CHALLENGE

Motorola's Personal Communications Sector had a product that was just perfect for a Valentine's Day email marketing campaign -- the Talkabout(R) T900 2-way which is most easily described as a walkie-talkie for the Internet generation. Owners can use the wireless T900 to instant-message each other.

Luckily Motorola's online store, banner campaigns and college campus outreach programs had been collecting opt-in permissions from consumers interested in products like the T900 for quite a while. So Web Development Planner Kristen Glattli had a great list to email to. Only problem, the list didn't have any demographics, so Glattli had to create an intimate campaign with broad appeal.

CAMPAIGN

Glattli and the Web marketing team created a broadcast email campaign that worked on three levels -- it took advantage of the power of viral marketing; it demonstrated the fun of being able to email a friend (which is the chief selling point for the T900); and it made sense in relation to Valentine's Day.

Everyone on Motorola's appropriate opt-in lists was emailed an HTML (or text depending on their email account) message with the subject line, "Send A Free Virtual Valentine!" When opened, the HTML viewer saw a red background, the subject line repeated and three gifs of different virtual Valentine's Day postcards.

The postcards were carefully designed so that hopefully all recipients would find at least one appealing no matter what demographic they came from. One card was mushily romantic, one was hip and humorous, and one was sexy. Viewers scrolling over the gifs saw the following pop-up message, "There are tons of ways to show you care, but the Talkabout(R) T900 2-way is the true way to 2-way bliss. Email your pal a Talkabout(R) T900 2-way today and spread a little love or friendship around!"

Then they could click on the gifs to view them closer up, and send one (or more) with a personal message to anyone they pleased. Motorola encouraged response by placing a clear privacy note on the response form reading, "Motorola will not be collecting or using any 3rd party information provided."

Card recipients were directed to a special mini-site within Motorola's online store to pick up their card, and incidentally learn about a special Valentine's Day offer for the T900. The offer was that buyers of two $149.00 T900s would get a $50 mail-in rebate on each, plus two free carrying cases.

People who received the original email could also click through to the special offer page at Motorola's site, even if they didn't want to send a card to anyone.



RESULTS

5.4% of all emails sent (including the original blast email and the card announcements sent out) clicked through to the special page. Glattli couldn't reveal specific sales conversion numbers, but she did say, "We've definitely been very pleased with what we've seen."

NOTE: Glattli wanted us to be sure to add the following note to this Case Study, "Please note on the bottom of the card we give the recipient the opportunity to opt-out of any future Motorola offerings. We're very mindful of who we send emails to and will only target those that have specifically opted-in to receive our product/promotion information. By doing so, we can maintain the highest level of customer satisfaction as well as ensure that we're targeting a much more qualified lead base."