Proxima
Strategic Data Alignment Audit Success Story
OBJECTIVE:
Proxima were looking for a partner to help them understand their existing account and contact database, provide them with a simplified process to input, update and utilize data on an ongoing basis and enable them to conduct segmented, personalized campaigns.
SOLUTION:
ELEVATE was engaged to conduct a Strategic Data Alignment Audit and provide a detailed analysis of their current data state, an ideal picture of where they should be, a roadmap of how to get there, and benchmarks for ongoing reporting.
RESULTS:
- A highly accurate picture of the current marketing data, aligned exactly to the current business strategy.
- Development of an efficient processes to input, update and utilize Proxima’s marketing data on an ongoing basis.
- A detailed roadmap of recommendations and actions for the marketing data, to support a segmented, personalized, and highly targeted content strategy.
Jonathan Cooper-Bagnall is the EVP of Global Commercial Operations at Proxima Group. In his own words about working with ELEVATE….
WHAT WAS YOUR NEED?
“It became obvious that we had a challenge with our database of contacts when I realized how difficult it was to send a Christmas card to our customers and people we were engaging with. We simply didn’t have a way of segmenting our prospects from our existing customers and ensuring that appropriate correspondence went to each group – let alone taking into account where in the world they were, what industry they were in, or what job function or seniority they held. We had personal relationships and knew so much about each person; however this wasn’t being reflected in our communications with them.
We took the opportunity to set new goals for our sales and marketing function: driving leads into the pipeline; producing segmented, personalized content; nurturing existing prospects; producing data and analytics to demonstrate the ROI.”
WHY DID YOU SELECT ELEVATE?
“I already knew Adam Miller and The ELEVATE Group for several years and we had delivered some excellent results during my time in a previous role. I reached out to them regarding a potential lead generation campaign and during the planning for that project it became apparent that we also had to take a more strategic approach to our emailing and lead nurturing. We didn’t really understand exactly what data we had and what we didn’t so we decided to undertake a Data Audit to make sure we were putting good data into the project and making best use of our HubSpot CRM system. ELEVATE helped us to see what best practice in sales and marketing data really was, and how achievable and beneficial it would be.”
HOW DID THE PROCESS WORK OUT?
“ELEVATE took the time to meet with us and fully understand our marketing and content strategy and how this supported the ultimate goal of the business for our growth strategy in different geographies and markets. This included how we wanted to create content for our marketing campaigns and how we wanted to target different prospects with different messages – for example by segmenting them by geography, industry or job function.
They conducted a Strategic Data Alignment Audit to review what data we had at an account and contact level. They identified all the data points and information that we needed to have, and compared our actual data to this ideal. They also looked into the history and technology behind our data, to establish where the data had come from, where it was being stored and whether we had all the fields to capture the information that we needed.
Privacy and security is always an important factor when dealing with an external partner, however, having known The ELEVATE Group for over 15 years we had no concerns with providing them full access to our entire database and any information they required.
They undertook a full marketing data analysis by: testing emails for deliverability; identifying duplicates; flagging personal rather than professional addresses; flagging gaps in the data; reviewing accounts to establish parent companies, subsidiaries and their hierarchies. All of this was matched with our strategic objectives, focusing on our target accounts and contacts so that we were laser focused with our outreach. Most people think big is better but that is certainly not the case when it comes to your marketing database.”
WHAT WAS THE OUTCOME OF THE PROJECT?
“ELEVATE delivered a detailed analysis report including a summary of where we actually stood with our data and systems, an ideal picture of where we should be, a roadmap of how to get there, and benchmarks for our ongoing reporting.
We weren’t completely shocked at the results as we knew there were issues, but it did jolt us into realising just how much marketing data we had on companies and people that we didn’t want to do business with and the ones we did, and how we couldn’t personalize our outreach. One of the other major points was that we realized just how many decision makers we were missing in key roles in our target accounts – this was a real OMG we are really missing out here.
The opportunity cost of our current situation was huge and it was also misrepresenting our success as a marketing function. ELEVATE reassured us that a solution was achievable and the process could be started immediately. The return on investment was clear to see and buy-in from senior management was universal.
ELEVATE gave us the basis of what we needed to do to achieve best practices and helped us to get enthusiastic adoption from the sales and marketing teams, who could immediately appreciate how useful all this information was. ELEVATE developed a simplified process to make it easier for them to input and update data. They aligned the HubSpot CRM system to our needs with data classified into “priority buckets” to allow us to concentrate on the most promising prospects, as well as tagging them against their geography, industry, role and seniority. This allowed us to run significantly more effective and personalized marketing campaigns and drive leads into our pipeline.”
WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO WORK WITH ELEVATE?
“ELEVATE led us through the whole process, focusing on our business needs and making sure this was reflected in the outcomes. They were a trusted source of advice, always pointing us in the right direction, focusing on our requirements and questioning the importance and relevance to keep us focused on what served the business to create short, medium and long terms wins.
ELEVATE are by far the best partner we have used in a very long time. They were responsive, professional and focused on how best to achieve our business goals. Their knowledge of marketing data, email platforms, CRM systems and how we want to use the information is second to none.
Our team could not be happier! We have removed all the noise and now have a clear picture of our marketing universe, along with the ability to report a accurately and drive significant value.”
Snapshot of Results:
Accounts
- 20% of accounts were removed & archived
- 7% of accounts were considered priority targets
- 79% of accounts were missing industry classifications
- 86% of target accounts were missing key target roles
Contacts
- 34% of contacts were removed & archived
- 20% of contact records were duplicates
- 84% of contacts that had not been engaged
- 22% of contacts failed email deliverability testing
- 53% of contacts were missing geographic
- 24% of contacts missing job titles
ABOUT PROXIMA GROUP:
At Proxima, procurement is our business. A leading provider of procurement Consulting, Managed Services, On-Demand Services and Commercial Management Services, underpinned by our Catalytics® technology platform. We take a profoundly different approach to aligning your suppliers with your corporate aims. Our procurement and industry experts bring a unique set of specialist knowledge and experience to identify business opportunities, highlight gaps and explore new ideas. We help our clients around the globe take control of their complex network of external assets, changing the conventional view of procurement from an administrative function to one of a strategic driver of value. For more information, visit www.proximagroup.com
Further work
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Proxima is an independent procurement consulting firm operating in Europe and North America.