Putting the Message in the Medium: How SharpSpring helped one marketing firm implement omnichannel strategies for digital transformation

Challenge

Digital marketing has numerous benefits, including its relative affordability, high ROI (compared to traditional advertising), and its ability to yield previously unheard-of data. Companies can now determine who opened their emails, who visited their websites and from where, how they interacted with their social media, which ads they clicked on, where each of those touchpoints occurred in their buying journey, and more.

But all these insights mean little if the marketing and sales teams can’t translate them into a clear, data-backed strategy — or an optimized customer/client experience. Recent research has shown that the CX is a key factor in leads’ conversion. Utilizing the data to create a streamlined CX with the right messages is just as important as automating the tactics themselves.

It’s All Good Media had many clients accustomed to traditional marketing channels like TV, radio, and billboard advertising. While attribution was less accessible, the value was clearer, and there wasn’t a glut of data that confused their approach. The firm’s challenge was to demonstrate the value of digital marketing and implement an omnichannel strategy that could be optimized for each persona and campaign — all while preserving the human connection.

Solution

SharpSpring allowed It’s All Good Media to help its clients align each marketing campaign or sales call with their prospects’ buying journeys. They could manage all digital tactics while generating key data about their leads. This combination was vital to crafting an Ideal Client Persona (ICP) that clients could better understand in a dually virtual and real-world environment.

More importantly, they could generate pre-sales activity around each pain point, then send the most impactful message at the critical moment. This not only helped It’s All Good Media to attribute conversions but also to get their clients’ marketing and sales teams on the same page. There was less of a gap between the traditional advertising tactics and the complex digital universe, simply because the SharpSpring platform could reveal the key touchpoints and behavioral trends throughout the buying journey — online or off.

That, in turn, cultivated a more human approach to marketing, which is always more effective. No one likes to be sold to, but everyone likes to feel special and receive entertainment or useful information. It’s All Good Media knew that, and they were eager to use the tools provided by SharpSpring to keep the focus on providing a valuable message.

“Using the right media with the right message is key. You need to have some presence in digital environments, but none of those start the interest. An environment outside of that gets them into those environments.”  

– Scott Hoffman, Founder of It’s All Good Media

Leveraging Automation as a Communication Tool

How Chatbots Warmed Up More Leads

While marketing automation is rightfully heralded as a way of optimizing campaigns and saving countless hours, it’s much more than an organizational tool. The team at It’s All Good Media wanted to focus on providing the right messaging at the right time, and automation helped them get there.

For example, for one It’s All Good Media client, a chatbot generated 98 conversations in just one month, automatically warming up leads. And unlike in other platforms where the bot lead enters a generic pipeline, It’s All Good Media leveraged SharpSpring to see how else each prospect interacted with the client’s digital presence.

In other words, automation offered more than campaign tracking and general lead capture. It engaged prospects while providing meaningful insights into their buying journey. The SharpSpring platform allowed the client to see how their digital ads, website, and chatbot were all working together.

”So, when clients say to us, ‘Hey, what was it that closed this deal?’ I say, ‘All of it, but it took the final trigger to make the other ones valuable. We’re able to show growth, and say, ‘Here are these numbers and how they touched each other. We couldn’t have done that years ago — now it’s just a button.”

– Scott Hoffman, Founder of It’s All Good Media

Achieving Digital Transformation With More Buy-In

How Transparency and Clear Value Drove Better Client Results

Companies often fall into two camps: (a) those who eagerly embrace digital marketing to the point they believe “print/TV/radio is dead,” and (b) those who consider it unnecessary or ineffective compared to traditional advertising. As Scott Hoffman, Founder of It’s All Good Media, observed, many companies believe they must have a digital presence on all the main platforms. Sadly, that can lead to unqualified leads and bloated ad spending.

While the team at It’s All Good Media wanted to emphasize the human touch with clearly aligned messaging, they knew that the data had its own story to tell. Too often, CEOs, entrepreneurs, or even marketers will impose their own assumptions onto their prospects, missing the value that would actually drive more conversions.

Thanks to SharpSpring’s robust omnichannel tracking and campaign analytics, It’s All Good Media could help its clients overcome incorrect assumptions surrounding their strategy. They let the data do the talking, so it was much easier to see what was motivating the leads to convert and where they engaged with those core messages. In other words, SharpSpring revealed the customers’ buying story. Everything was transparently documented.

This objective approach allowed It’s All Good Media to convince their clients to make their best investments, thereby optimizing ad spend and identifying their true Ideal Client Persona.

Results

It’s All Good Media now uses SharpSpring to help about 20+ clients elevate their omnichannel strategies for both marketing and sales. They can effectively leverage data and automate their workflows without becoming lost in the data or blindly pumping money into social or paid media.

They even found a way to utilize SharpSpring as a lead acquisition and bid management platform, allowing them to tap into the lucrative Business-to-Government space. SharpSpring’s tools made it easier to connect the dots among various digital and real-world spaces, while maintaining a fully personalized and compelling customer experience.

For one client who worked in sales, It’s All Good Media’s data-backed, value-driven approach allowed her to boost her closing ratio from 50% to 96%.

Ultimately, the firm’s success stemmed from its commitment to tracking the life of the lead, then positioning its clients in the right environment, armed with the right message at the right time. This was all possible in part due to SharpSpring’s unique combination of automation, analytics, and personalization — allowing It’s All Good Media to live up to its name.