The success of a traditional Finnish industrial player in North America requires not only local partners, but also a strong marketing partner on the home front. Hakki Pilke's success in North America is based on persistent grassroots work and comprehensive digital marketing, which the Hakki Pilke team has worked hard on over the past year.
If you are trying to gain a foothold for your product in North America, be prepared to do persistent legwork, forget your humility, set your sights far enough into the future, and find partners who truly understand the local market.
Those are the main lessons that Hakki Pilke's export director Jori Mylläri has, since leaving, started exporting Finnish firewood processors across the Atlantic.
Hakki Pilke's success in North America is based on persistent grassroots work and comprehensive digital marketing, which the company started doing practically from scratch.
At Crasman, it has been a pleasure to be involved in planning and implementing Hakki Pilke's marketing automation and the broad picture of inbound marketing, ranging from graphic production to content and from strategy work to the implementation of HubSpot.
“Our digital marketing started from the realization that our customers are constantly looking for more information online, but the supply of information does not meet the demand. Among our importers and distributors, there are a few pioneers of digital channels, but for the most part, they are traditional family businesses for whom marketing is not their forte. By taking the digital reins into our own hands, we are better able to help local operators and communicate our brand consistently,” Mylläri explains.
Get in shape
Until recently, Hakki Pilke's marketing consisted mainly of local newspaper visibility and dealers' own campaigns, over which the manufacturer itself had little say, let alone reliable data on their effectiveness. The marketing ROI (Return on Investment, return on investment) was difficult to measure, making budgeting a guessing game. One of the greatest advantages of digital marketing is precisely the exact measurability of its reach and effectiveness. Hakki Pilke executes and tracks its marketing using HubSpot.
“When starting digital marketing, it is important to ensure that the foundation—such as website and brand definition—is in order. It is a good idea to set aside time for this, as sales materials and product information must be top-notch and up to date. Starting digital marketing was therefore, for Hakki Pilke, also a comprehensive modernization of their marketing, Hakki Pilke's Marketing Manager Pauliina Leppänen tells.
Hakki Pilke's marketing is now created in cooperation with local importers and distributors. Feedback from the field helps adapt marketing messages to suit local tastes, and in return, Hakki Pilke offers a wider range of tools than before to support local marketing.
“Ongoing dialogue about the effectiveness of marketing generates successful campaigns that we can then replicate for different customer groups,” Leppänen says.
Read the original article in full From Crasman's website.