Spitfire Inbound

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the Marketing Manager for Rentokil Initial, looking after the Sub-Saharan Africa region. Rentokil Initial offer pest control services, hygiene services, and interior landscaping and design service. The inbound project we partnered with Spitfire on, is specific to Initial Hygiene.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Spitfire Inbound?

Rentokil has a strong digital presence in the market and drives good conversion to inquiries. We weren’t seeing the same success with Initial and decided to us inbound marketing to drive activity that could produce stronger results. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Spitfire Inbound offers a personal service and tailors their processes to meet your organizational requirements. Through their onboarding process, we were able to engage various stakeholders from our business to develop our buyer personas and a developed buyer journey. Paired with the market and competitor analysis we started building our content plan.  We then layered this plan onto the HubSpot platform and build automated workflows to complement our strategy and drive results. 

What is the team composition?

Working in an agile development style, Spitfire Inbound brought in the right specialists at the right time. We have a ‘fixed’ Account Manager but this person also ensures that you always have the right people in the room to drive the specific aspect of the project like Darren (Managing Director, Spitfire Inbound) supporting the overall strategy or Alison (Strategic Director, Spitfire Inbound) driving buyer persona behaviour. In total, there were about four Spitfire Inbound colleagues working on our account on and off. 

How did you come to work with Spitfire Inbound?

I had a pre-existing relationship with Spitfire’s sister company and when our request for proposal went our I included Spitfire Inbound in the process after some desk research and discussions. Spitfire Inbound presented an inbound marketing solution and roadmap on where we needed to go to achieve success. Their solution matched our requirements best hence we decided to work with them. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our initial conversations started in Q2 of 2016. We paused development for 4–5 months due to our internal timelines. When we were ready, we kicked off the project in July 2017.  We’re still working with them now and see them as an extension of our internal team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

They’ve delivered according to our expectations and we have met our stretch targets. We’ve had a successful relationship, producing more than a 600% ROI. 

How did Spitfire Inbound perform from a project management standpoint?

I’m very comfortable with the way they manage projects. They’re able to create a personal experience while getting much of our team involved producing the best outputs. We have customized meetings face to face and through Google Hangouts depending on how many stakeholders in our national business we are engaging with. Otherwise, we communicate over email here and there. They really provide a personal service to their customers.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to adapt quickly to customer actions is impressive. If we have a new campaign, they come in prepared after researching the subject matter involved. When we tweak things with our automation, they give us advice on how to think through the process and adapt. They’re able to give us large-scale results while offering a personal experience. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to mind. If we have a hiccup, they’re always quick to act and agile in their response. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The most important thing is to be open and transparent with your provider.  They need to understand your goals but they also need the data in order to be effective. It’s important to select a provider that you feel comfortable with and trust enough to share all relevant information with to drive the success of your project.