• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, December 12, 2007

PARK CITY, Utah--The benefits of e-mail can be green in more ways than one, according to David Maher, vice president of Fidelity's communications & advertising.

Maher, speaking at MediaPost's Email Summit, gave attendees a chuckle by showing a photograph of one customer sitting next to a huge pile of paper mail received from Fidelity in a single week.

But these days, all types of marketers would do well to seriously ponder the core lessons Maher shared about converting paper information/promotional materials to electronic distribution. (Fidelity also uses e-statements as much as possible these days, with stringent safeguard systems in place to ensure delivery, of course.)

Fidelity started implementing an e-fulfillment system for responding to customer/prospect queries about funds and other information in 2001, although it wasn't ramped up until 2004, when management buy-in supplied the clout to get phone reps fully using the system.

The system ties the live phone rep channel, the Web and email together. Essentially, reps listen to what types of information a caller is interested in, scan a menu, pick out which e-kits (from 900 possibles) are appropriate, and then are able to auto-customize an email message (from email templates) that immediately goes out to the inquirer.

Fidelity is saving many millions of dollars per year on paper and USPS mailings (which were costing $4 a pop, multiplied by several thousand per day). Since 2004, the percent of communications going out by email has leaped from 10% to 70%.

Cost savings also come in lowered phone rep time, in reps' ability to guide callers who are already on the Web but not finding what they want, and in converting phone callers to using the Web for future inquiries.

The icing on the cake: The customer/prospect experience is improved (in part because users immediately receive by email exactly the info they wanted), and email conversion rates are 100% greater than the rates for print/mailed fulfillment responses.

Year-to-date, print responses are generating conversion/buy rates of 12% for prospects and 11% for customers, compared to 21% and 16% rates, respectively, for email-fulfilled responses.

Moreover, using email first, followed by postal mail, is generating even higher conversions (25% for prospects and 17% for customers)--probably because those who fail to act immediately to the emails are nudged by the follow-up mailer, Maher noted.

Fidelity's revenue and profitability are up substantially, the system is providing the company with an excellent source of new email addresses, and customers/prospects are more satisfied. Not to mention that given consumers' growing concern about green issues, Fidelity and all marketers are bound to gain in brand goodwill by being out in front of the curve on reducing paper waste.