Kelway (UK) Ltd is the UK’s fastest-growing computer hardware and software reseller. Established in 1990, Kelway’s continued growth and success is down to delivering the right IT solutions, backed by a level of service that’s the envy of the industry. The service starts with ascertaining precise customer requirements before any kind of commitment to purchase is established, carries on through sourcing, configuring and installing the equipment followed by continuing consultancy where required.

The challenge
One of Kelway's principle aims, with every piece of corporate communication whether printed or pixels, is to maintain and gain on the relationship with the customer or prospect - as well as ultimately selling equipment. The company’s modus operandi until recently was to concentrate almost exclusively on telesales - with occasional forays into direct mail. But the sales directors realised that the internet, email and its associated technologies could be a distinct competitive advantage - if deployed correctly.

An attempt to broadcast to their list using their own Exchange server was made but proved unsatisfactory because it was too slow, interfered with day-to-day email traffic and there was no real way of tracking the response efficiently. Kelway’s marketing communications agency suggested they try Email Reaction.

Email Reaction solution
Once Email Reaction was involved, Kelway began to see more and more potential. The very first email broadcast they produced contained a substantial amount of advanced functionality.

Kelway had the database of prospects and existing customers: first name, last name, email address and the name of the customer’s dedicated account manager appended to each record. In this way, an HTML email could be sent, correlated with the name of the customer’s account manager as the signatory: a truly personal, personalised email.

• The email was personalised and appeared to be sent from a dedicated account manager - including the ‘sent by’.
• A competition (to win an Apple iPod) was included to lift response. To enter the competition, recipients had to complete online forms which were pre-populated, as far as possible, from the data that was already held.
• Links in the body of the email directed recipients to a microsite hosted by Email Reaction that dealt with competition entries as well as direct enquiries about the offering. Tracking followed through to the microsite.
• A ‘ring-me-back-now’ button in the email body triggered an alert to the relevant sales manager to act.
• Advanced tracking was deployed so that the customer journey could be recorded. For example, it was extremely useful for Kelway sales managers to know if a recipient actually replied to the offering in the email (inviting them to find out more about an upgrade from Microsoft’s obsolescent NT operating system), then wandered off to go and look at Hewlett-Packard servers somewhere else on the main website. This information was used discreetly for later follow-up sales calls.

Result
As a result of this initial email broadcast, sales were generated to pay for the campaign many, many times over. What’s more, further enquiries were still materialising as a direct result many months later.

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