CML Reaches Emergency Service Chiefs by Mail
How do you reach emergency service authorities to help them with their 911 call centers?
Not by telephone.
CML Emergency Services, which offers an emergency call monitoring system, was planning an Oct. 1 lead-generation effort — by direct mail. An earlier mailing budgeted at $100,000 pulled an 8.46% response rate and a conversion rate of 57%.
The first mailing went out last summer to communications managers at about 8,700 police and fire departments in the United States and Canada, according to John Thompson, vice president of marketing and product management for Westchester, PA-based CML. The names were from CML’s house list and to National Emergency Number Association (NENA) members.
The objective was to draw attendees to the company’s booth at NENA’s trade show, and explain to them the benefits of the system, which is based on based on voice-over Internet protocol (VoIP) technology.
These systems are priced between $50,000 and $3 million, depending on the number of seats in an emergency call center.
CML believes VoIP can help improve response times over conventional telephone lines by determining a caller’s exact location.
In addition, “these systems let 911 operators know when their equipment is failing,” Thompson said.
The first piece of the campaign was a 6- by 11-inch self-mailer that went to 8,000 recipients. The second, mailed to 8,700 three weeks later, pulled a 6 % response rate.
Respondents were directed to a Web page (www.cmles.com/voip) where they could download a free white paper. They also were asked to complete an online survey about their levels of interest and where they stood in their budget cycles. As an incentive, prospects were automatically entered in a contest to win a handheld global positioning satellite device worth $500.
The sales cycle can last as long as 18 to 24 months for this equipment and depends largely on the procurement procedures of individual governmental entities, Thompson explained.
The cover of the first mailer featured an image of a massive storm traced on a radar screen. “Forecast Calls for 100% Chance of VoIP,” appeared to the left of the image.
“Education was the key factor in this mailer’s success,” said Len Grabiner, principal of CML’s agency Grabiner/Hall.
“The target audience knew they were going to have to deal with VoIP technology in the near future and they were concerned. All the information they had to date was a mixture of fact and ‘the sky is falling’ fiction. We decided to position CML as the premier resource for information on this new technology and how to best deal with it at the 911 emergency call centers.”
The cover of the second mailer included a close-up of a Boy Scout uniform with several patches and pins. To the right, the word “VoIP” was stitched in the center in the manner of a Boy Scout patch. “Be Prepared” appeared to the right of that patch.
Thompson hopes the latest drop will do as well as last summer’s, but is expecting a response rate more in the neighborhood of 3% to 4%.
