Case Study: Paul McGuire, Director at First Impressions
“CANDDi provides us with the insight to help our clients win business based on real-time data specific to the actual person who is interested. Intelligence of this quality completely takes away any guess work and means we can focus our efforts on exactly the right people at the right time.”
Company background
Founded in April 2011, integrated agency First Impressions provides an assortment of services geared towards the promotion of their customers’ products and services. Its competencies span the stages of content generation and campaign execution. A client might appoint First Impressions to manage its overall business development or the remit may include any combination of website design, SEO, prospect database creation, email marketing and generation of marketing collateral.
The Issue/Challenge Faced
Until recently, First Impressions had mostly focused on lead generation using outbound activity. Owing to its success the company has grown and diversified to cover clients of different sizes, sectors and levels of maturity and introduced content creation services as consumers change the way they make buying decisions. As a result the business is entering a new phase in which it will re-launch its website to fully demonstrate its portfolio of service offerings.
First Impressions needed a marketing and sales solution which would help maximize the effectiveness of this relaunch.
The company has worked in the past with a competing marketing automation business to CANDDi for tracking the traffic on its clients’ websites. The competitor’s software had been able to establish where traffic had come from but not to identify individual visitors.
When business owners Paul and Laura McGuire came across the CANDDi platform the differences between the two products were clear and CANDDi’s advantages far outshone the alternative. Most notably, CANDDi offers tracking of individual prospects about whom it can display a full profile. The ability to provide personalized messaging is at the core of CANDDi’s appeal and central to its success.
The company has worked in the past with a competing marketing automation business to CANDDi for tracking the traffic on its clients’ websites. The competitor’s software had been able to establish where traffic had come from but not to identify individual visitors.
When business owners Paul and Laura McGuire came across the CANDDi platform the differences between the two products were clear and CANDDi’s advantages far outshone the alternative. Most notably, CANDDi offers tracking of individual prospects about whom it can display a full profile. The ability to provide personalized messaging is at the core of CANDDi’s appeal and central to its success.
“The CANDDi team is like a family to us. They give us the attention we need and make us feel special.”
CANDDi for First Impressions
CANDDi has redefined the way in which First Impressions operates. CANDDi is completely integrated within all services that First Impressions provides to its clients, and the agency dedicates a large portion of its pitch for new business to the prospect insight generated by CANDDi.
Once business is sourced, the agency carries out an analysis of a client’s operations and identifies its strengths in the particular market place. From there, it undertakes sector-specific research, creates a target database of prospects and carries out email marketing initiatives on the client’s behalf. The email contains a call to action in the form of a link to a pre-designed landing page. Based on this insight, First Impressions will go on to create further interesting content and approach the leads fully informed of their requirements. By providing a layer of CANDDi software, First Impressions - and its clients if they wish - have complete visibility of qualified and genuinely interested leads.
Once business is sourced, the agency carries out an analysis of a client’s operations and identifies its strengths in the particular market place. From there, it undertakes sector-specific research, creates a target database of prospects and carries out email marketing initiatives on the client’s behalf. The email contains a call to action in the form of a link to a pre-designed landing page. Based on this insight, First Impressions will go on to create further interesting content and approach the leads fully informed of their requirements. By providing a layer of CANDDi software, First Impressions - and its clients if they wish - have complete visibility of qualified and genuinely interested leads.
The Benefits
First Impressions cites numerous occasions when CANDDi has more than proved its worth. For example, one notable client is a London-based IT Support business for whom First Impressions conducts a new business campaign every month. Paul commented that he is able to target the follow-ups with “pinpoint precision”.“CANDDi has become a major part of our package. The services we provide hinge on long-term extensive use of CANDDi”
CANDDi also stops First Impressions from giving up on prospects they have not been able to reach through email or by phone. A recent example is when this same client experienced a flurry of activity on its website which had been created by an insurance company immediately following a targeted email campaign. The notifications from CANDDi about returning visitor activity demonstrated continued interest from the prospect, but numerous attempts to contact them over a four-week period had proved futile. Armed with this information, the agency persevered when they may otherwise have presumed no interest. First Impressions eventually did manage to contact the prospect and secure the business of assisting with the IT aspects of an imminent office move.Another recent example is with a longstanding client who provides executive coaching. Prior to implementing CANDDi, First Impressions would have relied on direct replies to email campaigns from which to approach the prospect. Recent website tracking for this client revealed 15 minutes of browsing by an interested prospect following one such campaign. First Impressions approached the contact, a meeting took place soon afterwards and the coaching service is about to begin.
Positive scenarios are very common with all of First Impressions existing clients. As it launches its new service offering, it intends to integrate CANDDi with everything it does, including its own marketing initiatives.
First Impressions cites numerous occasions when CANDDi has more than proved its worth. For example, one notable client is a London-based IT Support business for whom First Impressions conducts a new business campaign every month. Paul commented that he is able to target the follow-ups with “pinpoint precision”.
“CANDDi has become a major part of our package. The services we provide hinge on long-term extensive use of CANDDi”
CANDDi also stops First Impressions from giving up on prospects they have not been able to reach through email or by phone. A recent example is when this same client experienced a flurry of activity on its website which had been created by an insurance company immediately following a targeted email campaign. The notifications from CANDDi about returning visitor activity demonstrated continued interest from the prospect, but numerous attempts to contact them over a four-week period had proved futile. Armed with this information, the agency persevered when they may otherwise have presumed no interest. First Impressions eventually did manage to contact the prospect and secure the business of assisting with the IT aspects of an imminent office move.
Another recent example is with a longstanding client who provides executive coaching. Prior to implementing CANDDi, First Impressions would have relied on direct replies to email campaigns from which to approach the prospect. Recent website tracking for this client revealed 15 minutes of browsing by an interested prospect following one such campaign. First Impressions approached the contact, a meeting took place soon afterwards and the coaching service is about to begin.
Positive scenarios are very common with all of First Impressions existing clients. As it launches its new service offering, it intends to integrate CANDDi with everything it does, including its own marketing initiatives.
Positive scenarios are very common with all of First Impressions existing clients. As it launches its new service offering, it intends to integrate CANDDi with everything it does, including its own marketing initiatives.
