OfficeMax

OfficeMax

"We are well on the way to delivering on the expectations we have for this channel. Working with Permission has helped us remove any previous limitations that held us back and to let us really focus on our plans ahead."

- Claire Mitchell – OfficeMax

OfficeMax is New Zealand's leading supplier of office products and is part of a worldwide corporation that employs over 41,000 people in multiple businesses worldwide.

The OfficeMax marketing team responsible for email marketing approached Permission about their messaging needs. They had some aggressive future plans for the channel and were concerned that the present methods of creation and deployment looked unable to meet them.

Part of the problem was the limited amount of information currently available on how well their email marketing was working in conjunction with OrderMax, their high-end e-commerce website. For instance, nearly all of their email messages provided links for customers to follow to find out more about products contained in the initial newsletter. These links ended up at OrderMax, where customers were prompted to make a purchase either then or later. However, detailed statistics on the purchase conversion rates of this traffic stream were difficult to extract and allocate back to the source communication.

There was also the need to improve the overall look of the messages. In the existing form, they sat within a template structure, which was hard to alter and was gradually falling out of phase with the OfficeMax brand. So the look had to be made more current and the methods used to manage this process changed so that future creative alterations were not cost prohibitive and allowed for some promotion-specific customization.

Permission was engaged and the project kicked off to find ways to solve both these issues. To start, the Permission team worked on quickly improving the analytics details provided for the campaigns. We had some experience with the website analytics tool OfficeMax had chosen for their e-commerce site and, after completing some preliminary research, proposed a method whereby future inbound email campaign traffic could be tracked through to a final order placement stage. Once tested and confirmed as a working solution, the team at OfficeMax was then able to access all the data they required to measure how well each campaign – at an individual product and aggregate total – had performed.

The rigid template structure that was part of the original email content management system was also removed. In its place was a selection of HTML promotional email styles that better reflected the OfficeMax branding and allowed for greater flexibility when making future alterations. The production team at Permission is now briefed about each campaign, with direction on which email style to use and any promotional changes that may be required. Proofs are then produced by Permission in an email- and ISP-friendly format for client approval and later dispatch.

The new layouts have been well received, even catching the eye of other OfficeMax offices worldwide that had are to start their own email marketing efforts.

With these new-found improvements in analytics and better control of their campaign creative process, the future plans for the email channel at OfficeMax are now back in focus. Both teams met recently to map out the delivery of these during the next few months.