You can’t build a successful lead engine overnight, but give it a year, and you can have a cost-efficient lead generator with an extensive lead nurturing program that generates almost 7,000 leads in a year. Just look at Nets Ecommerce!
As one of Europe’s leading digital payment providers, operating across more than 25 countries, Nets Ecommerce was ready to grow and mature their lead generation but faced significant challenges:
“A few years back, our lead generation relied mostly on customer call lists from a previous acquisition, as well as unstructured bottom-funnel activities with end-to-end strategy,” explains Rikke Lindholm Madsen, Nordic Head of Sales at Nets Ecommerce.
Nets Ecommerce needed more visibility into their pipeline and lacked a scalable approach for capturing and nurturing new leads. Together, we built a successful lead engine and lead management strategy. Let’s dive into exactly how this strategy took shape and led to Nets' measurable (and quite frankly impressive) growth!
Results
- 17% contact-to-sales conversion rate, over five times the industry benchmark.
- 39% MQL-to-SQL conversion rate, nearly double the industry standard.
- 45% reduction in cost per lead, reflecting substantial gains in cost efficiency
- 18% rise in the number of contacts with 34% less advertising spend.
Solution: Building a data-driven lead engine
Since 2022, we’ve been developing Nets Ecommerce’s lead engine, leveraging HubSpot CRM, automation, creative campaigns, and targeted ads to capture and qualify leads effectively at every funnel stage. The first step in transforming Nets’ lead generation was replacing manual processes and sporadic campaigns with a structured, high-performing system.
Here’s what our process looked like:
1. Transition to HubSpot CRM
Our priority was to shift Nets to an automated CRM with real-time updates through HubSpot. This enabled complete visibility into lead behavior across the funnel, allowing us to engage the right prospects at the right time with tailored content.
“Helion has completely changed how we view the sales process. Where we once had limited insights, we now have total control over our lead pipeline,” says Rikke Lindholm Madsen, Nordic Head of Sales.
2. Creative campaigns
The next step was to execute our strategic content plan: Through workshops with key stakeholders from both Nets' sales and marketing teams, we identified the primary customer pain points. These insights led us to shift our campaign messaging from benefit-focused to pain-point-focused, emphasizing end-user needs.
Over the past two years, this shift has driven several successful campaigns, including resources for webshop optimization, such as a checklist, a comprehensive guide, a bottom-funnel audit offer, and an annual e-commerce predictions report. We've also explored new formats—videos, quizzes, and checklists in both long and short formats — all aimed at reinforcing Nets’ position as an expert and thought leader, building audience trust, and engaging leads.
We powered these campaigns through a multi-platform paid media approach, utilizing Google Ads, Bing Ads, Meta, and LinkedIn. This mix allowed us to reach diverse audience segments across different channels.
Examples of assets
Payment guide: “5 steps to choosing the right payment options for your online shop” explores 5 useful steps to choosing the right payment options for your online shop and discusses how you can meet the demanding shopper's payment expectations.
Our annual predictions report: “Ecommerce predictions 2024: Prioritizing profit over growth and building customer loyalty” features Patrik Müller, an e-commerce expert and marketing executive at Nets. Müller predicts future market trends and shares his advice on how webshops can optimize their profitability by preparing for the new year.
UI/UX guide: “How to optimize your UI/UX webshop design and increase conversions” offers a comprehensive guide on balancing aesthetics with functionality and provides expert tips from UX expert Teresa Schilder-Knudsen on improving the user experience to boost conversions
By developing content for all stages of the funnel, we made sure to have:
- Top funnel/awareness content such as evergreen guides to capture a large audience
- Mid-funnel/consideration content such as more specific guides and checklists to narrow that large audience down
- Bottom funnel/decision content such as 'talk to sales' videos to convert leads or capture them in our retargeting audiences
With content placed throughout the funnel, and targeted campaigns running at all funnel stages - we built two separate lead-nurturing flows:
- A progressive lead nurturing flow: For leads showing clear buying intent, this flow enables Nets to quickly drive them toward a sales conversation.
- A generic lead nurturing flow: For early-stage and closed lost leads, this flow keeps Nets top-of-mind, allowing leads to re-engage when ready.
The structured lead nurturing approach allows Nets to align with different customer journeys, ensuring each lead receives the right messaging based on their buying stage.
3. Automated lead scoring and data compliance
An important step was implementing automated lead scoring focusing on engagement and ICP fit, allowing Nets to prioritize high-quality leads. Once this was set up, customized dashboards built in HubSpot provided Nets with insights into lead status, performance metrics, and conversion trends they can use in their outreach efforts.
Rikke Lindholm Madsen adds, “Working with this extensive lead management setup, we’ve moved from a reactive approach to proactively managing our forecast and pipeline. As a result, each sales representative now achieves twice the results, doubling both signed deals and revenue.”
Knowing the quality of their leads, Nets Ecommerce is now much better equipped to plan their sales efforts and work more efficiently. Let’s take a look at the results.
Results: Impressive numbers and an integrated partnership
By leveraging the HubSpot CRM, automation, lead nurturing flows, and comprehensive dashboards, we enabled Nets to streamline their sales and marketing process, generating 6,820 qualified leads in just one year and transforming Nets’ approach to lead generation.
In one year, we created 18% more contacts with 34% less advertising spend, while we successfully sales-qualified 442 leads through our progressive lead nurture and 319 leads through our generic lead nurture.
Another important outcome of this collaboration, though, is our continued collaboration and partnership with the good people at Nets Ecommerce.
Rikke Lindholm Madsen concludes: “Working with Helion feels like working with an internal team. They know our goals intimately and quickly adjust as we navigate a fast-paced market.”
