Request4bid.com, Bellevue, WA, a reverse-auction site for the IT market, will follow up the launch of its site in March with a highly targeted 5,000 piece direct mail campaign.
The campaign will go out in two drops and consist of two different mail pieces. Request4bid will use results from this test campaign to help shape its future marketing ventures.
“We want to make sure that our messaging is effective and articulate,” said Meredith King, director of marketing at Request4bid.com. “We will take what works most effectively here and then carry it through to our other marketing campaigns and pieces.”
The campaign is scheduled to be mailed on March 22. The first drop will go out to 2,500 people, and the second drop and piece, scheduled to go out two-and-a-half weeks later, will go to another 2,500 people.
For this first campaign, Request4bid will target the buyer community. Specifically, it will mail pieces to IT technicians, IT managers and IS managers. Those targeted will work at large corporations that have IT budgets or companies which have a large system running the company’s database.
The two pieces will vary slightly. Both will focus on the benefits of purchasing equipment through Request4bid, but one will focus more on “highlighting the buyer being in control of the process” while the other focuses more on discussing the reverse auction, said King.
“The goal is to get people to the site to take a demo and eventually register,” she said.
A special offer to win an MP3 player will be available on both pieces.
According to King, Request4bid will focus on reaching out to the buyer side of the auction equation since it believes the supplier will be a much easier sell. Although Request4bid will be contacting the IT suppliers with some limited direct mail campaigns, it has been effectively using a call center for the past month to contact suppliers.
“The suppliers are a much easier pitch for us, because by working with us we are greatly lowering their customer acquisition cost,” she said.
King said she hopes to see a “higher than usual” response rate than most direct mail pieces produce.
Request4bid calls itself a trading system for the IT marketplace that utilizes a reverse auction model which allows the buyer to set the specs and have the suppliers placing the bids.
