E-marketing software solutions provider MarketSoft, Lexington, MA, has completed the second drop in a three-part direct mail campaign promoting its eOffers software to mid-size and large companies.
This is the first major marketing push for the product. The campaign runs from January through March, and each drop consists of 20,000 pieces. The first drop generated a 2 percent response rate. The third drop will take place in mid- and late March.
EOffers, which was introduced last March and is now in version 2.5, helps marketers select promotions to send to customers. The software also allows companies to control what offers they want to receive and when they want to receive them. The average pricing for eOffers is $100,000.
There are currently six users of eOffers. The primary goal of this campaign is to generate a list of qualified leads for the sales department.
EOffers is targeting vice presidents of marketing at companies in the financial services, insurance, technology, manufacturing and transportation industries. The names came from eight list sources. Some names came from companies that MarketSoft has had a past dialogue with but that have yet to purchase eOffers.
The front of the piece, which is a three-fold self-mailer, shows the gears of a bicycle, relating to the campaign's theme that eOffers can help companies “kick” their e-mail marketing initiatives into high gear.
“We want them to understand that eOffers will give them the ability to either kick their campaign into another gear or crank out the campaigns,” said Linda Rothstein, director of relationship marketing at MarketSoft.
Inside is a description of eOffers' capabilities. A free book offer is included for the first 200 people who register at the Web site or mail back the business reply card.
Three calls-to-action are provided: the Web address, a toll-free number and the BRC. Rothstein said about 60 percent of respondents visited the Web while 40 percent returned the BRC. Hardly anyone called the toll-free number.
Respondents can ask to have a salesperson contact them right away, request more information or ask to receive a free copy of “Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends, and Friends Into Customers” by Seth Godin and Don Peppers. There were no numbers available regarding which option respondents chose most often.
“Close to 20 percent of the people who have responded have been qualified enough to pass on to the sales department,” Rothstein said.
MarketSoft sales representatives contact qualified leads in less than 12 hours. Those not qualified are asked for permission to market to them in the future and are put into MarketSoft's database.
Sheri Ben, senior product manager for eOffers, said the average sales cycle for the software is three to six months. While she would not disclose the cost of the campaign, she said the company would only have to make two sales from the campaign to see a positive return on investment.
Renaissance Direct, Ipswich, MA, worked on putting the campaign together for MarketSoft.
In conjunction with the direct mail campaign, MarketSoft is conducting a three-part e-mail campaign targeting 60,000 vice presidents of marketing at mid-size and large businesses. The lists used for the e-mail campaign were different from the ones used for the direct mail campaign in order to avoid contacting the same people twice.
The response rate for the January e-mail campaign was 1.4 percent.
