Case Study: From RM 80 to RM 5.80 Per Lead: How We Built a 1,200+ Lead Pipeline for Netafim™ in 5 Weeks
We didn't just generate leads—we cracked open a notoriously difficult B2B agricultural market, slashed CPL by 85.5%, and built a pipeline ready to scale. Here's how we did it!
Saif Abbas
5
min read
How do you sell high-tech irrigation to traditional durian farmers who are famously skeptical of technology? For Netafim™ and their regional distributor Jebsen & Jessen, this wasn't just a marketing challenge—it was the key to unlocking a massive, untapped market. This is the story of how a true partnership with their regional marketing team turned deep-seated doubts into an automated sales pipeline.
The Challenge: A High-Tech Solution for a Low-Tech Audience
The goal was to achieve what traditional marketing could not: build a scalable lead generation engine to empower the regional marketing team and connect with durian farmers across SEA.
They faced a unique set of obstacles:
Deep-Seated Skepticism: Farmers trusted tradition, not technology. Previous campaigns struggled to break through this mindset.
A Hard-to-Reach Audience: This isn't a group you can easily target with standard digital ads. They spend their time on farms and in niche online communities, not browsing corporate websites.
The Localization Barrier: With limited English proficiency across the region, any content had to be perfectly localized in Thai and Indonesian to be effective.
Poor Historical Performance: Past efforts resulted in a high Cost Per Lead (CPL) of RM 80, with less than 1% of leads converting to the next stage.
Our 5-Week Strategy: A Partnership for Pipeline Growth
In close collaboration with Marcus Lye, the Regional Marketing Manager at Jebsen & Jessen, we deployed a rapid, five-week campaign. Our approach blended deep research with bold creative and powerful automation, all focused on a single goal: delivering pipeline, not just vanity metrics.
Phase 1: Deep Farmer Research (Week 1)
Before building anything, we went to the source.
On-the-Ground Intel: We spent early mornings on farms, chatting informally with growers over coffee to understand their real-world pain points, like fruit drop and water waste.
Digital Eavesdropping: We monitored dozens of durian-focused Facebook groups to learn the language, humor, and hot topics of the community.
AI-Powered Targeting: We used AI to analyze satellite data and pinpoint durian farm clusters, allowing us to create hyper-precise geo-targeted ad campaigns (15-40km radius) that reached farmers directly.
Phase 2: Building the Lead-Gen Machine (Week 2)
We transformed Netafim’s complex technical data into an irresistible offer.
Farmer-Friendly Content: We took the dense, technical "Durian Protocol" and rewrote it entirely. We simplified the language, added clear illustrations, and created a must-have guide that addressed the exact pain points we uncovered in our research.
Localized Landing Pages: We built three high-conversion landing pages, fully localized in English, Thai, and Indonesian, to deliver the guide.
Automated Lead Management: We used our proprietary platform, Incify One, which automates the entire lead lifecycle from capture to sales handoff, to create a seamless backend system to track, tag, nurture, and instantly route every lead to the right sales rep.
Phase 3: The Creative & Channel Strategy (Week 3-5)
To grab the attention of a skeptical audience, we broke all the rules of traditional B2B marketing.
Ogilvy-Style Ads with Dark Humor: We drew inspiration from vintage Ogilvy ads and 1970s New Yorker illustrations, creating scroll-stopping creatives with a satirical, dark-humor edge. Farmers didn't just click—they shared them, creating viral organic reach. (Add screenshot carousel here showing the winning "Musang King," "Sleeping Farmer," and "Durian in ICU" ads.)
Hyper-Focused Channels: We focused 90% of our efforts on Facebook and Instagram, using Lead Ads to make it effortless for farmers to opt-in directly from their feed.
Building an Evergreen Asset: This wasn't just a fire-and-forget ad campaign. To create lasting impact, we developed an entire omni-channel ecosystem around the "Durian Protocol." This included SEO-optimized blog posts and a full content calendar of social posts, all timed to launch with the ads. This strategy engaged the top of the funnel, activated long-term SEO benefits, and turned a short-term campaign into a valuable, evergreen marketing asset.
Rapid, Automated Nurturing: As soon as a farmer submitted a form, our system triggered an automated WhatsApp/SMS sequence and notified an SDR in under 5 minutes, doubling our meeting acceptance rate.
The Results: A Flood of Qualified Leads
Our unconventional approach delivered unprecedented results in just five weeks.
1,200+ Qualified Leads: Generated across Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.
60% CPL Reduction: We crushed the previous RM 40 CPL, achieving an average of RM 15, with our best-performing ad hitting an incredible RM 5.80 CPL in Indonesia.
Immediate Pipeline Creation: This wasn't just a list of names. Over 180 of these leads immediately progressed to a quote request or site visit, building a substantial sales pipeline from a cold start.
High Engagement: Our rapid, personalized follow-up achieved a 50% contact rate via phone or WhatsApp within the first week.
Key Takeaways
Partnership Drives Performance: Our role is to empower regional marketing managers. By blending our infrastructure with their deep market knowledge, we create a partnership that focuses on what truly matters: building a sustainable sales pipeline.
Your Audience Isn't "Boring": Even in traditional, technical industries, bold creative and humor can outperform standard corporate marketing by a huge margin.
Go Where Your Audience Lives: Deep research to understand the channels and communities your audience trusts is non-negotiable. For durian farmers, that was Facebook, not LinkedIn or Google Search.
Speed-to-Lead Wins: An automated, sub-5-minute lead response time was the single biggest factor in converting interest into actual sales meetings.
Client Testimonial
"Incify presented bold and innovative ideas, backing every concept with hard data. Our CPL dramatically improved, resulting in a solid pipeline across multiple countries in just one month."
— Marcus Lye, Regional Manager, Smart Irrigation, Jebsen & Jessen
Ready to Build Your Pipeline?
If you need to reach a tough audience and drive measurable results, let's talk.
