Tag Archives: CRM

Customer Experience, News

Disney first interactive email wordsearch for Encanto campaign

Disney is sending its first ever interactive word search email this week in celebration of its latest hit, Encanto. Armadillo, the Bristol-based CRM agency, created the in-email word search. Previous interactive email examples from Armadillo and Disney include quizzes, games, and unique carousels – word searches never seen in Disney emails before now.  

With the knowledge that Disney fans enjoy taking part in quizzes, polls and other ways to show they know the films inside out, users are asked if they have a ‘gift for word searches’ and upon completion of the word search, are warmly welcomed into the magical family Madrigal. Armadillo achieved interactivity in email using pure HTML and CSS. Inputs, labels and animation are the key elements to making this work.  

The word searches were achieved using a table-based grid to display the content. All the correct letters in the table could be clicked on turning the cell grey. Once all correct letters for the word are selected the whole word is then highlighted. At the same time, a strike-through and highlight appears on the question. This provided a great user experience as it’s clear which questions have already been answered. 

Steve Brailey, Lead Developer at Armadillo says: “we wanted to try something new that we haven’t seen before in an email; something that would provide an engaging and fun experience for the recipient. I’ve been prototyping a few ideas in this vein recently, and it not only worked really well, but the client – and now their audience – really reacted to the feeling of magic it brought.” 

Rob Pellow, Innovation Director at Armadillo comments: “Interactivity in email is a huge opportunity to reduce the engagement barriers with your audience. Whether that’s allowing them to more easily explore your product, better understand your content, or just giving them something fun to play with. It also allows you to get a better picture of what content they find valuable or interesting. Our Development team at Armadillo don’t believe in “can’t” when it comes to email and are constantly proving that there are no real limits to what is achievable within this channel.” 

Armadillo is able to track the engagement by using tracking pixels that get activated when a letter is selected, and when all correct words have been found. 

L & D, News, South West

Armadillo Board Members Qualified with the Institute of Directors

CRM specialist Armadillo CFO, Andy Brown, and chairman, Chris Thurling, have both qualified with the Institute of Directors as Chartered Directors. With fewer than 2,000 Chartered Directors worldwide, the qualification demonstrates the business’s commitment to investing in employee development at every level, as well as the business’s dedication to corporate and social governance.

The Institute of Directors (IoD) is a British professional organisation for company directors, senior business leaders and entrepreneurs. It is the UK’s longest running organisation for professional leaders, having been founded in 1903 and incorporated by Royal Charter in 1906.

The Chartered Director qualification process involves the study of four modules: governance, strategy, leadership and finance, followed by an exam for each module and then a further three-hour written exam and an interview with a current chartered director.

Chris Thurling comments: “We understand that strengthening our skills as chartered directors should mean we are able to better serve Armadillo, supporting sustainable, long-term growth. A company director is a profession (as much as an accountant for example) therefore why shouldn’t we be qualified for the role?”

Andy Brown adds: “I’m really pleased that Chris and I have been able to complete this training and qualification together. As well as learning more about strong leadership, governance and strategy, we’ve had the advantage of the shared experience of completing this together and bringing ideas back to enhance Armadillo’s Board effectiveness.”

Chris and Andy will also be joining the South West chartered directors network. With members representing agriculture, aerospace, tourism and manufacturing, IoD South West reflects the vibrant and innovative sectors in the region.

News

EG upskills sales team and drives CRM adoption with Cloudapps Sales Effectiveness and Accuracy Platform

Cloudapps, the leading provider of AI sales effectiveness and accuracy technology in the CRM sector, has enabled EG, an established provider of data, news and analytics products and services for the commercial real estate market, to improve sales performance and transform the quality of data provided by its Salesforce CRM platform.

EG, part of the LexisNexis Risk Solutions Group, is a trusted source of data and intelligence in the commercial real estate industry. The business operates under three key pillars: news and insight, media and partnerships, and data and software solutions. In September 2020, EG transitioned to a new Salesforce stack to keep better track of all sales activity and unlock new benefits. However, adoption from the sales team remained low, leading to incomplete records, which diminished data quality.

As a native Salesforce application, migration of Cloudapps’ gamification and KPI boards solution, Sumo, was seamless, simple and efficient. First rolled out amongst EG’s data and software solutions sales team, a competition with prizes and a leaderboard was launched to reward CRM input and  quickly encourage uptake of the new platform and processes. 

Founded in behavioural science, the Cloudapps SUMO solution uses gamification techniques to encourage positive sales behaviours that achieve meaningful outcomes, such as the number of calls made, deals won, or revenue generated. The more actions the team implements, the more relevant data is added into the CRM, improving data integrity; EG has reported a direct link between the quality of insight gleaned from Salesforce and the introduction of competitions. 

Combined with the latest ‘nudge theory’, the solution can also prompt sales teams to take the best next sales actions for each deal. Using SUMO, EG identified key sales behaviours to encourage across the team to increase win rates. By breaking down the sales cycle from the initial lead through to the deal closure, sales managers were able to highlight stages where issues and dropouts were most common. They then used SUMO to incentivise key behaviours that would prevent the issues. In addition, Cloudapps enabled EG to create KPI boards. By utilising data from the platform, the company could benchmark success and develop targets, with results displayed in real time on personalised dashboards. 

“We identified an issue with converting leads and engaging with prospects throughout the sales cycle,” explained Schuyler Michael, Head of Sales Operations at EG. “Integrating Cloudapps into our CRM has been vital in tackling this; we have been  able to pinpoint key behaviours that correlate with greater sales success. In 2021, the average number of these behaviours performed by our salespeople was 3,000. Those who performed more than the average achieved at least 93 per cent of their sales target. This is a clear correlation between the behaviours identified by SUMO and the upskilling of our team to close more deals.”

Andy McDonald, CEO, Cloudapps, said: “EG is a brilliant example of how to utilise Cloudapps to create long-term, positive behavioural change amongst sales teams. Not only are reps far more engaged and incentivised, they are more productive and make a greater contribution to the bottom line. In addition to higher win rates, driving up the adoption of CRM means the data it provides is a far more insightful and reliable basis for business decisions.”

By delivering measurable and actionable insight into sales success, Cloudapps has made a significant contribution to EG’s company journey and played a key role in the successful onboarding of new sales reps. EG plans to roll out Cloudapps’ SUMO solution for CRM gamification and KPI boards to other departments, and explore the addition of AI deep learning techniques to improve  forecast accuracy.

 

News

Armadillo appoints Joanna Penn to new Managing Director role

CRM specialist Armadillo has appointed Joanna Penn as its new Managing Director (MD). The appointment demonstrates an investment by the agency in its senior leadership by creating the new MD role to lead the operational management of the agency. The move will allow CEO, James Ray, to focus on strategies to continue its momentum. The agency works for global brands such as McDonald’s, Disney and Carnival UK and scooped five awards at the DMA Awards 2021.

Armadillo grew by an impressive 75% (YoY revenue) in 2021, with growth continuing into 2022 at a similar pace. The team grew by around 25% people in 2021 with a number of roles still advertised.

Joanna joined Armadillo two years ago from a successful career working on global brands such as Nike, Unilever, and Pernod Ricard to become Client Partner on the McDonald’s account. In that time, she has excelled at building and nurturing a high-performing, motivated and happy team and leading them to focus on delivering the best work for its clients. In her new role, she’ll be applying these skills across the business and continuing to deliver against Armadillo’s proposition for existing and new clients.

When asked about the role she said: “A big part of me never thought this would happen, because I never thought I would find the right agency in which to take on this role. Armadillo has fantastic clients, the right leaders, great, supportive and highly talented teams, and, most importantly, a great ethos and culture. I am both grateful and proud I have been given this role and really look forward to helping the agency deliver unrivalled ROI for all our award-winning clients and future partnerships.”

As well as celebrating the addition of Managing Director, the team also welcomes new Client Partner, Emma Watson. Emma joins from her previous role as Business Director at Edit where she ran their flagship account with Jaguar Land Rover, delivering commercial success and multiple award wins (including two Golds at this year’s DMAs). Emma brings a pedigree in data and CRM to add to the team, with deep experience working strategically with data and MarTech to deliver compelling campaigns and customer experiences with proven results.

She says: “Armadillo continues to go from strength to strength and I’m excited to be part of their next phase of growth. I’m passionate about working in partnership with clients and, along with the talented Armadillo team, am looking forward to pushing CRM boundaries to achieve innovative work, which delivers amazing results.”

CEO, James Ray adds: “Jo was the natural choice for the MD role: her energy, intelligence, commitment and natural instinct for leadership have been a huge part of our success, and I’m excited to see her apply that across the whole business. Emma brings with her a wealth of experience and skill in delivering commercial success for clients through orchestrating engaging, data-driven customer experiences: a perfect fit for our proposition and a fantastic addition to the team.”

Marketing, PR and SEO, News

5 ways marketers can optimise their lead generation activities

Lead generation is one of the key pillars of a successful business, yet many still report wasting time on ‘bad leads’ that never convert.  For marketers working for small and medium sized enterprises in particular, it’s often a familiar story: how can efforts be optimised to ensure a limited budget goes the distance?

Christelle Fraysse, CMO of cloud-based CRM vendor Workbooks, reveals five strategies to help marketers boost the outcomes and ROI of their lead generation activities.

1. Become data-obsessed

As marketers, we have access to a lot of data. But too much data will only lead to more questions than answers. Becoming data-obsessed is not about collecting as much information as possible, it’s about collecting the right, high-quality information to serve your purpose – to better engage your audience, for example.

The first step towards optimising lead generation activities is to therefore consider what data is being collected and why. There should be two main focuses when collecting data: demographic and behavioural.

Demographic data is important to truly understand the ideal customer profile for your business. This could include what the organisation looks like, the size of the business, the industry it operates in, where it is located, and the people within it (your core personas, job roles, seniority levels, interests, and whatever you feel is relevant for better targeting and segmentation).

Behavioural information is also key and this includes what your prospects and customers are doing, how they are engaging with you and your content, what channels they are using, and what topics are resonating with them.

The combination of both demographic and behavioural information becomes extremely powerful. It can be used to take personalisation to the next level, and it allows tailoring of communication during the qualification process and beyond to ensure relevant and timely outreach.

2. Grade and score your leads

Not all leads are created equal. Does a lead sit within your target audience and is it right for the business? Is this contact ready to engage with sales or is it too early? The quality of the lead may not always be good enough and this is often the main source of tension between sales and marketing departments. The sales team may feel leads are lacking in quality, while the marketing team say leads are not being qualified or followed up on in an effective, timely manner. Lead scoring and grading can address this and add value.

First, sales and marketing teams must work together on the rules and principles that help to define a ‘good lead’ and ensure time is being spent targeting those of most value to the business. A lead must be graded directly against what your business’s ideal customer profile looks like. Upon collecting data, it is easier to make a direct comparison of the two and ensure a focus for both sales and marketing teams on those closest to the ideal profile.

The second element is to score leads on behavioural information. If a prospect views a blog, it shows some engagement. However, if they also visit the pricing page, this demonstrates greater intent and higher scoring, and – if attending webinars – even higher points can be awarded, as it shows commitment.

Grading leads creates opportunities to nurture them in a bid to upgrade their status. Score them and get them to engage until sales-ready, approaching them differently to those who have shown more interest and intent.

3. Work collaboratively with a common language

The relationship between the sales and marketing departments is often not the easiest to manage. The reality is that without a solid understanding between sales and marketing, the ability to generate quality leads is vastly limited. Is there a common understanding and agreement around what constitutes a sales qualified lead, a marketing qualified lead, and an opportunity entering your pipeline?

Both marketing and sales teams must work on building this relationship by having regular meetings to ensure there is a shared agreement on goals and approach, and that a consistent language is used across departments. Without agreed definitions or consistent management of leads through the sales funnel, the business will be held back. The two departments must not simply co-exist. When collaborative working processes are introduced properly, that is when value will truly be created and the quality of leads will increase.

4. Track everything

As a marketer, you should track everything you do. In a number of organisations, marketing is still perceived as a cost and it’s essential to shift this perception and become known as a revenue generator in your business. Often, marketing budgets are in the firing line when cuts occur, but once you track and demonstrate value it allows the marketing team to be seen as an equal contributor. This will result in more trust and, potentially, access to a larger budget for future activities.

The whole prospect and customer engagement process should be monitored and tracked, from the first click on the website, to the sales funnel, and the final closure. Visibility of when a deal closed and where marketing contributed to initiate or further the engagement and move the opportunity along the sales funnel, demonstrates value to your organisation and changes perceptions. This can help to fuel better relationships across departments and improve sales figures as teams work together.

5. Test, test, test!

The importance of testing should not be underestimated – refining your activities will maximise their value. For example, using AB testing on email layouts to see the impact on click-through rates can help to optimise the best email format, subject headers, and sender information. The same for landing pages on your website. Again, this comes back to data collection. The more data you collect and the more this is analysed, the better the return on marketing activities.

Unlock value with CRM

Access to high-quality data and insight is needed for marketers to optimise lead generation activities, whether you are a larger organisation or an SME. At the heart of this is a robust CRM platform.

According to a survey by Workbooks, the main driver for a CRM initiative for 52 per cent of companies was to better manage data and gain insights. Yet many businesses are still failing to use the technology properly to unlock its true value, with only 47% of CMOs having a framework for data collection.

With the right CRM, it’s possible to optimise and transform marketing campaigns, segmenting and targeting them to the individual needs of a high-value list of prospects based on relevant, real-time data.

Using shared tools across the business ensures a single view of the truth, a consistent process and the most efficient customer journey. Graded and scored leads and targets worked on collaboratively with the sales team increases the chance of closing the deal.

For marketers, the ability to demonstrate true value throughout the engagement process through to the sale is vital to progressing as a revenue generator. CRM may be an investment, but the right solution will offer complete sales and marketing integration to transform lead generation activities and ensure the recognition you, as a marketer, deserve.

News

TCMM Shutter Group grows revenues by £1M using Workbooks CRM

Workbooks, the world’s number one CRM for customer satisfaction, announces that its working relationship with TCMM Shutter Group Ltd – one of the UK’s leading providers of interior window shutters – has enabled the business to grow its sales by £1 million and increase conversions during customer visits by 15 per cent.  

Since it was founded in 2002, TCMM has grown to comprise five brands with global reach: Shutterly Fabulous; California Shutters; DIY Shutters; The Shutter Store; and Carter & Clark. By 2017, TCMM was running on multiple systems as a result, including OpenCRM, Kentico, and a multitude of spreadsheets. These prevented a unified view of data across the Group, limiting the extraction of business insights.  

It was at this point that TCMM first turned to Workbooks cloud-based CRM, to support remote sales consultants working for the Shutterly Fabulous brand. The objective was to make it easier to select the best consultant to visit a customer, and to allow them to create accurate quotes during visits, in order for customers to sign up and pay a deposit instantly. 

By November 2019, the solution had been rolled out across the organisation to unify and streamline other processes. Now, everything is managed through Workbooks CRM, from shipping through to customer communications and consultant commission calculations, even invoicing integrated via Sagelink.  

“I didn’t expect we’d be able to use CRM for the entire end-to-end process with a business as complex as ours, but now Workbooks is integrated into everything we do. The efficiencies and insights that it’s generated have been transformational,” explains Sam Tamlyn, General Manager at TCMM.  

Further, Workbooks met this original objective by enabling TCMM’s network of field consultants to input customer requirements into the system in real time. Input error is now far less likely as a result, and a major time saving has been achieved by removing many of the manual processes for delivering a quote and approving the order. The system can also record which windows within a customer’s home are still without shutters, providing TCMM with the opportunity to be more segmented in their marketing approach in the future. 

TCMM has a complicated business model, with countless ways to configure shutters, five brands, and three different sales channels: sales agents visiting customer homes; white-labelled shutters through, for example, John Lewis; and an online offering for those who can fit shutters themselves. Since rolling out Workbooks throughout the Group, TCMM benefits from far greater visibility over the entire process. As a result, significant revenue growth has been achieved, while the company’s headcount has remained the same.  

“Using a single platform enables TCMM to get a unified view of the business, and this gives the team far greater control and insight both at a high level but also in granular detail,” adds Vicky Bibby, TCMM Digital Development Manager. “We now know how well the team is performing and have been able to become more digitally focused.” 

John Cheney, CEO of Workbooks, concludes: “CRM is a journey and it is clear to see the huge progress the team at TCMM Shutter Group has made on theirs. To achieve CRM success on this scale requires not only the right technology, but a strong partnership and strategy centred around a unique set of challenges and business objectives. We look forward to helping TCMM achieve even greater business insight, agility and growth in the years to come.” 

 

News

Armadillo launches Summer Surprises for McDonald’s in Ireland

Armadillo, the CRM agency, launches Summer Surprises for McDonald’s in Ireland this week. The new campaign is based around giving customers an unbeatable offer every day for 14 days to be redeemed exclusively on the McDonald’s app. It starts on Monday 9 and ends on Sunday 22 August.

The campaign will run across channels including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. To redeem each offer, users must register on the app and activate their daily deal in restaurant or at the Drive-thru.

As the UK and Republic of Ireland (ROI) CRM agency for McDonald’s, this marks the first campaign Armadillo has run in the ROI, and the agency fully devised the concept and visual identity for the campaign, creating all in-app assets, copy and socials. The agency also created static search banner ads and social animations for the nine strongest offers (a full list of all 14 is below).

All media was planned by Mediaworks.

Currently the sole CRM channel and focus of all personalised marketing, the McDonald’s app launched late last year and is currently building an audience. An uplift in guest count and order value can already be seen as a result of activity through the app.

Hannah Waters, Creative Director: “This has been a really exciting project for us, as we’ve been involved in the end-to-end process, from conception to completion, in a fresh territory. We’re confident we can apply our UK learnings to the Irish market and activity will lead to increased downloads and engagement with the McDonald’s app.”

Armadillo has been working with McDonald’s for over a decade and won a DMA Gold Award for its role in the Monopoly promotion in 2018.

 

Credits

 

Jo Penn – Client Partner

Hannah Waters – Creative Director

Rob Pellow – Innovation Director

Will Barnes – Digital Art Director

Charlie Bulmer – Conceptual Copywriter

Emily Sowden – Copywriter

Rachel Pyke – Producer

Appointments, News

Armadillo appoints Wunderman Thompson’s Andrew Terry as Head of Strategy

Bristol-based CRM agency, Armadillo, has named Wunderman Thompson’s Andrew Terry as new Head of Strategy. Terry will work across its big-name brands including McDonald’s, Disney and Carnival UK.  

Andrew Terry brings with him a rich history of work in the marketing and advertising industries. Most recently Data Strategy Director at Wunderman Thompson, Terry spent three years working across Shell Drivers’ Club globally, and two subsequent years on its multi-million-pound BT account.  

At Wunderman Thompson, Terry trained up the global team and worked across a wide range of different international markets, optimising the model to be as efficient as possible. Always starting with the question ‘How do we understand customers better?’, Terry was responsible for using data to inform personalisation and measurement; loyalty and membership benefits being at the forefront of his role.  

With in-depth knowledge of data acquisition and optimisation, social and digital data strategies and CRM data optimisation, Andrew Terry’s career has spanned the B2B and B2C sectors, with a firm focus on driving excellent ROI.  

Previous roles also included Data and Marketing Specialist at Newsquest, the UK’s second largest publisher of local media, in which Terry worked with internal and external data to support the centralised recruitment ad sales process and deliver business intelligence garnered from transactional information from both regional and economic trends. 

As Head of Strategy, Andrew Terry will work across all Armadillo accounts with a focus on putting data at the heart of decisions made for customers, using data creatively to change customer behaviour and deliver unrivalled ROI; reaching the right people, the right way at the right time. Keen to involve each part of the agency in achieving this, Terry will ensure results are used to feed back into strategy for maximum effect.  

Armadillo CEO, James Ray, comments: “With the rapid growth trajectory of Armadillo, we value outstanding strategy at the heart of all of our campaigns. From the moment we met Andrew we were blown away by his passion and enthusiasm for results-driven strategy. His vast experience and knowledge were exactly what we were looking for and we’re thrilled to welcome him to the team.” 

Andrew Terry adds: “The people at Armadillo are very, very good at what they do. Their long-lasting relationships with big-name clients are a fantastic indication of just how strong they and their operations really are. It’s an incredibly exciting time to be joining the agency.  

“Like most of the UK over the last 18 months I’ve established a relationship with more new brands than ever before & this presents a huge opportunity for brands entering the CRM space.  CRM is a big, big world but Armadillo is at the forefront. They have the unique ability to pull people together and form teams around the client with remarkable pace and effectiveness. Armadillo is a fantastic blend of passion and enthusiasm; skill and talent and I can’t wait to dive in.” 

Employee Engagement, News

Armadillo invests in regular business coaching for all agency staff

Bristol-based CRM agency, Armadillo, which works with big-name brands including McDonald’s, Disney, P&O Cruises and Cunard, is now offering staff external coaching with renowned confidence coach, Jo Emerson.

The introduction of external coaching to its team comes with the company’s move away from a traditional line managed structure as 2020 draws to a close. Armadillo has made the decision to replace line managers with networked support; task-based support to bring clarity to deliverables, skills-based support to build expertise in key specialism, and growth-based support. This is where coaching comes in. This move aims to give people the headspace to work through their challenges, ambitions, frustrations and ideas, empowering staff to seek their own solutions and decide their own actions.

Fiona Craig, Strategy and Planning Director at Armadillo, explains why external coaching was a must-have for the business: “Internal support is very much focused on the work we do for our clients – you could say the client is the key stakeholder here, and all efforts are focused on doing a good job for them.

Craig continues: “The support offered by external coaching is centred exclusively around the individual – often there can be a tension between the two areas of focus, and in a traditional structure, line managers can struggle to do a really good job of supporting on all fronts. So, this allows those who are exceptionally skilled in one area to excel, while the individual still gets supported on all sides.”

Jo Emerson is a confidence and human behaviour expert, author, and the winner of International Executive Coach of the Year (2019-2020).

Craig goes on to say “Jo is highly experienced in dealing with change and confidence, and has a wonderful energy that felt right for us here at Armadillo. She will spark some great conversations and even greater ideas, we feel sure.”

Jo adds, “It’s a real privilege to be working with Armadillo at such a critical time and to support team members as they grow and develop within an incredibly fast-paced industry. Armadillo’s new networked-support structure coupled with external and objective coaching shows what an innovative and agile company they are!”

About Armadillo

Armadillo is a specialist CRM agency based in Bristol. We use the latest technology to create digital communications based on real data insights. And we cover everything CRM, from email campaigns to social media, websites, apps and more – all effectively targeted to the right person, in the right place at the right time.

Because we’re flexible enough to adapt to a range of challenges and budgets, we work with clients big and small. CRM has been our passion for over 25 years and the possibilities never cease to amaze us.

Marketing, PR and SEO, News

BuddyCRM Unveils New Email Marketing Module to Help Businesses Bounce Back from COVID-19

Cloud-based Customer Relationship Management [CRM] solution, BuddyCRM, has unveiled a sophisticated email marketing module, designed to help businesses drive increased revenue and bounce back from COVID-19.

Launched in 2016, BuddyCRM was founded by Managing Director, Philip Mayling, who required an easy-to-use but sophisticated CRM tool for his foodservice distribution firm, MKG Foods, after struggling with now competing products.

Fast forward 5-years and BuddyCRM is now used by thousands of SMEs across the UK, who benefit from the platform’s host of sophisticated features, which are tailored to individual use.

The new email marketing module is the latest feature to be unveiled by the leading CRM provider, which enables users to implement pre-existing email marketing templates, increase engagement with both existing and potential customers and automate key activities for staff following interaction via email sends, without any human engagement or manual work.

As a result, users will be able to drive increased ROI from core sales and marketing activity, without an increase in staff costs; enabling businesses to recover quicker from losses garnered by the current pandemic.

Adam Hannath, Client Relationship Director for BuddyCRM, explained: “BuddyCRM was founded to provide sales and customer service professionals with an easy-to-use CRM solution that actually reduced time spent on manual tasks, whilst improving team collaboration, customer service delivery and resulting sales.

The new email marketing module is the latest feature to be unveiled by BuddyCRM and has been created specifically to help users automate fundamental tasks, such as list management, follow-up emails and management of new email chains, reducing staff time and costs, whilst helping to drive new sales and increase ROI. Since rolling the feature out, we have received extremely positive feedback from both existing and new customers and are confident it will help businesses recover over the coming months.”

Headquartered in the Midlands, BuddyCRM boasts an impressive client retention rate of 99% and is renowned for its unique ’3-click’ functionality, enabling users to complete all actions with just 3 touchpoints.

Now available to all users, the new email marketing module is supplementary to the main BuddyCRM Customer Relationship Management solution.