By 2013, Paytrail was looking to transform its marketing activity. It was struggling with an unwieldy collection of point solutions, including Hootsuite and Tweetdeck for social media, APSIS for sending emails, Formstack for forms, WordPress for its blog, Pipedrive for its CRM and Drupal for its CMS. The problem was that these tools didn’t work well together, making it challenging for Paytrail’s teams to create cohesive campaigns.
“Getting big-picture analytics was impossible,” explains Suvi Tikkanen, Paytrail’s Marketing Director. “For example, if we sent out an email, we couldn’t tell if the lead visited our site or our blog because of it. Even though we had been doing content-based marketing for years, we still didn’t know whether or not we were being effective.”
Paytrail needed the ability to track leads and customers to see the bottom line impact, so an all-in-one automation platform seemed like the best way forward. The marketing team evaluated some options, but it was most impressed by what HubSpot was offering. Its ethos of attracting, engaging and delighting customers matched Paytrail’s own, and the HubSpot Platform was powerful and easy to use.
“We trialled Marketing Hub Enterprise, and we were captivated from day one! It allowed us to confidently analysis on how each marketing campaign and asset contributes to sales. We also loved how we were able to track the customer journey from beginning to end.”
A Marketing and Sales Love StoryPaytrail immediately moved its website to the CMS Hub and set up its buyer personas, which range from small web merchants all the way through to directors at large companies. It created new landing pages, blog posts and articles to attract these personas and used SEO tools in Marketing Hub to ensure that it ranked well for its target keywords.
The company had already built up an impressive library of content, including ebooks, user guides and webinars. The next step was to get it working harder, says Suvi: “We created different paths for our different leads and customers, using targeted calls-to-action and workflows to get them the information that was most relevant to them. Then, with analytics, we can see what’s resonating most with each persona, and create more of it.”
Paytrail’s new approach soon proved its worth, producing better-qualified leads in much higher numbers than before. The marketing and sales teams started to work more closely together, and by 2016, Paytrail was ready to take its relationship with HubSpot to the next level.
“We began to think if it’s this good with just Marketing Hub, how awesome would it be if we added Sales Hub as well?”, remembers Riku Hokkanen, Paytrail’s Sales Manager.
After assessing Sales Hub, Paytrail then decided to go ahead and implement the software into its organisation. This quickly became a smart decision, as Sales Hub has helped Paytrail’s salespeople to save time on their most repetitive tasks. The team has a library of email templates designed for every step of the customer journey and now can automate their outreach with tailored sequences.
“We were able to have much warmer conversations with our prospects straight away. We can see every action taken before assignment, so we know the prospect’s interests and pain points. This allows us to provide a better experience enhancing the value we provide.” says Riku.
Perhaps the most significant change has been the positive, productive relationship that has developed between the marketing and sales departments.
“Before, there was tension between marketing and sales because we were working towards different goals. Marketing was trying to get as many sales qualified leads as possible, while we were trying to close more deals. Now that we’re on the same platform, it’s easier to work more collaboratively.”
Suvi notes that this closer relationship brings with it practical benefits, with both teams coming together for a weekly meeting to discuss how they can help each other succeed.
“If we’re creating a new ebook, for example, we’ll ask the sales team for input, or they’ll tell us if we need to tweak the criteria we use for lead qualification. It’s a win-win situation.”
Connecting With Customers at Every Stage