An outbound marketing campaign was therefore considered and proposed as a follow-up to the direct mail program.

Facing stiff competition in a relatively slow economy, the company realized the challenge in finding quality leads for their distributors' sales forces economically, and they turned to Advanced for support services.

Working within a tight budget and a narrow window of opportunity, Advanced delivered results and exceeded the customer's expectations by supplying the qualified leads and critical information for the salespeople to set appointments in the short term and also long range follow-up when the prospects are more likely to be in the market.

The marketing program provided immediate new sales increases and also ongoing revenue generation by expertly identifying the "who, what & when" for the supplier's current and future efforts.

Case Study - B2B Database Utilization
A major construction building material manufacturer was looking to qualify productive leads for their sales force to help maximize their marketing dollars. They had some good resources for their leads, like inquiries from magazine ads and trade shows, but no clear method to organize the data and develop an efficient marketing strategy.

Advanced responded with a database construction model and an outbound marketing campaign designed to take full advantage of the wealth of the data and qualify the prospects by their needs, budget and timeline.

Four different, yet related, marketing communication programs were initiated, each designed to target a specific prospecting audience.

Advanced managed the marketing campaign for about 8 months and set appointments daily for the national sales teams. The information gathered with the direct marketing communications effort proved to be of paramount importance for the salesperson in his face-to-face meeting with the prospect, and using the "friendly" database model; it was virtually transparent in the updating process and future lead follow-up system.

The program generated an abundance of high quality leads not only for their present sales cycles, but also for the next 4 years to come!

Case Study - Customer Service Center Outsource
A very successful Mid-eastern catalogue company was looking to expand nationally. Their current customer service department was staffed from only 9-5 EST. Realizing that they needed to expand their servicing hours to accommodate all time zones and the tremendous staffing costs and other challenges to do so, they were looking to partner with an experienced call center service provider.

Advanced was a perfect fit for their application with our experience in web-based order processing and flexible staffing capabilities. The program began with Advanced handling only after-hour support, then adding overflow during normal hours, and eventually evolving into Advanced being their full-time primary customer service center.

Further value-added services were soon implemented to include confirming email orders and a direct mail loyalty marketing program intended to increase incremental sales to their customer base.

With a well-positioned marketing plan mutually and carefully developed by the cataloguer and Advanced, the customer's sales and profit objectives have been reached, and future expansion into other product offerings by the cataloguer are strongly being considered.

Case Study - Business Building & Beyond
A major home decorating company offered shop at home services to their prospective buyers, but as they grew, they became somewhat overwhelmed with the scheduling challenges and the number of cancelled appointments.

The company maintained a list of these prospects and past customers and some other important information relative to the age of their inquiry and also their old customers' purchasing history. They realized the value and the need in developing a marketing plan to these lost appointments and previous customers.

Advanced was employed to reset new appointments for those previously lost and new appointments for past customers to up-sell other product items offered by the decorator. The program was an overwhelming success and led to not only immediate sales increases, but also to the development of an effective and updated database tool for future marketing campaigns.

A direct mail campaign was later designed to further support the communications effort by strategically offering discount incentives during different seasons of the year when these customers would more likely be interested in related seasonal products offered by the decorating company.