The Standard Group Marketing Executive Seminar Campaign - PODi Case Study

Vertical Market: Print and Marketing Services
Business Application: Direct Marketing/Lead Generation

Business Objectives:
The Standard Group wanted to create a high-level educational seminar for marketing executives to learn about the latest advancements, trends and tools for marketing automation. It organized a group of marketing professionals and educators to discuss three key marketing automation topics including effective multi-channel marketing automation, content marketing and social media automation, and marketing resources management. To promote the education seminar The Standard Group needed a multi-channel campaign that would:

• Showcase the use of the same marketing automation tools as those that would be discussed at the seminar
• Inspire their customers and key prospects with the effectiveness of marketing automation tools

Results:
The Standard Group created tremendous buzz for the event which resulted in a very well attended day of learning.

• 18 percent direct mail response (visited Personalized URL) with a 91 percent conversion (registration for event)
• 11 percent response by QR Code with a 60 percent conversion of those who visited their Personalized URL
• E-mail reminder resulted in 41 percent open rate
• 81 marketing managers, directors, VP, CMOs and C-Suite executives registered for the seminar

The marketing seminar led to several follow-up meetings and proposals with prospects. One particular prospect that The Standard Group had been trying to work with for two years finally contacted the company and they provided two quotes including a proposal for a similar campaign for 15,000 direct mail pieces worth over $114,000.

Target Audience
The audience for this campaign was marketing managers, directors, VPs, CMOs and C-Suite Executives. The targeted individuals were identified with the help of The Standard Group’s sales team. The goal was to target marketing executives who can drive change and adoption of new marketing collateral management, marketing automation and multi-channel marketing campaigns.

Campaign Architecture
The Standard Group created a high-end personalized multi-channel campaign with compelling elements to draw the attention and interest of key marketing executives.

Invitation
The first touch point of the campaign consisted of a personalized, robotic theme dimensional mail piece. Included in the mailer was a tin robot in redesigned packaging to match the automation theme of the seminar. More information about the event was presented as an instructional guide that was tucked into the die cut tray. The instructional guide detailed the presentation topics and seminar information, the features of marketing automation and provided a personalized QR Code and Personalized URL to register for the seminar.

Two reminder e-mails were sent to all those who failed to register for the seminar. One was sent a week after the direct mail piece was delivered and the second was sent two weeks before the event. The event was also promoted via social media.

The personalized microsite provided event details, testimonials and a registration form. Visitors were asked to complete a short survey asking:

• What are the areas of focus for your marketing activities?
• What are the top challenges you would like to address?
• What other programs are important to you in 2013?

The Standard Group used the answers to these questions to score leads and to understand the needs of their prospects.

Sales representatives were given any response data from their prospects including the date and time of Personalized URL access, e-mail open, event registration, questions answered and date and length of time on each page of the personalized site. The data and the notification to the sales person's mobile phone became a powerful example of marketing automation data that the representative could show to the client.

Seminar
The second part of the promotion consisted of the presentations, a campaign showcase including results, and related mobile games that clients could play to win additional robotic toys. Attendees were provided personalized pocket folders with brochure information on marketing automation, a newsletter featuring a marketing automation note pad, pen, nametags, and other materials. The games included a QR Code scavenger hunt to find all the QR Codes posted in the room to win prizes and a Mini Quiz to answer questions related to the seminar and the presenters for a chance to win a Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robot toy. Participation within the seminar was also rewarded with prizes.

Post-event
Post event activities included:

• E-mails requesting attendees to complete an online survey sent to provide feedback on the event
• An e-mail sending the PowerPoint decks to attendees
• The sales team was also asked to follow up on all opportunities and requests for free assessment

Offer
To encourage people to respond, all registrants for the seminar were entered into a drawing for an iRobot Roomba 770. And to avoid procrastination, The Standard Group offered to double the chances to win for the first 25 registrants. This unique offer tied very well to the automation theme of the campaign and seminar.

Reasons for Success
The marketing automation message of The Standard Group’s seminar was effectively highlighted with the robot-theme to its invitation, e-mail, campaign microsite, offers and event materials. The robot was a fun and memorable way to visually represent what The Standard Group could offer with marketing automation tools. This combined with the impact of cross-channel marketing including direct mail, e-mails and personalized microsites led to a highly successful campaign.

PODi is a global, member-supported not-for-profit organization. The PODi library consists of over 500 digital printing and marketing case studies from around the world.

Source: PODi.

© 2014 W. Caslon & Company. All rights reserved.