Marabu North America
New Gurus of Marabu microsite, digital and social activations strengthen market connections from trade shows, newsletters, and support online interactions.
The Situation
Founded in 1859, Marabu is a world-leading manufacturer of screen, digital, and printing inks. The quality of Marabu’s ink speaks for itself—the average person touches Marabu ink seven times each day. But for Marabu North America (NA), cultivating relationships with the ink distributors and dealer networks in the Americas that buy and traffic their products was a challenge.
Bridging the Digital Gap
Marabu NA needed meaningful and consistent digital engagements to maintain connections from trade shows and build credibility with new and existing customers.
For decades, Marabu had grown largely dependent on trade shows to establish and manage relationships with their dealers. The Marabu NA wanted to tap into new channels and approaches to extend these efforts, and when trade shows came to a temporary halt during the COVID-19 pandemic, Marabu NA leaned even more heavily into digital activities to maintain and grow their business..
Aside from an email system used predominantly for product updates, policy changes, and general communications, Marabu NA was not leveraging digital or social channels in a meaningful way. Marabu NA partnered with Liger for a unique digital strategy that would speak to their audience—marrying long standing in-person experiences with thoughtful online interactions to connect with both existing and prospective buyers.
The Strategy
Enhancing Relationships with Clients and Prospects
Liger worked with Marabu NA to create a unique digital footprint and carve online paths to support the customer journey.
Liger’s first feat was establishing a digital footprint—creating online paths for Marabu NA’s target audiences so that they could cultivate virtual relationships. In time, these digital connections would become natural extensions of their close and largely successful interactions at trade shows.
Maintaining a Winning Approach
Building on their existing success capturing leads from trade shows required new solutions to help continue those conversations. Liger continues to support Marabu NA and reinforce those relationships via digital and social channels.
“That’s been very impactful—marrying in-person with digital. With Liger in the driver’s seat, this successful cadence will continue to drive new market opportunities.”
Building a Microsite that Matters
A year after launch, Marabu NA’s microsite had seen a 15% average growth in users each month with over 58% of all-time traffic coming from SEO efforts. As they began, the content experts at Liger discovered a wealth of industry knowledge among the company’s ink experts. Liger developed a thought leadership concept—the Gurus of Marabu—that became the driving theme of a new microsite dedicated to sharing the Marabu teams’ expert advice.
Today, the Gurus microsite has become a foundation for unique branding and content.
Leveling Up Two Newsletters
The signup forms from Marabu NA’s newsletters for existing customers and prospects now enjoy high-performing clickthrough rates of 26% – 27%.
Historically, Marabu NA’s strongest digital efforts were grounded in two monthly newsletters—one for prospects and one for existing customers. While their newsletter lists would grow from the company’s trade show engagements, Marabu NA was not using the newsletters to their full potential.
Today, Marabu NA’s newsletter content is driving credibility, customer closeness, and action with the support of Liger. In addition to acquiring new contacts from trade shows, online signup forms are realizing record engagement with the support of engaging digital content.
Engaging the Market through Social
Marabu NA’s social media activities are a hybrid of digital and trade show engagements, where close connections naturally extend from one environment to the other. Before teaming up with Liger, Marabu NA had very little presence on social media. But with the support of their Gurus campaign, Marabu NA is doing more than selling ink—they are complementing their in-person relationships and extending engagements from live events on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
YoY Social Media Performance, 2022
LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram
Source: Sprout SocialEngagement Rate: up 28%
Engagements: up 127.5%
Impressions: up 77.8%
Post-Link Clicks: up 159.4%
With the support of their content experts and a social media strategist, Liger continues to manage and populate Marabu NA’s social channels. Consistent and meaningful content updates across these channels puts a digital face to the Marabu NA name and shares their thought leadership with customers.