Karen J. Bannan
September 27, 2011 - 11:01 am EDT
Last fall, Konica Minolta Canada (KM Canada) was preparing to introduce a new high-speed color digital press—the bizhub Press C8000—that would mark the company's entry into the offset printing market. The product would debut at the Canadian 2010 Print World trade show, and KM Canada wanted to entice as many potential buyers as possible to come check out the new press in person.
And although the company had done one-off emailing in the past, its marketing department wanted a way to automate and integrate email with its other marketing channels, such as direct mail and telemarketing, said Kelli McCarthy, channel marketing manager. KM Canada turned to marketing consultancy L Squared (L2) to implement a branded automated marketing portal.
L2 worked with KM Canada to roll out the multichannel campaign last May. The first element of the campaign was an email that went out to about 6,000 people. The recipient list was comprised of names from several sources, including the company's own CRM database as well as rented lists, and they were segmented by region, salesperson and status, McCarthy said. The emails were personalized and included references to salespeople. More than 4,000 recipients received the messages and 1,200 bounced, McCarthy said. About 1,500 actually opened the message. It employed elements of exclusivity, telling recipients they were getting in on the information before the general population.
“We focused on the offset printing market and let them know that type of quality offset printing could be delivered at a much cheaper cost,” McCarthy said. “The message was pretty clear: "If you think only offset printing can deliver quality results, think again.' ”
The call to action took people to a personalized landing page (Bizhubpress.ca) where they could learn more about the product and download a free pass to Print World. In addition, they were told that if they actually came to the KM booth they would get a free personalized journal, which would be printed on the device in the booth. Finally, recipients were offered the chance to enter and win one of the company's lower-end printers if they filled out a survey.
Many of KM Canada's customers worked with field salespeople. So the company's sales reps were sent emails asking them to sign in to the portal and opt in their own customers for the emails, which contained the same call to action and links to the personalized landing page.
Soon after, a direct mail postcard went out. There were four versions of the card—one for those who had not opened the email; one for those who opened but did not click through; one for those who opened, clicked through, but didn't fill out the survey; and one for those who went all the way through filling out the survey but didn't agree to a demo or sales call. Subsequent touches included three follow-up emails to remind people about the event and new-product launch.
McCarthy said there was a strong response to KM Canada's campaign. A total of 277 people downloaded the free pass and came to the KM booth.
“We saw a 3-to-1 increase in lead conversion using the email and multichannel touch points,” she said. “We found that those who came and purchased were the ones touched by both central marketing's messages and their own salespeople.”
The campaign continues to “exceed” KM's expectations. The unique landing page created for the product launch is still live, and it is regularly updated with new information and case studies about those who have made purchases.
“If you're not using all the channels that are available to you, you're missing the idea of the customer's perfect touch,” McCarthy said.
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