Case Study:
Marketo Solution
Creating scalable and sustainable marketing operations
The business case
As an independently run small business, all sales and marketing activities were managed by one of Gingerbread Folk’s co-owners. Having built three revenue streams over the past 20 years – wholesale through gourmet supermarkets and retailers, eCommerce through an online store, and bespoke gingerbread house events – operations were labour and time intensive. Recognising sustainable growth would require a more automated approach, Gingerbread Folk initiated the search for a solution that would automate the execution of campaigns, nurture leads and improve channel management.
The vendor decision
Marketo was identified as a scalable and intuitive platform that could support Gingerbread Folk in achieving its operational aims and aspirations. The functionality to convert manual spreadsheets into automated systems, the ability to facilitate new customer conversion, and insights to inform budget allocation, all played a pivotal role in vendor selection.
Issue
Focused firmly on driving impact at speed and in line with industry best practice, Gingerbread Folk approached BluprintX for recommendations on how best to leverage the potential of automation to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of its marketing operations. While the focus of the initial brief was on campaign execution, lead nurture and channel management, BluprintX specifically identified events as an area that could be greatly enhanced with Marketo.
Solution
While the events stream of the business accounted for a large portion of the company’s annual revenue, it also consumed a considerable amount of leadership time with coordination and management.
By conducting a detailed review of existing processes, BluprintX designed and built a substantially automated events programme that achieved the right balance between automation and personal touch – an element that was particularly important to Gingerbread Folk’s brand values.
To deliver a fully rounded Marketo solution that aligned with the specified business outcomes, beyond the events programmes BluprintX introduced lead nurturing, campaign attribution and integrated the customer database.
Approach
Adopting a business-first approach, BluprintX invested time in getting to understand Gingerbread Folk’s processes and systems as part of the project planning process. This enabled the consultancy team to align technological features and functionality with the objective of driving efficiencies.
Objectives
In collaboration with BluprintX, BAE Systems Applied Intelligence established the following project objectives:
- Free up resources
- Improve customer engagement
- Automate events stream
- Expand database and lead nurturing
Outcomes
With Marketo and BluprintX, Gingerbread Folk has savoured a considerable increase in productivity while significantly improving results.
Key metrics included:
- Gingerbread Folk now focuses more on driving business for wholesale and eCommerce – introducing lead scoring and measuring campaign efforts.
- Previously, the business relied on anecdotal views to decide where to spend advertising budget – this is now driven by campaign analysis to determine which channels deliver the most eCommerce revenue.
- Automated processed have enabled Gingerbread Folk to put its energy into seeking out new leads rather than acting as a data input machine.
- Lead conversion rate has jumped by 114%.
- Automating events has reduced booking times by over 300%, giving the company more resources and energy to promote the business’ other revenue streams.
- With BluprintX’s expertise, customers enjoy an improved experience, with a 275% improvement in consumer engagement.
“By far, the events were taking a lot of energy. Saving time there allows us to reinvest that energy into the online shop, which will become an area that will certainly flourish this year as people move to online shopping.”
Karen Sharman, Co-owner, Gingerbread Folk