Custom Online Solutions Case Study
CLIENT
A national trucking and transportation company
SITUATION
The ultimate goal of this program was to drive more response, increase sales revenue, reduce costs, and speed product to market while minimizing the demand on the corporate marketing team to develop custom materials for terminals.
METHODOLOGY
DCG recommended that they utilize highly targeted, 1:1 marketing approach by developing a program which included web-based tools, digital print, e-marketing and fulfillment. This integrated solution would empower field reps and customer service teams to help create marketing materials that could be accessed via the company's Intranet.
DCG created a "marketing portal" where authorized users log on to manage their marketing efforts and have the ability create custom marketing materials that meet a specific client need or market niche. Customer service representatives and call center personnel can quickly respond to a customer inquiry via the Virtual Sales Center by sending a personalized, HTML e-mail response with links to PDFs of brochures or product sheets. Terminals can also order and receive bulk shipments of sales literature from DCG's fulfillment center.
This turnkey solution has enabled the marketing team to consolidate its marketing offerings, provide a more targeted approach, empower field sales and customer service to participate while, at the same time, control branding.
RESULTS
In a short period of time our client was able to achieve the following results:
- Speeding Product to Marketing - able to quickly respond to customer inquiries.
- Containing Marketing Costs - New approach is impacting print, mailing and creative costs. An example: For the Virtual Sales Center, there are no production, material or postage costs for the client. For less than half the cost of first class postage alone, the requested materials are delivered. Comparison cost for conventional request fulfillment is $2.50 to $4.50 for a personalized letter with one brochure in an envelope (including postage), and the cost of a personal sales call currently averages $329.
- Staffing - There is no need to add to its marketing department because sales and customer service can create custom flyers, invitations and thank you cards online.
We anticipate other positive results as the program becomes more established and marketing portal users become more comfortable with the technology tool.
WHY IT WORKS
Strong Partnership: working in tandem and good communication was established and everyone understood the goals of the program.
Custom Solutions: DCG developed a custom, integrated solution that directly addressed program needs.
Technology: Developing an Intranet-accessible, web-based solution was critical to the overall success of the program. This enabled everyone to gain access to marketing materials.
Speed to Market: quickly react to customer demands and needs.
1:1 Target Marketing: This solution allows more effectively targeting its message and driving positive sales results.