NONE: ONLINE-ADS>> advertising on targetted lists vs. spam
ONLINE-ADS>> advertising on targetted lists vs. spam
Cliff Kurtzman (cliff.kurtzman_at_tenagra.com)
Tue, 4 Mar 1997 14:40:37 -0600
Just had a phone call from a client with a story I thought I would pass on
to the list. Some months ago, the client advertised on one of our mailing
lists, which is related to the game of tennis. Like this list, every
person on the tennis list subscribed to the list. The subscription form on
the web tells the subscriber that they will be receiving both commercial
and non-commercial tennis-related content.
However, unlike the 3 line ad banners we run on the on-line ads list, on
our tennis list (which sends out 1-2 mailings a month to its 17,000+
subscribers) we allow the advertiser to send a full dedicated message of up
to 20K in size. We put stuff around the message telling the reader it is
from us and, of course, how they can unsubscribe from the list if they
should choose to do so. We always send out the mailing for the advertiser,
and never give out our subscriber's e-mail addresses. We also only accept
advertising that is in some way related to the game of tennis.
We charge 10 cents an address for mailings sent out in this manner, or a
CPM of 100. We figure that is less 1/10th of what it would cost to print
and distribute a print piece out to the same audience. Also, a print mail
list, even one for tennis, would in all likelihood not reach as focused a
tennis audience as is subscribed to our e-mail list. When looking at CPM's
of this size, it is important to note that the size of the mailing allows
the advertiser to send a much more substantive mailing out than does an ad
banner. It really does not matter to the advertiser if the reader ever
actually goes to their web site, because the message they want to get out
can be fully encapsulated in the e-mail.
We have had little interest in the past from advertisers in doing dedicated
mailings to this list, and held our breath when we did this one knowing
that $1500 was a lot for this advertiser to spend. We were also unsure as
to how the list would respond to a fully commercial mailing. It turned out
that the direct feedback we received included only a couple of notes from
people thanking us for sending the message, along with one e-mail from
someone who felt the mailing was inappropriate.
Not long after we ran the ad, the client called us up and indicated that
the results of the ad were so incredible from their perspective that he was
flying out here to Houston from the northwest to discuss further possible
promotions. He indicated that his return on investment was greater than he
had achieved using any other forms of advertising.
When I met with the client, he told me that while he was pleased with his
response from our subscribers, what he really wanted to do was scale it up
to the point where he was reaching hundreds of thousands of tennis players
over the Internet. I explained to him that there were no tennis lists on
the Internet with this number of subscribers. He then asked me if I could
help him to use one of the spam services to broadcast his message out to
hundreds of thousands, figuring that some decent percentage of the audience
reached would be interested in tennis.
If you have heard one of my presentation on the subject at an Internet
conference or you read the Tenagra newsletter, then you know that what my
reaction was to this approach. I explained to him in no uncertain terms
that we could not assist him in that regard and further detailed why he
would not find it a worthwhile strategy. Still, he left unconvinced. I've
encountered this many times. It is very hard to convince people that the
Internet is not a broadcast medium. It works great for relationship
building with niche audiences, but for reaching millions at once there are
generally better ways to get a message out.
That takes us back to today's phone call. The client told me he had gone
off and tried his spam on a small scale to see what would happen. The
results were 1) no identifiable sales; and 2) _lots_ of bad will created
with the folks the message was sent out to. Now he says he is going to do
it my way, and I can get back to finding acceptable ways to make this
client successful.
--Cliff
Cliff Kurtzman
The Tenagra Corporation
http://www.tenagra.com/
281/480-6300
