Case Study #1: IRM BIQ Email

IRM is the leading business intelligence software solutions provider for the Food & Beverage industry. IRM’s vertical focus and deep F&B industry experience differentiates the organization from their competition and provides them with unique insight to the needs of their customers.

The Challenge:

IRM focuses almost exclusively on the Food & Beverage industry, a firmly established and mature environment that has historically hesitated to embrace new technology. IRM faced difficulty convincing potential customers of the value of business intelligence. However, IRM enjoyed overwhelming success in closing new deals if they could convince a potential client to simply demo their flagship business intelligence product.

IRM needed a tool that could be easily distributed to leads in order to introduce the idea of business intelligence and provide an opportunity to schedule a demonstration of the product. IRM wanted an engaging but fun concept that would not feel like a hard sell. They wanted to reinforce their leadership position in the field of business intelligence solutions, educate the recipient on the value of business intelligence, and encourage them to evaluate their own company’s practices in this area.

The Solution:

The Basis Group created an interactive email campaign that featured an original animated character, IRM’s Professor of Business Intelligence. This character combined the look and feel of a 1950’s educational film strip with a well-informed and intelligent story. This approach created a fun and inviting, yet authoritative narrative for the campaign.

The central element of the campaign was an interactive quiz that would establish a company’s “B-I.Q” (Business Intelligence Quotient.) The recipient was led by the professor through a series of questions pertaining to the way their organization approached data acquisition, distribution and analysis. The result of the quiz was a measurement of the company’s business intelligence quotient.

Once the company’s B-I.Q. was established, the recipient was offered three choices depending upon their level of interest in business intelligence. If they were “Skeptical” they could download a white paper offering a more in-depth explanation of business intelligence. If they were “Curious” they could download a data sheet for IRM’s flagship business intelligence solution. If they were “Ready To Talk” they could provide contact information so an IRM representative could call them to answer questions and schedule a demo of the product.

The unconventional approach of this campaign combined with the soft approach allowed IRM to create a memorable and appealing piece. The interactive nature of the quiz educated recipients on the value of business intelligence while encouraging them to evaluate their company’s need for it. This tactic reinforced IRM’s position as the industry leader for BI solutions. By providing recipients with options at the conclusion of the quiz, IRM established trust with the audience while creating real sales opportunities.

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