Problem
MOD-PAC, a 100 year old packaging printing company was launching a new business to sell commercial printing services online. They needed to develop online marketing and e-commerce capabilities with little to no internal experience or resources to develop the site and to drive lead generation, qualification and sales. Critical to this success was defining and resonating with the needs of their various target audiences in an online environment.

Solution
ClearGauge’s team constructed a holistic program to provide the research and strategy needed to make key business decisions about the direction of the new business site and also implemented an efficient, measurable method for generating qualified prospects. Key elements of this online marketing program included:

• Assessing competition and product/content/offers strengths, weaknesses, & gap analysis
• Conducting online focus groups to ascertain the pain points in procuring printed materials in the overall print management process, preferences for services, delivery, relationship, & communications and the buying & selection process for each of the market segments to be served (small business, non-profits, agencies, large business business units and corporate groups)
• Online Media research for target market access points and keyword list research
• Building prospect relationship strategy through an umbrella brand (PrintLizard) and a segment-specific engagement process
• Developing a media plan with online and offline components, a PR plan, search marketing plan, messaging specific to value proposition and specific audience segments, content/offerings, web site design and an online program launch plan
• Defining and setting benchmarks for the online campaign while monitoring and measuring valued prospect activities and behaviors (how-to downloads, opt-ins and iPod sweepstakes registrations and eCommerce activity)
• Creating a continual optimization loop whereby learning consistently improves results

Results
Since launch in spring 2005, 1,025 potential new customers opted-in, 190 quotes for business were generated, 52 sample kits were requested and 39 orders were placed and this was all prior to the full launch of the e-commerce site. Valuable lessons were also learned about how to directly relate results back to revenue goals and conversion rates to significantly increase qualified lead generation. Specific industry verticals within small business showed their affinity for this offering and more robust and focused outreach is being planned to align with this observation.

"ClearGauge is a group of very nice, professional, knowledgeable people.  In a day and age when people bandy about the term 'partner' as just a popular buzzword, they truly live and breathe it.  Not only are they  great at what they do, but they elicit total trust from their clients.  We are totally comfortable working with them, and rely on their judgments to grow our business."
    --Joe Burgio, Director of Business Development, MOD-PAC CORP / PrintLizard.com

Ask how ClearGauge can help you understand customer preferences with online research. Contact us today.