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Sendoso, the corporate branded gifting service, this week announced the launch of a freemium offering, Sendoso Express. With no contracts, subscriptions or fees, it is aimed at the SMB market. It will allow businesses to send unlimited eGift cards from well-known vendors, paying only for the value of the cards themselves.
Sendoso’s full offering supports the sending of a wide variety of gifts, not just cards, with customization and personalization available. The primary audience has been B2B marketers looking for creative ways to engage with prospects.
Personalized experiences. “The idea is not just sending a logoed coffee mug, but doing really personalized experiences in a way to open doors for meetings or demos, or reward customers for retention, or thank employees for hard work.” The explanation came from Karen Steele, Sendoso’s chief marketing adviser.
She also filled in some of the company’s background. “In 2016 the company was founded and they started out in the eGifting space. Then they built this whole marketplace of products and gifts — including high-end stuff and custom stuff — and they built their own warehouses. They have complete, turnkey fulfilment services, so that anywhere you are in the world you can be sending these experiences to your customers and prospects.”
Why we care. Emails, phone calls, white papers, webinars — there are many ways for marketing and sales organizations to drive acquisition and retention. But even B2B buyers enjoy experiences, especially creative and personalized ones. Steele has been on the sending end — she used Sendoso as a marketing executive at Marketo, LeanData and Near — and she’s been on the receiving end too (not necessarily via Sendoso).
“I had someone reach out to me on LinkedIn — and what he did was really smart. He went and found me on Facebook and realized I had two dogs, Henry and Louie. So when he sent me a gift, he sent a custom package addressed to Henry and Louie that had dog treats and toys. It created a personal connection with me; I would have taken a meeting in a heartbeat.
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An onboarding strategy. Sendoso Express is intended, of course, to make SMBs aware of Sendoso’s paid services. “100 percent,” said Steele. “We have a variety of different paid services but this is our first toe in the pool on the product-led growth side of the house that everybody’s talking about right now. It’s a great opportunity for small to mid-sized companies to experience this.”
She also observed that the benefits of eGifting are not restricted to B2B marketing. “As companies get more mature and sophisticated and move into a different part of the market, we have a very robust marketplace.”
About The Author
Kim Davis is the Editorial Director of MarTech. Born in London, but a New Yorker for over two decades, Kim started covering enterprise software ten years ago. His experience encompasses SaaS for the enterprise, digital- ad data-driven urban planning, and applications of SaaS, digital technology, and data in the marketing space.
He first wrote about marketing technology as editor of Haymarket’s The Hub, a dedicated marketing tech website, which subsequently became a channel on the established direct marketing brand DMN. Kim joined DMN proper in 2016, as a senior editor, becoming Executive Editor, then Editor-in-Chief a position he held until January 2020.
Prior to working in tech journalism, Kim was Associate Editor at a New York Times hyper-local news site, The Local: East Village, and has previously worked as an editor of an academic publication, and as a music journalist. He has written hundreds of New York restaurant reviews for a personal blog, and has been an occasional guest contributor to Eater.
