INIBAR provides nationwide IT support services to the restaurant, hotel and retail industries in the French market and its territories.  INIBAR’s scope of services range from design, configuration and installation to IT field support of hardware and software systems that support the operational functions of their clients.  Specifically, INIBAR has particular expertise in point of sale (POS) and project management systems (PMS) as well as their peripheral devices and third-party systems’ integration.

INIBAR’s origins are in the restaurant and hotel segments, mainly due to the close partnerships with software vendors that create and sell POS and PMS systems, but for whom it was not economically viable to provide IT field support on a national scale for their clients.

INIBAR has consistently invested in its human resources, business processes and information systems to ensure its ability to support multiple vendor systems, while providing its clients with a single-point-of-contact helpdesk to report and track all of their IT issues.

Indicatively, Inibar has:

• 7,500 business units under maintenance
• 20,000+ POS terminals under maintenance
• 7,800 on-site support visits this year
• 27,000+ total calls processed this year

Their impressive client portfolio includes McDonalds, Accor Hotels, Louvre Hotels group, Celio* and many others.

Changing market conditions due to some POS/PMS system vendors forward integrating to provide IT field support to their own clients as well as a slowing growth rate in INIBAR’s core segments of restaurants and hotels has meant that top management at INIBAR has had to rethink their strategy to adapt to these conditions.

Marketing and sales were identified as areas that needed to be restructured, and the retail industry was identified as offering high possibility of growth opportunity that had not been actively sought after by INIBAR in the past.

As a B2B service provider, INIBAR had not seen the value in pursuing marketing activities in the past, especially since its business model relied on client referrals from the POS/PMS software vendors who have now become its direct competition.  INIBAR management quickly realised that a key element of the company’s success relied on its ongoing ability to acquire new customers in order to maintain and grow its bottom line and ensure the critical mass and distribution of client locations that make its business model viable.  

Taking into consideration that its target audience spends a significant time online, and at  the same time, competition in the B2B services industry in France and globally is shifting its focus to online marketing and lead generation, they decided to transform their marketing and sales processes to gradually shift from referrals and offline methods to online marketing and lead generation.

A new website

A fundamental element in this restructuring process was the design and development of a new website that would serve as an information-hub, showcasing the Unique Selling Proposition, the services and the advantages of Inibar and would function as a lead generation mechanism, capturing the interest of qualified leads from the selected target audience.

We worked closely with Inibar’s management to clarify their business objectives, identify their strengths and weaknesses and develop a list of elements that would help us build a website that would attract the appropriate audience.

We used the latest trends in UX/UI design to create an intuitive web journey, connecting users from each target segment to the information and pages that best relate to their individual needs and unique circumstances. Through the information architecture and the content we created, we built a website that helps visitors understand what Inibar does, who its target audience is and how they can derive value from its services.

On this contemporary, aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly website, we emphasized a look and feel that is corporate and professional and a tone that is simple, clear and personal. Our messages are expressed in straightforward and concise text, so that a user can easily comprehend our messages when browsing through the website.

A lead-generating Digital Marketing strategy

In addition to creating Inibar’s new website, we are working closely with Inibar’s management to design and implement a Digital Marketing strategy focused on lead generation, especially in the retail sector of its business.

To finalize and execute the digital marketing strategy, we are identifying:

• The strategic objectives we need to address
•  The specific buyer personas that we will target
•  The media mix including various channels and the required budget
• The content and creative materials that we will create
• The timing of the campaigns that will be deployed
• The timing and the number of reports that will be produced

Since Inibar’s target market is comprised of B2B companies with specific characteristics, the initial number of companies that we could target is very small.

However, a major factor that will enable the campaign to succeed and result in a significant number of leads and conversions is that we reach a statistically critical mass of relevant B2B audience population with the highest precision possible. It is vital that we ensure media cost efficiency and, at the same time, maximize performance by remaining relevant in our communication with sub-segments.

In order to achieve the above we created two different target segments:

1. A prospect database with specific companies that we will reach through Facebook Geolocation and LinkedIn Profiling (approaching the decision-makers directly).
2. Affinity and contextual based targeting where we will utilize the ad platforms capabilities of Google and Facebook to target individuals based on a combination of demographic, behavioural and preference elements

Our research on the buyer persona has indicated that Facebook and LinkedIn advertising, Google AdWords, Search and Display, YouTube and Gmail ads, as well as Remarketing and Programmatic, will be used in order to successfully reach Inibar’s prospective clients.

In addition, we will create all the content that we use in the campaigns, be it Facebook posts, Google Banners, blog posts and case studies or videos.

Our common and most important objective is to move Inibar’s prospective clients from initial awareness of the company services to specific actions that will create leads for the Inibar’s sales team.

Mobile App redesign 

Building on the success of their single-point-of-contact helpdesk, INIBAR decided to create a mobile app to allow on-the-spot reporting and reporting of IT issues.  We redesigned the UI of this mobile service-ticketing app in order to improve user experience and align the look and feel with the new website ensuring brand consistency. The application UI is now fresh, updated and much easier to use by the Inibar’s clients.

Video production

Part of the content that we are creating for Inibar includes the videos below:

• Α brief explainer video to promote and convey the usability of the app to existing clients
•  A video to promote Inibar on  Facebook and  YouTube