Adrian, what made you decide to tackle the topic of marketing automation?
Adrian: As a B2B company, we know our customers well. We know when they buy what. So for us, it was about leveraging that to increase the relevance in communication for the individual customer and ensure targeted interactions at the right moment. This requires automation. At the same time, the requirements for measurability in marketing are increasing. The key here: data-based marketing.
Robert: I agree, management no longer wants to talk about shapes and colors in marketing. Increasingly, they demand a verifiable value contribution to the company's success.
The reasons for more automation vary from company to company. That said, an objective like "I want to introduce marketing automation software" is not very promising. After all, data and systems are only ever a means to an end.
Adrian, the focus for you was not on technology, but on objectives and a new way of working. Since it was a group initiative, each CEO had their own ideas. How did you approach the project?
Adrian: We had to do a lot of convincing at the beginning. It was backbreaking work. Many were worried that the project would become a bottomless pit. Finally, we were able to convince the decision-makers with a clear business case focused on a few use cases.
We also put together an interdisciplinary core team right at the start with representatives from sales, IT and the national companies.
Robert: In addition to an interdisciplinary team, we always like to take an integrated and iterative approach to projects like this. For us, integrated means looking at things from the customer's point of view — across channels — and iterative means proceeding step by step: testing, learning, optimizing. It also always requires a good pinch of pragmatism.
At Transgourmet, for example, we didn't receive an endless catalog of requirements for software evaluation or countless questions about functions that might be needed at some point. Core criteria were in the foreground. And that, in my opinion, is the right approach.
Adrian: In the software partner evaluation, we also looked specifically at the way things work — the organization and the people behind it. Most of the time, things don't fail because of the technology.
Robert, in just 6 months, four customer journeys were designed and implemented step-by-step using BSI's marketing automation solution. That's pretty impressive. What were key contributors to the success of this process?
Robert: We made rapid progress with the Transgourmet team. Still, it’s not uncommon for people to have a perception that everything takes longer than expected. This stems from the fact that marketing automation is not a project in and of itself, but something that enables a new, modern and data-based way of working in marketing.
Adrian: We have been able to celebrate small success stories in the first six months. One example is our sales-promoting newsletter. It used to be the same for all recipients. Now, the content of the newsletter corresponds to the buying behavior of individual customers. Personalizing the newsletter not only increased the open rate, but also sales. This measurable success has given us confidence and motivated the team.
Now the challenge is to scale the successful use cases while identifying and implementing new ones to achieve our overall goals.
Robert: Focusing on a few use cases at the beginning is a critical success factor. Before scaling or thinking too big, it's important to understand on a small scale what works and what doesn’t. Test, learn, optimize.
Adrian: It's a marathon, not a sprint. It takes patience. Marketing automation is not a pure marketing affair, either. There are always stumbling blocks concerning the data, delays because we have to take a back seat with IT or operational issues that then have to be solved together.
Continuous communication and broad networking on and for the topic also seem important to me. Celebrating successes and creating perspective.
Robert: And provide for an increasing number of resources in the business case. Marketing automation does not require fewer people, but different people — with strong analytical skills.
Adrian, almost a year has passed since the go-live. You've told us about successes in communication: communication with customers has become more personal. Operational activities have been simplified or made more efficient with the BSI CX marketing automation solution. How does the system help sales become more efficient and successful?
Adrian: Once you start working with BSI CX, you get more and more ideas about what else you could do. But you still shouldn't lose focus.
In sales, the marketing automation solution should provide system-based support for the customer's development. In the past, the salesperson would make an entry in Outlook when it was time to contact a customer again. Whether the call actually took place was up to the salesperson. If something came up, the call was postponed or perhaps even forgotten. This is where automation offers support.
With the help of BSI, we can use defined triggers to automatically play out communication routes — and ensure that we interact with our customers at decisive moments.
Another example is the introduction of a new customer. We can trigger an email reminder for the salesperson via the system and, at the same time, send a personalized mailing to the customer.
Robert: That's a very important aspect. Marketing automation is not just an online topic. We have to think in an integrated, cross-media way. We see marketing automation as an enabler for sales, especially in B2B business.
