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Industrial instrument manufacturer General Monitors has sworn off traditional direct marketing in favor of a completely Web-based approach, boosting its lead-generation efforts and slashing marketing costs in the process.

In the past, the Lake Forest, CA-based company would spend nearly $10,000 a month to get leads that were not always qualified for the highly specialized products. “Now it's reduced to just a small overhead expense,” said Alan Austin, product development and marketing manager.

General Monitors sells products ranging in price from $700 transmitters to multimillion-dollar distribution control systems to detect toxic chemical emissions. In January, it began implementing a CRM system for the approximately 15,000 engineers and technical staffers in Fortune 100-sized firms that use this equipment. So far, General Monitors has raised response rates to its e-mail correspondence from about 3% to as much as 30%, said Austin.

Working with Kanatsiz Communications, Placentia, CA, General Monitors launched microsites geared specifically to equipment that detects toxic gases and flames in industrial plants. The sites contain opt-in newsletters covering a variety of technical areas, said agency president Sinan Kanatsiz.

General Monitors salespeople have been using these sites to communicate with prospects and determine whether leads are ready to buy now or if they need more nurturing. Before it implemented this system, the company ran ads in trade magazines and sent out limited amounts of lead-generation direct mail. It also worked with an outside ad agency, which would track leads and give them to sales reps but not do much else, said Austin.

Despite the state of the economy, General Monitors is looking to grow by as much as 15% this year.

In the meantime, General Monitors plans to keep refining this lead-generation and CRM system.

“I'd like to be able to go to management and say that this system made our sales go up by 20% — but we're not there yet,” says Austin.