AuditFile, a cloud-based audit automation software, needed a solution that would allow its team to develop and implement a more robust marketing and sales strategy. The company turned to Act-On, a marketing automation platform, to help it deliver highly targeted nurture campaigns.
The Challenge
Despite the strengths of its platform, AuditFile needed to be very targeted and impactful to reach its audience at the right time in a highly competitive environment. Public accountants, the company’s target market, are accustomed to purchasing software during certain times of the year, so AuditFile had to ensure its marketing efforts were not getting lost during a busy season or in the buzz that traditionally follows.
Due to many firms typically signing long-term contracts with their software vendors, AuditFile’s marketing and sales team needed to be calculating and exacting with their strategy to make the most of a small window of opportunity.
To attract and capture the attention of AuditFile’s audience at the right time, Erika Schonberg, Head of Marketing and Business Development at AuditFile, and her team sought a platform that would equip them with the necessary tools to effectively engage, onboard and nurture existing customers, while seamlessly integrating with Salesforce, the company’s preferred CRM.
The Solution
Schonberg had experience using Act-On at various organizations over the past 10 years and knew that the platform’s strong functionality, customer support and ease of use were what AuditFile’s small team needed to exceed their marketing goals.
While Schonberg came into her position at AuditFile, she had explored and used different marketing platforms at other companies. She also participated in a search at an organization where she and her team evaluated several marketing automation platforms, but found them too complicated and overpriced for what her team was trying to accomplish.
“One of the things that I appreciate about Act-On is that even though the product has become more sophisticated over the years, it hasn’t become more complex,” said Schonberg. “I’ve worked at a lot of software companies where that wasn’t the case.”
The Results
Act-On has proven to be instrumental to AuditFile’s marketing strategy. Schonberg’s team currently uses the solution to automate portions of its sales processes, lead nurturing and customer onboarding. Schonberg noted that the platform has enabled her team to allocate resources where they are needed the most.
“Having limited resources forces us to be really smart about how we spend our marketing dollars and where we invest our time,” she said. “Leveraging Act-On to automate our marketing and sales processes enables us to do that.”
In addition to benefiting from Act-On’s ease of use, AuditFile has also been able to both achieve and measure incredible results. While accurately tracking metrics was a challenge for AuditFile, Schonberg is now able to report results that demonstrate the excellence of both its auditing software and supporting marketing efforts.
AuditFile’s conversion rate from the trial sign up to paid customer has consistently been between 60-67%, significantly higher than the industry average of 20-25%.
Schonberg said Act-On has given the company the means to easily scale sales and marketing as it grows its team and customer base.
“When we evaluate success, we focus on sales and conversion rates because, ultimately, the measure of whether or not your marketing is working is if it’s improving sales, right?” Schonberg told Demand Gen Report.” “An impactful contributor to why our free trial-to-paid customer conversion rates are significantly higher than the industry standard is how we use behavioral scoring to determine when and how it’s appropriate for sales to approach. Tracking those metrics and diligent follow-up is really important. And, of course, it’s not all just in the marketing — our product is very easy to use and we’re proud of our customer experience.”
