The Challenge

The UK Government Agency faced a significant digital marketing transformation challenge. Prior to partnering with BabelQuest, the Agency’s marketing operations were highly fragmented, relying on multiple isolated tools with no centralised CRM or unified platform. Campaign activity typically consisted of one-off emails and ad hoc social media engagement.

This lack of cohesion meant the Agency struggled with insufficient reporting and zero visibility across communications. This fragmentation created significant business costs and inefficiencies:

• Wasted Staff Hours and Manual Work: The Agency's existing processes were manual and disjointed, requiring staff to work across multiple siloed systems and tools. Before the implementation, the team spent more time trying to find the data than actually doing the analysis. 
  
  The reliance on disconnected systems meant there was no single source of truth. 
  
  In other organisations facing similar fragmentation, we've found that such issues resulted in substantial time waste, for example, sales teams spending 50% of their day on administration and research using multiple tools, or staff losing up to one hour per day entering data into multiple systems. For the Agency, this manual process required staff to upskill in areas like data enrichment and segmentation rapidly.
  
  
• Inability to Prove ROI and Lack of Visibility: Without a unified platform, the Agency had poor visibility across campaigns and struggled with fragmented customer data stored in silos. 
  
  Their lack of a clear view prevented them from measuring performance effectively. 
  
  For other clients with fragmented systems, this resulted in reporting capabilities that were so limited they could only prepare basic overviews, restricting strategic insights. Proving efficiency and demonstrating growth to stakeholders was a critical requirement of the digital transformation effort. The Agency's goal of building awareness and thought leadership required insights into their database coverage and engagement gaps, something they lacked previously.
  
  
• Risk to Data Quality and Compliance: The challenge involved achieving improved data cleanliness, as the foundational aspect of the CRM needed to be structured, and the process of how data was loaded had to be established. The implementation required dedicated focus on process mapping and workflow optimisation to ensure both reliability and compliance, including specific technical sessions dedicated to addressing GDPR.

Crucially, the Agency’s goal was not typical lead generation; rather, their priority was to build a database of engaged contacts and cement their position as a thought leader in their industry. This objective required a structured, scalable, and compliant digital marketing foundation - something their current outdated technology stack could not provide.

“Essentially the initial problem was having no structure. Everything had been more traditional marketing... So here we were developing the foundations of digital marketing which was a really exciting prospect.”
Gem Rugg-Gunn, Head of Expert Practice, BabelQuest

The Solution

BabelQuest implemented a tailored HubSpot solution focusing heavily on the Marketing Hub to establish a unified system, address the fragmented processes, and upskill the team following a period of internal structural change.

The core of the solution was a highly effective campaign-focused onboarding model. Instead of hypothetical training, the Agency’s marketing team was onboarded while actively delivering high-priority, live initiatives. This pragmatic approach accelerated adoption, with the campaign launching within just two months.

Deepening Product Expertise 
The HubSpot implementation provided a structured, scalable foundation using specific features of the Marketing Hub:

• Guided Onboarding and Core Capabilities: Guided sessions covered essential tools that could be directly applied to the live campaign. The training roadmap included dedicated sessions on Landing Pages and Forms, Social activity, Campaigns, and the Content Hub.
  
  
• Advanced Data Segmentation and Enrichment: To improve data cleanliness, the team was trained to use contact properties for better segmentation. HubSpot’s data enrichment tool was leveraged to backfill and enrich contact data, including checking the 'enriched bounced detected property' before sending emails to improve deliverability. This enrichment allowed the Agency to define their 'sweet spot' prospects with ease.
  
  
• Sophisticated Automation and Workflows: The solution featured the creation of highly sophisticated workflows. These workflows handled the ‘heavy lifting’ previously done manually, allowing contacts loaded at the top to branch out automatically based on criteria such as industry and job title. The automation tied together various assets, including emails, web page visits, form submissions, and data from a separate third-party survey tool.
  
  
• Custom Reporting Dashboards: To overcome the previous lack of visibility, HubSpot dashboards were created. A dedicated campaign dashboard was built, providing structured reporting and visibility across the campaign. This enabled the team to slice data in sophisticated ways to understand end-to-end campaign performance, tracking participants, downloads by role, and identifying gaps early.
  
  
  

Strategic Approach: Agile Onboarding for a Government Agency
The decision to use an agile, campaign-focused approach was strategic, particularly given the client's public sector nature and internal changes:

• Addressing Internal Change and Upskilling: The Agency was undergoing internal structural change and needed to quickly expand its digital marketing expertise. The "learn on the job" method was effective because it provided a clear goal and consolidated the team's focus. This intensive, hands-on application accelerated adoption, ensuring 100% of the team utilised the new platform quickly.
  
  
• Ensuring Reliability and Compliance: Operating in a government setting requires precision, structure, and rigorous processes. BabelQuest implemented detailed Process Mapping and Optimisation and dedicated technical sessions for GDPR compliance. 
  
  
• Delivering Instant Value: This agile approach, described as going from ‘zero to 100 very quickly’, provided instant visibility and demonstrated immediate. By focusing on a live campaign, the team could immediately see the results of their efforts, transitioning from "nothing to something" with clear, documented results.
  
  
  

Managed Service Support: Ongoing consultation ensuring the implementation met the Agency's rigorous standards. BabelQuest also used in-platform feedback features, to improve collaboration and create a clear audit trail. 

“For this client, we moved with the very clear purpose - understanding that they wanted to launch a campaign within a very short period of time... almost learn on the job... So the team knew why, and what they needed to achieve.”
Gem Rugg-Gunn, Head of Expert Practice, BabelQuest

The Innovation

The innovation was twofold: a bespoke adoption methodology and a focus on AI-driven data quality, crucial for a public sector organisation that prioritises precision.

Innovative Adoption Approach
The hands-on onboarding served as an "agile approach to boarding," moving the Agency from ‘zero to 100’ very quickly and ensuring 100% user adoption across the marketing team. Innovations included structured testing and documentation that went beyond standard HubSpot project demands, essential for their public sector requirements. 

Strategic AI Usage: Precision and Thought Leadership
To ensure the accuracy and rigor required for the Agency’s reputation and goal of achieving ‘thought leadership’ in the industry, BabelQuest strategically leveraged HubSpot’s AI-driven capabilities to establish foundational data hygiene, addressing the previous lack of structure and data visibility.

Strategic Framing: Reaching Influential Contacts
The Agency’s priority was to refine their database and ensure they could reach everyone as a key industry influencer and authority.

• The AI-driven data processes enabled the team to deepen their database knowledge, allowing them to segment ‘sweet spot’ prospects with ease.
  
  
• The system established the necessary foundation of knowing who their target audience is and identifying where their database coverage and awareness gaps existed.
  
  
• This precision in data management was key to achieving strong email campaign performance. By leveraging the AI to ensure accurate contact information, the Agency could confidently measure how far they could get their message out, elevating their reach.

Quantifiable Efficiency and Cost Savings
The use of AI-driven enrichment directly addressed the high manual costs and inefficiencies inherent in their previous fragmented systems:

• Cost Savings on Third-Party Data: The implementation utilised HubSpot’s enrichment tool - now free - allowing the Agency to save money on credits and all the third-party costs for these data providers. HubSpot now performs the heavy lifting for free, keeping data clean as soon as it is loaded.
  
  
• Time Savings on Analysis: Before the implementation, staff using manual processes spent more time trying to find the analysis than actually doing the analysis. The automated, AI-enriched data streamlined processes, allowing the team to work faster and smarter, focusing on improving the product or strategy rather than manually searching for reliable data.

Measurable Impact
The specific feature driving success was the enrichment tool used to backfill, overwrite, and enrich contact data properties. This was primarily used for email deliverability:

• The team used the enriched 'bounce detected' property to preemptively identify emails that might bounce, removing them before the send.
  
  
• This precision in data management resulted in an exceptional 99.56% deliverability rate and a 34% open rate on campaign emails, demonstrating significant performance improvements over typical benchmarks.

Future Plans 
While the initial, core implementation focused on data hygiene and deliverability, other generative AI tools were not immediately deployed. The team’s usage of AI was centered on establishing the database foundation, however, exploring AI-driven tools and automation for improved targeting and personalisation is part of the key plan for the future.

“This client needed to refine their database and being able to make sure they could reach everyone as an industry thought leader and influencer was really important. So the enrichment tools in HubSpot particularly - that AI gap filling really help them to deepen that knowledge about their database.”
Gem Rugg-Gunn, Head of Expertise Practice, BabelQuest

“One of the features they really enjoy using is the enrichment tool in HubSpot - where they can backfill and overwrite and enrich data properties. So really powerful for email marketing, particularly the enriched bounced detected property. So before they even send an email, they enrich the data, see if HubSpot thinks the email might bounce or might not, and then they take them out. So that's another strong part of their email deliverability process.”
Carl Griffiths, Platform Consultant, BabelQuest

The Results

“They’ve probably got the strongest or best email marketing campaign performance across all the clients I work on. Just looking at the top line metrics - open rates and click-through rates. And part of that’s down to their precision with the data right at the top.”
Carl Griffiths, Platform Consultant, BabelQuest

The implementation yielded immediate and measurable success, demonstrating exceptional performance metrics for the launch campaign and establishing a strong foundation for future initiatives.

• Data Visibility and Reporting: The team moved from anecdotal success to having a clear, documented dashboard for campaign results, providing "something they hadn't had before". Sophisticated reporting allowed the Agency to slice data in different ways to understand audience engagement and improve future product development.
  
  
• Team Adoption: The strategy achieved 100% adoption of HubSpot across the marketing team.

Campaign Performance
The launch campaign achieved exceptional results, including a 99.56% deliverability rate and a 34% open rate on campaign emails - in context, comparable digital transformation projects in the public sector defined open rate success against an industry benchmark of 29.5%. The Agency's 34% open rate significantly exceeded this industry comparison, reflecting the success of their approach and demonstrating the team's precision with data right from the start.

Data Visibility and Reporting
The team moved from relying on anecdotal success to having a clear, documented dashboard for campaign results, providing "something they hadn't had before". The core of this was the dedicated campaign dashboard in HubSpot.

Key Insights Gained: The new, sophisticated reporting allowed the Agency to slice data in different ways to understand audience engagement and improve future product development.

• Insight into Product Interest: Using the dashboard, the Agency could track metrics like 'downloads by job title' to clearly see who was most interested in the beta product launches. This insight was critical as their goal was thought leadership and awareness, not commercial sales.
  
  
• End-to-End Visibility: The reporting allowed the team to track the end-to-end performance of the campaign, including participants over time, downloads, and survey responses. This capability enabled them to identify gaps early and adapt the campaign process if needed.
  
  
• Focusing on Strategy: Previously, the team spent "more time trying to find the analysis than do the analysis”. The new dashboards gave staff the ability to work faster and smarter, allowing them to focus time on improving the product or strategy.
  
  

Team Adoption
The rapid, campaign-focused onboarding strategy achieved 100% adoption of HubSpot across the marketing team. All team members were bought into the usage, and everything is now being done through HubSpot - quickly gaining the confidence and skills to manage multi-channel campaigns independently.

“The team is happier because HubSpot's doing a lot of the heavy lifting where it was quite a manual process previously - now the team can work faster and smarter and they've got visibility of what's going on.”
Carl Griffiths, Platform Consultant, BabelQuest

The Impact

The partnership with BabelQuest fundamentally transformed the Agency’s digital marketing function, enabling the Agency to achieve its strategic goal of awareness-building and thought leadership.

The move to a unified platform created lasting benefits:

• Operational Efficiency: The marketing team is “happier” and more efficient because HubSpot performs the "heavy lifting" previously done manually across multiple disconnected systems. They can now work "faster and smarter".
  
  
• Strategic Growth: The Agency now has the visibility to identify gaps in coverage and audience reach across the industry, enabling them to launch targeted campaigns and drive further data enrichment where necessary. Product teams benefit by having a representative view of customer feedback and engagement, allowing them to focus more time on improving the product rather than chasing data.
  
  
• Future-Proofing: The implementation provided a scalable marketing foundation. Long-term plans include deepening knowledge across the team, continuing the managed services, and expanding the use of AI features to maximise the platform’s potential.
  
  

The Partnership: Critical Role of G-Cloud 14 Accreditation

The successful digital transformation partnership between BabelQuest and the UK Government Agency was significantly facilitated by BabelQuest’s status as a supplier on the G-Cloud 14 CCS (Crown Commercial Service) framework. BabelQuest holds the unique distinction of being the only HubSpot partner globally with this accreditation.

This status was crucial for the Agency, as it provides a trusted, compliant pathway that allows public sector, governmental, and charitable bodies to accelerate their digital transformation journeys.

Facilitating Seamless and Compliant Procurement
For the UK Government Agency, the G-Cloud 14 accreditation offered several strategic advantages:

• Accelerated Route to Market: The G-Cloud 14 framework is the UK government-approved mechanism for procuring cloud-based computing services, including cloud support. This framework provided a quick and easy route to market, eliminating the need for the lengthy, bespoke tendering processes that typically delay government, public sector, and higher education projects . Buyers, such as the Agency, can make a direct award after completing the necessary buying process. This capability supported the Agency’s need to move quickly, as their initial goal was to go from ‘zero to 100’ very rapidly.
• Ensured Compliance and Trust: Working with a G-Cloud 14 accredited partner ensured that the procurement of HubSpot services was efficient, transparent, and fully compliant with governmental regulations. Given that operating in a government setting requires precision, structure, and rigorous processes, this accreditation provided a powerful "Double Layer of Trust". BabelQuest, an Elite-tier HubSpot Solutions Partner, was also vetted by the CCS, acting as a stamp of approval.
• Focus on Strategic Implementation: With the supplier pre-approved and government-vetted, the Agency could confidently engage with BabelQuest. This assurance allowed the organisation to dedicate its focus to the strategic implementation and the crucial element of user adoption of the HubSpot platform, rather than struggling through complex, drawn-out procurement procedures.
  
  

Ultimately, the G-Cloud 14 accreditation ensured the Agency could engage with an Elite HubSpot partner seamlessly, securely, and with the confidence that their procurement was fully compliant, supporting a speedier resolution to their complex digital needs.