iWave, a prospect research and wealth screening SaaS tool for nonprofits, was looking to grow their customer base as well as build brand awareness and clout as a thought leader in the space.
While they offer the top-rated product in the industry, they came to Media Caue better understand their existing audience, identify additional influencers and potential users beyond their very niche user base, and reach and convert new customers with messaging that resonates and a user-friendly experience.
Our challenge was to help iWave reach, convert and retain their very niche audience of development professionals and prospect researchers at nonprofit organizations.
In order to properly develop a growth strategy for iWave, we first needed to get to know their target audience. We begin our partnership with persona development, then mapped out acquisition paths for each persona which outlined platform, content and messaging strategies for each audience at each phase of the funnel from first touch point to customer retention.
Through customer surveys and eight 1:1 interviews with iWave customers, we researched and analyzed iWave’s audience to uncover their key motivators and trigger points for choosing and continuing to use the product. Our findings led to the development of five distinct persona profiles which outlined background information (career background, job titles, org size and department size), key motivators and selling points, decision influencers, hesitations and barriers, and sample messaging for each audience segment.
To better understand iWave’s competitive landscape and identify opportunities, we did a thorough analysis and evaluation of brand and marketing strategies, product features, pricing, online review analysis and sales process evaluation of iWave and their top five competitors.
Using findings and learnings from our persona development, competitive analysis and SEO audit, our design and tech teams developed a new website for iWave which provided a more streamlined user experience, optimized for lead conversion and engagement.
We developed and implemented an ongoing paid media campaign strategy for iWave to drive awareness and capture leads for sales team follow up. Our platform mix leveraged targeting capabilities across display/programmatic, paid search, and LinkedIn. On LinkedIn, we’ve tested a variety of ad targeting and ad formats, including sponsored content, sponsored inMail, and LinkedIn Lead Forms, to determine the best strategy to reach and capture iWave’s niche professional audience.
The execution of our audience-centric paid media strategy helped connect 5,017 nonprofit development professional leads to iWave’s affordable tool to make their major gift fundraising efforts more efficient and effective. Our always optimizing approach resulted in a 33% increase in new customers and a 55% increase in new business revenue from paid media efforts year over year.
