CHALLENGE

Larry Wasserman, VP Marketing at LivePerson.com, already uses his company's online chat technology for in-house customer service; but he wanted to see if he could use it for outbound sales as well. If it worked, he'd have a new application to offer B-to-B marketers around the world.

CAMPAIGN

Wasserman first tested the idea as a new sales generation tool. He sent an emailed offer to about 150 management names from gaming sites. The email contained a short marketing message about LivePerson's eCRM solutions, plus an imbedded live chat link. Recipients who clicked on the link were immediately engaged in live chat conversation with one of LivePerson's business development reps.

Next Wasserman tested embedding a live chat link into an email campaign he sent to about 50% of his current clients, hoping to upsell them on more services. He explains, "The pitch was 'eCRM for the holidays! You're in the 4th quarter now, it's critical for you to improve customer service for the holidays. We're here to help you add operators, add knowledge products so you can do more self-service, more turnkey solutions ... we're here to help you with the holiday rush. You need to act quickly, click here!' It's a B-to-B impulse buy."



RESULTS

The first campaign to qualified prospects got a 15% click-though rate on the live chat link. The second campaign to current clients achieved almost a 20% activation of the live chat link. Wasserman was very satisfied with these results, "We're eating our own dogfood so to speak, and we're happy with it! He notes, "A lot of these come in within the first day or two. We were a little worried in terms of volume coming through. If you have a problem, you may have to stagger it."

NOTES: Wasserman definitely thinks other marketers should test an embedded chat link in their email campaigns, "We absolutely believe other people should be doing this." So, he's partnered with online direct marketing service provider Responsys.com to offer the application to other marketers. Interested in testing an imbedded chat link yourself? Contact Rick Latman, Responsys.com's Director of Business Development. Phone: 650-251-0182 or email: rlatman@responsys.com