Entrusted with a pivotal project for CDK Global – to craft distinctive B2B digital marketing campaigns for Elead CRM, an acclaimed automotive solution revered by over 9,000 dealerships. The acquisition of Elead by CDK Global in 2020 presented an opportunity to redefine and amplify its brand presence in the automotive industry.
Our focus was twofold: to establish robust best practices within these guidelines and to push the brand's visual identity. This approach was underpinned by our commitment to strategic storytelling, ensuring that every visual element not only aligned with the brand's core values but also propelled its narrative forward in a compelling and cohesive manner.
Based on Elead’s Audience summary, vision statement, and in conversations with the account manager and copywriter, we put together a persona profile to ensure both visuals and copy supported eachother in order to get the most accurate look/tone/feel of the campaigns.
Our mission was to use their existing Brand Guidelines and weave Elead's core values - Approachability, Partnership, Innovation, Authenticity, and Joy - into the fabric of our digital marketing campaigns. This entailed a deep dive into Elead’s audience insights and vision, translating them into a well-defined ICP (Ideal Customer Profile). This ICP, developed in collaboration with our team of designers and strategists, guided our creative decisions across email, PPC ads, and social media, ensuring that each element resonated with Elead’s identity and audience’s aspirations.
Design a post and pre digital campaign for the NIADA Convention & Expo consisting of email, pay-per-click ads, and social advertising.
We outlined the main pain points or concerns that these campaigns needed to address:
- Visually show strong customer relationships in order to support the copy
- An emphasis on forward thinking to represent CRM technology advancements was necessary
- We needed to promote both booking a demo and discounts in a way that wouldn't overwhelm the subscribers while maintaining 'booking a demo' as the main focus Pre Event and leading with discounts Post Event
- The campaign materials needed to be able to stand on their own as well as work within a larger narrative ecosystem
we approached the Elead and CDK Global project with a strategy to blend the new with the established. Our inspiration was drawn from the diverse digital assets of both entities. Considering Elead's recent integration into CDK, we smartly leveraged CDK's existing marketing landing pages as a template. This approach not only ensured consistency with CDK's proven format but also addressed Elead's nascent promotional presence, setting the stage for a seamless and impactful digital narrative.
While our primary focus was on design, we actively engaged in providing insights and consulting on content development, aimed at addressing the pain points and interests of the ICP. This synergy between design and content was critical in crafting campaigns that not only looked visually compelling but also told a story that spoke directly to the audience’s needs. We focused on a logical hierarchy with larger headlines and bold images to increase scan-ability of the digital assets. We wanted to use layouts that broke up the copy to create chunks of consumable content that were simple and informative.
Our digital marketing strategy saw a surge in demo sign-ups, with a 60% increase within 48 hours following targeted email campaigns. Impressively, we converted 55% of Marketing Qualified Leads into Sales-Qualified Leads, indicating the high engagement level driven by the campaign's momentum. Additionally, the click-through rate for PPC ads exceeded industry benchmarks by 30%, while organic social initiatives boosted referral traffic to the demo sign-up page by 40%.
Using two digital ads designed by another agency that CDK partnered with as the blueprint for corresponding marketing splash pages for those in the decision stage of their buyer's journey. Leading with benefit-oriented headlines, the goal for each was to promote Elead demos through lead capture forms.
We optimized the marketing landing pages for readability by implementing the F-pattern layout, catering to the natural scanning behavior of users. Key information was strategically placed at the top and along the left side of the page to engage scanners, while additional details were positioned outside the F-pattern to capture the attention of thorough readers.
Led the launch of Elead's Uncertain Times ebook with a distinct blend of modern aesthetics and brand alignment.
Our focus was to not only present the ebook in a visually appealing manner but also to ensure its wide visibility. We achieved this by seamlessly integrating the ebook's design into Elead's promotional emails, adhering to their established template while infusing a fresh perspective.
To widen the impact, we ventured into a strategic digital marketing campaign. Our team crafted targeted pay-per-click web ads and curated social ads across platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, each meticulously designed to strike a chord with Elead's audience. This approach resulted in a remarkable 30% increase in ebook downloads and a significant boost in brand recognition, showcasing our studio's ability to effectively merge design with digital marketing strategy.
We took the opportunity to conduct A/B testing for CTA button colors throughout the campaign and found that the white button against a red background garnered a 20% higher click-through-rate compared to the orange button.
