case study
valpak
email marketing, social media management, blog writing, brand guardianship, general marketing.
by shauna coates
introduction
supporting valpak for 3 years allowed me to develop a number of general marketing skills including social media management, email marketing and brand guardianship.
valpak is the uk’s largest environmental compliance scheme offering a range of sustainability services to businesses, making it a business to business (b2b) organisation.
the complex and intricate nature of regulatory compliance and environmental sustainability made it important that all communications were clear, concise and highly informative. any misunderstandings in messaging could lead to confusion, financial penalty for clients, or a failure to communicate critical information.
social media management
working alongside a small internal team, we developed a comprehensive strategy designed to inform, educate, and entertain a professional audience.
we deliberately moved beyond standard B2B content, utilising a diverse mix of static banners, dynamic carousels, and video to ensure consistent audience interest.
the breakthrough came from injecting a genuine human element, which is notoriously difficult in the B2B space. we launched the "employee success story" campaign, which which highlighted different members of staff, from those who had been at the company for over 20 years to those who had been promoted or moved departments, providing an insight into the culture of the business and highlight the opportunities for career progression and personal development.
this strategy also indirectly acted as a recruitment strategy, showing potential employees the culture and opportunities available at valpak.
the human-centred focus delivered exceptional results, consistently garnering engagement rates above the linkedIn industry benchmark of 2%.
during my tenure, Valpak’s LinkedIn follower count surged from 2,000 to 11,500. Crucially, the engagement rate not only held steady during this influx of new followers but increased, providing clear evidence that our content strategy was successfully resonating and converting with the target audience.
in june of 2024, i played a big part in valpak achieving record-breaking linkedIn engagements of over 4,000 (normally averaging ~1,000 per month).
email marketing
i was responsible for the end-to-end management of a number of email marketing campaigns including sector-specific mailings, events mailings and targeted mailings for those signed up with our competitors.
the most successful of the mailing campaigns I was responsible for was the ‘competitor campaign’ which directly targeted businesses signed up with competitor compliance schemes in a bid to get them to switch to valpak as their compliance provider or purchase add-on services from valpak to enhance their sustainability credentials.
this required a flexible and agile approach to ensure the messaging was relevant, timely and spoke directly to the pain points of the target audience.
throughout the campaign, i remained agile and acted quickly to change messaging to align with industry announcements and market developments, often turning around content in very short timelines.
during 2024, the competitor campaign generated 18 direct contract wins worth over £180k and was a contributing factor to a further 15 with a value of over £32,000.
summary
for three years, I acted as a brand guardian for valpak’s intricate b2b compliance and sustainability services, ensuring a consistent tone of voice was maintained across different platforms and mediums.
understanding the target audience's critical pain points was central to success for valpak’s marketing activities, especially given the time-sensitivities of complying with government legislation.
the humanisation of linkedin posts helped valpak gain an engaged following who were not only invested in the business but also the faces behind it.
the dual strategy of building trust through linkedIn content and directly translating this trust into action with pain-point-specific email campaigns resulted in exceptional engagement and secured over £200k in direct contract wins in 2024, showcasing mastery in using both connection and precision to achieve measurable b2b results.
looking to grow your business?
we can help to strengthen your digital presence. get in touch with us today.
