How TSR Untangled Its Website Data and Increased Engagement

Together for Safer Roads (TSR) is a global coalition on a mission to create safer roads. From redesigning roads and intersections to providing data and data collection systems to improve civil engineering decisions, TSR partners with companies, governments, and community stakeholders worldwide to advance best practices for companies and their fleets. 

Kat Krieger joined as CMO of TSR in March of 2020 with a purposeful vision to drive strategic growth for the organization. She saw an opportunity to expand beyond a traditional B2B audience and go deeper into environmental, social and governance (ESG), and corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs. “Ultimately, a lot of our work results in beautiful stories and that’s the content that people want,” said Kat. “They want to be able to go back and tell those stories and how their dollars helped CSR accomplish things right.”   

As she began to execute her strategies, she became stalled by a cumbersome marketing platform that added manual steps to what should be a simple process. “I don’t know if it’s because I was used to the Cadillac,” Kat commented. “but I found Mailchimp difficult to use, despite what they say. I found myself creating list after list.” 

Contact data comes in through three main program areas on the site as visitors engage with content and ideally should automatically flow into different funnels. But the existing system was reliant on manual, time-consuming processes that resulted in gaps in contact information. 

Kat eventually sorted out all of the layers of data and lists, only to have the Mailchimp connector to Salesforce stop working. Frustrated with taking two steps forward only to be set 10 steps back, Kat started looking for a new solution. She needed:

• A marketing solution that was easy to implement and use 
• A scalable, affordable solution that would accommodate the projected growth of the organization
• A marketing solution that could easily integrate with Salesforce and other tools in her stack

As a veteran marketing professional, Kat knows her way around marketing automation platforms, particularly how they integrate with CRM platforms. She looked at a few solutions, but her primary requirement was that the solution connects seamlessly with Salesforce. ActiveCampaign was the only solution that met her needs at a very affordable price. “I’ve used many different marketing automation systems,” said Kat, “and I wouldn’t expect it to be as easy as with ActiveCampaign or have as much functionality.”

Tagging and engagement automations for cleaner data 

ActiveCampaign has opened up possibilities for campaigns and automations that TSR couldn’t run with their previous system. By leveraging the deep data integration with Salesforce, TSR went from transactional, simple email campaigns to complex email automations and nurture flows. For instance, TSR hosts virtual and in-person events, with the data coming straight into ActiveCampaign, and then “without even thinking, flowing into Salesforce.” As visitors register for TSR events using Gravity Forms on the TSR website, the data flows directly into ActiveCampaign. 

The contacts are tagged, segmented, and pushed into different funnels, allowing TSR to follow up as appropriate. 

“We’ve been able to keep our list incredibly clean using ActiveCampaign. It is so solid and based on proper tagging and proper funnels. It gives us confidence just knowing who someone is, and what they do, and we can engage them.”  

TSR uses HeySummit for their virtual summits, sending contact information into ActiveCampaign through an integration. This event data provides critical information about what kind of participants are signing up for and attending the TSR digital events. The team is also notified via Slack the moment someone registers.  

Engagement tagging automations provide the marketing team at TSR the confidence that they’re reaching out to decision-makers who are more likely to convert and take action on their campaigns. 

TSR migrated to ActiveCampaign in March of 2021. By the second half of 2021, TSR email opens increased 297%, clicks increased by 406%, and the unsubscribe rate dropped by 40%. In addition, their CTR was 7% higher than the nonprofit average.

“With ActiveCampaign, our clicks to open are 48% higher than the nonprofit average,” commented Kat. “This represents a 27% increase from our previous six-month period on the old system, showing that our audience finds extreme value in our content.”

Converting website visitors to TSR advocates

TSR has gone from untangling data silos to gaining visibility to the entire customer journey. They’ve integrated website data with ActiveCampaign, tracking each visitor’s behaviors and engagement. Then, with that same person’s engagement data, they can attribute actions, preferences, and behaviors to specific groups and individuals, serving them the right content at the right time. 

“With ActiveCampaign, we can better track our opportunities, make better projections, and close higher quality leads and more than we did before,” added Kat. 

It seems that Kat is accomplishing her vision of strengthening ties with her existing base, expanding membership opportunities, and building brand recognition and reach, but, she’s also enabling her marketing team to transform one-time website visitors into loyal brand advocates using an integrated tech stack that includes ActiveCampaign. 

“I want to say one more thing,” continued Kat, “and that’s about the customer service at ActiveCampaign. It’s a huge part of choosing to go with any platform, and I have found that the ActiveCampaign support team consistently goes above and beyond. It’s just fantastic!”

Visit their website to find out more about TSR and its mission to create a world where roads are safer for all people.