Case Study about Wild Apricot on LinkedIn: Building brand awareness and credibility with LinkedIn Company Pages

1. Marketing Solutions
Wild Apricot
Case Study
Building brand awareness
and credibility with LinkedIn
Company Pages
“ Showcasing LinkedIn recommendations on our
home page raised conversions by 15% – it has Challenge
encouraged people to dig deeper into our • Raising awareness for a small company
product reviews and to find out more about us.” • Gathering credible recommendations for products
and services, to drive word-of-mouth referrals
Jay Moonah • Establishing credibility as a stable, long-term service
Vice President of Marketing, Wild Apricot provider
Solution
Generating awareness for a growing business • Created LinkedIn Company Page
Wild Apricot, which offers membership management and • Encouraged customers to recommend products
website development software for nonprofits and associations,
• Highlighted LinkedIn recommendations on company’s
has been in business since 2000, which gives it elder-statesman
website
status in the software world. However, while the 30-employee
Toronto-based company now claims 4,000+ customers for its • Leveraged recommendations for additional marketing
subscription-based software (and many more for the free
version of its product), it had to work hard to generate
awareness of the business.
Why LinkedIn?
• Highly
engaged, professional audience
“We build software for member-driven organizations that don’t • Highawareness and approval of LinkedIn brand
have the resources to set up a big website or an online payment • Connected members value others’ recommendations
system,” explains Jay Moonah, Wild Apricot’s vice president of
marketing. “People can buy into it for a small investment per
month, and they don’t need a consultant or a big staff to Results
implement it. The biggest challenge for us is simply letting • Conversion on home page rose 15% when using
people know that this kind of software is out there in the world.” LinkedIn recommendations and branding
The company was using Google AdWords, SEO marketing, and • Company Page and followers increased credibility of
social media to connect with nonprofits and other associations. business
“But we knew that one of the best things for any company – • Recommendations improved value of incremental
particularly a smaller one – is good word-of-mouth from marketing campaigns
current customers,” Moonah says. “Direct recommendation
from a peer matters more than anything.” It’s the “real
people” message that convinces someone to try a product,
Moonah explains: “If you come to me and say, ‘I’m trying to
take membership payments online,’ and I say, ‘I know this
great system called Wild Apricot,’ there’s no better advertising
in the world.”

2. Product recommendations boost conversions
Wild Apricot created a LinkedIn Company Page in mid-2010 in “They realize that the recommendations come from real
order to raise the company’s profile among prospective people – that they can reach out and contact them if they
customers. Shortly thereafter, the company took advantage of want to,” Moonah says. “They know that we’re a real
the Company Pages recommendation feature, which allows company, with real products. It’s one thing to read a product
members to post product and service reviews. review – it’s another thing to read a review and know that the
person is a friend of yours, or is connected to a friend. That
“We started reaching out to customers who had given us connection has a strong influence on buying decisions.”
feedback by email or through our customer survey,” Moonah
explains. “Any time we respond to feedback, we include a link to Recommendations have also given Wild Apricot real-life
our LinkedIn page and encourage people to post reviews – we do testimonials to use in other marketing material. For a mailer to
this in our newsletter as well.” Within a few weeks, Wild Apricot community associations, the company reached out to
was able to gather 25 recommendations from its customers. Company Page followers in this segment who had submitted
recommendations. “LinkedIn makes it easy for us to contact
Curious to see how LinkedIn Company Page product other members in specific industry areas, thank them for their
recommendations might influence purchase decisions, Wild recommendation, and ask them for permission to use their
Apricot decided to test the recommendations on their website. name and a quote in our mailers,” says Moonah.
Moonah and his colleagues created three different website
home pages: one with a link to Wild Apricot’s recent user survey
results, one with a link to an online software directory, and one
with a link to the LinkedIn product reviews, along with
LinkedIn’s logo.
Recommendations on Wild Apricot’s LinkedIn Company Page
Conversions for the home page with information about LinkedIn Promoting LinkedIn reviews on the Wild Apricot website
reviews easily bested the other two examples. “Showcasing home page
LinkedIn recommendations on our home page raised conversions
by 15% – it has encouraged people to dig deeper into our
product reviews and to find out more about us,” Moonah says. LinkedIn’s Company Page and recommendations combine to
“LinkedIn is a recognized and respected brand. Our audience help Wild Apricot “establish our business credentials,”
knows that it’s the social network for professionals, not the place Moonah explains. “People can use LinkedIn to connect with
where people share wild-weekend pictures.” me and my colleagues and find out about our business
background, and who else we know in the industry. It gives
prospective customers a high comfort level about investing
LinkedIn connections influence buying decisions their money with us.”
The LinkedIn logo and a link to recommendations on the Wild
Apricot Company Page are now permanent fixtures on the
company’s website home page – and as of January 2012,
Wild Apricot has more than 50 recommendations from Visit marketing.linkedin.com to learn how other marketers
LinkedIn members. have successfully met their marketing objectives.
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