Prior to 2010, Alden Systems did not have a dedicated marketing department. The company had been successful for 15 years without full-time staff. A change in focus on new growth goals led the infrastructure asset management software company to create a new marketing department. When the CEO wanted to increase revenue and grow the company, the Alden team knew it was time for a change.
Alden began to build a marketing program, but they were new to the inbound philosophy. Similar to other companies in their industry, they built a website and expected leads to find them.
Alden tried Google AdWords, but realized their company was not selling to the entire world – but rather a few select people. ”It was expensive to use that tool when you can build organic traffic at a lesser cost with inbound marketing. We were bringing in traffic through Adwords, but it wasn’t great quality.”
In 2012, Little began seeking an inbound marketing agency with some specific criteria in mind. She preferred working with a local agency and also wanted a partner that understood the inbound philosophy and the goals Alden was seeking to accomplish.
Another crucial component was that the agency be well-versed with the HubSpot platform. Alden had been using HubSpot, but did not know all of the ins-and-outs. Spot On was able to build upon the work that had been done and rebuild some things for them, as needed.
Prior to moving marketing assets into HubSpot, Alden was using multiple platforms to accomplish what HubSpot could do in one centralized system. As a company focused on centralizing infrastructure asset management, they understood the importance and necessity for one easy-to-manage system.
A key improvement for Alden has been its transition to a growth-driven website design.
After the 2015 redesign, they noticed an increase in organic traffic, consistently adding over 1,000 visits each month to the traffic they already had. They also saw an improvement in the number of quality leads.
Alden created offers such as tip sheets, case studies, eBooks, and weekly blogs with Spot On’s help. It has been beneficial creating valuable content that meets the audience where they are in the buyer’s journey.
For example, when a timely industry issue came up in the press, Alden was able to quickly send out relevant content to prospects. In response, they received an overwhelming number of downloads, followed by requests to speak directly to sales.
Alden also worked with Spot On to develop personas. While they did not receive much traction with personas in the traditional sense, this step moved Alden toward creating segments for email marketing, which has helped them to strategically market to geographic locations and industries.
By working with Spot On, Alden saw a vast improvement to their marketing efforts.
Alden gained the ability to have content, landing pages, social media, a blog, email marketing, and a CRM all in one place. The marketing, sales and finance teams now have access to key data. As one marketing team member transitioned from intern to full-time staff, Hubspot’s system made it easier for her to take initiative with projects.
Using an inbound strategy, the Alden team began to see the value in generating leads through content offers, increasing leads that were searching for a solution like theirs.
The next step is further aligning sales and marketing as the company grows, in order to better serve our customers. Little noted that “Alden wants to ensure a closed loop process is in place to have a complete picture of ROI for the team.”
We did what many were doing, which was present our software and services on our website without making it clear what problems we could help our clients solve.”