Customer Feedback Builds Compelling

Messaging for Influencer Relations

ALTIUM CASE STUDY

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ObjectiveEngineers use Altium Designer software to design

increasingly complex electronics projects. The company

found itself between major announcements, and sought a

way to generate news hooks the media would find compelling.

McBru recommended a survey of Altium’s most recent

customers, totally nearly 500 over the previous 12 month

period. The survey collected dara about the customers’

experiences with EDA tools, and look for interesting trends

that could translate into storylines. The plan:

•Delve into the experiences of its most recent customers

for insights into preference and purchase behavior.

•Provide direction and content for a major influencer

relations push.

To dig into what matters to design engineers worldwide, McBru fired up its proprietary intelligent dialog technology.

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StrategyFor this fast-turn, multi-faceted program, McBru fired up

its proprietary intelligent dialog technology. Unlike a static

web survey, it mimics an interactive discussion with an

Altium representative, asking a series of related questions

that build understanding and affinity. This service helps

McBru clients to “mine the minds” of thousands of well-

targeted prospects around the world, all at the same time.

McBru loaded a list of Altium’s most recent customers

— representing 500 companies

using Altium Designer v10 — into

the McBru Direct email marketing

platform. Through a series of high

impact, personalized invitations,

the program engaged several

hundred of these customers in the dialog.

These respondents shared their views on the use,

challenges, and benefits in moving from a competitor’s

software to Altium Designer 10. Because the dialog

simulates an interactive Q&A with an Altium expert,

customers feel that they are learning even as they provided

their input. This technique builds goodwill, a concrete

step to maintaining a positive reputation. It also makes

it more natural to follow quantitative questions (“choose

one”) with qualitative ones (“you said yes, why do you feel

that way?”). In our parlance, we ask for the what, and we

ask for the why.

Why go through all this effort to support an influencer

relations (IR) campaign? The challenge for Altium was

that most of the features of the Altium Designer 10 were

already public knowledge, through an extensive beta

program and “soft launch” among its customer base. The

company needed fresh, substantive,

media-worthy content to support

the formal launch of this version

of the software. Backing up key

product features with real customer

experience, gleaned from hundreds

of users, infused the rollout with greater impact.

ResultsThe program unearthed a number of valuable insights that

illuminated customer decision-making and experiences

with the software. For example, Altium Designer is

significantly more affordable than the products from its

chief competitors, yet its customers value the product’s

unified design environment more than price. This is a much

better position than “low cost” to take in the company’s

Customers feel that they are learning even as they provide their input.

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messaging. Other dialog

questions exposed strengths

and weaknesses of those

competitors, giving the message even better positioning.

We also asked questions about specific proof points,

such as the level of productivity boost from using the

Altium Designer. The result: 84% of the respondents

said 2X or better. That powerful statistic became a key

asset in the client’s website as well as the subsequent

marketing program.

We rolled the dialog results from Altium’s IR campaign to

the blogosphere and trade media and received extensive

coverage: inclusion in a cover story in EDN magazine

and articles in major blogs and periodicals. In fact, Chip

Design magazine repurposed a graph pulled directly from

one of the intelligent dialog reports.

Through careful questioning, we were also able to identify

the best evangelists in the customer pool and discern

what they care about most. Their opinions are critical

to refining the strategy to build revenue. For example,

we asked them if they would

serve as a reference. Fully

30% of the group said

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yes, representing hundreds of opportunities to pursue

case studies for specific industries and job titles. With

McBru’s help, Altium has developed numerous success

stories from the customer pool that continue to reinforce

its marketing efforts.

These evangelists played an important role as the IR

campaign coverage hit the blogs and periodicals. McBru

noticed that Altium competitors were leaving negative

comments on the stories and blog posts. McBru invited

certain evangelists to read the coverage, and they jumped

Survey results fueled up front-page coverage in magazines and blogs.

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to Altium’s defense, publically, in the forums.

Finally, the intelligent dialog responses are important

input to fine-tune the sales

process itself. For example,

Altium gained first-hand

intelligence about the size

and responsiveness of

various market segments.

Altium learned the average

size of the customers’ designs. The responses also

helped define the length of the sales cycle and at what

level sales decisions are made.

Many of these questions could be answered by listening

to customers over time—through traditional means like

customer visits and trade shows, and using social media

monitoring tools as McBru

does. But an intelligent

dialog is a better choice when

you need answers to specific

questions fast. Under the

right circumstances, you

can engage hundreds or

thousands of individuals and derive actionable answers—

the whats and the whys—in a couple of weeks.

30% of the group said yes, representing hundreds of opportunities to pursue case studies for specific industries and job titles.

elise@mcbru.com

www.mcbru.com

www.mcbrublog.com

@mcbru

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