InsideSales.com
Act-On Jumpstarts More Leads for InsideSales.com
InsideSales.com provides telephony voice technology tools, delivered as an on-demand software-as-a-service (SaaS) subscription, and supported by an array of customized services. The tools include immediate telephony response to web forms, power dialers, voice broadcasting, lead nurturing solutions, and integration with online CRM solutions.
InsideSales.com is currently ranked in the "10 Most Popular Salesforce Apps" out of over 1000 applications on the Salesforce.com AppExchange.
The company's customers include Dell, Cisco Systems, Vorsight, and HomeAway. InsideSales.com serves industry segments including insurance, mortgage, debt consolidation, marketing, online education, non-profits, and more.
Thomas Oldroyd, Senior Director of Marketing, knew that improving InsideSales.com's email marketing program was a critical priority.
Industry: Technology
About InsideSales.com
InsideSales.com provides telephony voice technology tools, delivered as an on‑demand software-as-aservice (SaaS) subscription, and supported by an array of customized services. The tools include immediate telephony response to web forms, power dialers, voice broadcasting, lead nurturing solutions, and integration with online CRM solutions.
Saw results just two days after implementation.
Utilized A/B testing to optimize email campaign performance.
The First Challenge: Simplify Email Management
"The first issue was to find a better system for managing email lists including A/B testing, bounces, opt-outs, and other details," said Thomas. Thomas was familiar with Act-On through a partnership.
"My criteria were: The platform had to be SaaS, had to be simple to use, and needed to be tactical – but with the ability to grow into our strategic initiatives. I knew Act-On had a powerful, third-generation email marketing platform with additional sophisticated capabilities, and decided to try it."
"No one has time to hassle with difficult-to-use products. Act- On is very easy, but also very intuitive and powerful."
Thomas Oldroyd
Senior Director of Marketing
Good Results in Two Days
"I reviewed other systems," said Thomas, "and I've worked with Eloqua before, which took too long to implement. The first thing I liked about Act-On was the painless implementation. It took only a few days to get lists uploaded and segmented, learn the interface, and then send our first email messages. I was very pleased; we were productive and I could see results in just two days."
Because Act-On is a cloud-based platform, InsideSales.com didn't need IT services to implement the service. The IT department's only role was to create alias email addresses for mailings.
The Second Challenge: Improve Email Results
Act-On checks message content for personalization errors, compliance with CAN-SPAM regulations, and spam filter issues. It allows the sender to proof how the message will look in various email programs. Act-On also automatically suppresses duplicates, opt-outs and previously bounced addresses, and records bounces and opt-outs.
"We've improved our results as a result of Act-On's deliverability and capabilities for scheduling, reporting, list segmentation, bounce and opt-out management, and especially A/B testing," said Thomas. "Our strategy now includes more email, and the overall number and quality of leads has increased."
The Third Challenge: A/B Testing Reveals Optimal Timing
"Act-On's database is important to our success. We now have cleaner lists, and because we can easily segment and suppress various lists, our ability to enhance our A/B testing of messages has improved dramatically. The results are very interesting," said Thomas.
"For example, we created segments for a single email message and sent hourly on Thursday and Friday. We found that for our list the best time to send is between 4-6 p.m. The open and click rates for the optimal times were statistically significant. Subsequent emails sent at those times have proven to have better results for us. We continue to test messages and tune for optimal performance."
Web Visitor Analytics Help Sales and Marketing Work Together
"We're pleased with the website visitor reports; we can view them by aggregate and individual characteristics, such as drilling down to see which actions an individual takes, including a complete history of responses to emails and pages visited. Our sales team is monitoring this to get an in-depth view of existing prospects and new leads, and understand how and when they interact with our site."
Get Immediate Results Now, With Tactical Tools that Also Support Longer-Term Strategy
"We aren't using the Act-On landing pages yet," said Thomas, "but it's part of our longer-term strategy. We also plan to migrate our PDF downloads into the Act-On system so that we can better track their downloads, and using the social media prospecting tool is on our road map."
"Most people think automating marketing is a balance between tactical and strategic. In our experience," said Thomas, "implementing tactical tools that can also be used in long-term strategy is vastly superior to struggling with difficult-to-implement, bloated systems. Act‑On allows us to immediately start our tactical campaigns and then grow into more strategic features over time. We highly recommend Act‑On."