GM Nameplate
Like many manufacturers, GM Nameplate relied on traditional marketing practices to reach its audience. Cynthia Schulte, the company’s senior marketing manager, who’s responsible for promoting the company’s ability to design and build everything from labels and display screens to electrodes and circuit boards, wanted to streamline her work and strengthen her collaboration with sales.
Recognizing that a strong marketing automation system could take the company’s performance to the next level, Schulte set out to find a platform that would speed up processes, empower sales, and lighten her team’s workload. The six divisions she oversaw were using Microsoft Dynamics CRM, but a seventh – whose marketing was led by a colleague – was using Salesforce, so the product she chose had to easily accommodate both systems.
Schulte replaced GM Nameplate’s Email Service Provider (ESP) with a single instance of Act-On that included sub-accounts to support all the company’s divisions. “Implementing Act-On was simple and fast. It was up and running in two weeks, and we had campaigns in place within a month,” said Schulte.
The move transformed the global company’s approach to marketing by increasing overall sales and marketing productivity and providing the intelligence the business needed to understand its buyers’ behaviors ‒ and ultimately convert them into satisfied customers.
“Before Act-On, we had to manually enter lead information into our CRM and had no way to see how all our touchpoints interacted,” said Schulte. “Now all the information we capture automatically goes into Microsoft Dynamics, and a sales rep can look up contacts and see every email they’ve received, every trade show they’ve attended, and every exchange they’ve had with our company. This insight into prospect behavior makes sales more effective, particularly when they’re working with larger accounts and meeting with stakeholders they may not have had any interaction with.”
In addition to helping them work more intelligently, Act-On allows both sales and marketing to continuously optimize their work. “Act-On rolls up all this data into a single dashboard that lets us quickly assess the effectiveness of our activities,” Schulte said. “The feedback is immediate and actionable, and the interface is so easy to use. If you can use a computer, you can use Act-On.”
GM Nameplate’s switch to the Act-On system has made all the difference, Schulte reports. “Using Act-On to drive all our marketing programs is helping us get ahead of our competitors and become a leader in our industry.”