#INITtogether Campaign to Support Sales of INIT COVID-19 IT Solutions
Target Audience: The comprehensive campaign targeted existing INIT customers in the US and Canada who have been impacted by the pandemic through email, website, direct mail, and social media marketing. The campaign targeted prospective customers through online advertisements and content marketing on industry websites and social media.
Strategy Objective:The objective of this campaign was to support transit agencies in a COVID-transformed reality through the sale of new and existing INIT technologies, such as contactless payments, real-time vehicle occupancy monitoring, mobile dispatching, and planning tools. The other main objective was to invest in INIT's relationships with customers by providing resources and support, with the hope of future sales during the pandemic. A personalized letter was directly mailed to customers at the start of the pandemic, followed by a COVID-19 edition of the company newsletter, and two email newsletters. Prospects were targeted through a blog and podcast, a live webinar, whitepapers, including a Best Practices Guide, daily social media posts, and online advertisements on industry websites.
Situation Challenge: The unique challenges brought on by the pandemic necessitated a clear and immediate response from INIT. Our target audience was devastated by plummeting ridership and needed effective tools and resources to aid them in creating a safe atmosphere on public transit, for example, by allowing them to communicate with riders about crowd levels on their vehicles. We used various marketing communications methods over the course of the pandemic to present solutions to highly relevant challenges faced by the transit industry.
Results Impact: The campaign resulted in a substantial number of online engagements and strong sales leads from our target audience. We received over 78 sales leads from those who engaged with our COVID-19 whitepapers on industry websites, over 160 leads from email marketing, and one additional lead from our live webinar. INIT social media channels obtained over 14,000 engagements and over 670 new followers over the course of the campaign. Podcast episodes were streamed over 390 times and COVID-19 product videos were viewed more than 900 times across social media and YouTube.
Why Submit: The #INITtogether Campaign was submitted for an award because of its comprehensive response to challenges brought on by the pandemic with relevant, high-quality content strategically presented to the target audience. With speed, thoroughness, and attention to customer needs, we were able to execute this campaign when it was most relevant to them, while promoting online engagement, increasing new leads, and establishing INIT as a leader in customer care and a solution provider for COVID recovery.