Buyerdock engages TTMC to capture market opportunity and drive adoption of GS1-approved 2D-QR barcode solution.

Buyerdock gives brands control over their products, helping them connect with consumers via a 2D-QR Barcode. It is a sophisticated database-driven, online solution connecting buyers and sellers by enabling brands to present expansive information about their products.

Buyerdock is the first solution to be approved by GS1, the global barcode standard, to use the GS1 Digital Link inside 2D-QR codes. In doing so it has become a GS1 approved partner, with the ability to generate and supply the new advanced 2D-QR code to GS1 standards for all brands and manufacturers globally.

Campaign objective and project background

The announcement of EU packaging regulations that would phase out 1D barcodes by 2025 created a significant market opportunity for Buyerdock. As the only GS1 approved supplier of 2D barcode technology, the business was well placed to help customers achieve digital compliance for existing and new packaging regulations coming down the line.

Buyerdock didn’t have a scalable in-house resource to tap into this opportunity and so decided to engage an outsourced telemarketing agency. The goal was to target UK exporters to France and Italy where regulations would first come into force. TTMC was engaged to deliver a lead generation campaign to educate prospects on the new laws and encourage them to sign up to remain compliant.

Project execution

TTMC sourced a list of UK manufacturers exporting to France and Italy and data was loaded and segmented within the agency’s calling platform. A briefing took place to educate TTMC’s team on Buyerdock’s proposition, its unique selling points and benefits including:

• Compliance with current French/Italian regulations and EU wine regulations.

• Forward planning for regulations to be rolled out across the whole of the EU and other countries.

• Future proofing of packaging for the change over from 1D barcodes to 2D barcodes.

To clearly differentiate Buyerdock’s offer, it was important that agents had a good understanding of likely pain points and a good grasp of the new legislation and enhanced barcode technology. The briefing also covered the competitive landscape and the limitations of other QR code solutions, those limited to a single URL for each scan or without an embedded GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) to uniquely identify each product.

TTMC was tasked to call prospects, highlight the change in legislation, and then generate interest by tailoring the offer to each prospect’s needs. TTMC would create a profile for those interested and email them a link to login and complete their details. They would then schedule a follow up call for the client’s in-house team to call the prospect and activate their account. To incentivise sign up, it was agreed to offer a free SKU (stock keeping unit) to be set up by the Buyerdock team during the activation call.

Buyerdock was keen to measure the value of a marketing channel they had not used previously and appointed a member of their team who was familiar with the telemarketing process to act as a single point of contact with the agency. Profiles were set up for TTMC’s real-time reporting platform so that the client’s key stakeholders could login and drill down into data, results, and performance analytics at any point in time. A custom export was also created to provide easy access to results and valuable insights gathered as calling progressed.

Profiling questions were built in to calls to capture market insight to inform strategy. Prospect information, such as the number of SKUs in use would enable the client to qualify leads and prioritise larger opportunities. Alongside custom reports, detailed notes and a high-level summary were provided with each lead to enable the Buyerdock team to home in on the prospect’s key issues, whether the 1D to 2D change, or compliance with EU regulation.

As the campaign was launched, early-stage reviews addressed questions and concerns encountered and the client was available to help agents get quickly up the learning curve and start delivering results. Agents had to work hard to identify the correct decision makers within each business as the person responsible for barcodes varied depending on organisation type and size. In small organisations this might be the owner/manager but in larger organisations it could range from operations or logistics through to export and compliance managers.

Throughout, client and agency worked closely, sharing feedback, and continuously refining different elements of the campaign to improve performance. Multiple calls took place to share insight and feedback from call recordings and TTMC’s reporting portal. It became clear that many businesses were not yet aware of the new regulations, so TTMC increased focus on building awareness and educating prospects around the changes. Many organisations were also heading into a very busy period and reluctant to assign time and effort to what seemed a distant deadline. TTMC focused therefore on creating a sense of urgency, highlighting potential impacts such as fines and products being removed from shelves for non-compliance and the importance of future proofing processes. Some sectors started to gain traction, so focus lists were created and the calling schedule adapted to target sweet spots such as food and drink, and clothing manufacturers.

Results

Following their first experience of telemarketing, the client has been very impressed with the value of the channel and the agency’s agility in continuously adapting their approach to maximise results.

By the end of the initial calling period, TTMC had delivered a strong pipeline of 183 results, 1 for every 8 hours of calling. The client had not anticipated the volume of results achieved and the in-house team faced a continuous flow of follow-up calls and activations. In addition to a strong pipeline, Buyerdock also received a full analysis of responses with valuable customer and market insight, for example, quantifying levels of awareness around upcoming changes, as well as the impacts to-date.

Discussions have taken place to consider other ways TTMC can support Buyerdock, including the option of them taking on the follow-up calls and activation part of the process to maximise lead conversion. Client and agency have also discussed expanding the campaign to other territories including the US and rest of the EU.