Impact of our partnership: 91 appointments and 22 quote requests in 11 months
Over 11 months, BAG Corp booked 91 appointments with purchasing and procurement leaders at large companies. By the time this case was written, 22 of those appointments had turned into quote requests, which BAG Corp counts as opportunities.
- 91 appointments in 11 months, about 8 per month
- 22 quote requests, or 24% of appointments converted to opportunities
- 10,780 contacts researched across the target industries
- 41% average open rate and 7.3% average reply rate
- 3 appointments from a niche campaign to wind farms
The pool of large chemical manufacturers was smaller than expected, and contact volume fell short early in the campaign. The results came from expanding into new industries and regions while keeping the same procurement-focused targeting.
Challenges: Reaching enterprise buyers beyond e-commerce and inbound
BAG Corp’s new business came through its e-commerce website and inbound marketing. Those channels brought in buyers who were already searching, but they didn’t reliably reach purchasing teams at enterprise companies, the accounts BAG Corp most wanted to win. The company’s first priority was large chemical manufacturers, a niche where buyers are hard to reach without a direct approach.
Partnership objectives
BAG Corp wanted to add an outbound channel that reached enterprise procurement teams directly, starting with chemical manufacturers and expanding to other industries the company served.
Strategy and implementation
The campaign ran on cold email for 11 months. It started with a narrow ICP, then widened by industry, region, and company revenue as each segment was worked through.
Defining the ICP
Bulk bags are a procurement purchase, so the campaign targeted the people who buy packaging:
- Titles: Directors, VPs, and Senior Directors of Purchasing, Procurement, and Buying; Directors of Packaging Purchasing; Buyers; and C-level executives
- Company size: 500+ employees
- Geography: the United States and Europe
- Industries: chemical manufacturing first, then food and beverage manufacturing, environmental services, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, building materials, metals, mining, and oil and gas
The first campaign focused on large US chemical manufacturers with 10,000 to 100,000 employees. As the pool of companies in each sector narrowed, our team added revenue-based targeting to find more companies that fit.
Leading with referral requests
The campaign opened with a referral approach: emails that asked prospects to point the team to the colleague who handled packaging purchasing. In large companies with several procurement roles, this proved effective for booking qualified appointments, and the team kept it running alongside every later campaign.
Adapting to seasonality with industry-specific campaigns
When seasonality slowed response in the main segments, We at Belkins ran an industry-specific test with pharmaceutical companies while keeping the referral campaign active.
In November 2023, the focus shifted to oil and gas. These templates highlighted specific BAG Corp products and value propositions relevant to the sector, and they ran together with the referral approach.
Targeting wind farms by purchase history
A custom campaign targeted wind farms, split into two groups: those that had already bought from BAG Corp’s website and those that hadn’t. Both groups received messaging about the advantages of bulk purchasing, including more favorable pricing. Wind farms are smaller accounts, and the campaign still booked 3 appointments.
The challenges we encoutered
- A limited pool of target companies. Early contact volume came in below plan because there are only so many large chemical manufacturers. Working with BAG Corp, the team expanded into other verticals and regions, including Europe and Canada, to keep the pipeline full.
- New industries needed their own approach. BAG Corp asked the team to target additional sectors such as biotechnology research and oil and gas. Each one required its own analysis and adapted messaging, with the goal of matching the conversion rates from chemical manufacturing.
Lessons learned and fit
- Target the buyer, not just the industry. Bulk bags are bought by purchasing and procurement teams, so titles stayed consistent even as the industry mix changed.
- Plan for a finite account pool. Enterprise chemical manufacturers ran out quickly. Revenue-based targeting and new verticals kept the campaign going for 11 months.
- Use purchase history in outreach. Splitting wind farms by whether they had already bought online let the team pitch bulk pricing as an upgrade to existing buyers.
This approach works for manufacturers whose product is a recurring procurement purchase across several industries. A manufacturer that serves a single narrow vertical would exhaust its target list faster and should expect lower volume.
