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Information Technology Company Uses New Marketing Techniques to Increase Lead Flow and Drive Down Costly Sales Expenses

Industry: Information Technology Website URL:www.cmsdirect.com Vtrenz Reselling Partner: Three Deep Marketing, www.threedeepmarketing.com

Mike Talbott, VP of Business Development for CMS Direct, an information technology company, was planning an aggressive roll-out for a new product introduction, called I-Track 3.0. He initially was going to rely on the same old “tried and true” approach - meet with his sales people about the new product, arm them with a phone list, a set of product presentation materials and a company credit card to book airline flights to travel to client locations all over the country. But in early 2006, at the insistence of his outsourced marketing consulting firm, Three Deep Marketing, he was persuaded to try a completely different approach.

“Using Vtrenz robust web form tool, we had just completed a national survey of business executives,” indicated Dan Derosier, Senior Partner, Three Deep Marketing. “Our findings showed that 70.9% of executives refused to take a sales phone call, and over 63% didn’t want a sales meeting to learn about new product offerings. Instead decision-makers were much more comfortable getting an informative email, searching a website or participating in a web seminar from the comforts of their office.”

Three Deep Marketing shared these important market changing dynamics with CMS Direct and convinced them to try a new marketing approach. By leveraging Vtrenz technology platform, Three Deep and CMS Direct developed a series of integrated marketing communications and web events. They placed I-Track 3.0 print ads in well-read industry trade publications. Each print ad had a specific URL that would link to a landing page powered by Vtrenz. This link provided the prospect with more information and further educated them about the benefits of I-Track 3.0. The landing page also had a web form, another Vtrenz tool that provided a convenient way to register for a planned CMS Direct web seminar.

E-mail and direct mail campaigns were also launched to a group of existing customers and new prospects that could benefit from the capabilities of this new product offering. Despite all the marketing activities and communications, Talbott was still worried if this new approach strategy would fill the pipeline; a task previously performed by his sales team.

“Yes, I have to admit, we were nervous,” Talbott remarked. “We have an aggressive 2006 plan and I didn’t think we could impact market acceptance without the sales reps banging the phones and sitting down face to face with decision-makers. We were wrong.”

The print ads, direct mail pieces and e-mail communications were all linked to Vtrenz technology. Print ads meant the prospect had to key in a specific CMS Direct URL that linked to a unique landing page to register for the web seminar. Emails had the link to the landing page imbedded so the registration form was pre-populated with their information to make signing up especially easy. By leveraging Vtrenz analytics, it allowed CMS Direct to know who had been sent what communication by channel, which companies had interacted on the I-track 3.0 landing pages and who eventually signed-up for a web seminar. On the landing pages, potential customers were told what they would learn from the web event and why it was important to their business to encourage the prospect to take the next step.

“Landing pages are critical to support selling the web event and to get people to take the next step,” indicated Dave Woodbeck, Three Deep’s CEO. “Going to a general website doesn’t work. Prospects get frustrated and lost and eventually quit if it isn’t easy to sign-up. Every outbound marketing communication should be tied to a low risk offer and a specific landing page allowing prospects to take the next step on their terms, not yours. That’s what makes Vtrenz so powerful -all those components are integrated into a single tool.”

The integrated marketing campaigns were a huge success. CMS Direct scheduled two web events in 45 days with over 15 participants in each session. For a business to business company, it was an especially strong showing.

“You have to use multiple communications channels to make any marketing campaign successful today. Almost all our clients are multichannel and as a B2B company, CMS Direct is as well. If you do this successfully, you can get more businesses to raise their hand and participate in soft-selling events like educational webinars. We had prospects attend our events that had ignored our sales organization for years. The convenient, low risk way to educate companies about what your business does is very powerful”, Pat Minton, President of CMS, explained. “At the end of our second successful web event, I sent an email to our entire executive team that indicated we had 16 prospects attend our web seminar , 7 good questions and 4 very solid leads. Cost to conduct was $134.73. Business opportunities…priceless! When compared with sales meetings and travel expenses, this was a very cost effective marketing campaign.”

“[Using Vtrenz] has been an efficient way to provide marketing air cover for my sales team. Once the integrated marketing communications were leveraged and the web events held, we would get a list of leads directly from Vtrenz. We had our sales team follow-up with the strongest leads. The ones that aren’t ready to buy will automatically get another communication next month…[As a result], I’ve closed 27% of my annual sales goal in the first 45 days of this year. To say I’m pleased would be an understatement.” Mike Talbott, VP of Business Development.

If you would like to learn more about how an integrated marketing platform and automated business processes are paving the way for more effective communications and productive sales activities, check out Vtrenz at www.vtrenz.com or by telephone at 1-877-484-7704. Three Deep Marketing, a technology enabled marketing consulting firm can be reached at www.threedeepmarketing.com or by phone at (651) 777-6601.