How ACERRA Maintains an e-Marketing Edge - cont'd
"Given our already stretched resources and tight timelines, we had to determine the most effective way to run this extensive and critical email marketing program," says Fred Farag, Manager of Corporate Marketing and Communications at ACERRA. "We knew there were advantages to outsourcing this initiative, but we needed to ensure we would maintain significant control over the program."
The Solution
In the search for a solution, ACERRA determined a number of issues that required resolving. These included:
- Considering doing the campaign in-house, meaning a learning curve when dealing with deployment and measurement, and reallocating already limited internal resources.
- The need to create a compelling campaign that would stand out in increasingly crowded in-boxes.
- Using ACERRA's in-house marketing list: if the company outsourced, it would need flexible options for the management of database information.
With these issues in mind, ACERRA decided to meet with cardcommunications, an outsourcing provider of e-marketing solutions. The up-front energy and desire to understand ACERRA's needs was impressive, but the offer to become an extension of the team was what most impressed Farag and his team.
"After meeting cardcommunications, they agreed to take our existing ideas and turn them into compelling email campaigns," says Farag. "In no time at all, they came back with completely professional layouts and designs, along with a list of recommendations all based on best practices. We were wowed and anxious to take the next steps."
cardcommunications offers subject matter expertise for organizations planning to execute e-marketing programs that include newsletters and promotional campaigns. Its responsive team of e-marketing specialists help to meet unique client needs while also respecting the privacy of their customers. When executing e-marketing campaigns with ACERRA, cardcommunications maintains integrity at all times by ensuring ACERRA's list is "clean" and permission-based, and that the content they are sending is targeted, timely, in the right file format (HTML or text) and useful to its audience.
"The team at cardcommunications makes our email marketing efforts painless," says Farag. "They really are an extension of us and they are a true pleasure to work with, not to mention incredibly responsive to our needs and requests."
The Results
Results to date indicate that the cardcommunications solution has enabled ACERRA to save 75% of the budget they had been spending on printing of traditional direct mail. They have integrated e-marketing as a core tool in their marketing mix, and have been able to maximize their limited budgets and resources to make an impact. In less than two months, ACERRA has improved its competitive approach as a leader in learning by regularly communicating with their clients and increasing awareness of the organization's offerings.
"ACERRA's marketing team finds the alliance with cardcommunications very advantageous," says Farag. "We're able to spend time developing important messaging and program plans while cardcommunications handles the design, deployment and measurement side of our e-newsletter and bulletins. Being able to leverage our existing resources, cardcommunications gives us the best of both worlds. It's easy to see why up to 80 percent of leading enterprises will include outsourcing in their business strategies by 2005."
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