Finding clients where they are: Email marketing at TÜV NORD Akademie

As far back as 2016, ajco reported on the CRM migration at TÜV NORD Akademie, one of Germany’s major educational institutions. At that time, the emphasis was on the efficient planning of seminars, meetings and conferences using CRM. The project was a success, so the connection of internal infrastructure to CRM was subsequently extended to include e-mail marketing, among other things.

Direct marketing begins with CRM

2019 saw the start of a new joint project. TÜV NORD Akademie wanted to assign central importance to its stakeholders‘ expectations with regards to an updated and relevant range of further education options. To achieve this, the features and figures corresponding to the various client groups in the CRM were used to even greater effect. Firstly, to contact potential students in a way that was fully compliant with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR); and secondly, to approach individuals with specific options that were genuinely relevant to them.

CRM plus email marketing

TÜV NORD Akademie has decided to focus on direct marketing through personalized email newsletters as a means of approaching potential students. This project should be ready to go before the end of 2020. At the implementation stage, the educational institution will benefit from the synergies between Aurea CRM and Universal Messenger, an email marketing tool. With ajco’s support, both systems will be seamlessly integrated and linked into a flexible and well-designed direct marketing process:

1. In the campaign management module, Aurea CRM selects which contacts should be sent what information.
2. An interface custom-built by ajco sends the data directly to the email marketing tool.
3. This tool then personalizes the emails using templates designed by TÜV NORD Akademie’s marketing department.
4. The tool also gathers details of the responses in line with GDPR requirements, and sends them back to the CRM, where they are recorded for future use.

Customer perspectives as a benchmark for sales

“As an independent, neutral education and certification provider, we focus on the needs of our students: What are their expectations of further education? What are they hoping to achieve? ajco helps us to meet our existing and potential students where they are”, says Jennifer Lucht, CRM Officer and Direct Marketing Operative at TÜV NORD Akademie.

TÜV NORD Akademie was established 35 years ago as a knowledge-based company, and now provides further education at over 16 locations, with students including quality managers, IT security professionals and experts in transport of the future.
The existing newsletter is read by over 4,000 individuals for updates on courses, seminars and workshops relevant to their selected areas of interest.