Information Security Software Company increases Sales Pipeline from web leads

Problem: The president of a $40M information security and telecom management software company selling complex, big-ticket products told us that his sales force needed more high quality leads to build the sales pipeline and increase revenue. Traditional marketing activities such as trade shows and direct mail were generating contacts, but it was taking the sales force a long time to educate and qualify them. The web site was generating some traffic, but it wasn’t high quality, and they had no way to effectively follow-up with the contacts. He also said he needed a way to measure the effectiveness of marketing and sales and that he wanted to implement a closed-loop tracking and reporting process.

Solution: Market-Vantage was able to help him increase the effectiveness of marketing and the efficiency of the sales force. A search engine optimization program was launched for pages in English and multiple European languages. SEO was supported by listings and sponsorships on vertical industry portals, direct email and enewsletter sponsorships were sent to highly targeted market segments. Search engine marketing campaigns were launched in the United States and in multiple languages through Europe to target specific keywords in a number of countries. A link popularity campaign was launched to drive traffic and increase search engine rankings. Webcasts were used to generate new contacts and further qualify the overwhelming number of new contacts from the other Internet marketing activities. A follow-up, education and qualification process was implemented and lead tracking was integrated with the Sales Force Automation system.

Marketing ROI Results:

The results were qualified web contacts increased from an average of approximately 3 per week to almost 300 per week four months into the process. The cost per lead was cut by 80%. Six months into the process the sales pipeline had tripled. The sales force was more productive, because they were now dealing with buyers who were educated and qualified. Sales and marketing management was more productive, due to the closed loop lead tracking system and the cost of marketing could be directly related to revenue production.