For the last 12 years Ant Marketing has been providing outbound and inbound paid subscriptions generation for a world-leading weekly international news and business publication. We have been responsible for contacting via the telephone every lapsed subscriber to the publication across the UK , Europe, the Middle East and Africa , to renew their subscription.

We have maintained our relationships for this long because we are committed to meeting the client's requirements; we constantly strive to add value by suggesting enhancements to the projects; and we provide a whole host of management information on a daily, weekly and monthly basis so that the client is constantly informed of our activity.

There has always been a dedicated team working for this client and they work from a branded room. Many of the team have been with Ant Marketing for several years and have therefore built up good relationships with the client.

We also complete a whole range of ad hoc campaigns that are diarised throughout the calendar year and look at other areas of the subscriber database. We encourage the purchase of gift subscriptions, chase bad debts, handle bounced credit card queries and resolve undeliverable copies.

In early 2006, we began a project to contact all of the lapsed subscribers of this publication across USA and Canada and, due to our success, we are now undertaking this project on an ongoing basis for the client.

Objectives & Target Audience

The campaign is an ongoing contact management programme. The campaign objectives are as follows:

• To generate subscription sales worldwide across consumer and business audiences
• To generate a comprehensive database for both re-contact and direct marketing activity
• To increase the awareness of the brand and specific product offerings
• To provide the direct marketing team with market research information

The Challenges & Solutions

The First Challenge

To ensure each of the closed sales are of high quality

The Solution

Ant Marketing use a variety of mechanisms to ensure the challenge is met, including:

• Ensuring the team is fully briefed on each project
• Agreeing and adhering to predetermined criteria for a qualified sale
• Utilising a robust quality control procedure that ensures contact demographics and financial data are accurate

The Second Challenge

To deliver secured sales to the fulfilment team on a regular basis

Agreeing and adhering to delivery schedules with the fulfilment house

The Third Challenge

To ensure the highest level of product knowledge

The Solution

Here the solution has been as follows:

• Providing extensive initial and ongoing training
• Creating a dedicated team for the project
• Undertaking ongoing product knowledge assessment (independent of operations, every month Ant Marketing's Training Division makes an assessment of each operative and, dependent upon the results, provides additional training)

Co-ordination

Ant Marketing ensures that coordination and reporting is via a central marketing contact. Confirmed sales are sent to the fulfilment house and an end-of-week cumulative report goes to the central marketing contact.

Delivery Management

• A dedicated team of qualified/trained operatives
• Full-time dedicated management
• Quality control independent of Operations via Client Services
• Support from training to provide further product knowledge
• Audit of the operatives
• A robust IT platform

Results & Success

Results have been measured as follows:

• The client closely monitors the data penetration and secured sales conversions generated from each list supplied.
• Sales quality is achieved via ongoing quality control and audit procedures.
• On a weekly basis, Ant Marketing delivers robust reporting, which consistently measures against the key performance indicators and an agreed service level.
• Ant Marketing audits the service by a series of regular client satisfaction surveys, and takes action if required.