SimScale is the world’s first production-ready SaaS application for engineering simulation. They dream of a future where engineers are able to optimize their designs better and faster. We want to be the destination for designers across the globe by providing a cloud-based simulation tool, educational hub, and collaborative community of innovators.
- Easy campaign implementation saved the cost of two FTEs.
- Major improvement in email engagement since adopting advanced segmentation
- Behavioral tracking helps Marketing develop more accurate personas and more relevant campaigns
Customer
SimScale’s cloud-based simulation software gives engineers across all industries the ability to test their design prototypes without having to build them. It can save customers a great deal of money, which is easy to see when you consider the cost involved in building something like a new airplane just to see if it can withstand the conditions it may face.
SimScale’s software was powerful, but their marketing team faced challenges. Their strategy centered on Google Adwords, industry conferences, and SEO, but each channel was disconnected from the others.
Challenge
CMO Agata Krzysztofik arrived at SimScale with her work cut out for her. The company’s marketing efforts were disjointed and labor intensive, and lacked the data she needed to evaluate and improve them. When Agata discovered SimScale had recently purchased Act-On, she began leveraging its power. With the help of Act-On’s automated programs, reporting capabilities, and webinar integration, she increased MQLs generated through email onboarding by 15% and saved the cost of two FTEs.
Their webinars were also a significant part of their outbound marketing efforts. They enhanced SimScale’s reputation as a market leader and regularly drew on average 500 attendees, but the marketing team had to manually enter and follow up with contacts, which a cumbersome process that was prone to error.
SimScale’s email program was equally inefficient. The company had no way to reliably segment their diverse audience and send targeted campaigns, and their developers were tasked with creating the messages, which limited the time they could spend improving the product.
Agata Krzysztofik, SimScale’s new CMO, knew these challenges were seriously limiting the company’s ability to collect, nurture, and convert leads. She also knew that a good marketing automation platform could address them. But streamlining her programs wasn’t enough – she wanted to analyse their effectiveness and align them with the efforts of her sales team. To do that, the platform had to include an intuitive dashboard for reporting that integrated with PowerBI and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
Fortunately, SimScale had purchased Act-On just before Agata arrived. She immediately began putting it to use.
Pain Points
- Lacked ability to effectively and efficiently nurture their current and potential members
- Basic email marketing service required the team to undertake a lot of manual work to send follow-up emails, limiting their ability to scale their programs
- Unable to track and score current and potential members’ activities
Act-On’s capabilities and its integration with our systems (especially PowerBI and MS Dynamics) make it the most cost-effective marketing automation software available.
Agata Krzysztofik
CMO
Adopting an Automated Digital Approach
Agata’s first move was to use Act-On to implement the company’s email campaigns, and leverage Act-On’s automated programs to nurture their leads. This allowed SimScale’s highly skilled developers to return to enhancing their product.
It also gave Agata the data she needed to track and optimize her effort. “Executing our email campaigns through Act-On increased our open rates by 68% and our CTR by 25%,” she said.
Agata then turned her attention to Simscale’s online programs. She began using Act-On to manage the entire onboarding process for new customers. She leveraged Act-On’s integration with Go-to-Webinar to run the company’s webinars from start to finish.
“With the help of Act-On, we were able to scale our webinar and workshop programs” she said.
When SimScale’s buyers interact with the company’s emails, web pages, and forms, Act-On captures their behaviour and information. Agata used this intelligence to build a deep understanding of her prospects and where they were in the purchase process. She then segmented her audience by country, industry, and other factors, and put the various groups into nurture programs that deliver highly personalized experiences. She also collected and reviewed Act-On survey data to understand why some prospects disengaged.
This insight has greatly increased the impact of her marketing efforts. “Creating messages that reflect the specific needs of our buyers makes our programs more effective,” Agata said. “Act-On has helped us generate a 15% increase in new MQLs from emails, and reactivate numerous leads that had fallen dormant.”
Proven Success and a Bright Future
Act-On helped Agata to transform SimScale’s marketing from a series of disjointed and manual efforts into a streamlined and integrated machine. Along the way, she also reduced the cost of her programs and the time required to execute them.
“Act-On makes it easy to implement and track my campaigns, and has saved me the resource equivalent of two full-time employees,” Agata said.
Agata uses Act-On’s reports and integration with PowerBi to create a sophisticated and actionable understanding of her programs and how to improve them. Whether she is nurturing prospects based on their industry, or differentiating the onboarding experience of her customers based on how they’ll use the software, she’s delivering more personalized experiences that are engaging her buyers.
Marketing isn’t the only team at SimScale that’s benefitting from Act-On. Sales is using Act-On’s dashboard in Microsoft Dynamics to track lead activity. This allows the reps to provide prospects with more relevant information, which accelerates the sales process.
Agata credits Act-On’s customer support with helping her team leverage the platform quickly. “Our dedicated customer success manager answered every question we had and simplified our learning curve,” she said.
When Agata looks back on how much her team has accomplished, she’s grateful that the Act-On was in place when she joined the company.
“I’ve looked at other platforms like Marketo and HubSpot, and nothing compares to Act-On,” she said. “Act-On’s capabilities and its integration with our systems – especially PowerBI and MS Dynamics – make it the most cost-effective marketing automation software available.”