Situation
A marketing team of a leading global distributor of specialty metals utilizes a process-oriented workflow for lead generation and supports 20 unique locations along with 40 account managers and 150-200 inside account team members. The sales and marketing team coordinate well in their processes which proves to be beneficial to the end customer. The marketing team focuses its go-to market plan based on industry affinity and geographical location.
The client was using Microsoft Dynamics Marketing (MDM); however, the tool was sunset in May of 2018. Therefore, they went through a selection process to identify their Marketing Automation (MA) Software requirements and landed on an integrated marketing automation solution with Dynamics 365, called ClickDimensions. Since they were transitioning solutions, they wanted to start over with new marketing collateral while using their corporate standards, such as email templates, forms and surveys. Since they were already using an integrated MA tool, all their contacts and leads were properly placed in the system and their matching strategies and sales processes were clearly defined.
Challenge
Coffee + Dunn was chosen to help the company implement the new marketing automation solution, get the marketing team setup for success, enhance current processes, and create all new marketing collateral. In addition, we expanded the client’s service offerings to create new subscription centers and automation strategies, which fit the need of new marketing collateral requirements. The marketing team has experience in designing templates but needed specific editor training based on features provided within ClickDimensions.
Before the project, they were vetting leads through a 3rd party service which processed the leads manually. These manual steps required additional time and effort to move leads through their various lifecycles. Since some of the sales and marketing processes overlap, they desired an automated communication to the sales team regarding behavioral data captured within ClickDimensions, such as new leads.
Since the MDM software sunset in May, they had not sent any emails. Also, due to the timing of the implementation, they were concerned over GDPR regulations and how best to ensure opt-ins for their European customer database.
The client understood that visibility to marketing efforts was pivotal for 360-degree transparency for engagement by sales and marketing and wanted to maintain the relationship through the implementation of ClickDimensions. Lastly, they needed a way to track all marketing activities back to the campaign level within Dynamics CRM in hopes to start analyzing their marketing efforts.
Solution
Coffee + Dunn formulated a future state vision and a plan to refine and enhance current strategies to implement new areas of the system. Coffee + Dunn performed a rapid analysis of the client’s business model and customer engagement approach designed within ClickDimensions. We provided a detailed work plan and began working with the client to achieve milestones right away.
Due to the tight timeline and transition from the legacy solution, we first focused on getting new email templates designed, built and implemented, so the client could start communicating with their current contacts and leads immediately. We worked with their team to identify email communication offerings for their contacts and leads, then created their subscription management process and set up advanced workflows to place the contacts and lads into their appropriate email preference lists. We prioritized the lead intake process to ensure source tracking for campaign management and rollup for reporting. To ensure a 360 view for sales and marketing, these communication preferences and interests were added to the appropriate entity records for the sales and marketing teams to easily visualize.
We wanted to provide a holistic tool for them, by means of using the survey features within ClickDimensions, to save time and costs and provide reporting in a single location. We analyzed their data structure within Dynamics CRM and made recommendations to ensure accurate segmentation strategies and data cleanup.
Results
After onboarding and getting basics in place, Coffee + Dunn was able to identify opportunities for the client to reduce overhead and software costs. In addition, the marketing team was trained on building creative contents and identifying processes to target potential customers across multiple channels.
The client will be working to maintain a clean data repository for their contacts and leads in Dynamics CRM. Through insights into their data management, they will be able to move more towards a digital marketing platform whereby reducing costs of direct marketing. The client uses a separate survey tool, but now can use the integrated survey tool, saving costs on solutions and improving ROI reporting by using a single platform.
The client is now able to use some quick wins, and has a vision to move forward and enhance their current product features such as adding social marketing, advanced reporting with PowerBI and lead scoring.
Coffee + Dunn is an industry leading connected experience partner uniquely focused on building effective customer engagements through the strong alignment of technology, operations, and strategy. Our award-winning services enable customers to drive growth and optimize value across various industries, including financial services, professional + collegiate sports, manufacturing, healthcare and education.