Finding the Right Platform for Growth
When Taka Takeuchi became senior digital marketing manager at Casio UK, his goal was to help his team to embrace change and become more efficient. They were already using the inbound methodology, but he felt that with the right tools they could achieve so much more.
“We had a CRM that had been custom-built, but it wasn’t responsive to the evolving needs of our salespeople, and it didn’t give us a clear view of the customer’s journey. We were using Eloqua as our marketing automation platform at the time, but it was difficult to use and inefficient for a small marketing team. It was clear to me that we needed a platform to help us achieve results quickly, as well as a modern CRM.”
In a real-world example of inbound in action, he discovered the HubSpot platform while searching the internet for digital marketing inspiration.
“I kept coming across articles from HubSpot, and that planted the seed in my mind. When we began researching different platforms, the HubSpot website was my first port of call.”
Taka also evaluated Marketo, but ultimately decided that the HubSpot platform was a more holistic solution.
“HubSpot was the most attractive solution for our capability and needs. It was easy to use, which was important because we needed to get up and running quickly, and the support on offer was outstanding. My team could get one point of access to help and advice in an instant, for both technical and methodology-related questions, which was something other solutions do not provide.”
The fact that HubSpot offered the growth stack – the combination of Marketing Hub, HubSpot CRM and Sales Hub – was another big factor in its favour.
“With the growth stack, we never lose sight of a prospect from first touch to closed deal. It was a straightforward decision. We signed up in 2016 with a combination of Marketing Hub Enterprise and Sales Hub Professional.”
A Productive First Year
The first task was to migrate the data that Casio had in Eloqua and its CRM over to the HubSpot platform. With the help of the HubSpot Advanced Onboarding team, the process was relatively painless, explains Taka.
“We had contacts, custom fields and deals to be ported over, and that data needed to be cleaned up before transfer. The HubSpot team helped us to get the software set up in a way that worked for us and to improve our processes as we went along. We got everything done in just four weeks.”
The next step was to use HubSpot to create the customer journey. The marketing department set up Landing Pages for its content, which includes emulators, FAQs, user guides and video tutorials, as well as Smart Calls-to-Action (CTAs) and Forms to encourage visitors to share their details.
“Once that happens, we enter them into automated Workflows and nurture them with emails relevant to their interests. That’s been a great timesaver for us. If someone is engaging in a meaningful way, by downloading certain pieces of content for instance, we don’t have to remember to keep following up – it all happens automatically.”
Casio has both B2B and B2C divisions, and it uses HubSpot to address their differing priorities.
“On the B2B side, what used to happen is that we would find valuable leads and pass them onto the sales team, and they’d often get lost in the ether. With the HubSpot CRM, that’s changed; we can see exactly what’s happening with every prospect. The B2C side is more mass market, but we still want to make sure that the potential customer feels like they have a personal relationship with us, so we’re employing features like smart lists and A/B testing.”
Before signing up with HubSpot, Casio’s marketing team found it difficult to hone in on its most valuable activities. Now it uses Marketing Analytics and Reports to find out exactly where it should be focusing its efforts and also to prove the ROI of its work.
“We are working in better alignment with our salespeople as well. The calculator team use HubSpot Sales Pro, particularly the Notifications feature, which tells them whenever a lead opens or clicks through one of their emails.”
Taka says that HubSpot’s online and offline support has been all that he hoped that it would be.
“On the marketing side, we use the free HubSpot Academy when needed and we’ve all completed the Inbound Certification. Our team has been wowed by how accessible the HubSpot team is – if they have a question, they just put in a call and usually get their answer within minutes. We also work with HubSpot Premier Services, and our consultant truly understands our business and what we want to achieve. In the beginning, it was all about applying best practices, and he held our hand through that, but now he’s helping us to really explore all that we can achieve with the platform.”
Totting Up Results With HubSpot
Casio has achieved great results in a short space of time and website traffic is up by 12%, while leads have increased by 496%.
“We love that those increases are directly linked to what we’re doing as a marketing team. For instance, every time we send out a newsletter, website visits increase by 90% for a couple of days afterwards. We’re very pleased by the email open rates we’re getting as well; they average out at around 40%.”
Taka has found that lead quality has also improved.
“We’ve created CTAs that are relevant to our different personas, so we know that when someone eventually signs up for a demo or an event, that they are likely to be genuinely interested.”
Those enhanced leads have proved rich pickings for Casio’s salespeople – revenue has been boosted by 9% overall.
“Our calculator division has been particularly successful. We’ve grown sales by 26% since we started using HubSpot.”
The Casio and HubSpot partnership is one that Taka is keen to continue, and he has already recommended the platform to marketing colleagues in other companies.
“It’s an easy way to create a culture in which people think about the customer journey, from the awareness stage to the closed deal. Things are changing for businesses of all sizes – just hoping that your sales and marketing teams will talk to each other isn’t enough anymore. With the HubSpot software, everyone is accountable and nothing slips through the cracks.”
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