Five ways companies are transforming marketing

Digital transformation is essential to thriving and growing – and in some cases, surviving – in nearly every industry in every corner of the world. Making that transformation with minimal internal disruption and positive outcomes is the central goal of many organizations.

Every organization’s transformation must take careful consideration of its past, including legacy systems and solutions and its future including evolving market or business trends, while planning its present-day course of action. Five very different companies are transforming how they can improve the ways they use their data and create more effective journeys for their customers.

Break down data silos to know your customers better

Headquartered in Copenhagen with 30 locations worldwide, DHI specializes in solving the toughest challenges that water environments face.

With a broad reach and diverse worldwide customer base, DHI realized that it needed a digital transformation to reduce manual processes with automation.

Breaking down data silos was the priority. Without a way to unify the company’s data sources, it couldn’t develop modern tailored customer journeys.

With its digital transformation, DHI can create a rich profile of customers and prospects. Data from tracking who reads its blogs, subscribes to its webinars, uses its applications, and other interactions, DHI’s digital transformation helped reduce the manual processes involved in a single customer journey by two-thirds. Customers now receive follow-up communications faster and sales has the profiles to focus on their most important customer interactions.

When the goal is to know your customers better and faster, bring the benefits of digital transformation to your company as quickly as you can.

Shorten sales cycles from a long road to a personalized journey

The pressure on manufacturers to optimize plant operations in unrelenting. Vorne, based in Illinois, helps these companies meet those demands by using data-driven insights.

In the past, Vorne’s data on sales leads was spread across documents, spreadsheets, applications, and departments. The sales cycle was long – often more than a year – and leads were getting stuck at different stages. It had a limited ability to craft personalized messages.

By moving its customer data to modern automation, the company gained the ability to identify and precisely target communications at the bottlenecks, which has helped to double the number of leads to trial. “We discovered that we’re not losing leads because of product features or price but simply because we were losing touch with people,” said Vorne. Now, the company can craft highly targeted messages that support precise customer journeys and customers are responding.

Vorne has doubled the number of leads that move to product trial while on track to double its sales efficiency and throughput. Add to that its improved lead nurturing capability and ability to personalize each customer’s journey and you have a company poised for growth.

Recognize the power of the personal touch

When your business is selling luxury yachts, you have very demanding customers. Northrop & Johnson, the largest superyacht brokerage in the United States, caters to a small group of high-value clients with precision marketing and exemplary sales and service.

Because relationships are at the center of its business, Northrop & Johnson knows every insight into its customers is invaluable. In an industry where technology hasn’t been widely embraced, the company was able to use modern technology to create a strong competitive advantage.

“All this new technology and talk of customer journeys is foreign to this industry.  And it requires a special solution to make automated campaigns work when every customer contact is so important and unique.” – Keith Perfect, Northrop & Johnson’s Director of Technology and Intelligence.

Northrop & Johnson now has a central hub for all marketing, sales, and customer relationship activities. Since its deployment, the company reports a 70 percent increase in charter sales.

When it comes to navigating new channels for its business, Northrop & Johnson sees the modern side of the personal touch. 

Save time and reduce costs through automation

Founded in 1996 to provide end-to-end help for companies looking to transform themselves digitally, ACTUM Digital believes that strong and continuing customer relationships are crucial to its success.

In undertaking its own digital transformation, ACTUM Digital gained the ability to replicate and then tailor templates for future campaigns. This dramatically increased efficiency. With just a few clicks, campaigns could be recreated for new events, significantly reducing time needed to organize and follow up on events. The company now has a 360-degree view of each client’s event history with the company, from invitation to RSVP to what content they viewed on the ACTUM Digital website.

Handwritten notes are now gone for good, taking with them the possibility of misplaced customer data. Automated systems record customer actions, including website interactions and the opening or forwarding of marketing emails.

The resulting leads from these events are stronger and more sales-ready, according to Karel Beránek, Dynamics 365 Product Owner at ACTUM Digital.

“The leads that Marketing is generating today are much stronger than they used to be.” – Karel Beránek, Dynamics 365 Product Owner at ACTUM Digital.

With 300 percent more events on the calendar and more sales-ready leads, ACTUM Digital joins its customers in seeing the rewarding impact of digital transformation on its own business success. 

Engage your communities through events

For consumers around the globe, the Microsoft Store is not only a retailer for the latest Microsoft products, but the location for a wide range of events, from small business workshops to gaming tournaments to summer camps. Stores often hold multiple events in a day. Everyone is handled by a community development specialist (CDS) with the assistance of store associates.

The store associates are a key part of the effort and their involvement reflects directly back on each Microsoft Store. It’s important that the CDS communicates their schedule and responsibilities clearly.

To manage the more than 200,000 hours of events held around the globe annually, Microsoft Store uses the event management capabilities in Dynamics 365 for Marketing, one solution to manage event scheduling, registration, and attendance.

Technology-based event management makes for strong communications and easier inclusion. A CDS can schedule an event calendar, and Microsoft Store associates know exactly what’s expected of them. What could be a complicated process with numerous pitfalls becomes simple to understand and use. The good feeling spreads when everyone has a role in the Microsoft Store’s entire community events initiative.

How can you transform your organization?

Each of these companies transformed their marketing in different ways, but everyone used Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Marketing. You’re invited to visit our site, see the product capabilities, and try the application for free.