Appointments up 1.7x: the marketing consulting that became the foundation for business growth

PORTERS Inc.
Industry: System development, consulting and magazine publishing for the HR business
Employees: 57
Challenge: From awareness to acquisition /
(or: advertising management / SEO content marketing / seminar acquisition support)

PORTERS Inc. develops and provides a cloud matching system for recruitment agencies and staffing companies. A growing company, it held its IPO in September 2022 and listed on the TSE Growth Market. Its challenges were how to win customers within a specific B2B market and how to gain awareness among its target customers. With NowVillage’s support, seminar registrations grew to 140% of the previous year (from 1,700 to 2,500), and appointments secured from companies attending the seminars grew to 170% of the previous year. We spoke to Ms Kusuhara, Executive Officer, and Mr Kojima, Marketing Specialist, about how this was achieved.

A niche, limited market. The challenge was which initiatives would raise awareness in a B2B market.

― First, could you tell us your positions and teams, and your teams’ goals?

Kusuhara:
I am Fumiko Kusuhara, Executive Officer at PORTERS Inc. I am also deputy editor of PORTERS MAGAZINE (a magazine published by the company, featuring content useful to the many people involved in “work”, including not only HR businesses but also corporate HR departments and job seekers).

Kojima:
I am Masao Kojima, Marketing Specialist.
On “the team’s goals”, I will talk about the marketing department. My department generates leads among recruitment agencies and staffing companies.
The department’s goal is around 1,000 leads a year.

― What were the challenges in reaching that goal?

Kojima:　
First, as background, our service (a cloud matching system for HR businesses) is what is known as vertical SaaS, and our target customers are recruitment agencies and staffing companies.
Within that, the challenge was how to “maximise the number of appointments”.
When the total number of targets is small and there is a limit to how many times you can step up to the plate, the only option is to raise your batting average.
So we knew it was important to send messages that fitted the target more closely, but our internal resources were limited, and it was difficult to evaluate the effect of our initiatives properly and switch to new ones.

Kusuhara:
Another challenge was that advertising costs were mounting.
Cost per click on web ads was rising and effectiveness was falling, yet a large budget increase was difficult. To increase leads within the current budget, improving the paths through our site and strengthening SEO were essential.

Seminar registrations up about 140%, from 1,700 to 2,500.
With better content, the appointment rate rose to 170% too.

― What methods were you using before you asked us?

We were already running seminars. Partly because of the pandemic, customers responded well to webinars themselves. But we were busy and could not hold them very often, so they were held irregularly.

― For your challenges, NowVillage proposed and provided (1) consulting, (2) advertising management, (3) SEO content marketing and (4) seminar support. What specific results did you see after introducing these services?

Kojima:
They were very effective. Starting with the quantitative side, “appointments from seminars”, which we watch as one of our indicators, grew to 170% of the previous year. Seminar registrations were around 1,700 last year and are expected to land at around 2,500 this year, an increase of about 140%.

On the qualitative side, the quality of our seminar content improved. For long-term branding too, we wanted to run seminars with content that is useful to customers, and we had been struggling to create that content. Since we started holding them with NowVillage, we have been able to bring in suitable guest speakers. Mr Aoki read the trends in the industry, picked up on the information customers wanted, and supported us across a wide range of work, from planning seminars to arranging guest speakers.
I don’t think we could have achieved these results without Mr Aoki.

Kusuhara:
In the end, the seminars also led to “greater awareness”, “branding” and “higher customer satisfaction”, and were very effective.
We also held our IPO in September this year (September 2022), and from the point of view of preparing to list, growth in new leads was an important point for investors and securities firms in gauging future growth, so we are very grateful.

Kojima:
Beyond that, the SEO articles you delivered have reached the No. 1 position for many keywords and are helping us reach latent customers too.

Solid expertise and smooth project management made them a strong ally, like our own in-house marketers.

― Why did you choose us?

Kusuhara:
The main reason was that you know the HR industry, which is our customer market, very well. We also knew that Mr Imamura, NowVillage’s Representative Director, had been at the top of the industry as a founder of UZUZ. Among the many web marketing companies, NowVillage had knowledge of the HR industry, and that was a big factor.

― Is there anything about working with us (NowVillage) that left an impression on you?

Kojima:
What stayed with me is that you worked from an understanding of our industry and our company, for example by making proposals that went beyond what we had ordered.
I was also impressed by how smoothly you directed our meetings.
By organising the discussion, you made the issues and their causes clear, and the dense discussions with firmly agreed next actions felt good and, I think, led to results.
It may be a small thing, but you sent the minutes immediately after each meeting, so even when meetings for other work piled up, we could use the minutes to keep things organised and move the project forward.

Kusuhara:
The first consulting meeting left a strong impression on me.
You spent a great deal of time listening to how our work flows and what we value. That is not something we had often experienced.
Rather than applying general theory, you tuned the theory to our company and built the strategy from there, which was very convincing and reassuring.
Also, when there were many marketing initiatives we wanted to do but could not get moving because of a lack of internal resources, we could ask you just as we would our own in-house marketers.

Kojima:
My impression is that you approach consulting with great importance placed on understanding the industry and the company.
The materials you gave us and the mind maps used in meetings were apt, and I felt an attitude of trying to understand the customer deeply.

― “We could ask you just as we would our own in-house marketers” is very kind of you to say. If you were to introduce us (NowVillage) to others, what kind of companies would you recommend us to?

Kojima:
I would say companies that are aiming to scale up their business.
I would also highly recommend you to companies that don’t know what marketing strategy they should adopt for their business area and growth stage.

Kusuhara:
Above all, you are strong at attracting people, so I would also recommend you to companies struggling to attract candidates for their own hiring. And because companies can ask you for things just as they would their own in-house marketers, I think I can also recommend you to companies that have things they really want to do but lack marketing resources.

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PORTERS Inc.
Website: https://www.porters.jp/
Industry: System development for the HR business
　　　Consulting
　　　Magazine publishing
Employees: 57

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