Every organization needs to increase lead generation. This episode highlights an incredibly creative way one B2B company increased lead generation. What did they use? An ink and paper coloring book for compliance professionals.

Bernie’s guest is Sean Freidlin. Sean is currently Senior Product Marketing Manager at Hanzo. But, when this episode was recorded, Sean was Director of Proposition Marketing at SAI Global- the company whose content marketing campaign is highlighted in this conversation.

In his role with SAI Global, Sean was instrumental in many key campaigns. He spearheaded the creation of “Compliance Officer Day”, “Corporate Compliance and Culture Cards,” AND….the subject of this episode, “The Compliance Coloring Book.”

You heard that right…The Compliance Coloring Book!

In this episode, Sean explains how the idea to create a coloring book for chief compliance officers was born, why it was such a big hit, and how it became a great lead generation tool. You’ll be inspired by this modern marketing approach. It combines a little old school marketing with a digital approach. The end result was a very successful lead gen marketing campaign.

Good Lead Generation Depends On Targeting The Right Need

Content marketing aims to provide valuable resources that a target market can use to solve problems. The team at SAI Global understood that their target market – Chief Compliance Officers – deal with an immense level of stress day to day. What could they do to help increase quality of life by reducing stress for those individuals?

One of their surveys provided the answer: When asked what they do to relieve stress, many of their respondents said they liked to draw or color. That got the team thinking… should they create an adult coloring book around the topic of compliance?

This conversation reveals why they decided it was a good idea, what they did to make it happen, the unexpected response they got as a result. You’ll love the ROI.

The Right Marketing Mix Generated Leads That Were Unexpected

compliance coloring book for sales lead generation

Since the SAI Global team was providing a piece of content for their audience that was hard-copy rather than digital, they weren’t sure if digital means of marketing would be effective. But they discovered that the right mix drove the campaign far beyond what they expected.

They used a combination of email that included drip campaigns and social media promotions. In particular, LinkedIn pulse articles performed very well. To their surprise, word of mouth and social out-performed everything else. They received 500 requests for the coloring book within the first week. And though they targeted the U.S. market, there was great international interest. Within 2 months they received requests for the coloring book from 61 different countries.

The outcome? The Compliance Coloring Book generated a tremendous number of leads at a very low cost. At only $2 per lead, even with printing and shipping, anyone would call it “successful.” You can hear the entire story on this episode.

A Lead Gen Tool That Brought New Life To A Difficult Topic

compliance coloring book for sales lead generation

Even though the Compliance Coloring Book was a great tool for generating leads, there was a negative side. Some voiced concerns that the coloring book made the issue of compliance seem too light-hearted.

Sean and Bernie feel that sort of response was a good sign. It indicates that they stirred up conversation and created buzz in a way that drew attention to compliance, rather than detract from it. The positive feedback made it clear that the coloring book was helpful to compliance departments. It enabled them to educate about compliance in new ways that made the stodgy, boring stereotype less of a barrier to those in the student role.

Unexpected Results: Parent/Child Relationships Were Strengthened

The SAI Global team began their campaign based on the premise that a coloring book would be a quality of life tool. Stress-relief through the use of the book was a primary intention. But there was another life-improvement benefit that came from the coloring book.

Many compliance professionals completed the pages in the coloring book with their children. This sparked conversations about what the parent actually did at work. Children were able to see the importance of what mommy or daddy did all day. Parents were able to share an important part of their lives with their children.

In the end, the SAI Global team achieved their end-goal – quality of life improvement for the Chief Compliance Officer – in a way they never anticipated along with lead generation. Listen to this podcast conversation to hear the entire story.

 

Outline of This Episode

  • [0:41] Shawn’s expertise regarding compliance as lead generation
  • [3:28] Factors behind why Shawn combined old-school and new marketing approaches
  • [9:01] Why a compliance coloring book for compliance education?
  • [12:10] Modern marketing tactics used to get the book into the hands of the right people
  • [17:21] Feedback and response: unexpected input and outcomes
  • [24:24] Key lessons and takeaways: Zig when others zag and discover how to be sticky
  • [26:58] How the sales team is using the coloring book resource

Resources & People Mentioned