Core

Let’s face it: document storage isn’t exactly sexy. But as the volume of business data grows exponentially, physical and electronic records management is a concern that can’t be ignored. The problem is especially acute for smaller companies, which often lack the knowledge and resources to handle the data deluge.

Recall, a global leader in document management, is well placed to assist. But having always focused on enterprise customers, the company lacked awareness in the SMB market. How then to reach small business owners and make them aware of this important, but off-the-radar topic?

Recall enlisted Arketi Group to help position itself as an educator and trusted advisor. And the effort paid off, generating $290,000 in sales pipeline from a single webinar alone.

Understand the audience

Well-known as a leader in paper-based document management, Recall has also developed extensive services to help businesses manage the growing volume of digital assets. The challenge Recall gave to Arketi was to launch these services into the SMB market.

Arketi’s research revealed that SMBs have concerns about big data, data breaches and data security. From this knowledge, the team developed a campaign theme “Your Roadmap to Total Information Management,” with a series of programs designed to educate SMBs on ways to protect their physical and digital data – and to introduce them to Recall.

At the heart of the campaign was a series of live 30-minute webinars.

Setup for success

The aim of the webinar series was to position Recall as an educational resource and trusted advisor for SMBs struggling with digital and physical information management. The team set itself some important target success metrics:

• Generate interest, measured by the number of webinar registrants – targeting at least 0.1% of the recipients, all drawn from Recall’s extensive contact database;
• Create connection, measured by the number of webinar attendees – targeting at least 50% of those who registered to attend the virtual event.

The team brainstormed multiple potential topics for the webinar that would address specific digital and physical information management issues of interest to SMBs. For the third webinar, the topic would be “How to get your exploding data storage costs under control” and the presentation would be led by a Recall subject matter expert.

The right touches

Based on an interview with the Recall expert, Arketi drafted an outline of webinar content, designed the visual presentation, and developed three interactive poll questions that would be put to attendees during the webinar. Arketi then developed a complete script for the Recall expert and conducted a dry run with the final presentation.

Just as important as drafting content was building an audience. A flight of five invitation emails were used to promote the webinar, along with confirmations, day-of reminders and landing pages.

A key offer in all communication was a complimentary information management assessment for any company registering for the webinar. This call-to-action was a major draw for small businesses unsure of their competency in and compliance with information governance regulations.

Results and revenue

With the live webcast complete and the recording archived, it was time to evaluate the program’s outcome. The results were more than satisfactory.

Registration numbers exceeded the target by 40%, and attendee numbers – those registrants who actually logged in to the live event were 28% higher than targeted.

An archived recording of the webinar, available on the Recall website, continues to draw viewers daily. And Recall continues to receive requests for the information management assessment offered as part of the webinar – which provides an ideal sales opportunity.

Nice numbers, but what about dollars? Tracking registrants, attendees and assessment participants, Recall calculated that this single webinar generated a potential revenue pipeline of $290,000.

These results demonstrate that, while not new, when well executed, a webinar program can deliver real return on a relatively modest investment. The campaign is ongoing and subsequent webinars in the series are proving equally effective at engaging Recall with a new and significant SMB market.