AIIM is an information technology professional community providing educational resources and services to help guide companies to adapt to the ever-changing information technology landscape. The organization had previously relied on disparate systems to coordinate its marketing efforts, but found using non-integrated solutions cumbersome, difficult, and ineffective. AIIM turned to HubSpot for its all-in-one platform that delivered results through increased membership and engagement.
Disparate Systems Makes Marketing Difficult
Technology changes at such a frenetic pace, it can seem impossible to keep up. Fortunately, the Association of Information and Image Management (AIIM) can help. The Maryland-based organization provides member organizations with market research, expert insights, a supportive community, and skills development programs aimed at helping them navigate the tumultuous waters of the technology sea.
However, the marketing team had its own difficulties in spreading AIIM’s message. For years they relied on manual processes to power marketing efforts, leading to unsatisfying marketing impact. Using disparate systems like Magnet Mail and Marketo that were difficult to use led to inconsistent revenue streams and membership growth models.
“The tools we had been using weren’t integrated and were too difficult to use effectively with a limited staff,” says Peggy Winton, Vice President and CMO at AIIM. “Marketo’s inbound capabilities were quite limited and were more focused on outbound, email automation, and tracking. Even leveraging those capabilities was cumbersome; the user interface was not as intuitive as HubSpot’s.”
Powerful Software, Personal Connections
Peggy evaluated several solutions, but was drawn to HubSpot because of the software’s expansive capabilities and the personalized interactions she had with the sales team. HubSpot’s nonprofit sales team guided Peggy through each step of her evaluation, demonstrating that the company is invested in following the very methodologies it offers to customers, an influential piece to her decision.
More importantly, unlike AIIM’s previous Marketo platform that was primarily outbound marketing-oriented, HubSpot supports AIIM’s inbound marketing strategies and membership goals. Partnering with HubSpot reduces AIIM’s reliance on email marketing to drive leads and supports higher conversion rates on content offers for educational products like webinars and ebooks.
“Talking to HubSpot signified a wholesale change in our marketing philosophy,” Peggy says. “Not only did we need a more user-friendly and integrated platform for our own team members, but we wanted a solution that would make it easier for our target audiences to find important or interesting information and take action.”
Today, Peggy’s team uses HubSpot apps such as analytics, forms with progressive profiling, workflows, and smart content to help create profiles of potential members, gain deep insight on the content resonating with audiences and deliver more of the right messages, to the right people, at the right time.
With HubSpot, AIIM can tailor its sales and marketing processes to include sequential calls to action, live follow up from a salesperson, and delayed email deliveries for a more strategic approach to promoting its training products.
“HubSpot enables us to generate reports and get a better view of our customers’ journey,” Peggy says. “Now we can see which content — outbound and inbound — is converting well and automatically adapt our sales cycle accordingly to do more of what works.”
Making Marketing Fun — and Productive
Since adopting HubSpot, AIIM’s ability to attract technology professionals and convert them to leads has improved dramatically. In 2014 they grew the number of these potential members by 4.8x. Even better, as a result of improved marketing efficiencies and messaging, AIIM increased customers 87% last year.
Peggy also says that the success of AIIM’s top-performing assets has motivated the organization to make adding more HubSpot apps and methodologies to its marketing mix a priority. The organization’s e-book, Digital Transformation - Embrace the Chaos. A Comprehensive Preview of The AIIM Conference 2015, converts at nearly 74% of visitors, well above industry standards, leading Peggy and the team looking ahead to AIIM’s potential successes with HubSpot. 
“HubSpot has helped us regain control of our marketing strategies and put the fun back into the process,” Peggy says. “We’ve already met some of our biggest objectives and now that everyone’s pulling in the same direction, it’s really exciting to think about what else we can achieve.”
