MILPITAS, Calif., June 26, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via PRWEB - Media services company IT World Canada needed a way to jumpstart its lead generation and nurturing efforts. They turned to NextPrinciples for help, using its newly launched Social Marketing Automation (SMA) solution. Result: 500% increase in lead velocity -- the speed at which leads flow through a sales funnel -- as well as more than double the click-through rate.
"Our clients rely on us to generate leads and we are always looking for better ways to serve them. We know social is essential to integrated marketing campaigns and to enable marketing automation, but the results we've experience with NextPrinciples are beyond our expectations," said Jim Love, CIO of IT World Canada, a market leader in content-driven lead generation. "Not only have we been able to identify customers by location but also by topics of interest, and we also can now get detailed analytics to understand what else the leads are interested in. This has enabled us to nurture them with our "secret sauce" of relevant and engaging content, resulting in superior conversions".
"This is great news for our client IT World Canada – and a real-life proof of concept for our Social Marketing Automation solution," said NextPrinciples founder & CEO Satya Krishnaswamy. "Industry averages for click through rates on traditional channels like email hover in the low single digits. However, by leveraging social in a new way, businesses can now dramatically increase their performance because they have better leads who find the brand's content more relevant to them. With NextPrinciples SMA, our customers are already enjoying a demonstrable business impact on their sales funnels."
NextPrinciples formally launched its Social Marketing Automation (SMA) solution earlier this month. Response has been positive, including endorsements from industry pundits and partners alike, including leading marketing automation player Marketo. Users of NextPrinciples' solutions include some of the world's most innovative companies, including two of the world's top 10 pharmaceutical companies, a Fortune 50 technology company and a Financial Times Global 100 leader.
IT WORLD CANADA'S CHALLENGE: BEYOND EMAIL TO SOCIAL
IT World Canada, a publisher for 30 years, has reinvented itself as a digital media company focusing on content driven lead generation. IT World is recognized as the clear leader in serving technology executives such as the CIO and CSO. Increasingly, however, purchasing decisions are made by line of business executives; IT World Canada has been actively focused on line of business users, developing new communities of interest in the digital space.
One of IT World's current programs is aimed at chief marketing officers (CMOs), who are playing a very important role in technology purchasing decisions. They knew CMOs were present on social channels, but needed a way to rapidly identify, engage and nurture them in a systematic and scalable manner. The new Canadian law that severely restricts email marketing (CASL) makes reaching new audiences a tremendous challenge.
Using NextPrinciples' SMA solution, they set up easy, online trackers with their own filter words and criteria to scan the social web for activity that identified relevant leads; leads were then scored using the client's own demographic and behavioral criteria. Leads generated using NextPrinciples flow back into SugarCRM, IT World Canada's installed CRM solution for nurturing efforts.
IT World Canada saw three quick results:
- Growth in social audience: Starting a new following aimed at CMOs, they experienced a 11% increase in social audience, with a formidable Klout score and the highest level of engagement they have seen attributable to the quality of leads generated on social channels.
- Higher click through rates: early tests show an increase of 252% in click through compared to email nurturing, attributable to lead analytics and personalized content; and
- Increased Lead velocity: a 500% increase in lead velocity compared to traditional methods. In the past, a three-touch-point drip campaign on traditional channels like email would have taken 15 days. With SMA the three touches were completed in just three days.
"Identifying and engaging with CMOs socially has been a tremendous success. The scoring template makes it easy to sort them by relevance and nurture them," said Love. "Nurturing using NextPrinciples SMA is so much more efficient with superior click through rates and higher conversions than standard email marketing or ad-hoc efforts on social channels."
ABOUT NEXTPRINCIPLES
Based in Milpitas, Calif., NextPrinciples represents the emerging category of social marketing automation for the enterprise – integrating social, marketing automation and more in one convenient solution and helping brands find more & better qualified leads and driving faster time to revenue. The company's investors include Birchmere Ventures, SAP Ventures, Jotter, Inc., Cross Continental Ventures, JumpXL, Paul Wahl (private); and Les Hayman (private). For more information or to schedule a live demo, visit the website at http://www.nextprinciples.com.
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Vijay Ramaswamy
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E: vijay(at)nextprinciples(dot)com
This article was originally distributed on PRWeb. For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/06/prweb11977067.htm