Rackspace increases its open rates by 59%

Rackspace uses Marketo to prevent email fatigue!

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Established

1998

Windcrest, Texas
United States
www.rackspace.com

Empowered more than 50 marketers globally

Products:

Marketo Engage ›

Objectives

Prevent email fatigue.

Pull metrics in real time, create synergies between sales and marketing teams and enable them to think creatively about how to generate revenue thanks to an automated marketing system.

Results

Increased revenue: 10% of people who previously abandoned shopping baskets are now converting

Identified quality leads early in the buying cycle and nurtured them strategically, creating powerful synergies between marketing and the business development team

Sorted leads into various tracks and increased open rates by 59%, CTR by 368% and engagement by 238%.

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Highlights.

Empowered more than 50 marketers globally.
Increased revenue: 10% of people who previously abandoned shopping baskets are now converting.
Identified quality leads early in the buying cycle and nurtured them strategically, creating powerful synergies between marketing and the business development team.
Sorted leads into various tracks and increased open rates by 59%, CTR by 368% and engagement by 238%.

Challenges.

Rackspace is a leader in cloud-based and traditional hosting, including computing, storage and networking products. With almost 200,000 customers, Rackspace is dedicated to offering “fanatical” support to its customers as it scales globally. Before Marketo, Rackspace used an email marketing platform, queried its database with SQL and they had to endure a lot of laborious work just to get open and click-through rates for campaigns. In the words of Ashleigh Davis, Rackspace’s Marketing Programme Manager, “Creating reports for analysis was a nightmare.” In addition, Rackspace had been sending out one-off campaigns in an effort to stay top of mind, but had come to the realisation that they were causing their prospects email fatigue. Rackspace wanted an automated marketing system that allowed them to pull metrics in real time, create synergies between sales and marketing teams and to enable them to think creatively about how to generate revenue.

Solution.

Rackspace applied Marketo to analysing the Business Development Team’s (BDT) vast repository of leads and determining which were valuable opportunities and which were “dead-ends.” By creating two tracks - opened and unopened - Rackspace was able to smartly use content and resources to prevent email fatigue. Instead of going after everyone and their brother, Rackspace focused resources on engaged prospects with amusing, clever content. Additionally, Rackspace leveraged Marketo to obtain immediate revenue increases. It quickly reduced shopping-basket abandonment by 10% using Marketo to fire off fun, quirky emails to coax potential customers to complete the sale. Moreover, Rackspace employed Marketo to follow how customers are clicking through their website and if someone seems to have problems, Marketo sends out an alert. Marketo not only helps Rackspace to spend its marketing budget more effectively, it also enhances Rackspace’s commitment to “fanatical” support.

Benefits.

With Marketo, Rackspace’s BDT and marketing are working closely every day to see how they can strategically track and nurture leads. Filtering the tracks has produced outstanding results, increasing open rates by 59%, click through by 368% and engagement by 238%. As a result, Rackspace is working smarter, not harder. Rackspace loves the way Marketo allows them to set up a quick report for any campaign and to see results instantly. Rackspace’s Marketing Programme Manager, Ashleigh Davis, says when she has to debrief stakeholders, Marketo’s real-time reports make her “feel like a real hero.” And the new dynamism between BDT and marketing has created a groundswell for out-of-the box thinking about how to apply Marketo to Rackspace’s future success.