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B2BMarketingBiz Newsletter From MarketingSherpa.com
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April 29, 2003 Please forward *without* cutting - thanks!
Sign up at http://www.b2bmarketingbiz.com
#1. CASE STUDY: White Paper vs. Free Trial Offer -- Which Works
Best for Emailed Lead Generation Campaigns?
#2. SherpaStore: 4 Best Response Marketing Data & How To Guides
Sponsor: Behind-the-Scenes in Email Newsletter Marketing
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hear how 25 leading marketers are using email newsletters or
emailed offer alerts to generate sales leads, educate prospects
and close more business.
Includes real-life stories, data and samples from business-to-
business marketers in the following industries:
- Training services to the Fortune 500
- Business software and ASPs
- Copywriting services
- Manufacturing
Get yours today:
http://sherpastore.com/store/page.cfm/1993?a=b2b
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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1) CASE STUDY: White Paper vs. Trial Offer - Learning.com
***
CHALLENGE: Ileana Rowe has one of the toughest markets to email
into -- teachers and technology decision-makers at America's
kindergarten through eighth grade schools.
Rowe, Marketing Manager for software firm Learning.com, serves an
audience that's not only tough to reach because there are
virtually no quality lists available for rental, but who are also
fairly allergic to promotional email.
If even one school professional thinks your emailed promotion is
a bit spammy (no matter how careful you are to use permission
lists), "you get talked about in Listservs and you get a lot of
hate mail."
However, Rowe needed to find a way to make email work because
selling software to schools is a lot more complicated than
selling books. She needed to gradually educate tens of thousands
of possible customers and influencers, but didn't have a sizeable
field sales force or postal mail budget for repeated mailings.
Email was by far the most economic way to go. As long as she
could make sure nobody would hate her company for it.
CAMPAIGN: She decided to launch an email newsletter (you saw that
one coming, didn't you?) But, like most marketers, she didn't
have a list of people who'd already agreed to receive a
newsletter.
So, Rowe worked together with agency emailROI, Inc. to create a
five-step campaign to build a great list and launch a company
newsletter safely:
Step #1 - Finding lists to send an invitational mailing to
Rowe had a fairly small in-house email list she'd already built
from enquiries and folks the team met at trade shows. However,
she didn't assume these names would want to get a regular
newsletter without being asked first. That would be a sure way
to poison at least part of her best prospect file against the
Company. So, she decided to send an invitational mailing to
them.
Plus, Rowe also worked a barter deal with some educational
associations for them to send out the invitational mailing to
their lists on her behalf as well. The association's name on the
mailing would be a type of "fireproofing" against being labeled a
spammer.
Step #2 - Testing offers and subject lines
To make the most of the lists, Rowe decided to first run a test
campaign to a slice of the list. She tested two different offers
-- a white paper and a no-cost software trial. Landing pages for
both offers included a prominently positioned check box to join
the newsletter list.
She also tested two different subject lines for each offer. This
way when she rolled out the campaign she'd not only know which
offer worked the best, but also which subject line. The tests
were (link to some samples below):
White paper offer subject lines -
a. Will your students be technologically literate by 8th
grade?
b. Recent Update: Changes in technology funding
No cost trial offer subject lines -
a. Don't let your students fall behind the technology
curve.
b. Is your technology investment boosting student
performance?
The creative was what emailROI's President Kent Lewis calls
"mainly text HTML." He explains, "We were looking to appeal to
the typical no-frills teacher personality. It was mostly just
Arial 10 font." Creative included a small photo of children in a
classroom in the upper right corner, but the rest was mainly text
and hotlinks.
Step #3 - Rolling out to the whole list
After giving results a solid two weeks to come in, Rowe rolled
out the winner to the rest of the names she could mail to.
Step #4 - Follow-up mailings to list members and non-replies
The newsletter wasn't quite ready to launch immediately after
this campaign, but Rowe knew how important it is to not sit on
names indefinitely while you're getting your act together because
people quickly forget they've given you permission to email them.
So she sent out a brief friendly "mainly-text" follow-up note to
everyone who'd taken advantage of the offer. She hoped some
recipients would pass it along, so it included the link to the
white paper and the no-cost trial offer. (Link to sample below.)
A few months later, she got permission to mail to the outside
lists again, and this time she sent them a reminder note about
the original offer (link to sample below.)
Step #5 - Launching sales-cycle-specific newsletters
Instead of just launching one single email newsletter, Rowe
reviewed the marketplace for hotspots -- states where technology
review cycles meant that a decision to purchase software might be
imminent.
In those states - California, Texas and Florida - she launched
special versions of the newsletter with headline stories directed
specifically toward their needs and funding abilities. Other
states educators received a more generic newsletter aimed at
keeping them in the loop until the funding would come through and
they too could make a decision. (Link to samples of both below.)
Then, as warm prospects turned into hot leads, the rest of Rowe's
marketing campaigns - including Webinars, direct postal mail,
teleconferencing and field sales rep presentations - kicked in to
hopefully close the deal.
RESULTS: The white paper offer won hands down over the ...
Sponsor: Behind-the-Scenes in Email Newsletter Marketing
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hear how 25 leading marketers are using email newsletters
or emailed offer alerts to generate sales leads, educate
prospects and close more business.
Includes real-life stories, data and samples from business-
to-business marketers in the following industries:
- Training services to the Fortune 500
- Business software and ASPs
- Copywriting services
- Manufacturing
Get yours today:
http://sherpastore.com/store/page.cfm/1993?a=b2b
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
... no-cost trial. The winning subject line was, "Recent Update:
Changes in technology funding" because funding is always a pain
point for educators and it sounded like the email would contain
valuable newsy information on that front.
Lewis' take on this is that trials really only appeal to
prospects pretty far along in the sales cycle, whereas white
papers have a broader appeal. So, if you can only get your hands
on a list once or twice, stick with the more generally-appealing
offer.
More metrics:
- The house list of names Rowe's team had gained from enquiries
and show meetings naturally performed best, with 9.7% of names
mailed requesting to join the newsletter list and 8.5% of names
mailed downloading the white paper. (You had your choice of
either/or.)
- The association lists performed respectably, however the
metrics were reversed. 1.5% of names mailed downloaded the
white paper, but only 1% asked to get the newsletter. This
indicates that a newsletter offer is a bit further along in the
sales cycle than a one-time white paper download.
- The follow-up mailing to white paper downloaders was very
successful, getting a 66% open-rate and 5.2% click rate.
- The follow-up mailing to non-respondents was far less
successful, indicating that when you've mailed a particular offer
to these lists once you've pretty much gotten all the response
you'll get.
- The monthly newsletter on average gets a 40% open rate and
nearly a 10% click rate on links to longer stories.
- The newsletter itself has been responsible for growing
Learning.com's list. Each month for the past six months
subscriptions have doubled as recipients have passed issues on to
colleagues. Naturally this growth rate will slow one day, but in
the meantime it proves that kind of like yeast added to flour, a
strong starter list added to great content can rise into a
healthy loaf of bread.
Link to samples of Learning.com's email campaigns and
newsletters:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/learn/ad.html
http://www.learning.com
http://www.emailroi.com
***
SherpaStore: 4 Best Response Marketing Data & How To Guides
***
#1. Budget, Forecast and Improve DM Results
Want to improve your DM results? The 2002 DMA Statistical
Fact Book is packed with useful info. You'll get 400+
charts:
* Figures you can base your 2003 budget and plans on
* Response data based on actual campaigns
* Costs, creative, list, and operational numbers
http://sherpastore.com/page.cfm/1988?a=b2b
#2. How to Make Sure Your Site Shows Up in Search Engines
Updated Oct 2002: The Search Engine Marketing Handbook gives
step-by-step instructions on how to make sure your site gets into
the Top 10 results in search engines.
It's based on exclusive interviews with tech experts who actually
work for the search engines such as Yahoo! and Google.
The 300-page Handbook is our top pick for do-it-yourselfers:
http://sherpastore.com/store/page.cfm/1971?a=b2b
#3. How to Get Better Results from Your Email Newsletter
Step-by-step 180-page guide details 29 ways to get more
subscribers for your newsletter list; how to create a newsletter
readers open and respond to; and how to measure your results.
Must-read for all marketers publishing newsletters. Yes,
includes creative samples to use as examples:
http://sherpastore.com/store/page.cfm/1992?a=b2b
#4. Research Data on: How to Copywrite to Sell to CEOs & CIOs
If you target CEOs, CFOs, CIOs or entrepreneurs, find out how
your copywriting can be (much) more powerful. Learn:
- 10 common words you must avoid-at-all-costs in your copy
- How to double lead gen campaign response rates
- What words can make CIOs choose you over your
competitors --even if your price is higher
Helps you copywrite email, ad headlines, direct mail & PowerPoint slides:
http://sherpastore.com/store/page.cfm/2012?a=b2b
****
SherpaStore: Three Resources for Software & ASP Marketers
****
#1. Software Industry Sales & Marketing Superbook
New as of Nov 1st! Improve your software and ASP sales and
profits by using practical tactics revealed by more than 100 B2B
software and ASP CEOs.
Includes 571 pages of best practices in sales compensation, email
campaigns, pricing ASP offerings and software upgrades, and lead
generation marketing tactics...
http://sherpastore.com/page.cfm/1635?a=b2b
#2. Software Marketing Bootcamp CD-ROM Version
Want to improve your software marketing campaigns? Now you can
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Raise sales & train your marketing staff:
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#3. Top 25 Software & ASP Marketing Case Studies
Discover what Oracle, BMC, Microsoft, Symantec, and 21 more
software firms and ASPs have learned from their Internet
marketing tests. Includes results data on how to:
-> Make more sales directly from your Web site
-> Gather hot sales prospects through low-cost marketing
-> Use free guerrilla marketing tactics to grow sales
-> Avoid common email mistakes
Get your copy of MarketingSherpa's Top 25 Case Studies at:
http://sherpastore.com/page.cfm/1935?a=b2b
********************
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Contributing Editor:
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alexisg@marketingsherpa.com
Publisher & Managing Editor, Newsletters
Anne Holland
anneh@MarketingSherpa.com (c) Copyright 2003, MarketingSherpa, Inc.
http://www.marketingsherpa.com
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