The client company – about dotCommerce
dotCommerce is an ecommerce solution aimed at small to medium size retailers. It is part of the dotDigital Group of brands.
Strategy – broader business objectives and how this activity relates
dotCommerce was the latest in a series of dotDigital Group products and services developed and designed to build on the success of the Group’s dotMailer email marketing platform.
dotDigital tasked Wildfire with launching the new dotCommerce brand to the market and helping to drive early interest in the new dotCommerce platform. Strategically, the PR campaign needed to raise early awareness of the brand in what is a very niche, targeted B2B audience and an extremely competitive market.
Campaign objectives
In July 2009 dotDigital launched dotCommerce – an ecommerce platform that sought to provide all the customisation and support of a bespoke build, along with the ease of use, affordability and flexibility of an off the shelf product. Wildfire was given the following objectives:
- Create media buzz around the dotCommerce launch and positive interest amongst the target audience
- Position the platform as a major league player in a crowded and competitive market
- Educate the target audience about the rich feature-set of the platform
- Drive targeted traffic to the dotCommerce website and capture prospect details
The target audience
The primary target for the campaign was SME retailers based in the UK. Within this audience group, Wildfire identified business owners, e-commerce managers/directors and marketing managers/directors as the key job titles.
The Campaign: ‘Hitting the Checkout’ Benchmark Study
Wildfire came up with a campaign idea that would attract widespread industry attention, provoke controversy and debate, whilst educating the target market about the full capability of the platform.
A benchmark study would assess the ecommerce effectiveness of the UK’s top 20 retail web sites and make the learnings readily available. The study would drive home the key sales message for dotCommerce – that the platform enabled small and medium-sized retailers to compete on a level playing field with top sites. The campaign would be fully integrated, including media and blogger outreach, coverage through social media channels and a redemption item in the form of a whitepaper on the website.
The benchmark study was based on an objective analysis of the 20 web sites against a set of 24 criteria that make up dotDigital’s best practice guidelines for ecommerce, based on over 11 years experience of internet marketing. A league table was then produced, ranking the 20 retailers across four different sectors – department stores, entertainment, health and beauty and electricals. Wildfire produced a 42 page industry report based on the results, entitled “Hitting the Checkout”.
In addition to revealing the full research findings, the report was designed to provide maximum value to the target audience by providing real life, practical tips and advice, with 130 best practice guidelines drawing on the good and bad examples from the study.
A series of press releases announcing the findings of the benchmark report was drafted, tailored to the specific requirements of the vertical and horizontal target media sectors. The releases ‘named and shamed’ the retailers in the report, providing a great story for the media. A link to the report was referenced in the press release, offering it as a free download on the dotCommerce site, behind a data capture form.
Blogger outreach focused on the most influential bloggers in the e-commerce sector, providing them with exclusive advanced access to the full report. Wildfire also used dotDigital’s blog and Twitter accounts to help spread awareness of the campaign on social channels.
Timescale of the campaign and budgets
The campaign took three months in total to carry out. This included planning, research and outreach ahead of the launch.
The benchmark report is still a popular download on the dotCommerce site, and has been used as a successful lead generator by dotCommerce at trade shows and through other marketing channels. The campaign was carried out within Wildfire’s existing retainer with the dotDigital Group, but the resource allocated to this campaign in particular was approximately £3,000.
Results
The campaign generated 53 pieces of coverage in the marketing, retail, e-commerce and SMB press with 33 in tier one media including, Revolution, Internet Retailing and NMA. Coverage was also received in key industry blogs including Econsultancy and IAB and was featured on the NMK podcast.
Wildfire succeeded in driving relevant traffic to the dotCommerce site, with unique visitors increasing by 400 per cent in the week of the launch alone. In addition there were 200 white paper downloads in the first week. The white paper still plays a prominent role in prospect engagement and to date over 1100 prospective dotCommerce clients have downloaded the report and provided their contact details.
The report also prompted engagement with tier one retailers featured in the study, including M&S, who provided dotCommerce with a testimonial for the web site
“I found [the report] useful and informative, with clearly explained criteria and helpful best practice guidelines. It was great to get confirmation of the things we’re doing well and easy to identify areas for improvement”, Lisa Adams, marksandspencer.com.
Since the launch of the Hitting the Checkout campaign, dotCommerce has taken on 21 new clients and built a sales pipeline of 117 prospective ecommerce clients, with a potential value of over £1,000,000.
Client testimonial
“Successfully launching a new brand in a very competitive and established B2B sector is always going to be challenge. Wildfire developed a campaign that not only generated a sustained buzz around the brand, but also helped drive extremely targeted traffic to the new website and gave us a detailed whitepaper that can be used for marketing activities and data capture in the future. This was an incredibly effective campaign that achieved fantastic results for the business and really put dotCommerce on the map. For these reasons it more than achieved our objectives and gave us a fantastic return on our investment.”
Cliff Guy, head of marketing, dotDigital Group PLC
