Nasdaq company quadruples incoming leads and drives sales
The Company
EDGAR Online, Inc. (Nasdaq: EDGR) is a leading provider of interactive business and financial data on global companies to financial, corporate and advisory professionals. As a leading developer of XBRL and XML tagged data, EDGAR Online delivers a broad spectrum of data including SEC filings, fundamental data, institutional holdings, insider trades, IPO/SPO registrations, and access to global annual reports and conference call transcripts.
The Challenge
The marketing team at EDGAR Online needed to increase the number of incoming leads and also wanted to take a more proactive approach to demand generation to improve the quality of leads. The marketers had been generating a majority of their leads through the standard "contact us" page on their Web site, but were not getting the desired results. The marketing team hoped to find a single tool that would allow expansion of online demand-generation tactics, engage prospects and deliver improved results without adding additional resources.
Our biggest challenge we faced was just managing the number of leads we were getting on a daily basis. We were doing a good job of generating those leads but we needed to do a better job of qualifying these leads for the sales reps," said Bill Shaughnessy, director of online marketing, EDGAR Online.
The Solution
After reviewing a number of marketing automation solutions, the EDGAR Online team selected Silverpop. They were impressed with its ease of use, lead-nurturing and lead-generation functions and ability to scale for future growth.
After a six-week implementation, the team began using the solution right away to expand on its current initiatives by promoting white papers, offering newsletters and providing trial offers of EDGAR Online solutions. The team also found the solution to be a great resource in maintaining communication with the company's existing client base.
Because the number and quality of leads was likely to increase, the marketing team implemented lead-scoring and routing processes, defining criteria to better identify highly qualified leads. "We score every single lead that comes through our online registration," said Shaughnessy. "As a result, quality of those leads passed over to sales has gone up tremendously. Those that meet the criteria are automatically routed to the appropriate sales division. For those leads that do not meet the criteria, the team is now able to effectively nurture those leads until they are ready to buy. This is done with minimal effort, allowing marketing resources to focus their time effectively and efficiently.
The Results
Since beginning to work with Silverpop, EDGAR Online has significantly expanded its lead generation efforts. As a result, the marketing team has seen more than a 400 percent increase in leads.
"Our sales department is extremely happy with the solution since they now receive only highly qualified leads in a timely manner," said Bill Shaughnessy. In fact, EDGAR Online is able to identify five times more qualified leads each month than previously. The quality of those leads has resulted in a close rate more than double the industry average.
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Download the EDGAR Online PDF on its 400 percent increase in leads through lead nurturing and lead scoring
