How a Chicago VC firm increased inbound leads by 100% with thought leadership

Case Studies

Jan 10

TechNexus' lobby; we produced thought leadership ghostwriting for their VCs. — TechNexus saw a 50% increase in meetings from content after our engagement began.

TechNexus needed to build awareness and inbound leads from corporate venture units. Here’s how we built a thought leadership strategy for their busy managing partners that led to meetings.

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Key wins

2-3x thought leadership/mo
100% increase in inbound leads
50% more meetings from content
5 out of 5: TechNexus’ marketing team gave us a 5 out of 5 rating for our content, process, and workflow

TLDR

"With Dan’s work, we created a consistent pillar of content and engaged our target audiences in a way we never have before,” said Kelly McGowan (Wyman), Head of Marketing for TechNexus.

Drilling down

TechNexus Venture Collaborative is a Chicago-based VC firm that partners with leading corporations to curate an ecosystem of ambitious entrepreneurs and help them work together to create new business models, new revenue streams, new products, and markets.

However, TechNexus was facing challenges in generating consistent content or content that led to regular inbound deal flow. They wanted thought leadership that would generate more high-level meetings with potential founders and help their corporate venture deal flow.

Three themes drove TechNexus' decision to ramp up its content offering:

Generate stable, high-quality content that led to steady inbound deal flow.

They were struggling to generate written pieces that resonated with their target audiences of corporate venture partners and aspiring entrepreneurs. Their existing materials failed to effectively generate high-level meetings with potential founders that were crucial for their business growth.

Extract thought leadership from their busy managing partners.

The firm's two primary deal-closers—their managing partners—were extremely busy, making it challenging to scale their thought leadership and expertise. TechNexus needed a strategy to capture and showcase the managing partners' knowledge to a broader audience, ultimately driving more inbound deal flow.

Reach more people without having to meet everyone in person.

Technexus' lead generation approach of meeting potential clients at trade shows wasn’t scalable. They needed a way to reach a wider audience with the thought leadership of their managing partners without requiring in-person meetings.

The game plan

TechNexus scaled a thought leadership engine, positioning their managing partners as industry experts and significantly boosting inbound leads and meetings.

Dan worked with the managing partners to capture their insights on corporate ventures, startup ecosystems, and key industry trends, transforming this key information into compelling thought leadership content.

Developed an authentic, scalable thought leadership program.

Through regular interviews that didn’t sap the partners’ time, Dan extracted their expertise and converted it into consistent, high-quality thought leadership content. This strategy elevated TechNexus's brand awareness, helping establish the partners as go-to experts in their field and effectively engaging their target audience of corporate partners and potential founders.

Scaled content production to power TechNexus’ marketing efforts.

We enabled the marketing team to publish 2-3 thought leadership pieces per month over 4-5 months. This consistent content stream was repurposed across various marketing channels, amplifying TechNexus's voice in the industry.

Established a repeatable process for sustainable success.

TechNexus developed a streamlined, templatized process for transforming the managing partners' insights into effective thought leadership. This sustainable model, along with training provided to the marketing team, ensured TechNexus could continue their thought leadership success long after the engagement ended.

The results

A significant boost in thought leadership, leads, and meetings.

Through their consistent thought leadership program, TechNexus saw a 2-3x increase in content published monthly over 4-5 months. This led to a 100% increase in inbound leads generated by the marketing team and a 50% increase in meetings set up as a result of the thought leadership content. The managing partners established themselves as industry thought leaders, effectively engaging their target audiences of corporate partners and potential founders.

Elevated brand awareness and expertise recognition.

TechNexus built substantial awareness around its expertise within the corporate venture and startup ecosystems. Their consistent content strategy effectively positioned the managing partners as go-to experts in their field, enhancing their visibility and credibility among key stakeholders.

A scalable, sustainable content engine for long-term success.

The engagement resulted in a streamlined process to consistently extract and transform the managing partners' insights into effective thought leadership. TechNexus now has a sustainable model for ongoing content success, with a trained marketing team capable of maintaining the thought leadership engine even after the engagement ended. This foundation allows them to continue building their influence and attracting opportunities in the corporate venture and startup space.