Granite Partners
From domestic growth to international expansion
What did we do?
Growth marketing
Marketing & sales alignment
Granite, a Finnish GRC SaaS provider, partnered with Valve to elevate their growth strategy, resulting in a 50% increase in inbound leads and successful expansion into the UK.
Keep reading if:
- You're looking to scale your SaaS business internationally.
- You need a proven strategy for aligning marketing, sales, and management.
- You want to boost inbound leads and streamline your sales process.
The challenge
Granite is a Finnish SaaS company, that offers its clients a rock-solid GRC platform for business risk management. They have been developing their product over the years and succeeded in building a solid and loyal customer base in Finland, including companies like LocalTapiola, Anora, and Aalto University. In 2022 our paths have been crossed, and we have started to discuss how to bring Granite’s customer acquisition game and brand to the next level.
First things first: asking the right questions
Before designing the solution, Valve team have deep dived into the Granite’s world, to understand their business goals, environment, and growth ambitions. We did our homework to understand better Granite’s customers, competitors, and the market overall. We ran joint workshops to help Granite’s team define better value propositions, customer segments, and growth goals for the upcoming months.
Key success factor at this stage was to bring management, marketing, and sales to the same table and design the strategy together. Making sure the team doesn’t work in silos.
From building the strategy to making things happen
After putting strategy in place and making sure we are all on the same page, we rolled up our sleeves to ensure smooth execution.
Our first focus was to raise Granite’s marketing maturity, including building content processes, setting up analytics, and aligning brand assets. We have set up a clear campaign structure for key marketing channels: LinkedIn and Google, and worked on continuous optimization. We have also reviewed Granite's monthly webinars setup, which had already proven effective in reaching target segments. By integrating webinar and CRM system, optimizing messaging and digital advertising, we have doubled the registrations and hit new company records in new leads from prospecting companies.
A content matrix to help maintain sales momentum
Based on industry potential and sales team intelligence, we started testing with custom content for different audience segments, crystallized during our strategy work. Granite’s landing pages were continuously optimized for better conversion. Educational content and e-books were created to further engage the target audience. We also worked closely with Granite’s sales team to make the sales process clearer and more effective.
We created a content matrix to tackle the frustrating period between the sales stages “offer sent” and “case closed”. The matrix allows Granite’s sales professionals to maintain momentum on a deal by using the right content pieces at the right time to keep the prospect engaged.
"Valve has provided valuable support in helping Granite's growth by being an integral part of our marketing and raising the bar in multiple areas. Their targeted and active approach in digital marketing has helped us see results both in Finland and in the UK market."
Teppo Kattilakoski
CEO
Granite
The results gave Granite extra confidence to grow further with us
Our journey with Granite started with a happy success. Within the first five months we had had already achieved over 50% growth in inbound SQLs. As Granite’s cooperation with Valve has proven to be working well, we have soon extended our activities towards international expansion.
Granite had been pondering entering the UK market for a while, and with a great product in hand all they needed was the efficient and light GTM strategy that would enable Granite to “test waters” without high-risk investments. We have focused on localizing Granite’s Finnish website, considering not just language differences, but market-specific regulations, selling angles, and value proposition.
We have designed a digital campaign plan to test several different segments and supercharged the sales team’s personal profiles with automated LinkedIn outreach to most relevant profiles. With Valve’s help, Granite has successfully established its presence in the UK within a few months from launching the new website, with no extra hires locally. Signing the first couple of exited customers was the best validation for our continuous efforts to communicate Granite’s value in a clear and efficient manner.
We are proud to continue our journey with Granite both in Finland and UK and look forward to more success ahead.
Teppo Kattilakoski
CEO
Granite
