How HR Payroll Systems automated their process and closed 10% more leads
37
%
Open rate
34
%
Response rate
Dave Rietsema
Founder/CEO
Company
HR Payroll Systems is a free service that helps HR professionals find the right Human Resources Information System (HRIS) and payroll software solutions.
Dave Rietsema, experienced and dedicated long-term HR professional, has worked as an HR generalist and HR manager for several years in various industries.
There are hundreds of systems on the market and it can be overwhelming, especially if you’ve never been through the process to find a solution that’s right for your company before.
I know it’s not an easy decision; it’s something that I actually had to go through when I was an HR professional, so I know just how complicated it can be. That’s why I started the company, to help other people in the same situation.
We help to simplify the HR technology decision-making process, matching your company with the vendors that best meet your needs.
It’s important people choose the HR software with the right features for a company in their country. So if you’re in Canada, you’ll need different solutions to a company in the US.
We work with HR professionals for companies of all sizes across various industries. Our aim is to simplify the whole process by pointing them in the right direction for vendors who meet their needs. Then those HR professionals move forward, reviewing their options and trying out demos until they find the right solution for them.
Dealing with low engagement
HR professionals contact us through a form on our website, but part of our processes is qualifying all of our leads over the phone. We had to do all of our communication manually and were having difficulty with engagement.
It was overwhelming. We wanted these people to engage, we wanted to be able to match them with solutions, but they weren’t responding. When they did respond, we were missing emails. Nothing was standardized, and it was becoming a hassle.
So we started looking for a solution to automate our follow-up process.
We soon discovered Reply. The software was intuitive and wasn’t overwhelming to set up. You could just link your email accounts and start a campaign, with no complicated setup. I found some email sequences online that I could tweak and make our own (editor’s note: Reply also comes with an extensive email template library for all our users to help you get started).
The support was good and it allowed us to use multiple email accounts, which some of the other email automation software we looked at didn’t allow.
Reply helped tremendously by automating the lead nurture process. Now, if somebody doesn’t qualify on the day they use our websites, or if they don’t respond to the initial email/phone call, we’ll put them into a nurture campaign in Reply the next business day.
Once we did this our close rate went up significantly. We were also able to quickly identify those people who didn’t want to engage. Sometimes we were calling on people and emailing them and they just weren’t interested but, for whatever reason, they weren’t telling us.
By putting them in an automated campaign, we’ve found prospects are more likely to let us know if they’re not interested. We can then move on and focus on leads with more potential.
Using automation to standardize processes
While we primarily use Reply for lead nurture and the follow-up process, we’re also using it when somebody downloads a white paper. We’ll send them a series of emails with more resources and offers as part of a specific campaign. We also use it for our outreach, emailing prospective vendor partners or potential customers.
As it doesn’t cost HR professionals anything to use our service, prospects might complete the sales funnel the same day they complete our form. Others may take longer, maybe a week from filling out the initial form to completing the process. Either way, Reply has helped by sending out automated follow-ups so we can be sure we’re not missing out on any leads.
Before Reply, we were doing all our emailing manually, which took up a lot of time. Now our follow-up process is completely standardized so we can essentially just set it and forget it. All we have to do is go into the system when somebody goes through our qualification process by phone—after all, we don’t want to keep emailing them when they’ve already gone through our process—but it’s simple enough to make changes, and being able to automate the rest of the process is a huge benefit.
We don’t have marketing automation software, so Reply has helped to fill in some of those gaps in our process and automate more.
Finding and connecting with the right prospects
We go to a couple of the big conferences each year, such as the HR Technology Conference and the SHRM conference. However, most of our leads come through SEO. Our strategy is to provide unique and optimized content, as well as securing high-quality backlinks; this accounts for around 80% of our leads (along with our advertising partners).
When it comes to our emails, our mindset is simple—keep it short and to the point.
Don’t overwhelm people with a lot of text
Provide value
Don’t try to sell so much.
Our first email is manual, sent by the people qualifying the leads, with the objective of getting them on the phone. The next email is then sent through Reply:
We received your request and we’ve got some initial information about what you’re looking for. We just need 5-10 minutes of your time to learn more about your specific requirements; when’s a good time to reach you?
Reply helped tremendously by automating the lead nurture process.
Within our emails, we give them the opportunity either to reply to us directly to book the time, but we also allow them to click on a Calendly link if they want—then they can schedule time with us straightaway on our calendar. It gives them an option, which has helped the people who just want to quickly book a time to speak with you.
If you’re looking for the best HRIS system for your company, then head on over to HR Payroll Systems to learn more and get started, completely free of charge.
Ready to get started?Create your free 14-day account now
Other case studies
Erica Breuer, Director of Sound Advice Careers
Reply helps us create messages that feel highly personal while distributing them to a large, diverse audience.