Revenue up 164% by building an inbound marketing framework

circus Inc., which provides SaaS to recruitment agencies, wanted to take up B2B digital marketing as a new way to win customers. However, the company felt its lack of know-how in digital marketing was a problem, and began working with us in October 2020.

We asked Mr Yabe, representative director, and Ms Tawata, head of the marketing department, about the background to asking NowVillage for digital marketing support, the results, and what they expect from us going forward.

Digital marketing taken up from zero to accelerate growth

―First, could you tell us your roles and teams?

I am Takashi Yabe, representative director of circus Inc. And I am Juri Tawata, head of the marketing department.
Under our principle of bringing “a new standard” to HR in Japan, since our founding in 2017
we have run CIRCUS, a job database for recruitment agencies.

―What does your team do, and what are its goals?

The marketing department’s goal is simple: increase the number of new sales meetings. Our day-to-day marketing aims to maximise new meetings within a limited budget.

―What marketing were you doing before you came to us?

Mainly outbound marketing centred on cold calling.

―What problems did you have before coming to us?

Our outbound marketing was going well, but to keep growing at high speed we felt inbound marketing alongside it was essential. For that we wanted to build, quickly, a structure that would generate leads reliably through digital marketing, but we had no digital marketing knowledge or know-how in-house and did not know where to start.

―How did you come to know us?

I had known Mr Imamura, the CEO, for some time, and had been asking him for support in digital marketing even before he founded NowVillage.

―Why did you choose us?

Unlike other marketing firms, Mr Imamura had run an operating company in his previous role and had an outstanding track record, and that counted for a lot. Most consulting firms, I think, are specialists in one particular area. That is fine in itself, but at our stage the service is still evolving and the situation changes daily, so we were looking for a partner who could support us from a broader perspective. On that point, what decided it was that NowVillage has a great deal of knowledge not only of digital marketing but of growth hacking and of running a business.

Revenue up 164%! A huge effect, with growth faster than we imagined!

―Once the consulting began, what specific measures did you take?

 We had no grounding in digital marketing at all, so NowVillage built a digital marketing strategy suited to our situation from zero. Since then they have supported us in carrying out measures based on that strategy.
Specifically:
・Creating a new service page
・Running various web advertising
・Support for running social media accounts, and more
They propose and handle our digital marketing in one place. For the service page they oversaw everything from the wireframe and writing to the design proposal, and it still converts at a very high rate.
Beyond that, they also support the stages after digital marketing, such as “raising the win rate in sales meetings” and “planning seminars” to generate leads, so by now they support us across a wide range of areas quite separate from digital marketing.

―What were the measures aimed at?

The goal is to maximise the number of meetings for a given budget. We calculate the maximum cost we can invest to win one application, and together with NowVillage we work to maximise applications while controlling cost to stay within that limit.

―Could you tell us the quantitative results of our work?

The results are shown in the chart above.
Since NowVillage began supporting us, both membership and revenue have grown considerably. Membership growth matters of course, but the key point is that revenue has grown even more. By working with NowVillage to raise the quality of our sales meetings, our win rate improved dramatically, roughly doubling. I think that was a critical factor in the revenue increase.

As a result, the cost ceiling we can spend on winning applications also rose, leading to a virtuous circle in which we can generate even more leads. With a company that only provided ordinary digital marketing support, I do not think we would have got this result.

They also support our social media, and a Twitter account we started from zero grew rapidly to around 2,000 followers in three months. Twitter is now one of our promotional channels, and we feel the effect not only on awareness of the company and the service but also on seminar attendance and on recruitment, such as finding contract members.

―Did our work change the atmosphere or culture inside your company?

Definitely. Sales spend less time on cold calls, so the sales team can now concentrate on meetings. And since we started digital marketing, perhaps partly because our exposure online and on social media has grown, it feels as though more people know CIRCUS, and selling has become easier. I believe these two points, “concentrating our time” and “raising awareness of the service”, also contributed to the large rise in our win rate.

An unusual marketing firm that will tell you “now is not the time for marketing”

―Is there anything from working with us that left an impression?

Above all, that although they are a digital marketing company, they said “now is not the time for marketing!” and turned to supporting us in other areas.

We do not only ask them for consulting; they also speak at marketing seminars for our clients. Marketing problems are shared by every industry, so NowVillage’s talks are very well received by our clients too. They provide useful information even to our clients, which adds value to our own service. They are supporting us right into customer success (CS) as well. Ha!
As you can see, they support us across so many areas that I sometimes wonder, “What was it we asked them to help with again?”

That is because, basically, what characterises NowVillage is that they do not give the usual vendor response of “that is outside our scope.” They research things outside their area and introduce professionals in the field, and we strongly feel their attitude of “we will do anything that benefits your company.” In a working relationship, that is very reassuring.

Aiming for the next stage with a partner we can trust

―Where are you now, and what do you expect from us going forward?

We want to strengthen our in-house capability, including hiring and training a marketing team, so we would be glad to build that team together.

―What do you think characterises NowVillage?

As I said, their commitment to the growth of the business. Unlike an ordinary marketing consultancy, they do not just propose measures to increase lead numbers; beyond marketing measures they also give us things like “advice from the user’s point of view, which had surprisingly become a blind spot inside the company.” Rather than simply proposing digital marketing measures, they think with us about what the business needs to grow, which is a great help. And I think another characteristic is that, rather than armchair theory, they have a great deal of digital marketing know-how grounded in real experience and results: “this is what happened when we actually did it ourselves.”

―What kind of companies would you recommend our services to?

I would of course recommend them to companies that want to grow their business using digital marketing, but because they commit to business growth through a wider range of methods,
・SaaS companies that want to strengthen their digital marketing from now on
・Companies that want to work on raising revenue and improving operating margin, not only marketing
・Companies that want to take up new marketing measures such as social media
I think they are also a good fit for companies like those above.