Q: What does WinGreen do?
A: WinGreen Marketing SystemsTM is a marketing agency. That means we take on the marketing role -- specifically lead generation -- on behalf of our clients. WinGreen uses online marketing vehicles like email marketing, content marketing, pay-per-click, Google AdWordsTM, and opt-in marketing to generate new, high-quality leads for our clients. We run our clients' campaigns using our own WinGreen System of MarketingTM, and we do all campaign plans, campaign execution, content development, web landing page development, scheduling, measurement and analytics, PPC optimization, and reporting. Our services are fixed-price and turnkey. We also provide all the necessary software to create, launch, and follow up on campaigns and leads. Our comprehensive lead generation software platform is made up of a number of functional systems, including CRM (WinGreen is a Salesforce.comTM partner), sales force automation, mass email marketing, webcast hosting, and web visitor tracking ("caller ID for website visitors"). Together our investment in SaaS and cloud computing is known as the WinGreen Systems ArchitectureTM.
Q: Are you a lead generation company?
A: WinGreen does indeed deliver leads, but also much more. We deliver high quality, actionable leads to our clients, plus the software needed for effective follow-up of those leads by sales people, plus software for data integrity (e.g. no duplicate contacts in the database), email marketing and tracking, and web visitor tracking. Unlike traditional lead generation companies, we are utilizing measurable, closed-loop marketing that leverages the reach, breadth, and cost structure of the World Wide Web to deliver more leads with higher quality.
Q: What is "The WinGreen System of Marketing"?
A: We believe that modern marketing can and should be measurable. Digital marketing techniques make marketing a science rather than an art. One should be able to measure the inputs and the outputs of the efforts and decide (a) whether or not the return on investment is satisfactory, and (b) how to continually adjust and improve results. So we took a systems view of lead generation and created an end-to-end "system of marketing", which includes the inputs, the "system" (methods, processes, tools), and the outputs. The WinGreen System of MarketingTM is just what it sounds like: a system... for more effective marketing... as measured... by quantity and quality of leads delivered to our clients. The WinGreen System of Marketing has five components to it: (1) Client Account Management, (2) Content Creation, (3) Promotion of Content, (4) Capture of new leads, and (5) Sales Enablement.
Q: Where do you get the lists to whom you email?
A: WinGreen acquires email addresses from a wide variety of sources. We work with our clients to agree on the definition of "the perfect lead" in terms of geography, vertical industry, size of target company, and even the titles of the buyers and influencers our clients wish to reach. From the target definition, WinGreen sources email addresses primarily from opt-in and double-opt-in lists, from our clients' target lists, from our search engine landing pages, and from online advertising and sponsorships.
Q: Isn't "email marketing" the same as "spamming"?
A: No! Not at all. Spamming is the mass emailing of unsolicited sales offers to people who do not want to receive them. Email marketing, as conducted by WinGreen, is the offer of useful, informative material only to people who fit a profile likely to be interested by the content being offered. WinGreen never sends sales pitches or advertisements. Furthermore, WinGreen adheres to the U.S. Federal CAN-SPAM Act of 2004. All WinGreen emails are clearly identified as being sent by WinGreen Marketing Systems on behalf of our clients. All emails contain the real name and physical address of the sender, and all emails contain a clear opt-out or unsubscribe mechanism that instantly removes recipients from all future emailing should they desire. To see WinGreen's entire privacy policy, and a link to the entire CAN-SPAM Act, click here.
Q: Who writes all the white papers, articles and other marketing assests?
A: WinGreen manages a network of content authors and copyeditors to create and manage client-branded content. During the setup phase of working with a new client, the WinGreen Client Account Manager works closely with his or her new clients to gain a deep understanding of the client's target market segments, value propositions, positioning, and key messages. Armed with this information, the CAM puts the content creation projects (e.g. 2 white papers per month for 12 months, or 1 webcast script per month for 6 months, or 3 articles per month for 12 months) out to bid among our pre-selected and pre-screened community of content authors. Our contributing authors select the projects that fit their expertise and schedule, the WinGreen CAM provides them the client's WinPlan 3-6-12 Campaign Organizer, and WinGreen's management oversees copyediting and approval of all content. Since these "marketing assets" are used as premiums ("Sponsored by Client") to attract self-identifying interested leads, and not for client advertising or promotion, there is no need for client review or approval, and WinGreen has the ability to manage its entire schedule to 100% perfect execution.
Q: What is WinPlan?
A: WinPlanTM is our proprietary planning method and campaign organizer based on our years of marketing management and the lessons we've learned. All of the best practices, tips, techniques, and yes, mistakes we've seen along the way are distilled into the WinGreen System of Marketing and WinPlan. We know how to schedule campaigns and activities that will maximize results, and since this is all we do, you can rest assured we execute ruthlessly. Your WinGreen Client Account Manager is responsible for setting the "3-6-12" schedule -- an interactive, online calendar showing three, six, and twelve month planning horizons -- and keeping all tasks 100% on-time, every time. With WinGreen, your staff can stay focused on top-line strategy and on fulfilling high-priority fire drill requests, while we execute lead generation according to the plan.
Q: Is WinGreen a software company?
A: No. WinGreen does however provide Salesforce.com licenses as a foundation of our WinGreen Client Portal licenses. Salesforce.com (SFDC) provides sales force automation and customer relationship management to our clients' sales people, marketing management, and executives. It also serves as the software from which WinGreen launches lead gen campaigns and to which new leads are delivered for folllow-up. Both WinGreen and its clients use SFDC day-to-day, with the best analogy being that WinGreen fills SFDC at the top of the shared funnel while our clients take leads and ultimately closed sales out of the bottom of the funnel. All software is provisioned as SaaS, so our clients never need to invest in information technology (and in many cases can get rid of previously used servers and software).
Q: Is WinGreen a consulting company?
A: Not exactly. Yes, our clients are welcome to utilize our wisdom and experience by asking us for guidance and advice, and we're happy to help as part of our service. No, we don't bill by the hour, and the service we deliver is not consulting, but rather an optimized lead-to-close service for generating, following up, and closing new business leads. We created The WinGreen System of Marketing to facilitate the process and maximize the results. The WinGreen System of Marketing includes all of the brainpower, skill, and experience that others might sell as "consulting", but it applies those talents to the ruthless execution of the WinGreen System, and nothing else. Whereas WinGreen runs a "system" with a set (and proven) "campaign organization" (WinPlan), a consulting firm simply provides access to brainpower on a per-hour or per-day basis, and custom tailors its approach and deliverables.
Q: Do you guarantee a certain number of leads per month?
A: No. We wish we could, but we can't. Every product, service, company, region, industry, and even time of year will have different results (outputs) from the same inputs. The system isn't perfect (yet). We will, however, work with our clients to set baselines and regular objectives.
Q: What's with the name?
A: When we started WinGreen, we were looking for a name that fit both what we DO and the types of customers and industries we do it for. We chose a broad market of technology and professional services companies of all types -- Information technology, software, hardware, telecommunications, networking, energy, alternative energy, etc. Then we chose a primary target segment of renewable energy and cleantech companies because these firms are typically early stage, emerging growth companies with great technologies but typically lacking a "marketing machine" in place to build healthy sales pipelines. Once we knew our primary market, we wanted a name that could work for both the cleantech (i.e. "green") side of our business and the overall technology side. "LeadGenCleanSolarTech", "Really Great Marketing for Technology Companies, Inc.", "The Cool Marketing and Lead Generation Guys Who Want to Help Renewable Energy Companies Sell More" (or "TCMLGGWWTHRECSM"), and "Leads R Us" just didn't do it for us. We knew we wanted to help early growth tech companies find new customers. So we figured let's take the two things we know -- Winning new business and green technology firms -- and see what we come up with. WinGreen. Of course, the "Green" also connotes money, and that's what marketing and sales are all about, so it works that way too. We knew that what we had to offer was a systems view of the marketing function, and voila! "WinGreen Marketing Systems". We created our logo with the "Win" in green, and the "Green" in blue just to see if anyone notices. Also because we thought it was cool.