Overview
Ultimo Software Solutions provides a broad range of products and services that support the functional management of business assets and processes. The company’s marketing team was focused on supporting their international sales effort through the management of its website, events, exhibitions, newsletters, and customer case studies.
Ultimo was the market leader, but Marco van Wijngaarden, marketing executive at Ultimo, identified the need to improve their lead gen process.
Act-On has increased the number of net-new contacts we bring into the top of the funnel, and given us the metrics and insight we need to improve our marketing
Marco Ban Wijngaarden
Marketing Executive
Approach
“We wanted to provide sales with better qualified leads, and decided to focus our efforts on the first steps of the sales funnel,” Marco said. “Therefore, we also wanted to implement a content marketing strategy, and it was clear we needed a new toolset to support us.”
Marketing Automation was the obvious solution for Ultimo’s challenges, and after a thorough evaluation process, they chose Act-On.
“We were impressed by the opportunities Act-On offered – particularly lead scoring and lead nurturing. And we recognized it would also support our content marketing strategy,” Marco said. “Act-On stood out for us. It provided the best value for our money and had some distinctive features, such as the Website Prospector. We genuinely felt that Act-On was more flexible and better able to integrate with our processes.”
Act-On enabled Ultimo to change the dynamics of their marketing. Instead of merely playing a supporting role to sales and other departments, Marco’s team is now actively leading the demand gen process.
“Act-On has increased the number of net-new contacts we bring into the top of the funnel, and it’s given us insight and hard metrics about our leads,” Marco said. “It’s also allowed us to systematically nurture our prospects with content, lead score them before handing them over as MQLs, and subsequently measure revenue.”
Solution
Ultimo has also taken advantage of Act-On to run automated campaigns to support event promotions and sales actions – a process that had previously been manual and labor-intensive.
The increased visibility into prospect activity and an improved understanding of the true length of the sales cycle has significantly helped Ultimo optimize their processes and enhance performance.
“Sales is also delighted with Act-On,” Marco said. “They have access to Act-On Anywhere, and with the Website Prospector, they can instantly review information about their leads. They really like being hands-on.”
Sales is delighted with Act-On. They have access to Act-On Anywhere, and with the Website Prospector, they can instantly review information about their leads.
Marco Ban Wijngaarden
Marketing Executive
Highlights
- Over 1,000 net-new leads generated
- 5% increase in email click-through rates
- ROI within 1st year
Act-On has made us more effective marketers. I love Act-On’s usability, and I really appreciate the company’s support teams – they are always ready to help.
Marco Ban Wijngaarden
Marketing Executive
Results
Ultimo met their first challenge with flying colors – delivering over 1,000 net-new leads into the top of the sales funnel, and Marco is confident that these will convert to fully qualified MQLs later in the year. Email click-through rates have increased by more than 5% year over year, which is helping to fill the top of the sales funnel and get attendees to events.
“Using Act-On has given us the metrics and insight we need to improve our marketing,” Marco said. “We can see which campaigns are working, we can see how our prospects are behaving and reacting to our content, and we can attribute sales back to marketing – thus demonstrating the real value of marketing.”
And the best news is Ultimo anticipates recovering their initial Act-On investment within the first year of revenue generation. “Act-On has made us more effective marketers. I love Act-On’s usability, and I really appreciate the company’s support teams – they are always ready to help,” Marco said. “I also like that Act-On continues to develop new and improved features. It’s nice to know we have a platform that will support us into the future.”