Overview:
IQPC is a global large-scale exhibition organizer in the technology, health and customer experience space. One niche event that they were looking to generate leads for was the 3rd PEX VA 2019 (Process Excellence in Veteran’s Affairs). IQPC’s typical process for lead-gen is to create anchor pieces of content, of high quality, that they then use as an opt-in. The opt-in is driven through social media, and using segregated email lists. When someone signs up for a specific piece, the first step is to deliver superlative content, as promised. Then there’s a follow-up sales call sequence that is triggered.
The Challenge:
A few pieces of content had been tried for the conference using internal resources. It was crunch time, and the IQPC Marketing Team on the event had a clear target to meet in revenue from sponsorship for the event. Time was short and one clear ‘winner’ piece needed to be created.
The Big Ask:
The task at hand was to take a news piece about 13 areas of veteran’s affairs administration that was announced by the then new Secretary of Veterans Affairs, David Shulkin. That piece of news was to be converted into a meaningful long-form piece of content that was the singular lead magnet to serve the revenue goal.
The Twist in the Plot:
A key issue was the lack of availability of the required resource. c+p digital had an ongoing content creation relationship with IQPC. However, the requested turnaround time on this project was not one we could commit to (7 days, including all research). c+p declined the project because we could not meet the hard deadline.
However, the client, Steve Aponte, Marketing Manager at IQPC was having none of it! He evaluated available budgets, and the impact of not having the piece, in revenue terms. And he made us an offer to pay 40% more to cover an urgent turnaround. We said yes! The additional dollars helped us rejig resources to move our main writer on this account onto the piece.
(And taught us to value what an urgent fee for creative use for resources. Thanks for helping us learn that, Steve! That’s impacted our bottom line for sure!!)
The Simplification Plan:
c+p digital researched the subject found that much discussion was being had around the fact that the department of veteran’s affairs was implementing Lean Six Sigma principles for these advancements. The focus piece of content delved into the impact of each of the 13 areas of improvement, laying out out the specifics in easy to consume and clever writing. The call to action was an invitation to sponsor the event if veteran’s affairs administrative decision-makers were a target audience for the reader.
PS: We got them the piece in 6 days!
The Results:
We like to explain the results in the simplest math possible.
The sum of money paid for the piece = X
The sum of money earned with direct reference to the piece = 40X
ROI = 40X!
We were at our final effort on this event, and our go-to content creators were not able to fit us in! They typically accommodate us, but this piece was complex and required research to really hit home. So, I worked things out with the internal chain of command, and we made c+p an offer to help cover the cost of agility. And the response was one of my favourite emails: ‘Well played, Mr. Aponte. You have yourself a deal.’ High-quality creative is worth paying for. I wish we could all afford to pay for it all the time. We can’t. But when we can, it really allows us to knock it out of the park.
