Allunac: Mobile Application Services

The Client

Allunac is a mobile application and IT service provider in Montreal, Quebec. 

The Problem

Newly established, Allunac was looking for help with accelerating sales growth, establishing a target market and developing a marketing strategy. 

The Solution

Our first recommendation was for the founders to focus on either one of two services; either go with app development services or IT services. Focusing on both would hinder the company's ability to grow and later down the line scale. This led management to focus solely on mobile app development services.

To define its target market, Toledo conducted a brief market study on the industries and market verticals transitioning towards digital solutions due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Our analysis revealed that Entertainment (streaming apps), Business Apps (brand engagement) and Lifestyle (health and wellness) industries provided an appropriate market to target. 

Once industry and market verticals were identified, we created detailed buyer profiles (buyer personas) to identify which top 3 stakeholders across small and medium organizations the team needed to engage in a sale. Our findings revealed 3 key stakeholder functions: C-Suite, Sales and Marketing and IT departments. 

Our buyer personas enabled us to understand what role each type of stakeholder had in the buyer journey and how we can best map the buyer journey to the content development strategy and derive messaging that spoke to each stakeholder's key challenges and priorities.

Our content development strategy focused on creating weekly content that spoke to each stakeholder and would be posted on the company website and authoritative websites. Given the technical nature of the industry, the IT department was the team we found needed the most convincing in the debate of bringing a third-party OTT provider versus developing a company app with in-house resources. 

Our content roadmap outlined key marketing channels and themes to target each stakeholder. For instance, Tech teams would be targeted with webinars, complex infographics, technical checklists and illustrative whitepapers. 

The Value

• Allunac has a clear content strategy roadmap to establish thought leadership.
• Client has access to detailed buyer personas to facilitate sales training, sales development and content positioning.
• Client designates Toledo as their consulting firm of choice and partner for the long term.

The Client

Fit-Concierge, a Malibu-based startup, is developing a mobile application where health instructors (fitness and wellness) and everyday people can connect on the platform to improve their wellbeing through games, competitions and traditional instruction.  

The Problem

The FC team was looking to create hype around the launch of the beta version of its application in February 2021. The team needed a social media marketing (SMM) strategy to attract both a healthy number of early adopters and enough instructors to satisfy demand for its platform. 

The Solution

We first reversed-engineered a social media marketing strategy that focused on acquiring 1 trainer for every 3 new participants. The idea behind this ratio was to model a SaaS business model where the  LTV to CAC ratio must be above 3 for a business to scale. Furthermore, we outlined a strategy where each trainer would be providing training on the platform with an influencer. 

Once the user acquisition strategy was set, Toledo developed a content strategy that would address both health instructors and participants on a weekly basis. Content varied from weekly articles that would turn to a newsletter and as well infographics. The final part of the content strategy was to establish strong do follow backlinks on authoritative websites geared towards either personal trainers or gymgoers, Backlinks would be in the form of guest posts with the goal to improve SEO ranking on Google, increase organic traffic to the FC website, attract certified personal trainers, and elevate brand engagement with gymgoers. 

The Value

• FC has a clear 3 month user and service-provider acquisition strategy. 
• Client acquired 100 beta testing participants ahead of launch.
• Established 3 backlinks (1/month) on relevant authoritative websites, including Trainer Essentials, Fit Living Tips, etc.
• Client reports Toledo was delivered each week and on time with content contributions. 

Client Testimonial

Internal stakeholders are pleased with the team’s expertise along the way. Toledo Capital is an effective, knowledgeable, and reliable partner. 

- Charles Benoualid, CTO

PolyMailersUSA, an e-commerce envelopes manufacturer and supplier located in Montreal, produces and supplies polyethylene e-commerce envelopes for online retailers across North America. The owners were looking for sales and marketing strategists to bring their company to the next level.

The Situation

The company hired Toledo Capital Advisors as it was looking to grow its business by developing its North American presence. The founders had established their online e-commerce website and were generating modest sales from online channels but they were looking for effective sales lead generation strategies to grow the pipeline and attract fortune 1000 & 500 companies. 

The Problem

Toledo first met with the owners and discuss their main market and the applications of their product. From there, Toledo analyze interactions and sales cycles with smaller accounts provided by the Management team to understand buyer profiles. With trial and error, Toledo came to the conclusion that small-medium online retailers provided an appropriate avenue for growth, but large traffic volume figures were needed for eCommerce operations to take off. Toledo saw an opportunity to target 50 Fortune 1000 & 500 companies to supply mailers via long-term partnerships. This required an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) approach to sales & marketing to really drive revenues. 

The Solution

Toledo first conducted a deep dive market research & insights from customers and competitors. Product research, customer surveys & competitor intelligence enabled Toledo to craft a strategy that would make PolyMailersUSA's envelopes more competitive. 

Modifications 

Modifications to the existing mailers made were adding a double adhesive (secondary closure) to the mailers to allow the customers' customer to return clothing they no longer wanted or use the mailer as a method for sending clothes to third party charitable organizations. This presented the added value to companies to market the bags as a CSR campaign. 

With the growing concerns of the use of plastic, we suggested that all envelopes had certified on them that materials used to fabricate the mailers were made with 100% recycled materials.  

Finally, Toledo identified a growth opportunity for PolyMailersUSA to supply kraft (paper)  envelopes.

To market the mailers, we used a combination of direct cold calling and personalized emailing to drive the pipeline. 

The Results

Once the final touches on the envelopes were made, Toledo identified strategic target accounts, the value proposition and fired away. To date, Toledo created  +$1M in additional sales backlog and in current discussions to supply the largest online retailers in North America and the world. 

Value

• Increased the competitiveness of existing mailers with added features and functionalities.
• Delivered communication procedures and faster timelines for quote creation.
• Created +$1M in sales pipeline in 3 short months and deals currently under review for approval.
• Generated RFQ for 2.4M kraft mailers, ~ $900,000.00 (repeat orders).

Marvin Garellek, Co-Founder PolyMailersUSA:

We weren’t only able to successfully open the door for new prospects, but we started receiving quotations to fill our pipeline and generating orders to grow our business. The pipeline mattered the most to me. I didn’t want 100 companies that had 5,000 sales; I wanted ten companies to do a couple hundred thousand in sales. Within three months, Adam built the pipeline to $1 million.

The Client

Making Your Life Easier (MYLE) is a Montreal-based startup founded by three entrepreneurs with a mission of providing homeowners the gift of time by managing their personal assets. 

The Problem

MYLE hired TCA for advice on setting up a business plan, defining its target market, creating a sustainable business model and outlining a successful marketing strategy.

The Solution

Toledo first crafted a business plan based on the ultimate passions and goals of the entrepreneurs. We defined what the team's passion was - what value they wanted to provide to consumers which preceded their company name "Making Your Life Easier". They wanted to provide an easier lifestyle to households from the click of a button. No need to worry about your landscaping, fixing a rooftop, cleaning your rooms and such. Ultimately, their goal was to provide leisure to consumers via the gift of time. 

We then defined what offering the team can currently excel at and what they cannot at this point of time. This commenced the phase of defining their Minimum Viable Service Offering - cleaning services. Cleaning services presented an easy way to establish trust with the test market, such that a quality cleaning of the household would enable consumers to eventually order other services for their homes.

Consequently, we defined what the company could not be the best at today - which was being the ultimate full-service provider in the market. This enabled the founders to focus on what works right now and pivot their strategy where needed as more consumer data (surveys, reviews, repeat orders) came to fruition.  Lastly, it enabled us to define and track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that are crucial to the success of the business while aligned with their value proposition.

Once the foundations of MYLE were established, we advised on establishing the business model: Is it a one-time transaction model? Would a subscription model be more appropriate? What working capital levels are necessary to service the business? 

Once the business model was established, we needed to derive a marketing strategy that was directly relevant to MYLE's target market. Our first step was creating three different buyer personas, with emphasis on what were their needs, how do they make a purchase decision & how they consumed information. 

Once personas were created, we identified 2 mediums to connect with our audience: Direct Mail campaigns in selected neighborhoods and social media (Instagram) campaigns.

The Value

• Client reached +$25,000 in pre-sales in the first 2 months of operations.
• MYLE reports Toledo's demand generation program resulted in $50,000 actual sales at FY2020.
• MYLE continues to designate Toledo Capital as the driver for its early success. 
• Client continues to refer to Toledo Capital as their preferred marketing consultants of choice.

Paul Vital, Founder of MYLE

Toledo brought MYLE to the next level. His demand generation program & marketing advice were the the key to unlocking $25,000 in pre-sales in our 2 months pre-launch phase & $50,000 in new actual sales by end of FY2020. 

The Client

Lavasoft (previously called Adaware), a division of Avanquest, is a software development company that produces spyware, malware and internet traffic monetization tools. 

The Problem

Lavasoft was facing pressure to reconcile and project financial statements that were backed by marketing metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Furthermore, the client needed assistance with tracking their traffic acquisition strategy.

The Solution

The engagement initially started with a 2 month assessment of the existing financial and marketing metrics tracked by Lavasoft. After thorough analysis of its financials and analytics channels, we were able to create detailed financial projections that were driven by key performance indicators and value drivers of the business.

Our financial assessment revealed that management was unable to discern whether or not they were over or under spending on traffic acquisition and how they compared to competitors. We proceeded to creating and monitoring Life-Time Value/ Customer Acquisition Costs ratios to provide management with an understanding of when additional dollars should be spent towards user acquisition or allocated elsewhere. This enabled us to not only look at traffic acquisition spending as a whole, but also within certain customer accounts, enabling the team to re-evaluate terms with specific accounts.

Finally, we provided monthly financial and marketing metrics overview presentations to the executive team along with detailed market research on emerging opportunities and competitors across North America.

The Value

• Lavasoft had detailed monthly financial projections backed by core KPIs and financial drivers
• Management reports having detailed consumer analytics that backed financial projections.
• Client had direct access to competitor intelligence and market insights on a M/M basis.
• EBITDA margins remained steady or above 20%.

Client Testimonial

Adam helped us identify the right metrics we should be looking at to have a stronger user base. They also helped us with identifying the kind of spend and marketing campaigns we should be doing. There is a lot of competitor research that needs to be done, which is where they also helped us. By doing that, Toledo Capital Advisors helped us identify opportunities in the marketplace that could help us go and tap in on those opportunities.

- Amrendra Yadav, Project Manager