Generated 15 SQL's for School Software out of only 100 messages

Subtitle

How we implemented an outreach automation and scattered benchmarks for School Software in the Netherlands. 

Executive Summary

Stagedoos is a small software start-up in the Netherlands. They didn’t have any marketing knowledge, face challenges in reaching the right audience and a very limited marketing budget. We’ve created a hyper segmented target list and created an Account Based Marketing System. This eventually resulted in 32 replies out of 76 contacted pre-selected leads and 16 Sales Qualified leads! Yes you read that currently, an insane 42% reply rate and 50% interest rate. 

Client background

Stagedoos is a software start-up in the Netherlands, dedicated to improving internship management for high schools. Their platform offers an all-encompassing suite of digital tools, facilitating seamless contract generation, digital signatures, assignment management, and evaluations. 

This year, they're launching a major upgrade and aim to onboard two to five new schools for the pilot. With a limited marketing budget and minimal internal marketing expertise, they sought a partner for strategic guidance and outreach. Having previously collaborated with Marijn (LeadGem’s founder) on another venture, Stagedoos recognized LeadGem’s expertise and commission-based pricing model as a perfect fit.

Goals and Objectives

Growth marketing and outbound strategies were uncharted territory for Stagedoos. Despite the first version of their product being used by various schools for years, they had never engaged in marketing. Everything needed to be created from scratch—no target lists, no unique value propositions, and no tested messaging. GertJan, the CEO, didn’t have specific targets but saw getting five schools signed up for the new pilot as a dream scenario. 

Given the small number of potential schools in the Netherlands, it was crucial to avoid burning bridges. Another challenge was the limited time to set up the system due to the seasonality of school holidays and exams.

The System

The System - Outbound centred Account Based Marketing (ABM)

For Stagedoos we implemented a simplified version of Outbound Centred Account Based Marketing. Down below is a simplified breakdown of the steps we initiated to make this system successful:
Steps:

1. ICP and messaging: In collaboration with GertJan, we iterated on various Ideal Customer Profiles (ICP’s) and messaging angles. We ultimately developed a tailored lead scoring model, focusing on specific job titles, LinkedIn keywords, and LinkedIn activity to identify and prioritize the most relevant leads. This model allowed us to effectively target individuals most likely to benefit from Stagedoos' platform, ensuring our outreach efforts were both strategic and impactful.
2. Domain Setup: Deliverability is crucial for any outbound campaign's success. Using the main domain for outreach can be detrimental. To optimize deliverability, it’s essential to consider the email provider used by your target audience. Since most schools in the Netherlands use Outlook, we set up a dedicated Outlook email domain for Stagedoos to ensure effective communication and avoid spam issues
3. Audience Research & Enrichment: To identify the target audience, we leveraged a government-maintained list of schools in the Netherlands and enriched this data with over 15 sources and combined this with website and LinkedIn scraping.
4. Lead scoring: Using the lead scoring model defined earlier and leveraging one of our favorite tools, Clay, we generated a refined list of the most relevant contacts for Stagedoos’ pilot program. This process ensured that our outreach targeted individuals with the highest potential for engagement, focusing on those whose job titles, LinkedIn keywords, and activity aligned with our ICP criteria.
5. Awareness Warm-up: Boosting brand and personal awareness before outreach can significantly enhance campaign effectiveness. To achieve this, we ran hyper-targeted LinkedIn ads both from a company perspective and as thought leadership ads featuring Stagedoos' founder, GertJan. This dual approach positioned Stagedoos as a familiar brand and GertJan as a recognizable face, creating a solid foundation for subsequent outreach efforts.
6. Personalised Outreach: We segmented our outreach into different tiers, with Tier 1 prospects being the most likely to convert based on lead scoring. With only 110 prospects, limiting our efforts to just email outreach would have been a missed opportunity. Therefore, we used LaGrowthMachine to implement a multi-step outreach strategy, ensuring we maximized our engagement with these highly relevant leads through multiple channels.

Results

Results: Oh boy, we were in love with the results of this campaign! All the KPIs were way above what we could have hoped for. Email open rates soared to 83%, overall reply rates hit 42%, and we saw a conversion rate of 50%. Honestly, there’s not much more to say—just admire the beautiful graph below that showcases these stellar results.

Conclusion

Our partnership with Stagedoos exemplifies how strategic, data-driven marketing can achieve remarkable results. From setting up a dedicated domain to hyper-targeted LinkedIn ads and a multi-channel outreach strategy, every step was carefully executed. The result? Incredible engagement and conversion rates.