How do you “brand it like a boss?” With a custom-designed brand strategy, and the stickiest B2B marketing content we could create, we were able to craft a highly memorable and accessible story around Com Pro’s managed services.
You can read all about our work for Com Pro Managed Business Solutions in this new Original Ginger case study!
Check out the video interview below with client, Com Pro Managed Business Solutions.
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Com Pro Case Study Video Transcript
Todd O:
Hi everyone this is Todd from Original Ginger. I have the pleasure of having Mike Hamfelt Vice President of Com Pro Managed Business Solutions with me today. Mike how about we start with a bit of an intro.
Mike Hamfelt:
Thanks Todd for having me today. You know over the last five years we’ve really embraced this idea of managed services. In our case, it’s print management, workflow, managing your print devices, and then we’ve since diversified into managed IT.
Todd O:
What were the pain points that were present in the organization prior to meeting with us?
Mike Hamfelt:
I think the organization had struggled with that identity piece for even years before I came on board and it took me about a year to really understand what our challenges were and begin chipping away at the direction we wanted to go. There was this turning point where I was sitting at a technical meeting and one of our technicians said I don’t think you really understand what customers think of us and what our competitors say about us and that was a moment where it was like holy crap we have to find a way to communicate this. And so you know, I think that at that point is when we reached out to your group.
Todd O:
What solutions had you considered prior to engaging Original Ginger?
Mike Hamfelt:
One of the first things I did when I came here…is we hired someone to do our Google ads…it wasn’t a great experience and then we had somebody just managing our SEO and that wasn’t a great experience. And I think through these poor experiences I realized, and reflecting back on our initial conversation, is that it’s all connected. And so historically we had spent money just in the tactics space.
Todd O:
So it sounds like things evolved…you were at a crossroads and one was do I continue to hire internal marketing staff or do I consider partnering with a branding and marketing agency like Original Ginger. So what was the last straw that that you said, and Mitch of course, came to the conclusion that okay we want to go in this direction?
Mike Hamfelt:
Ultimately it came from taking our own advice, which is realizing that I enjoy the creative side of marketing, but I don’t want to own it because there’s a cost to me owning it. And ultimately I had to get to that place where I realized looking in the mirror where I was becoming the bottleneck.
Todd O:
When we had gone through the brand strategy exercises and you invited us to your brand kickoff for your team, and that was a very interesting experience, there was quite a quite a buzz with your team at that event!
Mike Hamfelt:
When we went through the branding with your group, I took the proofs down to our technical team and said would you be proud driving a vehicle with this wrap on it? I think there’s a lesson in that right? Because we can develop this thing, but at the end of the day our employees, our staff, that are interacting with clients firsthand, they’re the ones that are creating the experience right? And again, going back to the beauty of a small business is there is actually the opportunity to go down to your technical team and say hey, would you be proud driving a vehicle wrapped in this? And so part of that excitement I think was that everyone felt a little bit of part of it?
Todd O:
Can you talk a little bit about that first meeting where you and I met with Mitch and we talked about where you wanted to take your business, and how marketing fit into that?
Mike Hamfelt:
Ultimately how Original Ginger fit into that, there has to be a process behind it right? And we didn’t have that! We had the infrastructure to do a whole bunch of tactics and so we engaged with your group, talked about hey we want a content calendar, we want to know what’s going to happen over the next 12 months and really understanding the value of again having someone manage our marketing department. Like managing the execution and really being the link from hey I’ve got an idea, to execution, right?
Todd O:
Your sales team, specifically I remember when we had the workshop with them and initially I was thinking okay, this might be a bit of a tough sell for this team. Where they really are skeptical…so what is this marketing group going to do and how does it benefit us. Can you maybe just describe how that’s all played out?
Mike Hamfelt:
I think overwhelmingly there was a lot of excitement. I was actually really surprised by it. I will say this, I mean they’ve been through the process now. You know Original Ginger wasn’t new to them, right? And we built a bunch of assets around them. The one thing that was missing was they’ve got this really great back end but we don’t have something tangible for them to go out there and say hey we’re different. And I think the fact that they had so much confidence in the systems and infrastructure that was built, I think there was this awareness that okay great we’ve got the megaphone, we’ve got all these things, but now we need something to say. But once I understood the connectiveness of all those activities, and that came from yourself Todd and your group sitting down and spending the time, and showing our group why these things matter, how this will lead to people calling us and not just asking us to quote but getting a sense of who we are, so that they’re more likely to choose us, right? And I just think our team really bought into that.
Todd O:
So let’s talk about results. What were some of the big wins that you would attribute to the work that Original Ginger has done around the branding and also now that we’re kind of full swing into the marketing side of things.
Mike Hamfelt:
It really led to, over two or three months, what we really started to see were a couple things on the managed print side, it’s a little shorter sales cycle, so we expected to have more immediate results on the manage print side. But we started seeing form fills. I think in December, which is historically a slow month for us, I think we had eight really high quality leads. Six of which were form fills and two were people calling in because they saw us on Google. That was a little unusual to have that number but I think more importantly, was the quality of them. All of those were quoted, right? So they were all qualified leads and I think that can be attributed to a few things. I think we’re more visible online. I think it’s easier to understand who we are as an organization so if they find us, they can determine pretty quickly if maybe we’re one of the three companies they may want to do business with. They’re giving us a chance and our close rate as you know, where we would be running typically at a twenty to thirty percent close rate, we’ve closed half the leads that came.
Todd O:
Mike if you were to give some recommendations to other small business owners that were considering a rebrand or maybe hiring an agency to help them with marketing strategy and carrying out tactics, what would you say to them?
Mike Hamfelt:
I would say, check in and say are you clear on who you are what you want to communicate and if you aren’t try and work with an organization that will help you figure that out. And second be really, really clear on where you want to go and if you’re not clear, work with a full service organization that will help you understand that.
To learn more about the Com Pro Branding, Web Design and Content Marketing Project, visit the Case Study portfolio.
