The Challenge
Manufacturers face a wide range of security challenges, including the protection of both permanent and temporary facilities (e.g., construction sites). Our UK-based client is a provider of highly innovative security solutions for manufacturers, including fully managed temporary site security services across multiple sectors, including construction, retail, and rail. Their market-leading products help customers switch from labour to tech-based security, saving money by leveraging the efficiencies of digital solutions.
However, the firm had never set up a centralized marketing and campaign management system to automate its electronic outreach. In addition, with regional subsidiaries operating in Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Germany, the provider faced substantial geographic challenges – including managing and optimizing marketing initiatives across diverse locations with different languages and regulatory environments. The firm’s leadership team asked Persistent Systems to initiate a program to establish standardized processes and best practices for marketing automation, company-wide, while accommodating regional variations.
The Solution
Following our initial advisory and discovery sessions, Persistent recommended Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (formerly Pardot) to address the provider’s varied needs. This automated solution would create a single source of truth, unifying all marketing efforts on a centralized platform. By developing its solution on the Salesforce Marketing Cloud, the firm could quickly stand up a range of powerful and useful capabilities including:
- User management across geographic regions
- Email preference center in multiple languages
- Personalization of emails
- Campaign hierarchy
- Tracking and sending domains
In addition, Persistent strongly recommended using a single Marketing Cloud business unit for all the geographies and activities. With this approach, the company could reduce campaign management complexity, and create a unified view of all marketing activities, with performance measured by one central marketing team. A single cloud instance – using one domain – would offer greater branding and messaging consistency and allow the company to allocate budget and human resources more efficiently.
Finally, as Persistent’s consultants pointed out, a unified marketing approach can also enable valuable cross-selling and up-selling opportunities by leveraging insights and data across different products or services within the same business unit. This can generate new revenue streams via targeted marketing campaigns and hyper-personalized communications.
The Outcome
Persistent implemented Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement in one of the client’s regions, as a model for the others. Once the implementation team developed a proof of concept – and users were properly trained on the Salesforce platform – additional zones went live. In our phased roll-out program, Persistent customized the implementation for each geography based on its unique needs and priorities, while adapting to differences such as local language preferences, regulatory requirements, data privacy laws, and marketing practices that impacted the implementation strategy.
In its final form, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement empowered the firm to effectively manage and optimize marketing initiatives across diverse locations. With its scalability, localization capabilities, integration with Salesforce CRM, and support for compliance and governance, the Account Engagement platform was well-suited for our client – an aspiring organization looking to expand its presence and drive growth in multiple regions while maintaining a unified and cohesive marketing strategy.
