Case Study refecting how Cross Media were ale to increase membersip enquiries by 150% for the Institute of Directors

1. Effectively
Case Study
Institute of Directors
Project:
Institute of Directors targets new members
Business Application:
Personalised Membership Mailers
The Institute of Directors (IoD) is the UK’s longest standing
organisation for professional leaders with over 100 years of
experience in business membership and benefits. The IoD
wanted to increase the uptake in new membership enquiries
as well as provide an innovative service to their membership
audience by implementing new communication mediums.
The system, which was launched in May 2010, was
expected to reduce printing and enclosing costs, to save on
Direct Mail
postage and envelopes while enabling the IoD to dramatically
increase the uptake in new members and decrease the sales
process lifecycle. Description
To attract new members into the IoD, the organisation has
historically mailed a 4 page postcard with a BRE into a DL
Highlights outer. The mailer has the name personalised to the front and a
form on the inside for the recipient to fill out their details and
Programme Objectives interests. The text on the inside outlines the benefits of IoD
membership. Once the form is completed, it is enclosed into
• Increase uptake in membership enquiries. the provided BRE and mailed back to the IoD sales team.
• Reduce postage costs.
• Reduce cost of envelopes. This process can take in excess of one week, and can lead
to a cooling of the sales lead and a potential delay in the
• Cut down the sales lead time. prospect being contacted by the IoD. It also incurs extra
production time and cost from the additional postage,
Results envelope and extra fulfilment.
• Increased membership enquiries by 150%.
Cross Media acknowledged the current approach and offered
• Trebled previous response rate. a new alternative, which encompasses the same format of
• Reduced production cost. the mailing piece, but with the addition of a Personalised URL
(PURL) in place of the form. This enables the recipient to log
• Cut the sales lead time from in excess of one week
on to their personal webpage and confirm or alter their details,
to one day. click “Submit” and then receive a pack in the post or a call
• Provided an innovative method of contacting from the sales team. A notification email is sent to the sales
prospective members. team at the IoD confirming that someone has requested more
information. They can then act accordingly by calling them,
emailing or sending more information.
Cross Media Communications | t: +44 (0) 20 7689 8705 | f: +44 (0) 20 7689 8706
Citybridge House, 235-245 Goswell Road, London EC1V 7JD

2. Effectively
Case Study
The PURL also had a “Join Now” button so that recipients
could go straight to the IoD website and apply to join for
membership immediately.
In addition to the PURL and the printed mailer, the IoD created
a unique telephone number for this campaign so if people
wanted to call them directly, they could.
The new mailer included variable images according to the
recipients’ geographical. This showed that the IoD was not just
in London and helped to target other regions of the UK.
Once the mailing piece was sent, Cross Media sent an email
one week later which reflected the mailing piece and had a
link to the recipients PURL.
The response rates from the mailing piece were excellent
with many people logging onto their PURL, however with the
PURL
reinforcement of the email the numbers increased dramatically.
The campaign returned a 6% response of people who logged
onto their PURL, with 17% of visitors clicking “Join Now”
and 24% confirming their interest and requesting more
information. Once the visitor was on their PURL there was a
41% chance of them taking action and clicking through.
The email had an open rate of 17%, and 39% of those who
opened them clicked through to their PURL.
In addition, Cross Media were able to demonstrate to the IoD
the regions that are responding well and those that need more
focus. Within the analysis the IoD were able to see the best
responding industry for their membership and size of company
and turnover.
All of this enabled the Institute of Directors to draw a picture
of their ideal member for future mailings so that they can be
even more targeted, returning even higher response rates.
“Cross Media helped us to plan and implement a new
approach to our acquisition campaigns by incorporating DM,
email and online activity.
I am pleased to say that early indications show this approach
provides us with a marked improvement to our response rates,
when compared to our usual campaigns. With this approach
we are certainly getting a better return on our investment.
The Cross Media team are very easy to work with and very
Email accommodating. I look forward to working together with them
in the future, and I look forward to even better response rates!“
Matthew Wayne,
Marketing Executive at the Institute of Directors
Cross Media Communications | t: +44 (0) 20 7689 8705 | f: +44 (0) 20 7689 8706
Citybridge House, 235-245 Goswell Road, London EC1V 7JD