Aviation Equipment Manufacturer Gets Back on Customer Radar with Personalized Email Marketing
Ideal Aerosmith, a manufacturer of aviation-based test equipment for gyroscopes, avionics, automotive sensors, and navigation sensors, has such a deep history within its industry that it soon found itself in need of an image "reboot" with its customers. Ideal Aerosmith was founded in 1938.
"For the past year, we've been building a more professional persona," said Lisa Bernhardt, sales and marketing coordinator for the East Grand Forks, Minnesota.-based firm. "We design and manufacture a variety of test systems for the military and many large aerospace industry customers," she said. "We felt it's time to step up and make our technical image match who we really are."
Challenge: Newsletter to technical audience
Ideal Aerosmith decided to begin delivering email newsletters to customers — but to offer a little more than a regular newsletter. Several customer communication goals set for these campaigns. The first goal is to notify customers in a timely manner when Ideal Aerosmith is launching new products and support services.
The next goal is to notify industry customers of new company employees, recent acquisitions, and any accolades earned by veteran employees. Thus the Ideal Precision newsletter was launched using Campaign Enterprise email marketing software and the company's existing customer database.
The inaugural edition of the Ideal Precision newsletter announced the addition of 41 new employees, the expansion of two facilities, the expected launch of a new product, the existing lineup of new products, product updates and more.
"The newsletter reminds our customers that we're still here, we can build whatever you want us to, and we still have all this great equipment," Bernhardt said. "With this newsletter, we hope to increase sales to existing customers and begin targeting new customers as well."
Solution: Integration leads to automation
Integrating Campaign Enterprise software with Ideal Aerosmith's customer database allowed the company to create a nearly 100% automated email system, said Colin Cutler, marketing consultant for Ideal Aerosmith. Newsletter subscribers and unsubscribers are each handled on the web, and then directed to Campaign Enterprise software. "We can also handle new subscribers through our automated system, making it easy to send email to prospective customers," Cutler said.
As a bonus, Campaign Enterprise's email bounce back and bad address handling automatically marks bad email addresses in Ideal Aerosmith's customer database, allowing staff to identify out-of-date customer contacts, update their information, and keep their customer list current, Cutler said.
Results: Record-breaking customer response
The customer response to Ideal's inaugural newsletter was, as Bernhardt puts it, "excellent." "We were very pleased," she said. "We monitored the number of (website) hits we had following its release. On the day the newsletter launched – we sent it out approximately 1 p.m. local time – by midnight our website had the highest number of hits in its history… and that continued for the next five days."
"We had a number of customers who said, 'Hey, I saw your newsletter!' We also took comments from the customers we were working with and talking to. They were bringing the newsletter up to us, which is a very good sign," she said.
The inaugural issue of Ideal Aerosmith's email newsletter had an open rate of over 70%, resulting in a 97% increase in web traffic, according to Cutler. Ideal Aerosmith's customer list, formerly stored in an ACT database, is now a list surpassing 2,000 companies.
In terms of successfully contacting customers and growing the customer list, Cutler said the email newsletter sent using Campaign Enterprise is taking Ideal Aerosmith to a customer relationship level not achieved before in company history.
"The combination of positive website reports, new subscribers, and an increase in customer response has made sending our newsletters a top priority," Cutler said. "Before Campaign Enterprise, we had no way of contacting all of the customers at the same time. Now we do."
About Ideal Aerosmith
Founded in 1938, Ideal Aerosmith (http://www.ideal-aerosmith.com) is a leader in providing precision motion simulation test systems to high-tech companies around the world. Ideal provides test hardware and software design, as well as build-to-print electromechanical assembly. Colinstudio (http://www.colinstudio.com) is Ideal Aerosmith's marketing, web and email design firm.
About Arial Software
Arial Software LLC is widely considered the industry leader in email marketing software designed exclusively for relationship building through personalized email messaging. More information on Arial Software can be found here.
"For the past year, we've been building a more professional persona," said Lisa Bernhardt, sales and marketing coordinator for the East Grand Forks, Minnesota.-based firm. "We design and manufacture a variety of test systems for the military and many large aerospace industry customers," she said. "We felt it's time to step up and make our technical image match who we really are."
Challenge: Newsletter to technical audience
Ideal Aerosmith decided to begin delivering email newsletters to customers — but to offer a little more than a regular newsletter. Several customer communication goals set for these campaigns. The first goal is to notify customers in a timely manner when Ideal Aerosmith is launching new products and support services.
The next goal is to notify industry customers of new company employees, recent acquisitions, and any accolades earned by veteran employees. Thus the Ideal Precision newsletter was launched using Campaign Enterprise email marketing software and the company's existing customer database.
The inaugural edition of the Ideal Precision newsletter announced the addition of 41 new employees, the expansion of two facilities, the expected launch of a new product, the existing lineup of new products, product updates and more.
"The newsletter reminds our customers that we're still here, we can build whatever you want us to, and we still have all this great equipment," Bernhardt said. "With this newsletter, we hope to increase sales to existing customers and begin targeting new customers as well."
Solution: Integration leads to automation
Integrating Campaign Enterprise software with Ideal Aerosmith's customer database allowed the company to create a nearly 100% automated email system, said Colin Cutler, marketing consultant for Ideal Aerosmith. Newsletter subscribers and unsubscribers are each handled on the web, and then directed to Campaign Enterprise software. "We can also handle new subscribers through our automated system, making it easy to send email to prospective customers," Cutler said.
As a bonus, Campaign Enterprise's email bounce back and bad address handling automatically marks bad email addresses in Ideal Aerosmith's customer database, allowing staff to identify out-of-date customer contacts, update their information, and keep their customer list current, Cutler said.
Results: Record-breaking customer response
The customer response to Ideal's inaugural newsletter was, as Bernhardt puts it, "excellent." "We were very pleased," she said. "We monitored the number of (website) hits we had following its release. On the day the newsletter launched – we sent it out approximately 1 p.m. local time – by midnight our website had the highest number of hits in its history… and that continued for the next five days."
"We had a number of customers who said, 'Hey, I saw your newsletter!' We also took comments from the customers we were working with and talking to. They were bringing the newsletter up to us, which is a very good sign," she said.
The inaugural issue of Ideal Aerosmith's email newsletter had an open rate of over 70%, resulting in a 97% increase in web traffic, according to Cutler. Ideal Aerosmith's customer list, formerly stored in an ACT database, is now a list surpassing 2,000 companies.
In terms of successfully contacting customers and growing the customer list, Cutler said the email newsletter sent using Campaign Enterprise is taking Ideal Aerosmith to a customer relationship level not achieved before in company history.
"The combination of positive website reports, new subscribers, and an increase in customer response has made sending our newsletters a top priority," Cutler said. "Before Campaign Enterprise, we had no way of contacting all of the customers at the same time. Now we do."
About Ideal Aerosmith
Founded in 1938, Ideal Aerosmith (http://www.ideal-aerosmith.com) is a leader in providing precision motion simulation test systems to high-tech companies around the world. Ideal provides test hardware and software design, as well as build-to-print electromechanical assembly. Colinstudio (http://www.colinstudio.com) is Ideal Aerosmith's marketing, web and email design firm.
About Arial Software
Arial Software LLC is widely considered the industry leader in email marketing software designed exclusively for relationship building through personalized email messaging. More information on Arial Software can be found here.