PTC Helps Resellers Get Out the News
PTC, a firm that offers product lifecycle management tools, noticed something a year or two ago: Several of its value-added resellers were sending e-mail newsletters to their customers.
But they varied in quality. Some e-zines were PDF attachments sent by e-mail and others were “a little klugey,” says Greg James, senior director, worldwide channel marketing for PTC.
But the potential was there. So PTC has launched an e-mail newsletter program for the VARs, enabling them to deliver material from a central content database. It relies on Total Channel Communications, a service announced earlier this week by e-mail vendor IMakeNews, Inc. (IMN). All content and data will be stored at IMN.
In development for several months, the system will facilitate VAR newsletters in several countries and languages, including China, James adds.
PTC has almost 350 VARs. They serve small- and mid-sized businesses, firms with sales of $500 million and less.
Roughly 10% had “localized customized newsletters that they would send on a regular basis,” says James.
But now the VARs have a user-friendly system for doing it. They can distribute e-zines under their own masthead to their customer lists, using IMN’s analytics to track response. The newsletters will link to customized landing pages.
The material includes white papers, case studies, best practices, tips on using PTC’s software, Webcast schedules and other items. The resellers can access and choose the material with a few mouse clicks, and add it to one of three templates available to them, adding their own logos, articles and messages, according to IMN CEO David Fish.
One of the main requirements for the system was that “it had to be easy,” says James.
On the back end, the VARs will learn who opened what article, adds Jeff Mesnik, co-founder and vice president of business development of IMN. The result is that they will have a hot lead that they can call, he notes.
“We also have comparative data, so we’ll be able to compare the VARs against each other,” Mesnik continues. That data might include frequency and clickthrough rates. But it won’t include subscriber names.
The program was introduced last week at a PTC sales meeting in Orlando. The firm reassured the VARs, who are reluctant to share data on customers, that their data will be housed at IMN and that PTC would not have access to it. Reaction from the VARs was positive even before the event, James says.
However, there will be only a small number of licenses available at first.
“It’s a function of how many licenses I want to purchase because I’m covering the costs,” James says. “Also, I wanted to keep it manageable — I didn’t want to take on 350 signups all at once.”
The VARS will be in complete charge of their own newsletters. However, PTC might offer input if they are sending them too frequently or infrequently, Fish says. Frequency now ranges from bi-weekly to quarterly.
In addition, PTC may recommend content about particular product modules.
“We’d recommend they include an article about it, and include a banner that we’ve also posted into the library,” James says.
PTC, a $750 million company, also offers an “external” e-zine called PTC Express. It goes to almost 250,000 customers and prospects.
IMN, of Waltham, MA, serves clients like Shell Oil, Wachovia, CitiStreet and ING.
