Case Studies

How IRONMARKETS Boosted Engagement and Monetization With Lead Scoring

Project Background   

Just getting someone to read your content isn’t enough to earn a sale or subscription. To turn them into long-time brand loyalists, you need to engage each person in your database with the right content at the right time — and find a way to automate it. 

To better capitalize on their growing audience, IRONMARKETS (formerly AC Business Media) used Omeda to create a lead scoring solution that identified their most highly engaged audiences and helped them better prioritize their lead nurturing efforts. 

In this case study, learn how IRONMARKETS used Omeda’s lead scoring solution to connect with their audiences and drive revenue, all with less busywork than before. 

About IRONMARKETS

IRONMARKETS is a B2B media company with a portfolio of renowned brands in heavy construction, sustainability, manufacturing, logistics, supply chain and other markets. Their brand includes digital publications, trade shows, videos, magazines, webinars and newsletters, as well as advertising services.

Challenge  

To identify next-best actions for each of their readers, IRONMARKETS needed an easier way to qualify their audience members. They also needed to automate as much of this process as possible so they could respond quickly enough to drive results. Finally, they needed a lead scoring solution that could track someone’s interactions with multiple channels (i.e., their email newsletter and email) at the same time — without forcing the team to manually input audience data from each separate platform. 

What makes a good lead scoring model? 

Lead scoring models can be powerful, but they’re only as good as the audience data they receive. 

If the model only takes in data from some of your marketing touch points, or it takes too long to get data from the source to the model, it’ll underestimate someone’s level of interest. And if someone’s email engagement data is stored in one profile, and their website activity in another, their profile will never capture their full level of interest. 

In all of these cases, the model misrepresents the person’s level of interest — and the team can’t target them with the right offers, communications, etc. for their needs. 

Process / The Omeda Solution

IRONMARKETS had already been a longtime client of Omeda, an end-to-end audience marketing platform with a native CDP, marketing automation and subscription management functionalities. The IRONMARKETS team used this combination of tools to track how their audience was engaging across channels, ensure that data was as accurate and complete as possible, and then build a lead scoring model around it.  

Here’s how they did it:   

Track user actions across every touchpoint 

The team used Omeda’s audience marketing platform to easily track every action someone took with their brand, regardless of the platform. Omeda’s website analytics solution tracked each user’s website activity, including webpages visits, clicks, bounces, etc. With that, they were able to capture each lead’s email engagement through Omeda’s marketing automation solution and track event engagement through an external platform.  

Create a single view of each user with Omeda’s CDP  

Omeda’s CDP took in all of this information and stored it in one central database. On Omeda, each user is tracked under a persistent customer ID, rather than by email address or phone number, reducing the likelihood that a job change results in a duplicate customer profile.  

The CDP also performed automated field mapping, deduping and identity resolution workflows so that each customer profile was as complete, current and clean as possible. This gave IRONMARKETS a single view of each lead, ensuring that their lead scoring model identified the right high-intent leads.  

Profile data entered the lead scoring model 

Each lead’s profile data flowed to the team’s lead scoring model as soon as it entered the Omeda database. This allowed IRONMARKETS to identify newly qualified leads as soon as they exceeded the model’s threshold — and respond more quickly.  

Monitor and adjust as needed  

The team’s model prioritizes high-intent actions taken in the previous 30 to 90 days, like attending a single event and/or repeated engaged (email clicks, high-value content downloads and/or website visits) within the specified timeframe.  

But each behavior and point value in the model is flexible, so the team can adjust it on the fly if it’s not delivering the right leads. (Note: Lead scoring is free for Omeda customers!).   

Results  

With its lead scoring model, IRONMARKETS created three engagement-based marketing segments, allowing them to adjust their offerings and calls-to-action based on each individual’s level of interest. This included:  

Interested Audience: People in this group had a low-to-moderate level of engagement over the past 30 to 90 days. Their next move was to encourage repeat visits with website personalizations and other targeted content.  

Core Audience: People in this group are loyal readers. “These people are really listening,” says Hughes, “We should tell them, ‘Hey, you should be a top performer of ours and our audience, here’s what else you should be downloading, here’s what you should be reading.’”  

Super-users: These were the organization’s most engaged audience members. IRONMARKETS targeted these individuals for focus groups, readership surveys and special event offers, as well as premium advertising opportunities.  

They could also design more valuable advertising packages around this group. To do this, IRONMARKETS created profile sheets with this group’s demographic, behavioral and contextual data, then shared it with their premium advertising partners.  

“You can literally design a really nice one-sheeter on one of your top engaging people. What are they reading? What’s their business title? What products are they interested in? Really good homework for any big sales calls,” Hughes says. This gave advertisers access to IRONMARKETS’s most enthusiastic audience members — and the insights they need to drive conversions from them.  

But your relationship with this group comes first, Hughes says, even if it means cutting back on the amount of emails or promotions you send. “This is hard to do, but look at your top performers and look at how many emails they’re getting and look at how we’re using them and abusing them.”  

Watch the full session here:

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