From boring to brilliant: How to double demo opportunities

KEY POINTS

• Challenge: The company needed a way to stand out from competitors and reach customers in the highly regulated financial services industry.

• Solution: They partnered with Sendoso to launch powerful, personalized sending campaigns throughout the marketing and sales funnel.

• Results: Demo to opportunity creation rates doubled from 40% to 80%, and the time was cut from days or even months to just hours.

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We’re doing something our prospects have never seen, so there’s a definite ‘wow’ factor.

Your company provides a product or a service that should never be considered standard or, worse, boring. But how do you stand out from the competition and show your prospects what you have to offer? With a sending platform to accelerate your direct mail campaigns to the next level.

As one financial services company discovered, Sendoso can help.

The company’s customer relationship management (CRM) platform provides financial institutions with a holistic view of their customer data. They stand out by solving the unique technology challenges of the financial services industry. Their buyers range from CEOs to CIOs and other decision-makers at banks, credit unions, insurance carriers, and lenders.

Eager to dispel the notion that banking is boring, the company partnered with Sendoso to create memorable experiences and build long-lasting relationships. Plus, they wanted to leverage sending throughout the customer lifecycle.

“People just aren’t doing this in the financial services industry, so simple gestures like handwritten notes and personalized gifts go a long way,” said Chief Marketing Officer James G. “We’re educating our customers by sending direct mail the right way. It has to be an experience, not just an offer they didn’t ask for.”

Creating an appetizing prospecting campaign

Shortly after onboarding Sendoso, the marketing team launched an always-on, top-of-funnel prospecting campaign. The team created a landing page designed to look like a restaurant menu, referencing various industry pain points and how their company solved them.

The landing page used restaurant puns to connect with busy banking professionals. For example, “We know you’ve got a lot on your plate, but digital transformation can’t wait” and “We’ve been cookin’ up some tasty new features in our latest release. Try a sample; then decide if you’re ready for more.”

Prospects chose a bite-sized, five-minute demo by filling out a form or chatting with a Drift bot. Once a prospect attended a demo meeting, they received a $30 food delivery eGift card.

By simplifying the sign-up process and offering an incentive, they significantly reduced the time it took to turn a lead into an opportunity. They doubled their opportunity conversion rate from 40% to 80%.

“After we got Sendoso, the [time] from [marketing qualified lead] created to demo booked was trimmed down considerably,” said James. “It used to take 30, 60, or even 90 days, but in [this] campaign, we booked demos within a couple of hours. It’s pretty incredible.”

Will your prospect accept this rose?

The marketing team continued to show off their creativity with the launch of a video series parodying The Bachelorette reality TV show. The campaign’s eight episodes followed a customer’s journey as she narrowed down a pool of “bachelors” representing the company and its competitors.

As prospects watched episodes, the team used Sendoso’s HubSpot integration to automatically trigger a preserved rose that lasts for five or more years. The accompanying message emphasized that relationships—including vendor relationships—should last.

The campaign was a hit with both prospects and marketing industry peers. It had the most impact on engagement, pipeline, and revenue of all the company’s Sendoso campaigns. It engaged an incredible 97% of the company’s ICP, had a 92% influence across the entire pipeline, and contributed to 80% of the revenue they achieved in the quarter.

“I had other B2B tech CMOs reaching out to me saying, ‘What’s this campaign I keep hearing about?,’” said James. “Using Sendoso as an additional outreach channel helped us bring the experience to life outside of digital platforms. It was the icing on the cake.”

Making an impact throughout the customer lifecycle

Throughout the marketing journey, the marketing team continued to send prospects-themed gift boxes and personalized gifts using Sendoso’s Amazon integration.

James hosts an industry podcast, interviewing leaders from across the financial services industry. The team sent each podcast guest a succulent plant with the message, “Hope your growth in the near future is everything that it should be.” It’s a low-effort campaign with a ripple effect response as guests post about the gift on social media to their large followings.

The marketing team also executed high-touch, bottom-of-the-funnel Sendoso campaigns to influence two deals that both ultimately closed. The first was sending a handwritten note and gift basket for the financial institution’s decision-makers to enjoy during their board meeting.

They also used Sendoso to send a prospect a StubHub eGift for Pittsburgh Steelers tickets, along with signature Steelers Terrible Towels. “Sendoso had a massive influence on both of those deals,” said James.

On the post-sales side, the company’s implementation team sent a gift package with a notebook, coffee mug, and t-shirt to “champions,” or user testers. The swag piqued the interest of other team members and made the “champion” a sought-after position.

Setting a high bar for direct mail

“Direct mail doesn’t work by just sending stuff—it’s all about the experience,” explained James. “We’ve been fortunate to have really creative ideas on how to leverage direct mail, and that’s what’s made it successful for us.”

James also pointed to Sendoso’s integrations, which helped drive sales adoption and enabled reps to execute sends quickly. “Our sales reps can just go into HubSpot and send something using Sendoso directly from there,” he said, “It’s easy, since it’s baked into their process.”

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