Gurtam success story: 6 dispelled delusions about going online

Marketing at Gurtam is based on cooperation with the professional community and dealers in 130+ countries, own events, dozens of offline activities around the world: major conferences, exhibitions, meetings. These were all terminated during the quarantine. Is it possible to quickly adapt to the global lockdown and also promptly go online in such conditions? Wouldn’t the telematics community break up?

Anastasiya Eroho, the Head of the Marketing Department at Gurtam, talks about hard knocks while going online, dispelled delusions, and lessons learned.

Where we started

Gurtam is the developer of the GPS tracking system Wialon and other products. The company’s marketing is based on two dozen events per year, huge stands at core international exhibitions, and five own conferences worldwide. We used these meetings to communicate with current and potential clients. Of course, we spent much effort on content marketing, PPC, SEO, and email marketing, but this work aims at lead generation, and its priority is somewhat lower. As you know, it is more profitable to increase revenue from existing customers.

Suddenly, in February, when COVID-19 was still far from Belarus and our minds, the MWC Barcelona exhibition was canceled. It had been the first alarm, followed by other disturbing signals — dozens of events were canceled one by one. We realized that offline methods would not work in 2020 and that we had to find additional online formats for promotion urgently. The transition to remote work aggravated the situation. It was the point when our perceptions or better say, delusions about working online started to break.

Delusion 1. The community will not exist without offline

The community of partner companies scattered around the world comprises the heart of Gurtam’s business. One of the marketing team tasks is to develop and support this community, paying full attention to each of its members. Sometimes, we used to live on planes literally. And here it is — the lockdown. Events are canceled, borders are closed.

During a crisis, it is essential not only to support the community spirit and convey information about what is happening in the market but also to allow partners to speak out and share their worries, experience, problems, and anti-crisis solutions with colleagues from other countries.

What we did

To make our partners better understand the market situation, one of our teams created an interactive map to track the coronavirus impact on the transportation industry — the core industry for our business.

We didn’t move our conferences online, though that had been our initial idea. We decided that delivering smaller pieces of content regularly would be more useful to stay in touch with partners. This is how our weekly video-meetups, which we jokingly called Gurtam TV, appeared (the name, by the way, stuck).

Currently, we conduct two events every Thursday — in Russian and English, sometimes adding a third one — in Spanish. We moved online everything that we could do well offline: panel discussions with several experts, workshops with few participants, lectures transformed into webinars. It took us a week to prepare the debut event that caught the audience’s great interest — one thousand people watched our first meetup!

We decided to “repackage” all the records from meetups in various formats: podcasts, articles, white papers. Everyone can consume information in the most convenient form.

Delusion 2. Making online events is easier

At first, we thought it was very easy to organize online events. We visualized our first Gurtam meetups as regular group Zoom calls with a precise scenario and the division of roles between participants. What could have gone wrong?

We started to get hard knocks immediately. Just before the event begins, the internet is turned off in the office, and we are frantically looking for someone to launch a Zoom meeting from home. Or the moderator is settled with his back to the door of the meeting room, and curious colleagues are constantly opening it. Or we had forgotten to warn the speaker about the importance of a good headset, which resulted in terrible audio quality.

What we did

Having realized that we couldn’t go on that way, we organized a full-fledged studio in the office: a press wall, professional lighting, broadcast equipment, and a cameraman.

We rent all the equipment — it’s cheaper than buying your own. The software used for broadcasting is V-Mix. We live stream on Facebook and YouTube, having abandoned Zoom because it “kills” the image quality.

Now, the meetup preparation cycle looks like this:

• Decide on the topic and talking points two weeks before the event;
• Invite speakers and experts a week and a half before;
• After getting the confirmation of their participation, place an announcement on the website;
• Make an inviting blog post, which automatically triggers email notifications;
• Send out two invitational emails: 5 days and an hour before;
• Remind about events in our Viber and WhatsApp chats: a day and an hour before;
• Make a test call with all participants to check the equipment — one day and half an hour before the event.

But even when the broadcast ends, the work does not stop. We collect and analyze feedback from participants and viewers to improve future meetups. Meanwhile, the recorded video is edited (we post the final version on YouTube), and the content team comes into play. They process all the information, “pack” it into different formats and translate it into three languages.

Delusion 3. Any experienced speaker looks good on camera

Gurtam has been traveling the world with presentations for a long time. We have a pool of experienced speakers, so we didn’t worry about the people on camera. But we should have.

Working in the frame turned out to be a completely different experience. People got used to speaking in public and seeing the audience’s reaction. Left alone with the camera, they quickly forget that others are looking at them: speakers get distracted, start fiddling with a pen, twirling a mug in their hands, scratching the nose, or looking at the ceiling. Having forgotten about a live stream, one participant in our meetup began to knock himself on the head with a stamp.

What we did

We compiled detailed instructions for our speakers concerning their behavior in front of a camera. There we stipulated, for example, what clothes to wear to look good against the background of the press wall, how to read out questions from the audience, what to talk about, and much more.

We installed a backup screen so that speakers could see themselves. Now, the presenter can control his or her behavior on camera. If there are two speakers, it is better to mirror the picture on the backup screen; otherwise, they will look at themselves diagonally all the time, and their eyes will squint in the frame.

We settled speakers at the table. People who are not used to speaking in the frame sink into comfortable sofas and instinctively rest against the back, which looks pitiful. So, a table or a bar counter are great locations for video recording.

We stocked up with mattifying facial tissues. Professional studio light is tricky and makes the presenter’s skin shine in the frame, which deteriorates the picture.

We prepared pleasant surprises for all participants. Limited series of funny stickers go to the speakers from Gurtam, while partners from other companies get diplomas of gratitude and screenshots of the best broadcast moments, which they are actively sharing on social networks.

As a result, within five months, more than 15 Gurtam employees, who had never even streamed on Instagram before, participated in live broadcasts. More than 20 partners from 12 countries joined them.

Delusion 4. Online communication is worse than offline

We expected that online training courses with one moderator would be quite successful. But we were not sure about working groups where several people propose topics for discussion and formulate ideas.

How can one maintain a group conversation dynamic when every participant joins it via Zoom and can only speak in turn?

What we did

We decided to make such meetings private (by invitation only) and limit the number of participants (15 people register, about ten come) to create a safe, intimate environment for everyone.

We created a step-by-step scenario of what follows what and showed the guests a list of discussion questions in advance.

We agreed with the participants that they put a “+” in the Zoom-chat when they want to speak. To be honest, we were afraid that such strict measures (at first glance) could kill the desire to communicate. But on the contrary, they disciplined people, forced them to think over their comments better, thus making the discussion more productive.

Moreover, we made a relatively rare QA session format for the B2B segment. A top manager from Gurtam invites a key specialist in a specific field to the studio and asks awkward questions that came from partners and in a YouTube chat. By the way, some users even asked their questions online via video. It turned out to be really lively.

Delusion 5. Local problems are of interest only locally

We work in 130 countries — these are different regions, each with its characteristics and problems. That’s why, initially, we tried to create content with an eye to the region and its specifics. For example, “what prospects the crisis in the Middle East opens up.” We invited local speakers to such meetings and formulated an entirely local agenda.

But it was a surprise when we analyzed the participants in such streams. It turned out that the vast majority of viewers do not live in the target region. People came to get ideas from other markets and adapt them to their realities.

What we did

We abandoned the regional division. Now it is only language-based.

Delusion 6. Marketing in crisis is an excellent cost-cutting item

As the crisis struck and triggered the accounts receivable growth, the company began to review and optimize expenses. As a rule, a business in such conditions decides to cut marketing and team costs.

Gurtam decided not to go that way. We preserved our team and marketing budgets and increased our activity.

What we did

We repurposed offline marketers. They used to communicate with contractors while organizing exhibitions, but they now work with video contractors: cameramen and editors.

We reallocated the budget. Although major events have been canceled, the organizers are reluctant to return money: they postpone participation to the following years or make the “right now” return as unprofitable as possible. At our disposal, we had only budgets for online activities planned back in December, and money that we had not spent on the construction of exhibition stands, merchandising, and souvenirs. We redirected these funds to PPC and video and text content creation.

Interestingly, all our major competitors in Russia and about half of the competitors abroad suspended advertising campaigns in Google and Yandex during the lockdown. Most competitors in Western Europe and the United States closed down social media advertising that had been aimed to boost brand awareness.

We were only too glad since all their potential clients became ours. As a result, in six months of 2020, compared to 2019, the number of applications (leads) left on the website increased by 39%, even though total traffic decreased across all channels.

Yes, the coronavirus ruined all our plans for 2020 overnight. We had to rebuild all processes at full running, simultaneously correcting mistakes made. And it seems that we’ve succeeded: the community is growing, and we currently get in touch with partners even more often than before. During the lockdown, the marketing team extended by three people on the staff and several freelancers. What is exceptionally pleasant is that acquired experience and all our accomplishments will remain with us forever and continue to work for the company.

We’ve also noticed that colleagues and competitors began to follow some of our steps, which is perhaps the best proof that we did everything right.