100%? Try 330% in demand gen leads

How we put smart data science to work for Thomas International

The Ask

Thomas International combines technology, psychology and data to help organisations make smarter people decisions. But previous paid media campaigns were not, well, as smart as they could be. Thomas simply had no visibility of how leads were performing because it didn’t really measure them. A LinkedIn promotion here and a PPC campaign there… it just wasn’t cutting it.

Thomas came to us with a demand gen project but it quickly became more than a numbers game. Thomas wanted to make up a shortfall of leads caused by the pandemic, but also convert these later on. And since we’re here, we might as well help the team at Thomas to build on its limited data and make the brand really stand out.

With ambitious targets and little-to-no data to guide us, Thomas needed us to:

• Identify ideal customers
• Understand the most effective methods and channels to reach them
• Monitor and improve how leads performed throughout

So, here’s what we did.

The Answer

First up – a funnel audit (come on, the Martech guys love a funnel). This helped us get to grips with Thomas’s processes. Then, it was time for some serious planning and testing.

Until finally, the big reveal (where’s a drum roll when you need it?) – a comprehensive demand gen engine. And the web and development teams at Thomas bowed down before… they didn’t. But they did help us get it up and running. And it gave them the customer insight they needed to make a lot of noise for themselves.

We carried out test-and-learn paid media to identify the ideal customer. After this, you guessed it – another full funnel audit (the MarTech guys just can’t get enough). And to monitor how leads performed throughout the sales funnel, we optimised and experimented with different stages of the conversion journey.

Paid media was all about the usual suspects – social, search, publishers and webinars. Just with the added complications of a global pandemic.

The Results

Together, we:

• Increased monthly MQLs from 71 to a peak of 306 – a 330% increase
• Generated 79 won deals across a 6-month period
• Achieved £1.66m in revenue, based on Thomas’ average LTV
• Reduced CPL by 43% on LinkedIn, 32% on search and 31% through new
  landing pages created

Thomas International now has a smart platform with a serious bit of pow. Data science does the work, and the leads keep rolling in.

© TMW Business