Marketing DigitalWork.com:
One-stop business service center for the SOHO market

If you wanted to right now, could you go on the web and zap out 1,000 postcards in the mail to prospects and customers, submit a press release to BusinessWire’s vast global media network, or schedule an opt-in e-mail campaign?

DigitalWork.com has put services like these and more on its innovative web site the company hopes will change "the Internet from a read-only environment to a place to be productive and get work done."

"Direct E-mail marketing is our best tool for finding new customers," Randy Grudzinski, VP marketing told MWT. "Since we’re selling services there’s a longer adoption process to get people to use them, but once we’ve acquired customers they’re easier to retain."

Grudzinski says he’s gotten a 5 percent clickthrough rate on average to his text-based messaging campaigns. "But when we’ve added HTML we’ve seen clickthroughs go as high as 10 percent," he added. A recent MyPoints campaign which included a $50 coupon drew a 25 percent clickthrough rate but the jury’s still out on these new names. Since MyPoints offers incentives to people on its lists to read e-mail, Grudzinski can’t say what these early numbers mean.

The SOHO customer base that DigitalWork has amassed provides a new window on the wired world and what online transactions they prefer. "Sending press releases is our most popular service, and e-mail campaigns come in second. Fifty percent of those who do e-mail campaigns are repeat buyers," Grudzinski said.

With the average customer spending $1,200 a year, Grudzinski’s search for more customers is constrained by one one major factor: the short supply of qualfied opt-in e-mail lists. In the meantime DigitalWork has a list of 170,000 names they regularly send a monthly ‘zine to.