Situation
With a more ‘European’ model line, Cadillac planned to re-enter the European market again. Marketing and communication budgets were rather limited compared to their primary competitors. That called for a cunning plan.
At CRM and creative agency Bookmark I was heading the account team for the Cadillac, Corvette and HUMMER brands, responsible for their CRM and communication strategy and its execution in up to 26 countries in Europe. During this 3.5 year period, we were, in fact, their outsourced CRM department.
Achievements
A 360-degree customer view and full CRM infrastructure
Because of the lock-down of the RDW database we put a strong emphasis on building our own prospect and customer database. Therefore, we built a CRM strategy that heavily relied on data-driven marketing and communication. Next to that, we built the entire CRM infrastructure (rem.: the off-the-shelf solutions were extremely costly at the time), enabling us to follow up on leads and customers in a structured manner.
A fully automated lead generation process
One of the prominent projects was building a fully automated lead generation process. Those requesting a brochure or test drive were supported by a workflow involving the dealer, customer services and the brands’ regional manager. To keep momentum and make sure that test drives take place at the shortest notice. A short digital questionnaire polling test drivers’ opinions on the service aspects of the dealer and the quality of the car provided insights for follow up through the dealer or customer services with a concrete financial offer.
Pan-European omnichannel campaigns
We frequently ran omnichannel campaigns around new model introductions or special editions, using a broad range of channels and media. We often started out with a ‘sunrise’ website to gather addresses of those interested. Followed by the campaign launch with a full-blown website, online advertising and targeted emails to addresses from brokered lists. Those showing interest were followed up through an automated lead nurturing workflow either sending them (e)brochures or making test drive appointments. Hot prospects (we identified in the database) were followed up with a DM, containing interactive media to convince they were about to make the right choice.
Central marketing dashboard
One of the things I discovered was a mismatch between individual reports of their media agency and the results we saw in the central database. I advised taking control of reporting themselves, which resulted in the implementation of a SiteCatalyst implementation, resulting in transparent insights in ROI performance of individual channels.