Powering 63% More Sales Leads for EmPower HR

The Challenge

The challenge for SSDM was monumental, considering that EmPower HR had never undertaken marketing as part of its sales strategy. Although the company had been successful in a direct-sales driven model, the post-COVID environment had proven extremely challenging, and their sales model was not working as well as in the past.

Our Solution

SSDM conducted in-depth research and business discovery to develop a strategic blueprint as the groundwork for a long-term marketing plan to achieve the aggressive business goals EmPower set.

Campaign Objectives

The initial phase of engagement included specific campaign objectives:

• Increasing brand awareness in its designated markets (Metro Detroit, Metro Milwaukee, Chicago and the Columbus, Ohio areas)
• Increase engagement with marketing-qualified leads (MQLs)
• Increase sales-qualified leads (SQLs) and sales pipeline growth

Target Audience

Economic Buyers: These buyers typically hold a high-level title (CEO, CFO, owner, partner or president) and have final say in purchase decisions.

User Buyers: User buyers are EmPower HR’s end-user — the client’s HR personnel or department. These buyers are tasked with screening possible solutions and identifying the key differentiators between available offerings.

Technical Buyers: This buyer type is usually a purchasing administrator, responsible for researching solutions to specific problems and providing recommendations to those with decision-making power.

The Work Behind the Results

Our focus on the seamless integration of sales and marketing has been a key success factor in performance-driven marketing for other companies, and was the key to success for EmPower HR, whose teams had rarely worked together.

Along with deep immersion sessions during the “quick to market” campaign, SSDM also engaged in weekly meetings with the sales and marketing teams to support alignment of their bottom-of-the-funnel business goals. These are tracked through SQLs and pipeline growth.

Deliverables included:

• Video shoot
• Video editing
• Landing page
• Email design, development and deployment
• Social media campaign
• Monitoring and optimization

Delivering Quality and Measurable Outcomes

With an $80,000 budget for two major metropolitan markets, the initial “quick to market” campaign was designed to target and engage “solution seekers” during the fourth quarter of 2020, while the new foundations (including a new website) were being created to support long-term business goals, for an “additive” approach.