58 North Texas Ford Dealers Leverage Peranet Technology for Real-Time Interaction with Prospects and Customers
8 January 2001
58 North Texas Ford Dealers Leverage Peranet Technology for Real-Time Interaction with Prospects and Customers
DALLAS--Jan. 8, 2000--Peranet, Inc., (www.Peranet.com), the leader in the emerging field of conversion marketing, today announced its newest customer, the North Texas Ford Dealers Advertising Association of 58 dealers, and the results from their first Peranet marketing program.
For this program, each dealership leveraged Peranet's flagship real-time conversion marketing platform to help bring customers back into the Ford showrooms for a test drive. The campaign began on November 8th with a direct mail piece to 500,000 consumers in the north Texas region who had not purchased a car from any of the participating dealers in the past 12 months. The direct-mail piece invited consumers to visit a special Texas Ford website for a choice of gift (ball cap, travel mug, road atlas, or a $10 coupon redeemable at local grocers) in exchange for completing a survey on their car-buying intentions (e.g., when they plan to purchase a new vehicle, what category of vehicle - car, truck, sport utility vehicle, etc.) and making an appointment to test drive a vehicle.
Over a 14-day period, more than 6,000 people logged-on, chose from a range of free gifts, completed the survey and visited a Ford dealer. The Ford dealers estimated that this program resulted in more than $120 million in uncovered leads.
"We are delighted that North Texas Ford Dealers, a leading business group in the region, is integrating Peranet into its collective marketing efforts. Clearly, the dealers have seen first hand the enormous impact of being able to effectively gain quantified and qualified data from potential customers," said Joel Bines, CEO, Peranet.
In addition, several of the dealers initiated program extensions such as follow-up thank-you e-mails to customers who scheduled an appointment, "welcome-boards" to greet people who made appointments online, and computer kiosks in showrooms for customers who don't have Internet access.
"Peranet offers an extremely flexible and powerful marketing platform that helps companies offer the right reward to the right person at the right time for the right behavior by combining the speed and interactivity of the Internet with choice-based, opt-in techniques in a way that has never been done before," said Bines.
"We chose Peranet's technology platform for our Ford client because it is strategic, immediate and measurable," said Dennis Flaherty, senior partner, regional account supervisor, J. Walter Thompson. "We were able to gather important buying data offered willingly by customers, which resulted in real, viable sales leads. No other direct marketing program we've used provides this kind of accountability."
"We were spending a lot of time and money on direct mail campaigns which are sometimes difficult to track, control or measure," said Jerry Reynolds, owner of Garland-based Prestige Ford near Dallas, one of the largest Ford dealerships in the country, and two-time and current president of the national Ford Dealer Council. "Now, by integrating Peranet's technology into our marketing campaigns, we can track the success of the program and gather important information offered by prospective customers, such as what radio and TV stations they tune to so we can plan advertising accordingly. We're talking about real interaction with customers. Already, we have nearly 2,500 valid e-mail addresses from prospective customers, many of whom say they plan to buy a vehicle in the near future - this is powerful information."
More about Peranet
Peranet's solution is the first in a new category called conversion marketing products, which is designed to motivate a target audience to take a desired action, such as purchasing, registration, downloading information and software, responding to e-mail and completing surveys. It is a campaign management tool for creating, targeting, delivering, tracking and reporting on promotional marketing programs.
Peranet's technology completely integrates into a client's marketing campaign and can be offered through traditional media channels, such as TV, print and radio, as well on a web site, as part of an e-mail program or in a direct marketing piece.
Peranet designs and hosts each application; sources, warehouses and distributes incentives as required, and provides reports on activity and survey data collection - it is the only solution that offers complete front-end and back-end services.
"Peranet is sitting at the intersection of the virtual and physical worlds," said Bines. "We are engaging the efficiencies and interactivity of the Internet for one-to-one contact with customers to turn one-way marketing promotions into interactive programs, which establish ongoing relationships with customers."
Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Peranet was co-founded in 1999 by Joel Bines, president and CEO, and Thano Hasiotis, CFO and COO. A privately held company that currently employs more than 40 people, Peranet is funded by Sevin Rosen, Rho Management, Star-Ventures, ComDisco Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank.