Recticel is a Belgian insulation group with a strong presence in Europe. In addition to its high-quality thermal range, Recticel also markets acoustic insulation products. 

Lead management, proactivity in customer service and professional technical support for all construction professionals are crucial in the go-to-market strategy of Recticel. For HAVIK, this was a great opportunity to help Recticel in their Marketing Automation journey!

Current situation 

Recticel is in the middle of a digitization journey. At the end of 2021/beginning of 2022 the implementation of Salesforce as a CRM tool started. In addition, great steps in Marketing Automation were also made over the past few years by using “Sendinblue,” their previous email marketing tool. There were many initiatives in email marketing, personalization and links were established with their website and other platforms.  

However, the marketing team’s ambitions extended beyond the functionalities of the tools they were using at the time. There was a need for more advanced capabilities as well as a tool that could provide a 360° view of all their prospects and customers. Since Sales Cloud was already implemented as a CRM tool, it was a logical choice to choose Pardot, now Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, as their Marketing Automation tool. This made it easy to pursue a seamless integration and better address the entire marketing-sales funnel. 

HAVIK became the go-to partner for Recticel in terms of Marketing Automation. This because of the in-depth Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) knowledge, as well as the project approach and the close cooperation with their Sales Cloud implementation partner.  

An MVP was set up for Recticel Belgium, as a pilot-country. With this future-proof set-up, we were immediately ready for the roll out to 5 other countries. 

Strategic preliminary process 

In early 2022, we began the pre-project of the Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) implementation. One of the characteristics of HAVIK’s implementation projects is an extensive preliminary process. At Recticel this lasted more than three months. The objective of this phase was not only to define the right requirements, but also to train the team in Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot), to help transform their mindset into a strategic view of Marketing Automation, as well as to generate/challenge a long-term vision and make the requirements future-proof. 

Because of the intensity of this preliminary process, Recticel was 100% aware of the decisions they were making, their implications, and were completely in line with their strategic business objectives. 

During the preliminary process, the necessary attention went to the international context; what issues are managed centrally/decentrally? This influenced the design and determined the building blocks for the entire project.  

Agile implementation 

After the user stories were defined and validated, we worked towards the implementation in an agile way. The user stories were divided into several sprints. A sprint consisted of implementation, testing and feedback processing. This way of working ensured that we could react quickly and that the expectations could be coordinated in a timely manner. In addition, we ensured that Recticel’s marketing team could work with the tool from day one. This was done by means of training courses that we offer from HAVIK. 

The focus points of this implementation were the following:  

• Strong connection between Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) (Marketing Automation) and Sales Cloud (CRM).   
• Future proof setup of marketing assets, taking into account the country roll out.   
• A thoughtful integration between Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) and the website, to be in touch with the right prospects in a smart way.   
• A customized data model, which is in sync with CRM as well as the website and with their data strategy. 

During the process, specific training was provided; “zoom-in sessions.” This involved zooming in on certain use cases of the organization. This provided very hands-on training during the track itself, with certain sync moments where best practices could be shared, feedback, as well as practical questions answered ad hoc. 

Strategic partner  

Meanwhile, Recticel has successfully sent out the first mailings and set up nurture flows. Recticel Insulation’s marketingteam can continue with their day-to-day activities in Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot). Of course, our cooperation does not stop here. We remain available in multiple areas to create added value:  

• An ad hoc support partner. Not only for change requests or bug fixes, but also to give our point of view or to take on specific issues ourselves   
• Finally, HAVIK remains a sparring partner to pursue further strategic paths, challenge the team and provide hands-on advice/help when needed. 

Let it roll!  

To this point, we have provided roll outs from 5 different countries: Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden and France. Each roll out brought new challenges, new opportunities for automation, as well as new insights.  

Moreover, this was a chance to optimize the system step by step in order to work towards an ecosystem where all countries can work perfectly together on both systems. We always did this hand in hand with Brightfox, who are responsible for the CRM part.  

Meanwhile, the marketing team at Recticel Insulation has already grown tremendously in Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot). We look forward to continuing to grow together with them and launch new initiatives.