+0%

Increase in number of sales in 3.5 years.

+0%

Increase in lead volume, plus better lead quality.

0st Page

Search rank for key terms, up from pages 3-6.

What we did: Marketing leadership, rebrand & inbound marketing.

  • Brand evolution & relaunch
  • SEO optimized website
  • Bi-monthly content marketing
  • Email & digital ad campaigns
  • Reseller partner co-marketing
  • New sales tools & event booth
  • Team mentorship

We first engaged MI to audit our marketing after a year of spending more but getting no more leads. They came back with smart, actionable recommendations and we hired them to lead our marketing. In the next two years, they helped us achieve significant year-over-year lead growth.

Ian Warner, President & CEO, Aprio


The challenge:
Turning around stalled growth.

When Aprio was founded in 2003, there were few players in North America’s board portal software market. Aprio was the first to give board directors and executives convenient and secure access to board documents, and meeting tools.

The company grew rapidly its first 10 years, then by 2016 sales growth stalled, and marketing costs were rising. We needed to figure out how, within a limited budget, to best generate leads and compete against big competitors with mega-financed marketing campaigns.


The solution.

We discovered from customers that Aprio’s standout qualities were service and software tailored to the unique needs of mid-sized organizations. We evolved the Aprio brand to be more human and helpful, at affordable cost. We decreased spending on advertising and tradeshows and invested more in inbound marketing. We also struck a co-marketing partnership with a US-focused credit union organization to expand customers in Aprio’s largest sector.


A website laser-focused on conversion.

We focused on getting our target audience to visit the Aprio website and share information to get content or a demo. We continually tuned website copy and keywords, invested in link building and bi-monthly blogging to boost search rank.


Video rapidly conveys how Aprio works.

We used animation to convey the core value of Aprio’s board portal software and show key features to entice viewers to ask for a full demo.


Direct mail to engage key industry prospects.

We sent packages to health organizations Aprio was targeting to win as customers, letting them know that their admired peers are using Aprio software and recommend it.


Content to move sales forward.

Taking direction from which blogs were most popular, we created content assets for download that helped direct and accelerate the sales process.


Ads to expand reach to buyers.

With strong search volumes for Aprio keywords, we invested in online search advertising including Google Adwords and display/remarketing ads to generate leads.


Co-marketing to boost visibility & credibility.

With credit unions being a strong core market in Canada for Aprio, we launched a co-marketing partnership with a US-focused credit union professional association that included email campaigns, print and digital ads, magazine articles and trade show speaking engagements.


The result: Quality website traffic increase from 2000 to 14,000 users per month.

The goal of evolving Aprio’s marketing was to develop a brand that would stand up against mega-financed competitors and generate quality leads on a limited marketing budget. With MI’s help, Aprio achieved that goal. We increased quality lead volume 70% in a three year scale up which helped to increase sales by 88%.

Core to Aprio’s lead growth was improved inbound marketing. With Aprio visible on page one of Google for key search terms, qualified buyers are now better able to discover Aprio software and are more likely to ask for a demo on its optimized website. Expanding reach to the US market with an industry co-marketing partnership was also vital.

Fewer unqualified leads, resulting in +12% revenue growth.



+0%

Increase in number of sales in 3.5 years.

+0%

Increase in lead volume, plus better lead quality.

0st Page

Search rank for key terms, up from page 3-6.


We needed to expand our global sales. MI recommended building a co-marketing partnership with an industry association in the US. They led the partner relationship and a strong content marketing program which helped us build our initial foothold in the US credit union market.

Ian Warner, President & CEO, Aprio




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