Background

GE equipment powers 1/3rd of the world's power. GE Power Services, a $14.0B division of the $36.0B GE Power business, is the primary service organization for the power generation hardware GE Power builds and sells around the world. The service organization has a history of strong performance. However, they were looking to strengthen their communication to current clients in an effort to retain and up-sell clients to new technologies. Additionally, the business was looking for new avenues through which it could position its value to prospective organizations in the energy space. Establishing a strong online/digital communications presence was essential to this strategy. David was given the opportunity to design, build and drive this organization.

assess

Baselined existing digital tools, processes and resources to evaluate current capabilities, uncover deficiencies and identify areas of success from which to build additional processes. An understanding of the degree to which the online channel was integrated with the sales team and larger commercial strategy was obtained. A competitive review was performed to understand the offerings presented via the online sales and marketing channel by our competitors.

• Evaluation of existing digital/online company resource talent
• Review of current online marketing and sales platforms
• Competitive assessment of online platforms and related product offering
• Evaluation of the degree of integration of the online channel with overall sales strategy

research

Reviewed data/research combined with leadership growth objectives to identify gaps and areas of opportunity. Initial vision for a new organization and it's goals and objectives were formulated. 

• Staffing plan developed and approved
• Technical/platform gaps recognized in website platform limiting SEO.
• No revenue marketing strategy or Account Based Marketing strategy in place.
• No email campaign platform (such as Marketo) in place and tied to the CRM solution (Salesforce).
• Ecommerce platform and product feature limitations limiting adoption. 
• Overall online analytics capability very weak, limiting a 360 view of customer engagement across all online touch points.
• Little to no use of the digital medium to drive customer engagement that could be tracked to identify prospect opportunities.
• No online content strategy or thoughts leadership platform in place
• Cohesive social media strategy across multiple channels did not exist, nor was the channel used to drive prospects and/or upsell.

plan

With opportunities identified, a clearly defined a vision for a new digital communications organization was created, establishing a staffing and growth plan in addition to tying the new organization as a partner with the sales team to strengthen the overall go-to-market strategy 

• Completed hiring process and leveraged new expertise to fine tune the technical resource plan as well as the related goals and objectives for the new organization.
• Formulated an approach with the GE Corporate team to re-build the website. Consideration of other GE Power websites was also made to ensure a clear value prop is presented to the consumer based on her/his objectives when online.
• Educated the business on a revenue marketing strategy and the user of Account Based Marketing and defined related strategies.
• Brought in Marketo and a Marketo expert to drive the revenue marketing strategy and begin close engagement with the sales team. Corresponding strategy with Salesforce defined.
• Analytics plan defined and related tools/resources brought in to ensure cross-channel insights could be gathered and used to identify opportunities
• New vision for the parts eCommerce website was established and new vendor identified to support the vision
• New online "thought leadership" content platform defined with the goal of establishing GE as a thought leader in the Power space online and driving leads to the sales team. 
• Broader social media strategy defined, extending the goal of social media beyond awareness to a lead generation resource

execute

New digital communications team was staffed, enhancements to existing technical capabilities were made and new capabilities/technologies were implemented allowing for a new, robust channel to be created.

• Cross-channel online revenue marketing strategy initiated, targeting 6000 contacts at 1500 companies. 
• Launched a global social media and email marketing strategy, improving unique web visitors from social by 224% and realizing 175+ marketing qualified leads and $90M in opportunities in FYE 2016.
• Launched re-designed website with content optimized for SEO, driving 54% increase in traffic, 122% increase in downloads and 118% increase in contact form completions in year 1.
• Launched enhanced eCommerce platform and integrated it with the sales team, realizing a 95% increase in quotes and +270% increase in orders in year 1.
• Launched analytics program to evaluate performance and qualify commercial opportunities.
• Launched new online platform (Transform) and related direct email marketing campaign, driving a larger share of voice in the market with an average of 20 new articles developed per month.
• Launched a Digital Café event concept used at 10+ user conferences in year 1, driving direct 1:1 engagement with 400+ customers.
• Piloted Power Service’s use of a custom event app at 5 user conferences achieving an average of 79% customer engagement.
• Led a team to build 3 new online, customer-facing product configurators and collaborated on the build of GE Power’s new online customer service portal.

extend and refine

Based on performance in Year 1, established stretch goals and objectives with the primary goal being to make the online channel a resource leveraged by the sales organization to support their commercial efforts. Clicks and views were to become irrelevant, with sales opportunities and closed deals being the primary measure of the value of the digital channel. 

• Extended the parts eCommerce reach beyond the US to win more global market share and better service our global customers
• Established internal sales champions to support the integration of digital tools and data into sales strategies
• Created customer advisory boards to understand how to better refine our online offerings to make them more relevant to our customer base
• Ramped up Account Based Marketing initiatives in partnership with sales and product teams
• Continued to refine the outbound email and related social media strategy to better align with business growth objectives and make the messaging more relevant on an account and persona basis.
• As acquisitions were made (such as the integration of GE’s acquisition of Alstom Energy), new online positioning and message frameworks were defined to integrate the portfolios and establish a clear market understanding of the synergies realized from the combined portfolio

Summary Results

A first-of-its kind digital communications organization was designed and staffed. Direct to consumer strategies were implemented in close coordination with the sales and service organizations.

• Revenue marketing strategy targeted 6000 contacts at 1500 companies. 
• Global social media and email marketing drove unique web visitors from social by 224% and realized 175+ marketing qualified leads and $90M in opportunities in its first year.
• Website SEO and related website content and customer engagement tools drove a 54% increase in traffic, a 122% increase in downloads and a 118% increase in contact form completions in year 1.
• Updates to parts eCommerce platform eCommerce platform drove a 95% increase in quotes and a +270% increase in orders in year 1.
• New online thought leadership platform and related direct email marketing campaign drove a larger share of voice in the market. An average of 20 new articles developed per month.
• Development of Digital Cafe concept for events drove direct 1:1 engagement with 400+ customers in year 1.
• Implementation of custom event app increased customer engagement by 79% in year 1.

• Successfully branded, named and brought to market a first-of-it's kind EMR concept
• Established a communications playbook and related sales toolkit to support product placement
• GE Healthcare and Microsoft brought their Qualibria and Amalga solutions together in Q1 2012 to form a new company, Caradigm