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Vtrenz, Inc.502 1st Ave. N.,
Suite 100
Fargo, ND 58102
701.478.7704
Toll Free: 1.877.484.7704
MercuryMD Utilizes Vtrenz
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Industry: Software for the Healthcare Industry Website URL: www.mercurymd.com Customer Since: 7/7/2005 MercuryMD marketing department faced increasing pressure to show their efforts produced sales, as well as having disparate marketing and sales systems, manual processes and limited resources. The team knew they had to find a solution that solved all these pains and showed significant ROMI. |
Despite its success, MercuryMD’s marketing department was facing mounting pressure from management to show that its efforts were producing sales - which was especially difficult due to disparate marketing and sales systems, laborious manual processes and limited resources that were already stretched to the limit. VP of Marketing, David Levin, knew that investing in a marketing automation solution would alleviate many of his team’s pains. He said, “Without the proper technology in place, I knew that the finger would continue to be pointed at marketing. We needed a solution that would centralize our processes and allow us to prove that our efforts were generating results in the form of sales.”
Challenges
Many of MercuryMD’s marketing challenges stemmed from the use of non-integrated point solutions: a low-end email-only solution, a web form tool, out-sourced landing pages, and custom-built forms on their corporate web site. In addition, a separate customer relationship management (CRM) system was used to process and assign leads to the sales team. As a result, customer and prospect data was incomplete and housed in multiple databases.
The lack of integration also made it difficult to send targeted email campaigns and measure the effectiveness of the campaign. “We couldn’t use email as a communication channel because we saw limited value in sending the same message to all of our contacts. The value of email lies in the ability to send targeted communications based on the behavior of our prospects and customers. In addition, the only results we could obtain were click and bounce rates which provided little value,” said Deidre Ryan, Field Marketing Manager.
Search for a Solution
Once Levin identified the need to integrate their marketing processes, he began an eighteen month search for a marketing automation solution. Levin said, “I looked at enterprise-sized solutions such as Unica and Aprimo, but for a mid-sized company like MercuryMD they were overkill and very expensive. Homegrown solutions were also considered but we didn’t have the resources needed to handle the upkeep.” As his search continued, Levin came across Vtrenz. “I was excited to find a marketing automation solution that was focused on the mid-market. Vtrenz offered the closed loop functionality and CRM integration that MercuryMD required at an affordable price.”
Solution
Using Vtrenz, MercuryMD has realized the benefits of an integrated multi-channel marketing strategy. Online forms and surveys created with Vtrenz capture new marketing leads and store them in the central marketing database making it easy to gauge the activity level and interest of each. Using this information, marketing managers can easily qualify leads and send only those that are sales-ready to the appropriate sales professional. The remaining leads are routed to the telemarketing team for further qualification or discarded based on predefined criteria (i.e. a student researching the technology).
MercuryMD also uses the marketing history captured by Vtrenz to send targeted, timely communications to prospects and customers. This strategy has proven to be very valuable in up-sell and cross-sell opportunities targeting existing customers; one such email campaign resulted in more than one-third of their customers requesting a presentation about additional MercuryMD products. With the increase in existing customer demand, MercuryMD needed to triple its inside sales resources to keep pace. MercuryMD has also used Vtrenz to increase attendence at web seminars. After launching one targeted campaign, registration was at capacity within two hours.
Vtrenz now gives MercuryMD the ability to measure and analyze its marketing campaigns. Marketing managers can generate graphical reports for management showing that sales are a direct result of their efforts. Marketing can also use this information for planning future campaigns – using the tactics that worked and shelving those that didn’t. "Prior to implementing Vtrenz, we had limited insight into our marketing activities. We had no way of knowing what was working and what was not. Now, with Vtrenz, we have complete visibility into our marketing initiatives enabling us to tie input [marketing] to output [sales],” said Levin.
Results
Proof that Marketing Drives Sales
Prior to using Vtrenz, 79% of opportunities were generated by marketing activities. With Vtrenz, MercuryMD has streamlined marketing processes and is better able to target the right audience. As a result, 100% of sales in the past year are a direct result of marketing initiatives.
Increased Revenue
MercuryMD was looking to increase new customer revenue with Vtrenz; this goal was realized with a 200% increase in new customer sales in Q1 2006 campared to Q1 2005. An added bonus was the lift in existing customer sales of over 400% by targeting communications based on need or interest over the same time period.
Return on Investment
In the first year of use, MercuryMD has realized an ROI of 4,700% based on new and existing sales alone. Additional benefits include cost savings from the elimination of point solutions and the ability to execute its marketing strategy without adding additional resources.
Future Plans
MercuryMD plans to implement campaign automation in June 2006. Ryan said, “Once we implement campaign automation we feel our results will be even more compelling. We will have more time to spend strategizing and targeting prospects that are most likely to buy our products.” Additional plans include integration between Vtrenz and their CRM system, SalesLogix. Ryan continues, “Our goal is to have the two systems completely integrated in order to leverage a prospect’s marketing history throughout the entire sales cycle. Once this is accomplished we will truly have a closed lead process.”
Levin concludes, “Vtrenz is at the core of our marketing strategy because we believe it will continue to propel our rapid growth and continued success."