Like many marketers, Pitney Bowes Group 1 Software has shifted a significant portion of its promotional efforts online.
An automated lead management suite from Eloqua is helping Group 1 make the most of prospects gathered through efforts like an e-newsletter and Webinars.
“You have to manage your list of who you want to target and invite,” says Jim Williams, director of field marketing for Eloqua. “You have to treat each of the respondents differently, depending on their interests and the event itself. You have to manage all of the reminders, second notifications and ‘thank you for coming’ and ‘sorry we missed you’ e-mails. Then, how do you treat those different segments or groups? When you think of all those processes and multiply that by 10 or 20 Webinars a month, that becomes a massive manual task, and that’s what Eloqua’s Conversion Suite does best.”
Group 1 targets Fortune 500 firms with many of its solutions, including one of its biggest lines, its Mailing Efficiency product, says Taffy Davies, marketing and database coordinator of the Lanham, MD-based company. The software maker also markets into segments like government, insurance, financial services and telecos. “Traditionally, we target companies that are mailing millions of pieces a month,” she notes.
Webinars are run about once a week. Depending on the target audience and product, Group 1 may procure a list from outside or cull a list from internal sources. Eloqua’s system is used to create the invitation list.
Invitations can go out to as few as 500 or as many as 5,000 people, depending on the targeting and the availability of names. The largest Webinar attendance ever was about 125 people, for a session promoting a new product. “We’ve gone ahead with Webinars that have as few participants as 15, but on average, we’d like to see about 30,” says Davies.
After a prospect attends a Webinar, they’re put through the lead management process and get qualified through a number of different sources. Follow up calls are made to acquire more information, which is sent to the sales team.
Prior to using the Eloqua system, Group 1 used postcards to promote the Webinars, typically resulting in a 1% hit. E-mail promotion is faring better, with responses in the 5% to 10% range.
Group 1 is also using an e-mail newsletter to promote the Mailing Efficiency line. In light of all the U.S. Postal Service changes in the offing that will require mailers to make amends to their business processes to get bulk discounts, Group 1 is offering the monthly newsletter as an informational source.
“We’re hoping it’s a little bit public service, as well as saying ‘if you’re not already using our services, please consider us to help you become compliant with the USPS,'” Davies notes.
Because the individuals that make the purchasing decisions to buy Group 1’s products are typically “pretty far up the chain,” it’s not likely that a typical piece of direct mail would make it to their eyes. Thus, says Davies, e-mail is a better option.
“It’s more immediate. If something sparks their interest, they’re going to respond right away. A piece of mail might sit on your desk for a while before you actually look at it.”
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