“You never call, you never write.”
Who wants to have their customers say that? Certainly not software marketer PTC, which is seeing an uptick in revenue and customer interaction thanks to an e-newsletter program for its resellers created by IMN.
Needham, MA-based PTC—expected to generate some $820 million in revenue this fiscal year—sells a number of solutions in the PLM (product life-cycle management) space, says Greg Norman, senior director of worldwide channel marketing. These range from 3-D computer-aided design tools, like the company’s flagship product Pro/Engineer, to products that allow engineers to communicate with each other throughout the development and design process. PTC also markets data-management tools to allow manufacturers to communicate with suppliers and their own divisions around the world.
The company has about 45,000 customers worldwide, predominantly in the manufacturing space, ranging from small to medium-size business customers to mega-corporations like Boeing and Airbus. The price point for PTC’s wares ranges from about $5,000 for the base Pro/Engineer package to $25,000 for high-end offerings with additional functionality and modules. On the data-management side, products are based on a per-user license base. They run from several thousand dollars to $10,000 per user.
About 320 value-added resellers (VARs) in North America, Europe, Western Europe and Asia market PTC’s offerings. Norman notes that he’s long been a big believer in newsletters as a way to communicate with customers.
“It’s a way of adding value and rich content in a way that is non-marketing and non-promotional, with added value and thought leadership,” he says. “Some of our top resellers had a newsletter program, often a PDF attachment they would blast out with some good content. But the vast majority of the resellers would say, ‘I agree, newsletters are great. But I don’t have the time or the expertise to produce content. I don’t have a system to manage ingoing and outgoing e-mail and opt-outs, and to put HTML content together in a way that’s interesting to read and visibly pleasing.’ ”
Thus the initiative using IMN’s platform was introduced last fall, with an initial 50 resellers receiving licenses to participate in the program. The system is pretty much turnkey for PTC’s resellers, says Jeff Mesnick, co-founder and vice president of business development at IMN in Waltham, MA. VARs have access to a predefined template and a library of content. “Pretty much all the reseller has to do is log in, choose content and hit send,” he says.
There is presently no cost to resellers to participate in the program. “My motivation was to extend the marketing footprint of PTC,” Norman says. The ROI of the e-newsletter program is based on a number of things, “mostly soft metrics but some hard ones, the number of touches/mailings per month, clickthrough rates, etc.”
At least anecdotally, the newsletters’ success is judged by increased Web site or call center traffic. One of the VARs sent out 4,000 e-mails and saw a 25% clickthrough rate, according to Norman. Twelve percent of that 25% clicked through the site, and 90% of that 12% was looking for specific product development information.
Most resellers are sending out newsletters monthly, as well as shorter e-mail blasts to promote things like training schedules and limited-time offers. VARs that don’t mail frequently enough or go dark for a time are quickly contacted by PTC and encouraged to create a new newsletter, he adds. A couple of resellers have had their license revoked for non-usage; it can then be given to another reseller on the waiting list.
PTC gets a “high-level view” as to how well the resellers are doing, without seeing any specific information about the reseller’s customer, Mesnick notes. “They get to see how many communications the partners are sending, and what content is being used the most by partners, as well as what content is best received by customers.”
The vast majority of content—such as case histories, articles and white papers—is created by PTC, and often is available in up to nine languages. VARs also can import their own content; in fact, Norman says many write their own “welcome” letter to introduce readers to that month’s issue. IMN hosts the depth of the content for each newsletter as a microsite for each reseller, and resellers can feature a link to their own Web site, Mesnick adds.
“[The newsletter allows VARs] to engage customers, have conversations with them and uncover opportunities that may result in deals down the road,” Norman says. “We don’t specifically do direct selling through newsletters, but they do result in sales, no question about it. I’ve got examples of resellers that sent out their inaugural IMN newsletter and got a new customer deal [because of it].”
PTC does do some direct selling; for the most part, resellers handle small and medium-sized companies, while the direct sales team deals with large businesses. Norman says 99% of the VARs only sell PTC products, “so we have total mind share.” There are some exceptions—in Japan, there are major resellers that also offer competitors’ products. “But that’s a situation unique to that market.”
The newsletter initiative was kicked off last October at PTC’s reseller meeting in Orlando, FL. This month, when PTC’s fiscal year begins, another 50 licenses will be available to the VARs. Mesnick notes that it was interesting to see the resellers’ excitement after the newsletter program demo. “Grown men were literally running over to the booth to sign up,” he says. “It was pretty incredible.”
He adds that the most amusing point was when one reseller walked up to him and shook his hand, in it palming a business card like a restaurant patron would palm a $5 bill to a waiter to get a good table. “He said, ‘Greg knows me. Take care of me,’ ” says Mesnick.
“It’s very intuitive and easy to use. You can see the impact,” says Norman. “Our VARs just got it.”
Network
