CHALLENGE

TMXinteractive's goal was to convince Fortune 500 companies and other "big" clients to try out their brand of "TV-style" rich media email marketing. Only problem, the Company didn't have a big marketing budget ... in fact until just a couple of months ago they didn't even have a head of marketing.

New VP Marketing Susan Murphy filled us in on the details.

CAMPAIGN

Although almost every marketer in America could conceivably use TMXinteractive's services, the team decided to break their marketplace into a series of tightly defined niches, and pursue each one in a focused fashion.

For example, TMXinteractive knew sports would be a great target market for its services, so the company allied with famed Baltimore Raven tight end, Shannon Sharpe. Murphy explains, "He has a lot of commercial relationships for himself that we can affiliate with as well." In addition, TMXinteractive bought booths at targeted sports marketing trade shows.

TMXinteractive also decided to offer its services on a la carte basis, from full-service creative and campaign management to just technology and consultation. Murphy says, "A lot of our competitors don't have that in-house creative." This made it easy for prospective clients to test a campaign without having a rich media creative expert on staff, or having to go to the trouble of implementing the tech in-house first.

Lastly, TMXinteractive proactively set up a certified vendor network, reaching out to more than two dozen leading list providers and messaging companies to make sure they could easily integrate with TMXinteractive's tech. Murphy plans to bring this number to 100 by the end of the year, "Some clients have their own vendors, do we have to make sure we work with their tech."



RESULTS

So far TMXinteractive has more than 50 clients, including major brands such as SAP, Merrill Lynch and Calvin Klein. According to Murphy, most clients who test the service then become regular clients rolling out ongoing campaigns. Plus, at a time when other ventures' investors are pulling out, TMXinteractive's investors have urged them to open eight new regional offices across the US.

NEXT: Murphy feels the regional offices will make a big impact on sales, "It absolutely makes a tremendous difference having local staff. We can reach out and touch clients whenever they want, unlike having a central HQ and having to fly someone across the country." She's also looking forward to doing her first rich media email campaign on behalf of the company soon.

NOTE: Are you considering opening regional offices? See the link below to a story we published last year on how an Alabama-based ad agency have grown into a major national force by using local reps across America.