The CMO Council is a peer-to-peer network affinity organization dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior marketing and brand decision-makers across a wide-range of global industries. With nearly 3,000 members, the association provides events, programs and research that address industry issues of import to these senior-level executives. "We produce high quality content and our volume continues to grow, increasing the amount of email communications we have with our members," explained Liz Miller, vice president, CMO Council. "For our Fall Summits in San Francisco and London, we wanted to reach out more dynamically to our members, to underscore for them the value in attending these summits."
Starting in 2006, email open rates on CMO Council email marketing campaigns had dropped from around 80%-85% in recent years to 55%-60%. Though effective for announcing new research reports and events, members, who typically receive high volumes of daily e-mail, were unable to differentiate the value of CMO Council e-mail from other mail.
"As we began promoting our San Francisco and London Summits, we were experiencing less-than-stellar response to our promotions," stated Miller. "In brainstorming with ON24 about their various solutions, we hit on a rich media e-mail format that we felt would resonate with our members."
Previously, the Council's email marketing campaigns included extensive information about speakers, topics and agenda. Per ON24's counsel, the Council shortened the content of the email with an invitation to view a video message from a well-known marketing colleague to promote the San Francisco and London summits.
The Council then leveraged ON24's production know-how to produce a series of four rich media webcasts for the San Francisco Summit and two rich media webcasts for the London Summit. Filmed against a white screen, the 1.5-2 minute streaming videos featured distinct spokespersons, each conveying specific messages, with links to view the summit agenda or register. The rich media webcasts were then hosted on ON24's webcasting platform. With ON24's robust back-end reporting, the Council received detailed reports on number of views, average viewing time, and user interaction.
The promotion proved very effective. For the San Francisco Summit email promotion, the first round of emails experienced a 99% open rate - a nearly 50% increase. By the time the fourth email invitation was sent out, the Council had 235 paid registrants for the 300-registrant event. The London Summit similarly experienced a 45% increase in interest after sending out the emails inviting members to view rich media webcasts.
"In addition to driving registrants to our Summits, we have experienced increased interest from companies to participate on our advisory board and various thought leadership and marketing initiatives. We believe that the rich media webcast that ON24 produced for us contributed to this increased mindshare. Unlike a traditional email, the rich media webcasts communicated who we are and the value of our brand to our members and prospective partners."
- Liz Miller, Vice President, CMO Council
