Accelerating Demand Generation for Pepper with Demand Basis

Introduction to Pepper

Pepper is a leading eCommerce platform designed to serve independent food distributors and manufacturers. Pepper is the most trusted and transparent technology partner to independent distributors, mostly serving the $1.5 trillion foodservice industry. Their platform offers white labeled ordering solutions, sales engagement tools, and integrated payments, all tailored to the unique needs of the food distribution industry.

Jason Gunn, the Head of Marketing at Pepper, brings over two decades of experience in the foodservice industry, supporting the adoption of technology such as eCommerce, business intelligence, and data management platforms. Under his leadership, Pepper has developed a robust library of thought-leadership content and has been instrumental in driving the company's marketing strategies.

The Challenge

Despite having a wealth of high-quality thought-leadership assets produced by the marketing team, Pepper faced challenges in scaling their demand generation efforts to drive a consistent pipeline of qualified leads. Their existing Google Ads campaigns were underperforming, and they lacked a cohesive strategy across other platforms like LinkedIn and Meta.

Additionally, Pepper aimed to launch ten vertical-focused campaigns within a tight 30-day window. This ambitious goal required meticulous planning of conversion journeys, development of targeted messaging, creation of new landing pages, and integration with their HubSpot CRM to ensure accurate tracking of conversions. Recognizing the need for a specialized partner to execute this multifaceted strategy, Pepper turned to Demand Basis for assistance.

The Project

To address Pepper's challenges, Demand Basis assembled a dedicated team comprising a strategy lead, a Google Ads strategist, a LinkedIn strategist, and a creative designer. Collaborating closely with Jason Gunn, the team devised a phased approach to launch the ten vertical campaigns, aiming to roll out three campaigns per week.

To facilitate seamless communication and rapid execution, Demand Basis integrated into Pepper's Slack workspace, allowing real-time collaboration with the in-house team. This close partnership ensured alignment on goals, swift feedback loops, and agile adjustments to strategies as needed.

Key Deliverables:

• Creative Assets: Developed 50 unique creative designs with multiple iterations to facilitate A/B testing and optimize performance.
  
• Google Search Campaigns: Conducted comprehensive keyword research and launched two search campaigns targeting specific use cases within the identified industries and associated brand names.
  
• LinkedIn Campaigns: Set up audience targeting and launched ten sponsored image campaigns utilizing native lead generation forms to capture high-quality leads.
  
• Automations: Implemented real-time Slack notifications using Zapier, ensuring that Pepper's inside sales team received immediate lead information for prompt follow-up.
  
• HubSpot Dashboards: Created multiple dashboards and reports within HubSpot to provide weekly insights on leads, opportunities, and pipeline progression. These reports were instrumental in keeping the executive team informed and facilitating data-driven decisions.
  

The Results

The collaborative efforts between Pepper and Demand Basis yielded significant results:

• Lead Generation: Successfully launched all ten vertical campaigns, generating 101 high-quality leads.
  
• Pipeline Growth: The campaigns contributed to $300,000 in new opportunities, showcasing the effectiveness of the targeted strategies.
  
• Rapid Conversion: Notably, one lead acquired through Google Ads converted into a customer within a week, resulting in a $60,000 annual recurring revenue (ARR) deal—double the average ARR. This win was particularly significant as it involved securing a client from a direct competitor.

Through this partnership, Pepper not only overcame their immediate challenges but also established a scalable framework for ongoing demand generation, positioning them for sustained growth in the competitive food distribution market.

The Demand Basis team came highly recommended, and they did not disappoint. We needed more than a strategy –  we needed someone to implement an entire framework to jump start our growth engine and do the optimization work along the way. The results so far have been great and we will continue to rely on their support.