first, our team also joined the students. We began to improve our skills in marketing and management, to acquire new technological competencies. But then we realized that we can make money on universal pandemic education – in the medium and long term, of course.

Business is a community of practitioners who will not spend much time on theory and general concepts. Business is looking for solutions. This property has not gone anywhere during the pandemic: companies are actively developing anti-crisis, post-virus strategies. This means that they are constantly looking for new solutions to their old problems. Where are they supposed to find it? In the same place where they look for all the information they need – social networks, blogs and news feeds. The management of companies went online for new knowledge – and we simply must use this to talk about the product, about us and our advantages.

We created a full-fledged blog during the crisis. Or rather, a small ecosystem, at the heart of which is our blog, where we share knowledge, cases and impressions about how we implement solutions. The links of this ecosystem are the pages of the Company in social networks, our personal social pages, as well as a website and information feeds like Yandex.Zen.

In our materials, we tell a lot: from customer success stories to specific life hacks and technical nuances. 2 posts a week – one article and one case.

You can choose who the client will fall in love with

We know that business is interested in this – our product is complex and by no means cheap. Deciding to buy it means being 100% sure. In the new crisis world, this confidence does not arise by itself – it matures during the “self-education” of the client: he reads, studies, collects opinions, calculates, and only after that makes decisions. A product or service is sold long before a call or correspondence with a client. He must fall in love with the product and the company. It will happen on your blog. Or in a competitor’s blog – you can choose who the client will fall in love with.

During the period of self-isolation, we shot at least 20 videos with an overview of our products, with advertising objects of our clients and comments from the founders of the company. This is how live content appeared, which we now regularly show to our readers in portions. The content plan is scheduled for weeks and months ahead, so now, after the release of quarantine, the company does not spend much time generating content. We only periodically add new material.

Our competitors and partners in the advertising business during the main wave of the coronacrisis were engaged in monotonous activities – they called everyone in their client base and asked the same questions: “How are you doing?”, “Any projects? ”, “Maybe our products are interesting?”. Some just froze – did nothing at all. To be honest, we ourselves almost fell into the second category when 90% of our projects were cancelled. But the sobering came quickly, and we discovered the blogosphere with interest as authors and generators of new content.

As a result, we received several interesting orders and potential projects from the largest players in the retail market, and already in May 2020, while sitting at home in self-isolation, we made the first sales. Now this work is ongoing. Now, if something is not clear to the client, we can not do an exclusive educational program – just let him read our blog.

Read our other articles in Yandex.Zen, go to our website, subscribe to our Youtube channel, as well as profiles on Facebook, Instagram and VKontakte. If you are connected with retail, catering and any other “offline” business that operates on the streets of cities and in shopping centers, you will find interesting ideas for advertising design for yourself. We regularly share the experience of our clients, photos of new projects and ideas for modern advertising design that increases sales.

LED Partners Team