One of the most popular features of the Internet is the ability to participate in real-time communication. ichat Inc. is one of the leading suppliers of Web-based real-time communications software.
As ichat attempted to build and market its products, one resource it turned to was direct e-mail marketing. ichat’s director of corporate sales, Bruce Dietzen, enlisted the aid of NetCreations and their PostMaster Direct opt-in e-mail marketing service.
According to Dietzen, ichat sent out e-mail at 10 a.m. one day and experienced hundreds of visitors to their site by 3 p.m.. ichat was able to directly interact with these visitors via their own chat software, and then call them immediately afterwards. Within five hours, ichat closed $50,000 in sales, including a single order for $20,000.
Thanks to PostMaster Direct, ichat was able to specifically target and contact highly qualified Web developers and Internet marketers that had “opted in” to receive commercial announcements.
ichat’s first PostMaster Direct mailing yielded a 7 percent response. Subsequent mailings yielded 4 percent response rates. The opt-in feature of the lists enabled ichat to avoid being mistaken as a spammer.
“At 15 cents a name, this is the best price/performance tool that I have ever encountered,” Dietzen says. “There’s another benefit, too. The time it takes to cycle a targeted e-mail marketing campaign is only two days. I was used to print marketing campaigns that took two months!”
Within four weeks of mailing to PostMaster Direct’s 30,000-member Web Design and Promotion List, ichat’s sales quadrupled.
