Don't Waste Your Team's Time In Sending Emails That Provide Too Little, Too Late

Don't Waste Your Team's Time In Sending Emails That Provide Too

Little, Too Late!

Rosanna Martinez Amanda Kuldanek

National Instruments

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About NI

• Sell engineers and scientists software and hardware

• Target a broad range of industries and applications

• Execute in 60+ countries in 25+ languages

• Corporate develops global direct marketing programs and local offices manage programs specific to their regions.

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Agenda

• What has been our traditional approach at NI?

• Which programs have performed best?

• How are we evolving this approach, globally?

• What case studies can you consider?

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Traditional Approach

• One-off emails were 80% of emails sent

• Corporate and US/Canada lines were blurred

• Branch adoption was very low

• Segmentation criteria was dated

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What kinds of emails did we send?

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LabVIEW 2011 Launch• Largest launch of the year

taking 3 months of work

• 95% of branches sent launch emails

• 68% adopted full segmentation strategy

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Tighter criteria improved results

*US/CA data

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LabVIEW Awareness Program Email(Sent within 1 week of interest)

LabVIEW 2011 Launch Email(Sent within 6 months of interest)

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%

Click %Open %

Launches can’t replace year-round nurturing

*US/CA data, based on 72-hour reporting

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What have we learned?

• Timely and relevant emails perform best

• One-off communications have a low global ROI

• Opens and Clicks are not the end-goal

• Need deliberate programs along buying cycle

Awarene

ss

Consideration

Evaluation

Initial Succe

ss

Proficiency/ Loyalt

y

SW Awareness Program

Goal: drive contacts to consider/

evaluate SW

SW Evaluation ProgramGetting-Started

Service Contract Program

Goal: help customers with initial success;

explain services benefits

Training Promo Program(in progress)

Deliberate Nurturing Stream

Customer Success

NI News e-NewsletterGoal: drive contacts to consider/ evaluate SW

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#1 SOFTWARE AWARENESS PIPELINE

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Software Awareness Program• Who: Contacts who create a SW product interest or visit specific

SW web pages in the last week

• What: 5-touch pipeline communicating core SW benefits

• When: 8 weeks

• Where: US/Canada currently

• Why: To drive prospects to download the SW Eval or purchase

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5-touch Awareness Program

Created a LeadVisited key SW pages

2 wks later 2 wks later2 wks later

…Interest Expressed

• 5-minute video on analysis features

• White Paper • LabVIEW Evaluation

2 wks later

…

• White Paper

1 wk later

• 2-minute video on LabVIEW benefits

Program Goal:Use web browsing behavior to pull into nurturing stream and drive to Evaluation Download

Results:30% sustained open rate, 14% clicked thru 1+emails13% converted to a evaluation, quote or purchased

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#2 SOFTWARE EVALUATION PIPELINE

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Software Evaluation Program

• Who: Contacts who go through a SW evaluation form

• What: 7-touch pipeline of resources for learning the SW

• When: Across 35 days to match evaluation period

• Where: US/Canada (pilot), Global roll-out phase 2

• Why: To help prospects determine if NI SW is right for their application

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7-touch Evaluation Program

SW Eval

1 wk later 1 wk later1 wk later

• Tips/Tricks • Tutorial • Feedback Survey

1 wk later

• Webcast

1 Day later

• Getting Started Resources

Program Goal: Design effective pipeline that is timed to the 30-day evaluation period.

Results: 25% sustained open rate, 8% avg. CTR…however, quote conversion is no higher than the 1-touch program currently in place.

1 Day Later 1 wk later

• White Paper • “Buy” push

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#3 SERVICE RENEWAL PROGRAM

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Standard Service Program Renewals

• Who: Customers who purchase a 1-yr SW service contract

• What: 7-touch pipeline with custom content about entitlement usage and quoting.

• When: 1 year

• Where: Americas and Europe (2010), Asia (2012)

• Why: To educate customers on their entitlements and remind to renew to maintain these entitlements.

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7-touch Dynamic Program

Welcome emailOr Renewal email

Soon to expire

60 days Expiration30 days

…Purchase

Expire

• Email notification (with quote)

• Telesales follow up

• Email reminder (with quote)

• Telesales follow up

• Expiration email (with quote)

• Introduce benefits• Encourage to

access

Demonstrate Value with Entitlement Delivery

• Service/SSP key part of launch communications and general product messaging

• /support messaging

90 days

Usage Summary

Soon to expire

…

• Summarize value delivered during contract

180 days

• Service touch point• Remind about

service

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Welcome email

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Expiration email Results: 60% increase in renewal rates

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#4NEWSLETTER CLEAN-UP PROGRAM

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Software Awareness Program• Who: Subscribers to NI News Global who were not showing interest in

newsletter

• What: Clean-Up effort + Re-permissioning effort

• When: 6 months of no activity

• Where: Worldwide

• Why: To make a 1-time clean up + keep subscription list as clean as possible by asking for re-permission.

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Steps to Our Solution• Researched activity patterns over 12 months• Findings:

Open rates had a very slow decline from first edition to later editions, lost interest seemed to be a minor factor.

Nearly all contacts who opened at some point were likely to open again, mostly within 6 months.

A new contact who did not open the first 4 editions had only a 33% chance of ever opening in the future.

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Chance of New Contact Ever Opening

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 110.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

49%

43%

38%

34%31%

29%26%

24%21%

19%17%

After X times Without No Opens

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Key Take-Aways

• Timely and relevant emails perform best

• One-off communications have a low ROI

• Need to manage program along buying cycle

• Opens and Clicks are not the end-goal

Questions?

Rosanna Martinez, National InstrumentsRosanna.martinez@ni.com

Amanda Kuldanek, National InstrumentsAmanda.kuldanek@ni.com