Integrating BowNow as a big step towards digital transformation | Maxell Holdings, Ltd.

Mr. Masanori Masaoka (left), Marketing Department, Battery Business Division, Maxell Holdings, Ltd.

Integrating BowNow as a big step towards digital transformation

Tell us about your company.

Mr. Masaoka: Our company, Maxell, provides a variety of products in the automobile industry, housing and infrastructure, and health and beauty care. Our analog core technologies are Maxell's unique mixing and dispersion, precision coating, and high-precision molding technologies, which have helped to maintain the competitiveness of our founding products: batteries, magnetic tape, adhesive tape, and optical components. Maxell will continue to provide "maximum excellence" to all stakeholders through innovation of original technologies based on analog core technologies, and will do its utmost to be an indispensable presence in a sustainable society and a company that is "always present in the future." 

I am a member of the Battery Business Division and in charge of marketing. Each business unit has its own sales department, but until now we have not had a department dedicated to marketing. However, from April 2020, the Battery Business Division will have its own marketing department for the first time in the company, and I will be leading it myself.

【Challenges before implementation】The problem was that we were not understanding the psychology behind our customers' behavior.

【Selection Points】Easy-to-try service design and generous support are the deciding factors.

What was the deciding factor for you to choose BowNow among the many services available?

Mr. Masaoka: After thinking about introducing marketing automation, we came across BowNow while considering several different tools. I thought it was an attractive tool because of its low monthly landing cost and its many advantages.

 

【Measures and Usage】The marketing department approached the nurtured customers themselves.

What kind of measures are you currently using BowNow for and what kind of results are you seeing?

Mr. Masaoka: First, we measured the number of page views on the BtoB website and analyzed the behavioral trends of lead customers using log data. We have also started sending out a monthly email newsletter to nurture those leads. Every month, we selected topics for the various battery varieties and created email newsletters to showcase different products and figure out more objectively where our leads interests lie.

We then approached the target customers based on the number of page views and open rates of our email newsletter, and the marketing department would further qualify the leads by company size and industry. At present, the marketing department is also responsible for approaching customers. As a result, three new projects have already been developed, one of which has reached the stage of sample evaluation for mass production. I think we have achieved the ideal results by discovering hidden customers in our target fields.

In addition, we are currently working to increase the number of leads we already have and nurture them. As we have achieved good results in approaching our target audience, the understanding and expectations of marketing within the company have increased, and sales have started to ask us to register their own leads in BowNow. The number of leads has more than doubled since the introduction of BowNow, and the number of leads who read the newsletter with high frequency (we call them "Maxell fans") has been maintained at an average of about 250.

【Future Outlook】Accelerate digital transformation in sales activities.

Are there any points that you would like to strengthen in the future?

Mr. Masaoka: By using BowNow, we have been able to visualize the behavior of our customers, which we did not know before, and our measures have been producing good results, which has raised awareness of web marketing throughout the company and aligned our objectives. In the future, we would like to use BowNow as a catalyst to further promote the DXification (digital transformation) of marketing and sales activities. At the seminar, the president of Cloud CIRCUS said, "DX is not just about bringing our analog processes online, but also about how we use digitalized information."

At present, our company is at the stage where we have begun to digitize what was previously analog. In the future, our goal is to systematize our marketing activities and BowNow operation for further digital transformation, so that anyone can do it. In addition to the Battery Business Division, we have already introduced BowNow at our head office, and other business units have expressed their interest in adopting it as well. We also have a mission to utilize our newly acquired know-how in our overseas business, so we have a lot to do moving forward


Maxell's points for future enhancement
(1) Approach more prospects that have been qualified with marketing automation
(2) Search for new customers by utilizing SNS on the company website
(3) Create more content to encourage conversions (increase inquiries)　

Prevent negligence with leads through relationship-building emails
Share content that promotes interest in your business (optimize email newsletters)
Catch leads that are suddenly heating up (set up Bow Now to discover hot leads automatically)

【Customer's Voice】Really appreciate BowNow's customer-centric support system

Please tell us your message to prospective customers and what you expect from BowNow in the future.

Mr. Masaoka: I think BowNow has a very good support system that is very close to the customers. The Customer Success team has been providing us with solid support since we started using the service, and they have been very polite and helpful. Our company also emphasizes the importance of putting the customer first, and we empathize with this attitude.

As for our expectations for future updates, we hope that the feature for analyzing the browsing status of the website will be automated and become easier to view.