A year ago, software company Primus Knowledge Solutions began scrambling for a way to hold on to prospects through a long sales cycle in the face of a tanking economy and corporate belt-tightening.
E-mail, the communication tool of choice for Primus' techno-savvy customer base, seemed the quick, cheap and obvious answer.
“We needed a simple, fast, proactive tool to keep Primus at the top of their mind, so when the time came that the software initiative got funded, we'd be on the short list,” says Paula Skartlind, director of marketing communications at the Seattle-based firm.
Primus started with a monthly e-newsletter program. Then in September, the company e-mailed a home-run case study to a targeted group of 2,400 IT managers who were at the beginning of their buying cycle.
Some 37% of the case study recipients clicked through to the Web site.
“In good economic times, the sales cycle is about six months,” Skartlind says. “Now it's sometimes as long as 10 months.”
Primus' software aids call centers and help desks in streamlining answers to customers' queries. It costs about $300,000.
Like other business-to-business marketers, Primus had the additional challenge of needing to routinely check in with as many as 25 people at each company who participate in the buying decision.
Delving into Primus' prospecting database, Skartlind discovered 19,000 e-mail addresses of previous buyers and potential customers who had expressed an interest in Primus at a trade show or during one of the firm's Webinars.
With the assistance of newsletter company iMakeNews in Newton, MA, Primus began transmitting the e-newsletters once a month. The editorial fare was informative and newsy, featuring interviews with industry luminaries and write-ups from think tank studies.
“The idea is to build memory shells over time in the client's mind,” says iMakeNews' chief executive officer Kathleen Goodwin.
Some 33% of recipients opened the e-mail, and 68% of those who clicked through read the entire issue.
By the time the case study arrived, the 2,400 IT managers had received four or five newsletters.
“They were more likely to open an e-mail from us because the newsletters delivered credibility,” Skartlind says.
