Governance, risk and compliance company Navex Global rose from the integration of other four companies, unifying product offerings under one brand and developing a centralized business strategy. At the end of 2012, the company began to streamline its marketing processes, merging multiple customer relationship management systems, automation platforms and customer databases. It's a challenge that many marketers face in the push for data-driven insight. The overhaul was expected to help Navex not only acquire new customers and track the progress of leads across its product line but also to identify cross-promotional opportunities within its existing client base, said Ken Robinson, VP-marketing. “That was a big part of our go-to-market strategy in 2013,” Robinson said. “We've put a fine focus on upsell and cross-sell opportunities, basically trying to sell incremental products into our install base. Putting together one database starts to inform "white space analysis': Do people who purchase "A' also want "B' or "C'?” One centralized database also allows the company to better segment its messages and maintain a healthy email program, he said. The company selected the Marketo automation and Salesforce customer relationship management platforms, and began to move forward. The process began on the legacy websites of premerger companies, such as online training provider ELT, Robinson said. Navex changed the branding on its pages; it also recreated Web forms and updated code on the back end to point to the unified system. Form registrations for high-value actions—including live demonstration requests, purchases and company contact—have increased by 15%, according to the company. At the same time, the company worked with a vendor to merge and scrub its database. “When we put the four [legacy] applications together we found data hygiene issues,” Robinson said. “Once we started to mingle the information, we had some duplicates—some things that make it challenging to develop a clean list and segment the database.” Navex continues to scrub the list in house, he said, applying a human eye to entries over the next few months in a final push to complete the merger. The company built a subscription center where clients and prospects can manage their email preferences. An email invited recipients to opt out of further emails or to subscribe to more. The global message helped improve email statistics, Robinson said, and it re-energized the database. The initiatives have driven Navex's email open rate up 10%, according to the company said, while click-through rates increased 50%. Navex marketers also worked to link their systems to the sales department as well as accounting, allowing them to tie strategy to income. They partnered with their counterparts in finance, customer service, sales and other departments to form a committee that oversees the process. “It really gives a 360-degree perspective of our business, and it helps to ensure that marketing doesn't make a change that negatively impacts what sales, or legal or finance is doing,” Robinson said. Navex has a lot of marketing work ahead of it, he said. The company will redirect Web traffic from legacy sites to navexglobal.com next year. Meanwhile, the team continues to clean lists, refine content strategy and prepare to map the different personas that marketers are targeting. “We're trying to be smart,” Robinson said. “We solved a lot of problems. The integration of four companies is uncharted territory for many of us. We're pressing forward into the marketplace, and the reception has been positive.”