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A California computer storage systems maker got a 6% clickthrough rate for an e-mailing that promoted a Webinar it conducted in late September. The company also cut bimonthly direct marketing expenses from $100,000 to only $7,500 when it scuttled regional seminars in favor of the Internet symposium.

MTI Technology Corp. sent a 5,000-unit e-mail campaign to chief technology officers, product development executives and other decision-makers at Fortune 2000 companies like IBM, HP and Oracle.

Beginning in December, the $106 million-a-year firm will initiate a series of Webinars aimed at such vertical markets as financial services, said Sinan Kanatsiz, president of Kanatsiz Communications Inc., MTI's Pebble Beach, CA agency.

The September Webinar changed the company's marketing strategy, said Steve Lefferdink, vice president of marketing for MTI enterprise storage.

Earlier this year MTI used postal mail and e-mail to promote its products through bimonthly regional seminars in nine U.S. cities. Those efforts yielded less-than-pleasing results.

While MTI pulled response rates between 2% and 4% for the seminars, Lefferdink conceded that these events were sparsely attended. Some, to which several hundred were invited, drew as few as 20 people. The company figured that Webinars — which recipients could call up from their desks — were a better bet for reaching executives than off-site seminars. Plus, Kanatsiz noted, Webinars can attract better speakers because participants don't have to travel to join in.

MTI got the names for these e-mailings from its own permission-based files and those of its business partners, including Quantum, Legato, Emulex, FalconStar and Brocade, as well as industry magazines like Computer Technology Review.

The Webinar — set up by Raindance Communications Inc. for about $3,000 and featuring speakers Steve Duplessie, founder and senior analyst at the Enterprise Storage Group, along with three editors of specialized industry publications — sought mostly to raise brand awareness of MTI offerings, said Lefferdink.

Just the same, MTI began qualifying Webinar attendees for possible later sales through KnowledgeLink's eDNA multichannel sales automation system that it began using in April. KnowledgeLink's system reportedly increases channel efficiency and the effectiveness of customer relationship management efforts.

MTI sells to companies ranging from start-ups to Fortune 2000 corporations in markets such as entertainment, financial services, healthcare and medical, printing and publishing, industrial and manufacturing, government and telecommunications. The Anaheim, CA firm's annual direct marketing budget is about $1 million.

MTI makes storage resource management products and services priced from around $5,000 to nearly $600,000. The overall SRM market is estimated to grow to $1.5 billion by 2005, said Lefferdink.