[Customer Case] Vapaus

Building the first growth marketing strategy 🥇

Vapaus had been moving so fast as a company that they did not have an updated written business strategy when we started working together. Usually, we base our growth marketing strategy on the business strategy to ensure that we make sure that marketing is aligned with the business. 

Despite this situation, the strategy process went smoothly thanks to a couple of things:

1. Even though the business strategy was not written down, Vapaus’ management, marketing, and sales had a common understanding of their business, which allowed us to build a growth marketing strategy that was aligned with their goals.
2. Everyone at Vapaus was super motivated and committed to the strategy process which helped us work together at a fast pace.

Growth marketing strategy helped to refine parts of Vapaus' business strategy. The management team found new angles and ways of crystallizing the mission and vision as well as who the Vapaus clients are. 

Growth marketing strategy influences business strategy 🥇

Growth marketing strategy helped to refine parts of Vapaus' business strategy. The management team found new angles and ways of crystallizing their mission and vision as well as who their clients are. 

That has not always been the case. As a young start-up, funding is crucial at this stage of its growth. There have been moments when balancing funding and investing in marketing has meant tough decisions. But making them has also been educational for the company.

Understanding a wider ideal customer base 📍

As part of the growth marketing strategy process, we ran an ideal customer workshop, interviewed Vapaus’ best customers, and used the interview data to create an in-depth ideal customer profile (ICP) that can be used across the business.

The ICP workshop and customer research made Vapaus realize that its target audience had been too narrow. They had focused on cyclists that are passionate about biking, ride all year round and have the means and willingness to invest in expensive gear.

The research made them understand that the passionate cyclist group was a small portion of the market and that there is a wider untapped potential: everyday cyclists who enjoy biking but who don’t need to be spandex-wearing triathlons.

Agile sprints have brought structure to Vapaus’ in-house work

Working in an agile model is not always easy to dive straight in. In Vapaus’ case, the 4-week sprints have helped their growth team find a structure for their work and they have adopted the sprint model in internal Growth work too. Vapaus has learned to: 

• Set realistic timeframes and deadlines. 
• Bring in other experts to work on a project and make sure that everyone is working towards a common goal. 
• Get buy-in and commitment from everyone involved in a project
• Ensure that they prioritize and do the right things

Working as a team 🤝

As mentioned earlier, one of the reasons why Vapaus chose us as their partner was how well we worked together initially on HubSpot projects. This chemistry between us and the people at Vapaus has continued and even deepened along the way.

One of the secrets of working as a team comes from the fact that our clients get a team of marketers who all have their expertise and roles but are not tied by those roles. No matter the role, everyone in the team can voice their opinions and challenge the opinions of others.

“As the only marketer at Vapaus, I feel that AB2B is my team. They are a group of experts from whom I get support. I get deep expertise from them that I don’t have in-house.”