VerticalResponse - Email Marketing Case Studies

UsedCardboardBoxes.com Employs Email-Driven 'Flash Sales' To Move Inventory

james — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 18:59:49 +0000

Background: "Big 6" Consultant/MBA Turned Used Box Guy

Marty Metro would’ve never predicted he’d be in the cardboard box industry. The enterprise technology consultant found himself, after the dot-com bust, struggling for consulting work. His “aha” moment initially came after he saw a moving truck loaded with empty boxes heading toward who-knows-where (the recycling plant? A dark alley?). He wondered how he could streamline the whole process of buying – and getting rid of – packing boxes so that it would be easier, faster, cheaper and most of all, less environmentally wasteful.

“I thought, why don’t we use some of this really cool dot com technology and figure out a way to connect someone who just moved with the person about to move, in a super efficient way?” said Marty.

In 2006, he launched UsedCardboardBoxes.com. The company purchases used shipping boxes in bulk from large corporations and sells them back to other companies (as shipping boxes) and consumers (in the form of pre-packaged kits), primarily through its e-commerce site. Headquartered in Los Angeles, today the company has 15 employees and another 30 contractors at 6-plus regional distribution centers across the country.

The Problem

As the company grew, it attracted many business-to-business (B2B) clients who were looking for very specific types of boxes, in a set quantity, and shipped by a certain time period. Marty, CEO, needed a way to quickly notify these clients the minute he had the inventory that fit their requirements. Getting the message out quickly – and closing the sale – also would reduce the time the inventory sat in his warehouses.

The Discovery Process

Since its early days, UsedCardboardBoxes.com has been sending out regular email marketing newsletters to stay in touch with both its B2B and business-to-consumer (B2C) customers in a non-obtrusive way. Marty chose VerticalResponse in part because, “We wanted to support our small business peers,” he says.

As the company searched for a way to send very specific B2B inventory communications to a targeted pool of people, it became clear that the solution was email. The ability to tailor email lists to clients who wanted the available inventory was crucial, and VerticalResponse provided the list segmentation options to achieve that. The reporting and data provided by VerticalResponse also was important to Marty’s team, so they could make sure the messaging was as relevant as possible.

The Solution: The 'Flash Sale' for Boxes

Using VerticalResponse, UsedCardboardBoxes.com now sends “inventory blasts” to those specific B2B clients that have expressed an interest; think a super-targeted “flash sale” for cardboard boxes. The blasts feature the type of box and quantity available, and are sent to a highly targeted list of customers who have requested those specs, which typically range between 125 and 150 email addresses.

Results: A Win-Win-Win

The email campaigns can achieve an open rate of 30 percent or more and the company often gets a sale the same day. “Of course, we only need one positive response to make that email successful,” said David Rodriguez, National Operations Manager.

Recently, an inventory blast not only led to the sale of the highlighted inventory, but also brought in two other orders, resulting in more than $13,000 in sales from one email. A huge return for a small investment.

The general monthly email newsletter, which contains company updates, sustainability tips, links to press mentions and more, continues to perform well, too. B2B emails often achieve open rates of 15 to 20 percent and B2C emails achieve 8 to 10 percent. A single email newsletter can generate between $12,000 and $18,000 in sales.

“The numbers are great, and knowing that we’re making money by supporting the environment really gets me going,” said Marty. “I’m proud of being able to help our customers help the environment.”

Category:

Email Marketing Case Studies

PropertyPageMaker.com Uses VerticalResponse API For Virtual Real Estate Flyers

laura — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 00:31:14 +0000

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Background

Founded in 2006, PropertyPageMaker.com helps real-estate agents and brokerages strengthen their brand and reduce their workload by automating the process of creating effective real-estate flyers.

Since its inception, PropertyPageMaker.com has helped thousands of real estate businesses by offering an easy-to-use website application which helps realtors to create, print & distribute real estate flyers. The company has been published in Forbes Magazine Online, ABC News Chicago and Reuters.com for having an online service that virtually has real-estate flyers creating themselves. The company is owned by Green Tie Logic, Inc.

Problem

PropertyPageMaker.com was looking for an alternative to traditional passive methods of advertising for the real estate market, so they could help real estate agents sell their clients’ property more effectively. The company decided the best approach was to take a traditional and familiar marketing tool—the printed real estate flyer—and convert it to an email marketing flyer. This would allow agents to connect with buyers and other agents in a format they’re accustomed to. The search for an email marketing company with an API began.

Discovery

First, the company researched a handful of email marketing providers to see who would allow them to increase their real estate service offerings, while maintaining the look and feel of their brand. Specifically, they were looking for a provider with an API that would integrate seamlessly within PropertyPageMaker.com. The search was conducted through Google.

Green Tie Logic founders Michael Stein and Gail Sparks had used VerticalResponse in the past for email marketing, and decided this would be the best partner for their virtual real estate flyers. “VerticalResponse was the only provider that had a robust email marketing API that would give us complete control over the application. We knew with our system we would be able to bring email marketing to all real estate professionals, regardless of their technical background. Most importantly it could deliver the type of tracking and business metrics our realtors need to grow their business.”

Solution

Since successfully integrating with the VerticalResponse API, Property PageMaker has seen great results. They now give real estate agents the ability to:

Create quick HTML email flyers using VerticalResponse
Export their flyers into PDF format so they can print them from home, from a print shop, or order prints at wholesale prices from PropertyPageMaker.com
Send their own email campaigns to their network and personal contacts

Michael said, “By merging our technology with VerticalResponse—and pairing this with our network and understanding of realtor needs—we are able to help real estate agents actively promote their listings more effectively. Once an agent runs an email flyer campaign through PropertyPagemaker.com they can immediately get reporting on its performance. Realtors know right away who is interested in the property. They know who opened the email, who unsubscribed from their list and who requested more information on the listing. In addition to that there has been very minimal upkeep on the integration so far.”

Results

PropertyPageMaker.com now has realtors across the country using their virtual email flyers, including those who are new to the real estate industry.

One such customer is Sherman Oaks, CA-based realtor Alan Taylor, www.AlanTaylorRealEstate.com, who works for the John Aaroe Group. “Before we found out about the virtual email flyers, we had to use a passive method for getting the word out on our homes for sale—the MLS (multiple listing service database) and public displays. Now we use one of the most dynamic and active ways to market a property today: the virtual real estate flyer from PropertyPageMaker.com,” said AIan.

“Recently we had a really unique house listing formerly owned by someone in the entertainment industry. So we sent a virtual email flyer to all agents from Studio City to Beverly Hills letting them know about the listing. We had tremendous results from this approach—we got 25 percent more people attending the home viewing than we would have gotten just by doing an MLS listing. As a result of the email, we had four offers on the house, and we were able to sell it quickly. We see measureable benefits for our business by using email flyer marketing. It’s an absolute must for agents to use this marketing tool in real estate to aggressively market their listings. If you’re not using it, you’re doing a disservice to your clients.”

Another customer who is using PropertyPageMaker.com successfully for her business is Texas-based Sherry Alexander, President of MLS Graphics, www.MLSGraphics.com. Sherry is a marketing contractor for the real estate industry, who helps her clients with sales and marketing. “I’m really passionate about keeping the real estate profession up to date with new technologies that are both cost effective and productive. Savvy real estate professionals are keenly aware of the need to “go green;” and email marketing flyers save paper and help them to impress their clients.”

“A new trend of agent-to-agent email marketing has emerged and is quickly overwhelming agents as they filter through hundreds of emails daily. Agents need to be able to communicate the right balance of pictures and property information by email quickly—and to a targeted list of agents they know. They can collaborate smarter with the tools PropertyPagemaker.com and VerticalResponse provide,” said Sherry.

“The great thing about using PropertyPageMaker.com is that also you get tracking—statistics such as who unsubscribed, opened, and clicked on links within your email—and this can really help your business, because you can follow up with those who are engaging with your emails. Ultimately that leads to more sales!”

Category:

Email Marketing Case Studies

VerticalResponse Helps Afterschool Alliance to Lobby the White House

laura — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 23:23:38 +0000

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Background

The Afterschool Alliance is a non-profit organization that was established in 2000 by bodies such as the U.S. Department of Education, and J.C. Penney Company, Inc. This organization works on behalf of all children who need afterschool programs, in particular the 15 million U.S. children who are alone and unsupervised after school.

Today the Afterschool Alliance has more than 25,000 afterschool program partners and its publications reach more than 65,000 people every month. It works with the Administration, the U.S. Congress, governors, mayors and advocates across the country.

Problem

In order to bring in all the funding and support needed to maintain each program, the Afterschool Alliance needs to communicate to its afterschool programs as well as a broader database of key stakeholders and politicians.

Initially, the Afterschool Alliance did this by sending out a package of materials to their stakeholders. As could be expected, this process was clunky and inefficient. "It wasn’t fast and it wasn’t user friendly. Most importantly, we didn’t have any data to report on," said Ursula Helminski, vice president of External Affairs at the Afterschool Alliance.

Discovery

While networking at a fundraising event in San Francisco, an executive director at the Afterschool Alliance met VerticalResponse’s CEO Janine Popick, and they got chatting. During their conversation, Janine let them know she loved what the Afterschool Alliance was doing, and would provide their email marketing for free as part of the VerticalResponse for Non-Profit program.

The Afterschool Alliance had already begun researching several email service providers, as they felt it would be an economical solution. "We looked into several email marketing companies. In the end we felt like VerticalResponse was the best fit for us, as it enabled us to do everything we wanted to do, and they are committed to helping non-profits," said Helminski.

Solution

The VerticalResponse Non-Profit Program was the perfect solution for the Afterschool Alliance; because they are a 501(c)(3) they receive up to 10,000 emails a month from VerticalResponse for free.

The Afterschool Alliance now uses email in a variety of ways, primarily to send their monthly newsletter which includes information about policy changes, letters to the editor of the New York Times, and any information that the community needs to act upon. They also send out email messages whenever important policy information is available. "VerticalResponse is a critical part of our efforts to mobilize concerned citizens, parents, afterschool programs and community leaders to make the case for more afterschool investments," said Helminski.

Results

After adopting email marketing, Afterschool Alliance is able to spread their message quickly and efficiently to their entire database. One of the most powerful demonstrations of the power of email marketing occurred when then-President Bush proposed cutting funding for afterschool programs. The Afterschool Alliance quickly sent 600 free emails through VerticalResponse to key partners and stakeholders—and this act helped generated 40,000 calls and emails to the White House.

Helminski said, "The mobilization of grassroots voices, including VerticalResponse emails, has helped the Afterschool Alliance not only build an engaged network, but help ensure that 8.4 million kids do have a safe place to go when the school bell rings."

Update: Afterschool Alliance Uses VerticalResponse To Coordinate 8,000 Events, 1 Million People

Aim: In October, Afterschool Alliance had their grassroots rally for "Lights On Afterschool." More than 8,000 afterschool programs held events nationwide, attracting media and 1 million Americans.

How Did They Do It? The Afterschool Alliance used VerticalResponse email marketing marketing to communicate weekly with those who had signed up. The emails acted as planning updates for the events, and linked to various resources in the online event planning kit, and organized events at each site. (See more at www.afterschoolalliance.org/loa.cfm)

Results

Open rates for the weekly event emails was roughly 25%.
With the help of VerticalResponse, Lights on Afterschool had a million people come together on October 22 to rally for the afterschool programs that keep kids safe, inspire them to learn, and help working families.

Category:

Email Marketing Case Studies

VerticalResponse Drives Repeat Customer Revenue for ValuePetSupplies.com

laura — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 23:18:35 +0000

Background

As part of their family pet business, the Piech family started ValuePetSupplies.com. Their goal is to offer pet-related products for the pet owner’s everyday needs at the most competitive prices possible. ValuePetSupples.com is 100 percent online–and ships from a 35,000 square foot warehouse in Livingston, TN.

Problem

ValuePetSupplies.com uses search engine marketing and social media to generate sales. Though successful in adding over one hundred new customers per day, as of January 2009 ValuePetSupplies.com wasn’t running any customer retention programs. Zachary Piech, Owner of ValuePetSupplies.com, could see this was a problem based on the company’s repeat customer sales of less than 20 percent.

Discovery

Piech shared his problem with a friend and former business associate, and was strongly encouraged to launch a VerticalResponse campaign! Though Piech had vast experience with Vertical Response, day-to-day business priorities had prevented him from investing time in email marketing for his growing company.

After sending out a few successful campaigns in January and February, Piech was so impressed with his return on investment that he hired a marketing and sales manager to drive ValuePetSupplies.com marketing and retention programs.

Solution

ValuePetSupplies.com now sends out an average of 30 email campaigns a month with VerticalResponse to a customer base of just over 100,000. “We start our campaigns the first of every month and probably have five or six campaigns going at a time, each targeted to specific types of buyers,” said Nick Carter, Marketing and Sales Manager for ValuePetSupplies.com.

These campaigns have provided insight to ValuePetSupplies.com on which products work well in emails, and which type of customer will respond to different offers. They use this information to segment lists and send very targeted messages.

"ValuePetSupplies generates over 10% of it's revenue with VerticalResponse email campaigns. Every $1 spent on VR email generates $8 gross profit. That's 400% better than our Google, Bing and Yahoo search marketing campaign results, making VerticalResponse #1 in marketing ROI at over 2000%." Nick Carter, Marketing Sales Manager, ValuePetSupplies.com

Results

Before ValuePetSupplies.com was sending emails campaigns on a regular basis, repeat customers created 20% of the monthly revenue. With the help of VerticalResponse, the company has increased this to 30% within three months. "The ROI on Vertical Response campaigns are mind-boggling. 10% of company revenue comes from these campaigns, and it is not unusual to see over 7000% return on investment," said Carter. "Vertical Response is our mostmarketing tool, and a crucial growth driver for ValuePetSupplies!"

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Category:

Email Marketing Case Studies

LockPickShop Uses VerticalResponse Email Marketing To Boost Facebook Fan Base and Bring in Revenue

laura — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 23:14:26 +0000

Background

LockPickShop.com has been in business since 2000, and today it ships to 60 countries worldwide. Over that time, LockPickShop has modified and expanded its product line to supply a number of businesses & organizations with lock picking and auto entry tools. Their customer base includes locksmiths, students of the trade, US Military and first responders. Another major part of their customer base is made up of law enforcement personnel such as Police departments, Homeland Security, the FBI, and the DEA.

LockPickShop is also a large supplier of props for TV shows such as Law and Order, CSI, and Bones. Glynn Gallagher owns the company and operates it by herself, through the help of a fulfillment center for shipping and invoices.

"When you see a television show or a movie where someone is breaking into a car or a home, it’s likely the tools came from the LockPickShop," said Glynn Gallagher, Owner, LockPickShop.

Problem

When LockPickShop started 10 years ago, Gallagher did not have much knowledge of formal marketing techniques. Prior to signing up with VerticalResponse, LockPickShop was primarily advertising on specialty forums for locksmiths and using Google AdWords.

The LockPickShop is a very niche business, and needed to expand their customer base and ensure more customers were connecting with them through social media. Gallagher decided to try email marketing two years ago in order to meet those goals.

Discovery

Although Gallagher was new to email marketing, she was convinced it would be a good tactic for her small business. Initially, she decided to test out several different email marketing companies, and see which one she liked best.

"I went through the trial program for three email marketing companies, and chose to stay with VerticalResponse because it was easy and didn’t make my head hurt!" said Gallagher.

Solution

For the past two years, LockPickShop has been using VerticalResponse’s email marketing service. Gallagher regularly uses the VerticalResponse online support resources, email marketing templates, and webinars. She states, "The resources from VerticalResponse really make a big difference in how the world perceives us, and allows us to compete in the marketplace on a much larger scale than your typical small business."

In October 2009, she decided to embrace social media and start a Facebook group for her business. To jump-start the Facebook page for LockPickShop, Gallagher launched a VerticalResponse email campaign asking her customers to become 'Fans' of LockPickShop Facebook page. There were no Facebook Fans at the time the email went out, and within five days she had over 300 Facebook Fans. A whopping 250 of these joined in the first 48 hours.

After the success of this first email, Gallagher decided to send out a second email to customers who had not yet joined her Facebook Fan page, asking them to do so. Gallagher had won a personal consultation with VerticalResponse during the Halloween "Scare Up Some Great Results" Contest, and decided to use the advice from this consultation in her next email campaign. This advice was to keep emails simple with one key message for her customers. So Glynn sent an email asking them to join the Facebook Fan page. Within one day LockPickShop gained another 125 Facebook Fans, and now is at over 500 Facebook Fans.

"The email I sent out after the VerticalResponse email consultation was my most successful email ever," said Gallagher. "I’m shocked by the quick results and this really proves to me that email marketing and social media really do work well together."

Results

For the first Facebook Fan email she sent, Gallagher achieved a 17% open rate, and 9.06% click through rate. Gallagher also included a discount code in the email, which was used by 34 customers to make a purchase.

"Sales attributed to the VerticalResponse email campaign were an unexpected surprise because our business sells locksmith tools. You’d expect that sending out a Halloween email about locksmith tools would not generate any revenue, but this didn’t happen," said Glynn Gallagher, Owner, LockPickShop. "As a result of the coupon we offered, we finished with $3000 in revenue from one email campaign.

Gallagher attributes more than 10% of LockPickShop’s revenue to email marketing through VerticalResponse. When she sends an email campaign, Gallagher sees the number of website visitors quadruple for a 24-hour period.

"I owe VerticalResponse’s email marketing a lot for making it easy to make money," said Gallagher. “I’m really excited to use the new VerticalResponse feature —social sharing of email—that was just released. It will make it even easier to get the exposure on social media I am looking for."

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Category:

Email Marketing Case Studies

Jackson Blanton Photographers Prepares for their Busiest Day of the Year Using Email Marketing

laura — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 23:07:29 +0000

Background

Jackson Blanton Photographers was established in 1963, and since then has been working with schools, families and executives in Maryland and Virginia. They specialize in high school senior portraits and sporting events. Jackson Blanton Photographers are a division of Blanton & Company, Inc., who have donated over $36 million to schools via various fundraising activities.

Problem

Data management was a huge issue for Jackson Blanton Photographers, as they take portraits for an average of 250,000 school children every year. At each student’s photo shoot they collect the email address and mailing address, and have to keep track of the contact details all 250,000 annual customers.

Since every high school graduate’s parents want to capture the hand shake when they walk across the stage on graduation day, it’s important to get information about their photo into their hands the day after they graduate. And since many of them will likely change their email and mailing addresses, timing is of the essence.

Originally, Jackson Blanton Photographers communicated with students through both postcards and emails. The first challenge here was they were using a postcard company with a minimum order requirement. In addition, the postcards had to be ordered relatively far in advance, and involved a manual process for the labels and postage. They were also sending emails to each student through a personal email service in small batches at a time.

Discovery

Jackson was introduced to VerticalResponse by a colleague in his last business. He remembered hearing about the service when his personal emails to students started to get blocked because of the large quantities he was sending. The business simply could not manage their entire email database on their own, as they were in demand!

Solution

After making the decision to go with VerticalResponse, Jackson Blanton Photographers began uploading the student’s mailing information immediately. After the individual digital images are posted online for sale, students receive an email marketing message which contains special offers and a call-to-action asking them to order prints online.

"Since we now have a template in VerticalResponse, it takes about 10 minutes to send an email offer to our prospective customers. We just put in an image, change the words and we are done," said David Jackson, co-owner of Jackson Blanton Photographers.

Results

Jackson Blanton Photographers have saved a lot of time using VerticalResponse. When they have free time, they create and launch emails and direct mail postcards. They then schedule their campaigns in advance so that each email arrives the day after graduation. This is one of Jackson Blanton Photographer’s busiest times of year.

On average 50% of the students that receive Jackson Blanton Photographer’s postcard take action and order prints. "It’s worth every penny using VerticalResponse’s email and direct mail postcard services!" said Jackson.

Category:

Email Marketing Case Studies

VerticalResponse Helps MODassic Be a One-Stop Shop for Small Business Marketing Needs

laura — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 22:59:52 +0000

Background

MODassic Marketing is a one-stop shop for all of a small business’s marketing needs. They serve as the marketing department for small businesses that need help and for less than the cost of a single in-house employee.

Ryan Short and his wife started MODassic Marketing in November of 2008. They decided to combine their many years of marketing experience and observations with the analytical knowledge of in-house marketing and the creative power of large ad agencies. MODassic Marketing was born on the idea that small businesses could do big marketing, they just needed to do it a little differently.

Problem

Short had built his business plan with the idea of offering everything in one place. Previously, his clients had to hire advertising/creative resources from one place, freelancers/vendors from another, and consultants still from another. MODassic wanted to offer a full marketing department and a single point of contact for everything.

One or two people with basic marketing resources was not sufficient. A larger team and the right marketing tools were needed to support MODassic's business goals.

Discovery

VerticalResponse was part of MODassic’s marketing plan from the very beginning. "I was using VerticalResponse at a previous position. I saw the value of using a robust email service provider because I had used a couple different providers. When I used VerticalResponse it was a much easier and a better choice for my business," said Short.

Short knew that he wanted to use VerticalResponse for his customers and started to research what his options were for setting them up with VerticalResponse accounts. That is when Short found out about the VerticalResponse Partner Program.

Solution

MODassic Marketing signed up for the Partner Program at the end of October 2008. As a result of the partnership, they were given a MODassic Marketing branded user interface so both their full service and self-service clients could take advantage of VerticalResponse’s award winning tool.

As part of the partnership VerticalResponse also provided a MODassic Marketing branded footer that is attached to each email a MODassic Marketing client sends. Short said, "The email marketing by MODassic Marketing footer, at the bottom of each email that goes out, drives self-service clients to sign up via our website. We now use email marketing as a gateway to all our other services."

Results

Using VerticalResponse has made MODassic Marketing look like an extremely large and resourceful company. They have taken full advantage of marketing materials and support resources available to partners. VerticalResponse offers to rebrand any of their marketing guides or whitepapers for partners. These marketing tools are great to give to clients to help them improve their marketing efforts. Additionally, their clients have the option to call both MODassic Marketing and VerticalResponse support for questions.

MODassic Marketing also takes advantage of VerticalResponse's Click to Conversion tracking. This is a tracking tool that allows you to see who took advantage of your offer and how much they spent. You can also enter how much each email campaign has cost each client to see what the return on investment is for each campaign. MODassic Marketing has been able to prove a 3000% return on Investment for one of their top clients!

"VerticalResponse’s conversion tracking allows us to show exactly how many dollars were made on each campaign. It helps us prove our worth. When people are tightening their marketing budgets right now it is so important to show that marketing can make them money," said Short.

Category:

Email Marketing Case Studies

Brintech Finds Magic in the Mix Using VerticalResponse for Email and Postcard Marketing

laura — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 22:50:03 +0000

Background

Brintech is a management-consulting firm for community banks. They work with bank owners and managers to supply strategic, performance, security, retail and risk management solutions to increase financial performance. Brintech’s sales and marketing efforts are focused on over 8,000 community banks across the nation.

Problem

Community banking has been a slow growth market. As a result, Brintech's sales representatives need to maximize each opportunity they have for contact with the community banks in their target market. They also need to track the effectiveness of all their communications with those banks.

Brintech's sales communications were inconsistent and had no reporting. When traveling, their sales representatives would copy and paste a message into their personal email and send it to between 25-75 bank CEO's letting them know they would be in the area. This process was prone to error and made it extremely difficult to manage tracking and reporting on email communications.

On top of that, Brintech had manual processes for their direct mail postcard campaigns. They were using a company that required a large minimum for printing postcards. Brintech would get a batch printed for all 50 tradeshows they attend a year and have to manually print individual address labels to stick on each postcard for each show.

Discovery

Brintech signed up for Salesforce.com in September 2008. They knew they needed a more effective way to send email campaigns and wanted it to report directly into Salesforce.com. "When looking at various options, we saw that VerticalResponse was a cost effective and simple solution, it was hands down the way we needed to go," said Susan Connor, Manager of Marketing & Industry Relations.

Solution

Brintech now uses VerticalResponse to send out a weekly email newsletter to different customer segments and send email invites to teleconferences. The integration of VerticalResponse and Salesforce.com allows for all email campaign reporting data to be pushed back into Salesforce.com so that Brintech can easily see all email communications sent to their leads and contacts.

Connor crafts the sales messaging for her team and then launches the email campaigns. After a campaign has been launched she sets the replies to go directly to the regional sales representatives. "Since signing up with VerticalResponse we have created a standard set of emails, this allows us to turn things around quickly and in an organized manner. I can quickly tell you what my open rates are and how many accounts we closed," said Connor.

After finding success with email marketing, Brintech also started using the VerticalResponse postcard tool. They currently send postcards to drive traffic to their events by including tradeshow booth numbers and an offer to stop by their booth. They also use postcards as a follow-up to leads from tradeshows and to request meetings.

Results

Now with a standard set of emails going out, Brintech can prove that about 2% of people they send an email to take action and set up a personal meeting with a sales representative. They also know that about 19%-20% of their current customers are engaged and opening their weekly newsletters. Additionally, they know that more people visit their booth at tradeshows because of their postcard outreach since a few people always bring the postcard with them to the booth.

"We are a relatively small company and to have a company like VerticalResponse to lean on, allows us to do other things we wouldn’t be able to do," said Connor.

Category:

Email Marketing Case Studies

Speedware Motorsports Manages Their Complex Customer List With VerticalResponse

laura — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 00:35:06 +0000

Background

Deemed the one-stop-shop for all things motorsports, Speedware Motorsports is a multi-faceted business designed to meet all the needs of motor enthusiasts. Fueled by its employees’ and customers’ passion and a desire to provide the most current product and performance information, Speedware stands alone as a community and industry leader.

Problem

The company saw tremendous growth during its nearly fifteen years in business, and founder Shaun Duncan recognized the need to stay in touch with many different types of audiences -- all with different messages. Speedware needed to communicate with all the diverse branches of its business – from manufacturing to retail, and e-commerce and distribution – and extend their message around the world. Not only that, but while the audience shares a passion for high-end cars, their individual interests range from NASCAR to luxury automobiles. In late 2006, Speedware began looking for an efficient way to customize its marketing efforts to reach specific demographics in its growing customer base. In addition, it was essential to be able to keep the lists organized and simple, to track the results.

Discovery

Speedware originally learned of VerticalResponse via a word of mouth recommendation. Prior to this, it did not conduct any proactive outreach beyond sending a quick email to customers who had come through its retail store locations. Speedware selected VerticalResponse because it fit all of the search criteria: it allows them to conduct market research, track how effective each campaign is, and specifically target different groups via the robust list segmentation tools. "We needed to make sure all our email communications have a professional look and feel, to align with the high-end cars our customers love. We’re reaching a more affluent demographic, and the slick look and feel VerticalResponse helps us achieve helps set us apart from our competition. VerticalResponse was an obvious solution on all fronts," said Jennifer Reiss, Director of Marketing, Speedware Motorsports LLC.

Solution

Since beginning to work with VerticalResponse, Speedware Motorsports has been able to continue its strong growth and deepen loyalty among existing customers. With local customers, Speedware has been able to keep in front of them with invitations to VIP events, car shows and special access to exclusive retail offers. With its international customer base, Speedware has used VerticalResponse to inform them about promotions, new products and industry information. Depending upon the type of communication, Speedware can efficiently target and regularly reach out to its diverse customer base.

Results

Using VerticalResponse, Speedware Motorsports is able to send highly-targeted campaigns and newsletters that achieve fantastic response rates of up to 20%. Using VerticalResponse list management tools has helped Speedware organize and manage each campaign. Google Analytics, a great asset for tracking the effectiveness of each campaign, is integrated directly into VerticalResponse accounts, and Speedware uses it to track conversions and evaluate the various campaigns sent to different segments of its list. As a result, Speedware has grown to 8,300 contacts. Additionally, tools such as the Foward to a Friend link have been extremely successful driving new traffic and bringing in returning customers.

"We have been truly impressed by VerticalResponse. The professional marketing tools and readily-available expertise provided by the company have helped us become a recognizable international leader," said Reiss.

Category:

Email Marketing Case Studies

VerticalResponse Makes It Easier For AuPairCare To Lend Hands To Parents By Taking Care Of AuPairCare’s Email Marketing Needs

laura — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 00:22:50 +0000

Background

AuPairCare is one of the first au pair agencies designated by the U.S. Department of State to help families find the best in-home child care available. With a diverse selection of au pairs from more than 40 countries, AuPairCare has placed 30,000 au pairs with families throughout the United States. Au pairs provide working parents with a much needed extra set of hands, performing duties that may include: child supervision, engaging children in learning activities, preparing children's meals, helping tidy children's rooms, driving children to school and activities, helping with homework and sharing their culture, language and traditions with children.

Problem

AuPairCare needed to reach out to different audiences around the world, targeted both by country and with different messages to parents and current au pairs and potential AuPairCare candidates. Prior to VerticalResponse, AuPairCare was using an antiquated email software program that was not very flexible or user friendly and found it frustrating to use because there were never software updates made to accommodate changing technologies. In contrast VerticalResponse has enabled AupairCare to effectively expand its marketing efforts and grow its business through its professional-looking, dependably delivered email campaigns.

Discovery

With a large list of contacts from over forty countries, it was extremely important for AuPairCare to find a company who would walk them through the entire process. "The best thing about VerticalResponse is that it is so simple to use – we’ve heard great things about their customer support, but the truth is, we have never had to use it! After setting up the program, we got emails out the door in less than an hour," said Sarah McNamara, Director of Marketing for AuPairCare.

VerticalResponse was the perfect fit. AuPairCare found the service to be extremely user-friendly, allowing it to quickly train its staff and implement an effective marketing program in a timely fashion – while working within their budget. "Using VerticalResponse for all of our outreach has had a dramatic effect on how we organize our marketing efforts," said McNamara. "It is so easy to track the exact impact of each campaign which provides us with the insight to continually tweak and improve each piece of communication we send", she added.

Solution

AuPairCare found VerticalResponse to be extremely user-friendly. It was very easy for them to train their staff and quickly get their communications up and running. AuPairCare uses VerticalResponse’s advanced tracking tools to monitor which cities and states were opening up email for each campaign sent out. From this feedback, AuPairCare is able to immediately identify what was working and what wasn’t, helping them to adjust their newly implemented marketing programs to best serve their needs. Finally, VerticalResponse allowed them to stay within their budget. The cost-effective pricing, in combination with the precise analytics, made it so AuPairCare could closely measure their return on investment.

Results

VerticalResponse turned AuPairCare’s mission of matching families with exceptional au pairs into a reality. With the help of VerticalResponse email marketing, AuPairCare has been able to grow its business. The number of participating host families has increased by a full 30 percent, and expanded the network of potential au pair caregivers by an additional 30 percent. Together AuPairCare and VerticalResponse are helping families in the United States and international au pairs find the best match for live-in childcare.

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Email Marketing Case Studies