CrownPeak, a provider of Web site software, is one of a handful of companies beta testing the latest release from Demandbase, which offers customer acquisition software-as-a-service (SaaS).
Demandbase Professional 2.0 includes Web tracking tool Demandbase Stream as well as new functions that allow sales reps to see and act on tracking data in real time. Other new tools allow salespeople to automatically send personalized e-mails to identified prospects and automatically build qualified prospect lists from the site traffic. The system also is compatible with Salesforce CRM, meaning that duplicate leads can be identified and automatically removed.
“We got such great feedback on the ticker feed and additional functionality requests that we built that out more and integrated it into our SaaS platform,” said Chris Golec, CEO of Demandbase, about the changes. “With the new version, you can see the company and access all business contacts right from that stream, so rather than just seeing the companies that are coming on your site, now, we’re giving functionality to communicate and connect in real time.”
Moving forward, Golec said Demandbase would explore ways to measure click quality by keyword and campaign, adding a new layer of Web analytics.
CrownPeak has been using Demandbase tools for the past couple of years and upgraded to Professional 2.0 a few months ago. The company’s target customers are directors and VPs of marketing, particularly those who manage Web sites and Web marketing, for a variety of industries.
“It’s an interesting time for people that are in online marketing because there’s this whole idea of doing more with less,” said Rob Rose, VP of marketing and strategy, CrownPeak. “We’re in the same boat, so Demandbase is the leverage point for my sales team because I can turn my entire sales crew into online marketers and leverage all the traffic on our Web site. We’re definitely getting 2 to 2.5 times the usual ROI for our traffic because we can now leverage this unknown traffic using Demandbase.”
CrownPeak depends largely on SEO and SEM to drive traffic to its site, where the keystone of its marketing strategy is content. Webinars, white papers and other content are offered to site visitors to generate leads and track visitor interest in certain topics. With Demandbase, CrownPeak is able to identify visitors to its site as well as track which content they are spending time with — which helps CrownPeak decipher where the user is in the buying cycle.
“We are big believers in content marketing, and that’s what really drives the long tail of marketing,” Rose said. “My goal as a marketer is to leverage more SEO traffic and decrease paid, so the idea is to become more of a media publisher and capture those people for free, decreasing my cost per lead. Demandbase isn’t the source for this, but it becomes a replacement for SEM because, if I can capture the same number of leads using organic traffic, I can turn off SEM keywords and my only cost becomes Demandbase.”
