RIVET is a SaaS platform for better construction labor management. Their CMO built their Demand Engine in The B2B Incubator. Three months after completing the program, 70% of pipeline is now sourced by marketing. RIVET is also now recognised as a thought leader in the construction-tech space.
RIVET is a leader in construction tech. Its SaaS platform enables better construction labour management.
As RIVET CMO, Alison Accavitti knew that traditional B2B tactics weren’t going to cut it anymore.
In a construction industry dominated by traditional events, direct mail, and cold outreach she needed a more sustainable engine that would help drive growth for the business.
Alison started to put together her own content strategy. She even hired an SEO company to help create content. But she found that it wasn’t really providing value to her customers. It just wasn’t useful and unique enough to build relationships with future customers, and make Rivet a thought leader.
Alison enrolled in the May ’23 Cohort of The B2B Incubator. Over the next 12 weeks, she received the strategy, templates and tools to put her demand engine together for RIVET.
Every two weeks, we met with Alison in a Live Q&A where she could share how she was implementing the program and what she was building.
This real-time feedback kept her on track, allowed her to ask any questions, and made sure she built her demand engine correctly.
GEORGE COUDOUNARIS & KEVIN CHEN, CO-FOUNDERS OF THE B2B INCUBATOR
NAME: Alison Accavitti
POSITION: CMO
SIZE OF MARKETING TEAM: 4 people
BUSINESS TYPE: B2B SaaS
A couple of things were happening. And the first one… Is that we were an early stage company. So I was in the middle of the very beginnings of marketing and wanted to make sure that the bones that I was creating were good. So I wanted to run my initial strategy through a filter. And when I saw your program, I thought this looks a lot like the bones of what, what modern B2B marketing should look like. Um, it looked like a good opportunity for me before I got too far and committed to certain strategies and certain growth pillars, it looked like it would help me refine that before I got too far. So, on the early stage side, and then I also just had, I had intuition that the traditional B2B tactics weren’t.
Working or going to work and this program had things that seemed a lot more sustainable than going to traditional events or doing direct mail or really cold outreach, something wasn’t right there for me. And I needed. a more formal training for that.
Nothing stopped me from having a content calendar, but refining it in a way that it provided value to my customers was, was a challenge. And I think what your program did really well was give me a framework for that that made me feel confident about what I was doing. There was a lot of validating moments around, you know, really, really spending time with your customers, making sure you double down on.
Understanding them, um, where they are, like going where the fish are, being where they are. Understanding exactly what problems they have. And these are all things that I thought I had. But the way that you guys delivered the program and the exercises made me really fine tune those. And so it gave me a lot of confidence.
So I’m actually glad I didn’t get too far before I started the program.
So I set out with a goal of the year and the goal was that, um, was to, it was an awareness goal and a thought leadership goal. So it was be known for awareness. as the standard for thought leadership for workforce management in a, to electrical contractors specifically. And so the things that I had started doing toward that goal were investing in trade media, using trade media as a lever, a lever to, um, make Rivet more known among contractors.
And then I’d also looked at a content agency and that was a first for me. And when I. I didn’t like what I saw. It was more of an SEO farm than a strategic partner for content. And that really made me lack confidence that putting articles out there that didn’t seem to provide any value. But we’re more about search rankings only that didn’t, I didn’t like that strategy and that’s where I was headed.
And so, yeah, again, what you guys helped me with was really hone in on like how to make the content useful and unique
It meant I didn’t have to start from scratch.
Oh, LinkedIn, you guys, you guys probably had me in an ABM playbook cause you found me really well. And you did so good. You found me on LinkedIn. You put content in front of me, some kind of post that resonated with me around what we can do. And I, it really like spoke to the problem I was having.
You knew what was going on here and I could tell. And so, and then once I had your syllabus , that really sold me that I was like, okay, in 12 weeks I can run everything I’m doing through this filter and come out with a content pillar. That I’m really struggling to articulate myself without just a product expert.
Cause I would go to the product team and try to figure out what’s our edgy. And it turned out educating on the product was wasn’t the right thing to do. We needed to go a level up and educate on the bigger picture issue. And I wouldn’t have been able to figure that out without you guys.
I tried them for a month and I didn’t like it at all. And I shut it off. Um, and then what’s the name of it? There’s another, um, I guess they’re an agency. They’re more of a SAS resource called Reforge. So Reforge is widely known as like a helpful for early stage frameworks.
They have a lot of stuff going for products specifically. So our product team was using Reforge. So I was looking at Reforge. I was looking for advisors too, just like mentorship, coaching on. How to do this and couldn’t find it. And what I, what I actually found was a lot of more outdated B2B marketers who were looking for the same thing.
Like, what do you mean there’s a different approach outside of like traditional industry B2B Marcom, which is like the events and the direct mail. So like having, having a content pillar with education is like not as common as you, you would think. And I think a lot of marketers are craving that right now.
I was looking for the missing pieces in my strategy, in my, it like my annual marketing strategy. And I, I especially found those in your syllabus. I got a lot of validation that having a really strong content pillar with strong distribution of it and spending time on making it high quality content was missing from my strategy.
the only initial red flag and I didn’t learn about this on your website was that you’re in Australia and that would make it difficult, but it hasn’t. If anything, I’m, I’m the one who’s been difficult, but you’ve been. Awesome. And I think it’s been really, really cool to see that it, it’s a strategy that transcends countries, you know, it’s a very, very strong strategy because it did not matter whatsoever that you’re across the ocean.
I had expectations that I would come out with a strong content strategy and a plan to execute it. And you guys completely delivered that in the program.
I used your framework to launch a podcast on a new technology category in construction
and built an outline with subject matter experts on the topic. And the result has been amazing. Our customers are feeling seen and heard and feeling like we’re relatable and talking about a problem that hasn’t been solved by technology. And we’re not actually talking about the tech at all. Just it’s, it’s implied that our, our product can solve the problem, but it’s not the focal point.
And it’s really gaining traction.
Yes. Podcast clicks equal platform demos for us. But also, there are five active deals in our pipeline today attributed to podcast listens. There are several more prospects in our pipeline where the podcast is being used to overcome objections or get buying team alignment. With the prospects we’re talking to, and there are interests from industry associations to bring our podcast into their networks too.
The program simplifies the very complicated topic of B2B marketing. You go back to basics that you think you already know, but you don’t. You go back to under deeply understanding your customers and. really honing in on the problem and the solution. And those basic things seem obvious, but they’re not.
And what I learned most is when you spend time on the basics, when you really spend time on the basics, the outcome is much better. And that’s what you forced me to do.
There’s a couple, I think marketers coming into a position that already exists, but they’re new running the existing marketing program through this framework is a great idea, but also new companies that are building marketing from scratch. That’s so I think those are a couple of the places. I think bringing, bringing teams on to, like, not just the marketing leader at the same time, though, I really think at the same time would be super helpful or at the same time at a later date too, but I think it could be marketers and new positions, new company marketers and marketing teams.
I don’t think it matters if you’re early stage, middle stage or late stage. What I see in B2B marketing is that most of it needs a refresh, and this is a great place to do that..
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