Effective marketing is a delicate matter. How do you ensure that the right channel is used and that the message lands well? As a "Salesforce Powerhouse," Penfield Digital likes to take its customers beyond familiar strategies. "If a customer wants a feature that does not yet exist, we simply build it."

Marketing automation is still a young science. Only in recent years has it become clear how great the potential is for integrating strategy and creativity into a technology that helps manage marketing processes and multifunctional campaigns, across multiple channels, automatically. The developments are so fast that customers often know less than half of what is possible, says Rommert Crépin, commercial director of Penfield Digital.

The Amsterdam-based "connected marketing agency" has been around since November 2018 and has since proven itself as a Salesforce Powerhouse, the platform on which they can realize almost all their customers' wishes. Rommert: "Our choice for Salesforce is very deliberate because we think in terms of a long-term strategy and look for partnerships. We not only do mere implementations, but we always try to think about the long-term strategy together with the customer: what is the idea, the marketing objective, the ambition, and the strategy?

We can bring the customer's digital maturity to a higher level with the right combination of strategy, technology, and execution. That technology is always Salesforce with us. That's not only where our expertise lies, but after years of working with various technology platforms for digital engagement, we are convinced that this is the best platform. We always manage to set the customer's goals even sharper, as is often proven."

A nice recognition

It happens more than once that a customer comes in with a simple question, but expands the assignment based on the possibilities presented by Penfield Digital. A good example is Randstad, says founder and managing partner Tim Hubers. Initially, the request was to help with the technical and design execution of a campaign, about one day a week. Currently, that is a dedicated team that fully participates in the operation within Randstad's digital CRM team.

Tim: "Most customers know that Salesforce Marketing Cloud offers tools for things like email marketing, mobile campaigns, and marketing via social media. They often only discover that there is much more possible, both in the technology behind the scenes and in the use of new applications, when they sit down with our specialists. That's why we talk about partnerships; we generally establish long-term relationships to continue supporting our customers in their digital transformation. The fact that we debut so high in this Emerce 100 is a nice recognition from our customers."

An extra feature In such a rapidly developing market, it is not easy to find the right people. Anyone who has marketing automation as a specialty on their CV will already have three offers in their mailbox the next day. Tim: "We look for the right people based on personality, experience, and interest. That often says more than certificates because you have to be quiet all around here to advise a customer well. That is why we largely train ourselves and work with a buddy system because you learn the fastest by simply working on projects and learning the tricks."

The fact that specialists are so difficult to find is part of the reason why customers like to work with Penfield Digital. And often, their journey of discovery only begins then. Tim: "We also develop apps for the Salesforce AppExchange. The AppExchange is a kind of online marketplace where users of Salesforce products can download and install plug-ins in their own Salesforce environment. That is the advantage of our specialization in one platform: we have all the knowledge in-house.

Seeing customer grow

The best part of long-term partnerships is growing together with clients. Because Penfield increases its marketing automation capabilities, more and more questions are coming their way as a result. A great example is Stichd, part of the Puma group, which has grown enormously in recent years due to the fanwear it produces for the majority of Formula1 teams and international football clubs such as Manchester City.
However, this enormous growth also meant that Penfield Digital had to step up. Tim: "Exactly what we want. We offer smart strategy, speed, and scalability; that's how we facilitate such development. Then we can only enjoy the benefits of our approach when it pays off."