Eschoolmall.com Inc. is trying a different approach to affiliate marketing.
The school supplies marketer charges vendors that post their catalogs on the Eschoolmall site only $5 per transaction regardless of the dollar amount of the sale, instead of asking for a percentage of each deal.
“If you’re selling school buses and you take a 5% fee on the transaction, you’re going to be taking a pretty large fee and that can scare off some potential partners,” explains marketing director Marlene Petter.
So far, the strategy has helped the Horsham, PA-based firm attract more than 20,000 vendors to its online hub hoping to reach the $84-billion-a-year public school market. Through its automated systems, Eschoolmall offers schools a smoother way to get what they need, rather than going through the cumbersome paper-heavy process normally associated with school supplies procurement, according to Petter.
Vendors on Eschoolmall’s site sell audiovisual products, classroom supplies, computer hardware/software and food services as well as office and science supplies, music equipment and other products. Earlier this summer, Eschoolmall added office supplies marketer Staples and scientific equipment purveyor Lab Safety Supply to its roster.
To generate both vendor and school leads for its 14-person national sales force, the company has been hitting the mail.
Recently Eschoolmall sent out a two-part postcard-and-brochure lead-generation mailing to several hundred vendors. The mailing was kept small and targeted local and national suppliers that some schools had dealt with previously, Petter explains. At this writing, results were still pending.
On the six-inch-by-nine-inch white postcard, the cover headline read, “If the Internet is so amazing, why are you still filling out so many forms?” On the flip side of the card a headline in red letters stated, “Simplify the process.”
Below that, the body copy asked: “Does requisitioning supplies take up more time than teaching? Is your administration bogged down by purchasing paperwork?”
The copy went on to promote how well the system automates the process, its ease of use and the fact that it requires only a basic Internet connection. Recipients were invited to call a toll-free telephone number or log on to Eschoolmall’s Web site.
A separate mailing went out two weeks later with a more extensive brochure.
The postcard/brochure combo was sent to about 25,000 school business officials, administrators and purchasing officials in several key states with large school populations, Petter notes. Just last month a second drop went out to smaller states.
“To be effective with direct mail you have to keep repeating,” she says.
Eschoolmall.com has enhanced its efforts with direct response space ads in such education trade magazines as .edu, eSchool Now, and American School Board.
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