CCL Computers supplies computer systems and components to education, corporate and public sectors, computer resellers and private individuals throughout the UK. Weekly email shots form a large part of their marketing effort. To make the campaign creation process quicker and to analyse their campaign success they decided to acquire an email marketing campaign management solution.

The Problem

CCL had been using a bespoke tool for sending their email offers. As with many bespoke built solutions there were significant issues with this tool. Firstly it was just too time consuming to set-up an email. It took up to 2 days to setup emails and in their industry where prices can change significantly daily this was unacceptable.

Secondly they had little indication of how successful each email campaign had been. There was no reporting of open rates and click-thru’s so CCL could not identify what parts of the email were working and what was not.

The Solution – Maxemail inHouse

CCL wanted an off-the-shelf solution that they could simply drop into their existing network. Having experienced problems with their bespoke system they required something that was robust, reliable and easy to maintain.

CCL chose Maxemail inHouse after an extensive trial of the system. Maxemail inHouse is a server-based solution that resides on CCL’s own network infrastructure. This enabled CCL to have greater control over the solution with their own IP address and will provide cost savings over the long term, as there are no costs per email.

Maxemail inHouse is a standalone solution with its own send engine and database. This not only makes it more reliable but it also minimises the impact on CCL’s existing systems, as all it requires is an Internet connection.

Implementation of Maxemail was simple and fast. From agreeing terms it took only a week for Emailcenter to install and configure a server for CCL and to train the users.

After Maxemail inHouse was implemented at CCL they started to identify additional benefits to their email marketing. Firstly set-up time was reduced from two days to a matter of minutes for each campaign, enabling CCL to deliver their product e-shots on time.

Maxemail also handles the unsubscribe requests received, automatically removing them from future emails. After the introduction of the latest privacy legislation this has become even more important for marketers to manage.

The major difference Maxemail has made to CCL’s email marketing has been the collection of detailed tracking statistics. CCL are now able to view statistics on opens, click-thru’s, bounces and unsubscribes in real-time.

The statistics show that their weekly emails are popular amongst their subscriber base. The open rate averages at 47.5% while the average click-thru rate is nearly 14%. However these statistics alone do not help CCL understand how to improve their emails and make them more relevant.

The data reports however enable CCL to gauge what interests their recipients. By looking at what are the most popular and least popular links within each email, CCL are able to distinguish the types of offers that work best. CCL have the tough challenge of ensuring they do not suffer from list fatigue, where recipients simply get bored of offer after offer each week. Using the click-thru tracking to update their e-shot content enables CCL to produce more relevant and appealing emails. This has so far assisted CCL in maintaining a healthy open and click-thru rate.