Direct Sales Over the Internet Is a Key Marketing Strategy

Direct marketing is a key part of Handsprings marketing strategy. This is one of Handsprings most profitable distribution channels because the company does not have to give margins to retailers and receives a subsidy from the carriers for signing up new users. Much of Handsprings direct marketing takes place over the Internet. Handspring spends a lot of time and energy making its web site easy to use. It collects names through registration and sends people information on Treo. Another use of the web site is to educate sales reps about the product.

Handspring also uses other Internet marketing tools beyond its web site. The Treo newsletter is a very successful tool. Handspring tries to make these newsletters really valuable so that people will read them instead of deleting them. It does this by adding tips and tricks as well as alerting customers to new and interesting applications that can run on the Treo. Handspring creates the Treo newsletter internally. It also does classic banner and search engine advertising. Handspring has found that advertising on sites that people visit when they are thinking about buying a mobile communication device is far more effective than advertising on popular sites. It has found that putting a banner on CNN or Yahoo! is less effective than putting a banner on something like PDA reviews or wireless reviews.