Atrium

Atrium’s is an unusual use case in ecommerce fulfillment, if not entirely unique. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies like Atrium tend to have long sales cycles and big average contract value—think $30K to $60K. And, of course, they don’t have a physical product to ship. So what do they need fulfillment for? 

Well, when you anticipate a long sales process, staying top of mind is critical. To do so, Atrium took inspiration from another software company, New Relic, and their Data Nerd campaign. 

The short version of a long story is this: if you send your (future) customers something (1) physical, (2) useful, and (3) free, they’ll see a small reminder of your brand all the time. And chances are, you’ll be at the forefront of their mind when they’re ready to spend $60K. 

Atrium does this in a few ways. Sign up for a demo, and they’ll send you three paperback books, free of charge. The company also regularly sends laminates—handy guides or checklists that sit on your desk as a daily reminder of the brand—and some swag items. All the recipient has to do is fill out a form.

It’s been an incredibly successful strategy for Atrium that has led to thousands of new marketing contacts and garnered attention from folks who likely wouldn’t have filled out the form if they weren’t getting something physical and valuable.

Peter Kazanjy, Atrium’s founder, likes to be efficient (obviously—he created an entire company around driving efficiency). His biggest challenge with Atrium’s successful B2B marketing channel was finding a way to keep the cost of shipping at or below the cost of the marketing materials he was sending. 

“The physical asset is low-cost, and fulfillment costs can get to be upward of 100% of the value,” he said. “I needed an economic justification for sending low-cost items.” 

In other words: sending a $10 paperback to a potential client is hard to justify when the shipping costs $15. Peter needed a scalable way to send lots of orders without sinking the majority of his marketing budget into shipping costs.

Enter Airhouse. 

Atrium sends hundreds of orders each month through the Airhouse network, receiving an itemized receipt for each order that breaks down the cost of picking, packing, and shipping the order. Since the company collects orders through website forms instead of an ecommerce store, the team simply uploads a spreadsheet with the prospect (aka “customer”) information to the Airhouse platform every couple of weeks. Our team handles the rest.

Peter said Airhouse has helped him achieve a 1:1 ratio between the cost of goods and shipping, making it easy to justify Atrium’s B2B marketing channel. He estimates that he’s saving about $5,000 every month in time his employees would otherwise have to spend fulfilling orders.