The Problem: Untapped Potential
This eCommerce company faced a common problem.
They were profitable…
They were growing…
But they still had a lot of potentials that they were not tapping.
You see, they sold wine through multiple brands and websites. They profitably drove new sales through organic traffic and paid media to their properties. But they also had tens of thousands of previous customers whom they did not regularly market to.
Sometimes, these previous customers converted on their own. About once per month, some of these customers would directly visit one of the company’s properties and make a purchase. But these purchases were uncontrolled and unreliable.
Over the years, this company accumulated an email list of more than 60,000 previous customers and leads. This company knew the value of their list. They knew they could use this list to take control of their return customers, and reliably increase their monthly revenues. But they had a hard time getting their email marketing off the ground. They were only sending sporadic emails to their list, and they were still using a simple email marketing platform that they had outgrown years ago.
They wanted to increase the purchase frequency and average order value of their customers by migrating to a more sophisticated email marketing platform, and then implementing a more sophisticated and effective email marketing strategy.
But they needed to find the right partner to walk them through the process.
The Search for a Partner: Selecting Centrico Digital
At first, this company only sought a technical partner.
They had chosen Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) as their new email marketing platform. They knew SFMC would give them a lot more power and sophistication than their previous platform, but they also knew it would be far more complex to run.
That’s when they began to look for a technical partner. They needed someone to help them integrate their database of 60,000+ contacts into SFMC, and to then configure the system properly and set up their new email marketing campaigns.
They found us—Centrico Digital—on Upwork.
They were impressed by:
- Our Expertise: They saw we were certified Salesforce Partners, and knew we could handle the technical side of their SFMC implementation.
- Our Experience: They saw our reviews and eventually spoke with a few of our past clients and felt confident we would be easy to work with.
- Our Strategic Perspective: They saw we offered end-to-end digital marketing services and could provide more value than just technical management.
This company reached out.
We dug into their requirements.
But as we spoke with this company, we came to see they needed more than just a technical implementation of SFMC. They also needed help designing, producing, and managing their new email marketing strategy.
We shared our perspective on these topics. They liked what they heard.
They chose to partner with us under a broader scope of work than they originally sought out. They partnered with us to both technically manage their SFMC implementation, and to design and produce their new email marketing strategy.
We agreed to this expanded scope, and we quickly got to work.
The Initial Engagement: Step by Step
Before we began to work, we created a detailed project plan.
We wanted to make sure this company felt comfortable and confident with our project and understood what it would take to achieve their desired outcomes.
So, we broke our scope of work into five phases. We listed every step we would take to complete each phase. We assigned timelines to each step, to each phase, and to the project as a whole. We created a clear, tangible picture of the project as a whole.
We shared and validated our project plan with this company prior to project kick-off, and continuously updated our plan to demonstrate progress and maintain alignment.
At a high level, our plan looked like this:
- Phase One: Platform Set-Up.
- Phase Two: Marketing Asset Set-Up.
- Phase Three: Strategy Definition and Asset Creation.
- Phase Four: Campaign Automation.
- Phase Five: Training and Education.
Here’s what each looked like in a little more depth.
Phase One: Platform Set-Up
Here, we performed all of the technical implementation steps required to migrate this company from its existing email marketing platform to SFMC.
We defined and configured their new accounts, consolidated and imported their database of 60,000+ contacts, and performed all integrations required to get the whole system up and running smoothly from a nuts-and-bolts perspective.
Phase Two: Marketing Asset Set-Up
Here, we performed a lot of the back-end work to get this company ready for their new, systematic email marketing campaigns.
We created and implemented the appropriate website forms, and created a variety of templates for their new emails and landing pages. We integrated everything with SFMC, and created the scaffolding for this company’s new strategy.
Phase III: Strategy Definition and Asset Creation
Here, we defined this company’s new email marketing strategy and created the initial marketing assets that we would deploy within their new campaigns.
We created new landing page content for this company, and then created the new content for 10 new emails.
We also added in small touches—such as adding small surveys to each email, that could be answered within the email itself—to collect additional data on every contact, and further refine and customize the messages we sent them over time.
Phase IV: Campaign Automation
Here, we made the whole system as efficient and effective as possible.
We created very specific profiles and customer journeys for each of this company’s audiences. We then tailored the content each contact received based on their past behavior, and other data we collected and attached to their profile.
For example, if this company had a contact who indicated they loved red wine, we would send them messaging about appropriate food pairings for red wine, tasting notes for red wines, and, of course, new red wines they should try out.
We automated as much of this personalization as possible—both the data collection and customer journey assignments—and also established automated reporting for each campaign.
Phase V: Training and Education
Finally, we trained this company’s internal teams and taught them how to perform all of the work we had just completed for them.
We wanted to make sure that this company would be able to manage its new platform and perform its new email marketing strategy, without any outside help.
While we wanted to continue to work with this company, we did not want to create a dependency, and only wanted to perform work that provided high value for them.
The Results: Immediate ROI
We completed all five phases within just 30 days.
The first new email we sent out generated $40,000 in revenue for this company.
In less than one month, they transformed how they performed their email marketing.
They now operate a world-class email marketing strategy. They remain in constant communication with their previous customers and contacts. They continuously send them valuable, relevant content through targeted campaigns. And they have begun to capture the untapped opportunities they had been leaving on the table for years.
Best of all, most of these activities are fully automated. This company has meaningfully improved its bottom-line through sophisticated email marketing without having to dedicate time and attention every time they send out a message.
The Road Ahead: Our Growing Partnership
This project was just the beginning.
We have established an ongoing partnership with this company that has expanded beyond their SFMC implementation and their email marketing strategy.
Since completing this first project, we have audited their Google Analytics and Google Merchant Center accounts and begun to design and build their paid media accounts through Google Ads and Facebook Ads.
In addition, we provide broader consultation services and continue to offer this company guidance on multiple marketing challenges that they have lacked the time or the internal skills to tackle on their own.
Together, this company and Centrico Digital have come a long way together. But there is much more work to complete. We have built a strong foundation together, and we look forward to helping this company achieve its next level of growth.
Bring These Results to Your Company
At Centrico Digital, we provide a wide range of marketing services for a diverse set of clients. If you would like to improve your SFMC implementation, your email marketing strategy, or your marketing efforts as a whole, then reach out today.
Schedule a free, no-obligation discovery call. We will uncover the concrete steps you can take to find, tap, and magnify the potential for growth hiding in your company.
