James Hardie Increases Marketing Campaigns by 523 Percent With Marketo

SAN MATEO, Calif., July 28, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --  

• 523% increase in number of campaigns
• 71% increase in customer engagement
• 40% reduction in "unknown" lead status
• 40% open rate on customer emails

James Hardie Building Products Inc., a global supplier of fiber-cement building materials, successfully leveraged Marketo's Engagement Marketing Platform to shift from a business-to-business distributor to a consumer-driven brand. By using Marketo to streamline data and keep better track of leads, the company has developed long-standing relationships with consumers that are still converting into sales up to two-years after the initial point of contact.

Following the 2008 housing crisis, James Hardie recognized that it needed to reach homeowners directly in order to get to know its end customers and improve sales. The company began searching for a marketing automation platform that would centralize its data and provide insights into prospective customers from multiple touchpoints, be it entry into a sweepstakes or a request for a quote.  Greater detail would provide the resources necessary to make the marketing department a key player in driving company growth.

With Marketo, James Hardie increased its campaign volume by 523 percent – without adding additional marketing staff. Over two years, the team sent 145,000 highly targeted emails to customers and prospects resulting in a 40 percent open rate, a 9 percent click-through rate and only a 0.1 percent opt-out rate. Emails became the second biggest referral source to jameshardie.com.

Overall, there was a 200 percent increase in consumer interactions, which James Hardie was then able to nurture into long-term relationships. A clearer look into consumers' interests and needs meant that James Hardie could serve targeted content in a timely fashion that would better resonate with the audience. With clear insight into the purchase cycle through Marketo, the company reduced "unknown" prospect statuses by 40 percent and improved customer engagement by 71 percent.

"Decisions on how to rebuild or remodel a home take time, and Marketo allows James Hardie to be with its prospects and customers along every step of their journey," said Bridget Kulla, Digital Marketing Manager at James Hardie Building Products. "Our ability as a company to effectively interact with consumers on an individual basis has led to higher sales, but more importantly has had real-world impact in providing victims of natural disasters with useful information to rebuild as quickly as possible."

About Marketo
Marketo (NASDAQ: MKTO) provides the leading marketing software and solutions designed to help marketers master the art and science of digital marketing. Through a unique combination of innovation and expertise, Marketo is focused solely on helping marketers keep pace in an ever-changing digital world. Spanning today's digital, social, mobile and offline channels, Marketo's Engagement Marketing Platform powers a set of breakthrough applications to help marketers tackle all aspects of digital marketing from the planning and orchestration of marketing activities to the delivery of personalized interactions that can be optimized in real-time. Marketo's applications are known for their ease-of-use, and are complemented by the Marketing Nation^®, a thriving network of more than 400 third-party solutions through our LaunchPoint^® ecosystem and over 50,000 marketers who share and learn from each other to grow their collective marketing expertise. The result for modern marketers is unprecedented agility and superior results. Headquartered in San Mateo, CA with offices in Europe, Australia and Japan, Marketo serves as a strategic marketing partner to more than 4,100 large enterprises and fast-growing small companies across a wide variety of industries. For more information, visit www.marketo.com.

About James Hardie Building Products, Inc.
James Hardie is the global leader in fiber cement technology, and has been furthering founder James Hardie's innovative, entrepreneurial legacy around the world for more than 125 years. It invented fiber cement siding products in the early 1980s as a durable, lower-maintenance alternative to wood and vinyl. Its products combine innovation and versatility to offer a variety of design possibilities, matched with specific performance attributes relative to the climate where the product is being used. Currently installed on more than 5.5 million homes in North America, James Hardie has earned a favorable reputation within the industry and has been specified in some of the country's most prestigious projects. For more information about James Hardie visit http://www.jameshardie.com.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20070917/AQM011LOGO

SOURCE Marketo