Class101, a leading self-development platform, officially entered the corporate education market in 2024. How did they proceed with content marketing optimized for acquiring potential corporate customers, specifically in the process of expanding their B2C success into B2B?
We listened to the vivid experiences of Choi Pil-jun, Director of Business at Class101, regarding the 6-month journey in collaboration with Elifunt, who earned the nickname “The Kind Content Marketing Dormitory Supervisor”!
Q. Hello Piljun, first, please briefly introduce Class101 Business!
We are the Class101 Business Team, taking on a new challenge in the corporate education market
Class101 is Korea's largest online class platform, boasting over 5.5 million members and more than 5,300 diverse classes. Our Class101 Business is a B2B solution that provides this verified content and know-how to corporate clients.
We provide subscription services that companies can utilize for employee training and welfare benefits , aiming for solutions that go beyond simple content provision to enhance both corporate growth and employee satisfaction
Q. Please tell us about the state of Class101's B2B content marketing before meeting Elifunt.
There was a lack of content to persuade corporate clients.
At the time of our search for collaboration partners, Class101 lacked a B2B pipeline. We merely understood that corporate clients are not easily persuaded by B2C logic. While the Class101 B2B team had some content built, its upload channels were fragmented, and the content consisted of very superficial informational material that seemed like something an AI could produce. We determined that such content was not capable of persuading corporate clients.
To properly execute corporate content marketing, we needed a deep understanding of the internal situation and the product, but it was difficult to find such an agency, and our team lacked the resources to execute it directly.
Q. Oh, then, what was the most important factor you considered when you decided to proceed with B2B content marketing with an external partner?
I wanted a team with a deep understanding of the industry. Elifunt's reputation for working like an in-house team was the deciding factor.
Initially, I didn't intend to entrust this to an external partnership. However, I heard many reviews stating that Elifunt works just as well as an in-house team. Hearing positive reviews about Elifunt from various sources for quite some time was the deciding factor. I concluded that partnering with Elifunt would allow me to properly launch my content marketing from the very beginning.
Q. What was the most satisfying aspect of collaborating with Elifunt?
The quality of the content, SEO capabilities, and even the content dashboard were all impressive.
There was a harmonious balance between content that Class101’s target potential customers would be interested in and content that directly helps them understand and be persuaded by our service. From the content strategy to content tailored to each stage of the customer journey, everything was arranged in a balanced manner. The SEO part also covered various areas of expertise, including technical SEO and content SEO.
Above all, I really liked the ability to build dashboards. Being able to see content performance at a glance made marketing decision-making much easier. It definitely felt different from the content marketing agencies we are familiar with. Instead of focusing solely on general content creation, they systematically managed the entire process from strategy to execution and analysis, which was a huge help.
Q. Then, what was the biggest difference between your initial expectations and the reality of collaborating for the past six months?
The content growth dashboard and content quality exceeded my expectations!
To be honest, I signed the contract with Elifunt without fully understanding the dashboard output, but it turned out to be much better than I expected. Unlike Google Analytics, where there is so much data that it is difficult to know which values to look at, this dashboard allows you to view funnel-based metrics that are easy to understand at a glance. It was easy to grasp because the content performance was immediately visible.
Also, the content you wrote was higher in quality than I expected, both in terms of length and presentation. Before receiving Elifunt content, I thought it might just be at the level of the blog posts our existing team members had produced, but that thought completely changed after seeing the finished product. Haha.
Q. How do you evaluate the ROI of content marketing investments?
Now that we have laid the foundation with content, we plan to further strengthen our impact by the end of the year
I believe that up until now, we have been in the stage of building the basic foundation for content marketing. Moving forward, we plan to approach this more strategically based on this foundation. Not all content is equally important. There is core content that directly impacts customer conversion, and there is also informative content that provides background knowledge.
Moving forward, I want to more clearly define the purpose and expected effects of such content, and invest more time and effort into content that is particularly important for business performance. I also plan to exchange more in-depth feedback with the Elifunt team regarding this content to further enhance its quality!
Q. How do you perceive the qualitative business performance?
Although it is too early to feel the tangible results, I am greatly reassured by the fact that we have built solid brand assets.
It hasn't been long since we published content because our website redesign was slightly delayed. Therefore, we actually believe it is still too early to feel the tangible results of our business. However, we are very satisfied that we have accumulated as many as 40 pieces of high-quality content despite not having a dedicated content marketer within our Class101 business organization.
I worked in a team with content marketers at my previous company, but planning took a lot of time and there were many bottlenecks in coordinating schedules with designers. I remember struggling to even publish one piece of content per week, but I was surprised that the collaboration with Elifunt proceeded smoothly without such bottlenecks.
Q. How was the effectiveness of content marketing compared to other marketing channels?
It is still too early to definitively measure the effects, but we believe the organic approach is right for our business
I think it is still too early to definitively measure the effectiveness of content marketing. Currently, we run search ads minimally, limited only to B2G-related keywords, and are primarily focusing on organic content and inbound marketing.
, from a long-term perspective, I believe that building trust through in-depth content is more important given the nature of B2B business. While it is difficult to quantify the effects in immediate numbers, I view this as an essential process during the foundation-building phase.
Q. Which companies would you recommend Elifunt's content marketing to?
Recommended for teams that have just started a B2B business or teams without internal processes!
We highly recommend Elifunt to teams like ours that have just started a B2B business! If your team already has an established internal content process, it might conflict with your existing methods, but if you build the system together from the beginning, you can collaborate efficiently without any confusion.
However, you need a solution with a verified Product-Market Fit (PMF). You need to be clear about what you want to appeal to in order to create content that helps acquire leads with Elifunt.
Q. Do you have any future marketing directions or plans for the Class101 business?
We are focusing on rebuilding the B2B team and expanding our scope of work to achieve our year-end goals
Our top priority is achieving our internal performance targets by the end of the year. We are currently in a period of rebuilding our B2B team to take a leap forward, and we intend to expand on each task to fully dedicate our efforts to achieving our year-end performance goals. We are preparing to execute marketing more proactively by leveraging the content foundation we have built together with Elifunt!
Q. If you were to summarize your experience with Elifunt collaboration in one sentence, how would you put it?
Elifunt is a strict supervisor, a partner that unleashes potential, and a reliable marketing ally!
COO Piljun – I would like to describe Elifunt as a kind content marketing supervisor. The way they briefed us on data every month and took care of our content made them seem like a meticulous supervisor.
B2B Lead Seongwon – I consider you a partner who unleashes potential. In particular, there hasn't been a single typo or spacing error in Elifunt's content. Because you always provide perfect content, I felt that your internal system is truly trustworthy. It may be a small detail, but it built great trust in me
B2B Marketer Hojun – It’s been a month since I joined, and I’d like to say that I’ve ridden the elephant called Elifunt in the B2B market. I am very satisfied with the content publishing process, and I plan to continue supporting it closely!
As the Elifunt team conducted the interview with the Class101 Business Team, we realized once again just how important the start of B2B content marketing is. In particular, the evaluation that we “work like an in-house team” is a frequent review for Elifunt, and it is a compliment that always makes us feel good. Receiving a comment calling us a “kind content marketing supervisor” makes the past six months with Class101 feel even more valuable. 😃
The journey of expanding from B2C to B2B is by no means easy, but with a systematic content strategy, you can navigate this process with a long-term perspective. If your business wants to properly start content marketing, please feel free to contact Elifunt anytime!
Want to prepare solidly for B2B content marketing from the start?
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