In B2B, your company’s main role is to satisfy your professional needs.
However, sometimes you also have to empower your clients in order to be successful. Represent them on their behalf, and give them the tools to network and express themselves.
Newark’s clients are one of the most misunderstood groups of people — engineers. The company realised that the professionals they work with are often misrepresented as awkward outsiders.
Know Your Customers
First of all, engineers come from various backgrounds and with diverse fields of interests. Newark realised this, and tasked an agency to present these professionals and hobbyists for what they really are: a passionate and diverse group of people. Doing so would position Newark as one of the greatest advocates of industry professionals. In addition to influencing the perception of the profession positively.
The agency surveyed the 400.000 engineer strong online community of Newark, in order to understand their worries, concerns and the existing stereotypes they face in their lives.
Evidently, they found that engineers want more content regarding their work; they feel distant from their peers; and they are open to the idea of a dedicated community platform. These results led to the the birth of the #ImAnEngineer concept.
#ImAnEngineer was a content hub, where members of the community would find relevant and original news, personal stories, analyses, interviews, and other multimedia content. It was a celebration of engineers and their work, where they themselves could share their experiences and connect with each other.
Community and Content
A dedicated team of writers who stood in close contact with industry professionals, created three different types of content for the campaign:
- Stories about engineers
- Interviews with engineers
- Industry insights and reports
Initially, the platform was launched with a wealth of new and original content aimed to be shared with the #ImAnEngineer hashtag on social media. #ImAnEngineer flyers and “business cards” were also handed out at a major industry event. Finally, marketing tools were also employed in the form of display ads, and social promotions to re-engage previous visitors of the website.
In its six months of activity the site displayed 155 content, and had 13.500 visitors each month. Consequently, trade media reported about the campaign favourably. On social media the #ImAnEngineer hashtag had was also successful. Moreover, 330 people subscribed to the newsletter.
Today, the content and ideas have migrated to Newark’s community site. Good PR is not always about you, sometimes you need to empower your clients. This is a principle of effective Online Reputation Management.