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Award Winners 2006
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Email Marketing Award Winner
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Best Email Newsletter for Marketing Purposes:
Silver B-to-B
Cincom Expert Access


Brand/Client Side Team:
Donna Hedge

Vendors/Agencies
InternetViz

MarketingSherpa Summary - Why They Won:
Regular newsletters can be a terrible grind. After a couple of years on the job, many newsletter writers turn out articles more from a sense of duty than a true passion for either the audience or topic; but, not Cincom's editorial staff whose genuine enthusiasm bubbles out of every pixel. We applaud the sincerity and excitement they bring to the "voice" of each issue. And, obviously the audience, senior-level Fortune 1000 executives, agrees with us. The click rates are consistently phenomenal.

From Their Nomination Form:
Expert Access is focused at senior-level corporate executives, their operations managers, IT managers and buyer committees made up of between 3-12 people from internal business, technology and operations units. Because Expert Access spans a range of job titles and industries, it must deliver value by presenting the business benefits of the latest technology advances to corporate and operations managers while at the same time getting under the covers of the latest business and production applications for the IT managers and users. A difficult objective that, when Expert Access grows as envisioned, may necessitate splitting the newsletter to a more focused publication. This change could be by industry or title. Expert Access focuses on the following vertical industries: Insurance, Financial Services, Manufacturing, Government and Non-profit. The goals of Expert Access are: 1. To become a trusted and valued resource of objective expert advice to customers and prospects worldwide. 2. Build Cincom awareness and customer acquisition. Beginning with 5,000 readers, Expert Access now reaches 135,000 people all over the world. Expert Access provides relevant, concise, objective information, sometimes in an irreverent, humorous manner, to help readers do their jobs better, become aware of new ideas, products and services or to occasionally have a B2B laugh. Expert Access has partnered with some truly brilliant and forward-thinking business leaders to participate in its 'Ask the Expert' program. Readers can submit questions to this roster of 'experts' for feedback/answers to questions about innovative business strategies and technologies. Some of the experts include: Al Ries, author of 'The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR'; Dr. David Abshire, Center for the Presidency, author of 'Saving the Reagan Presidency'; Dave Stein, best-selling business author of 'How Winners Sell'; Marc Seifer, author of 'Wizard; The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla'; Elliot McGucken, author, poet, artistic entrepreneur and founder of the 'Jolly Roger,' a Web portal hailed as the 'Flagship of the Renaissance'; Skip Press, author of more than 20 books including 'How to Write What You Want and Sell What You Write'; Betty Forbes, Vice President, Christian Children's Fund; Dr. Paul Pearsall, international best-selling author of 'The Beethoven Factor'; David Meerman Scott, author of 'Cashing In With Content'; JoAnna Brandi, customer loyalty expert and customer retention maven; and Ken Sutherland, creative impresario and the music behind the film 'Savannah Smiles.' In a recent six-month survey that ended in March 2006, Expert Access readers were asked to rate story selection, usefulness to their daily jobs, content categories, graphic look, responsiveness, professionalism and overall impression. The survey included responses from all over the world including: China, the UK, Latvia, Brazil, Belgium, Scotland, India, the Philippines, France, Italy, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Zambia, the Middle East, Finland, Colombia, Eastern Europe, Germany, Indonesia, Malaysia and the United States. Here are some reader quotes collected from the survey: 'Inspiring business and customer-focused articles mixed with true leadership qualities.' 'Articles are insightful and useful. The humor is a welcome change from many other industry newsletters. Excellent job!' 'I like the stories with motivational content, the interactive nature, the humorous writing style of the editor and the varied selection of content from diverse sources.' '[Expert Access] provides up-to-date information on a multitude of levels; one-stop shopping for information from business management to technology.' 'I really enjoy the Ask the Experts feature.' 'For an academic, Expert Access is of great value as a snapshot of current business trends and demands. The well-selected articles guarantee that your publication is always welcome in my inbox!' 'From all the newsletters I receive, this is the only one I keep for future reading.' 'Lots of knowledge, which we can use to profit from instantly.' 'I've really enjoyed and found most valuable the 'Shoot the Donkey' interviews I've read lately. They have lots of insights and humor, and the way they're presented is great (broken up with the insight summary and a donkey graphic).' >From the most recent March 2006 Expert Access reader survey: 93% of readers rate Expert Access as 'excellent' or 'good.' Another 7% rate the newsletter as 'average.'But a true measure of the popularity of a newsletter is how many recipients opt out. The opt out rate for Expert Access is less than 4/10 of 1% (.004).With every issue, over 500 readers respond to a call to action or visit Cincom's website to learn more about its products and services.Each issue comprises about 13 articles, the most popular of which are the feature articles (on a variety of topics) and the 'Ask the Expert' section where readers' questions are answered by an expert in the particular subject area.

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