NONE: ONLINE-ADS>> _at_d.Tech.Chicago: 6/15/98 - Report #4
ONLINE-ADS>> _at_d.Tech.Chicago: 6/15/98 - Report #4
richard_at_tenagra.com
Mon, 15 Jun 1998 11:26:01 -0500 (CDT)
_at_d.Tech.Chicago
Report 4
June 15, 1998
This is the fourth in a series of 10 reports from Richard Hoy, who
covered _at_d.Tech.Chicago. You will receive these reports in addition
to your normal Online Ads posts/digests.
This coverage is archived at:
http://www.o-a.com/adtech.Chicago/adtechChig-archive.html
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This conference coverage is generously underwritten by:
AdKnowledge makes planning, placing and tracking web advertising easy.
If the web spells chaos to you when it comes to developing a web media
plan, it's time to check out MarketMatch Pro and SmartBanner from
AdKnowledge. Find out how to automate the entire web advertising
process from pre-planning to billing and everything in between. Gain
control over your campaigns with a single point of contact. Save time
and money with the experience and know-how of AdKnowledge. Contact us
today!
e-mail: mailto:info_at_adknowledge.com
phone: 1-800-286-6778
URL: http://www.adknowledge.com/
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REINVENTING DIRECT MARKETING ON THE NET
Rosalind Resnick
President and CEO
Netcreations
Two years ago Rosalind started Postmaster Direct, one of the
first opt-in direct e-mail services. At about the same time
the infamous Sanford Wallace of CyberPromotions, took the
practice of spamming out of the newsgroups and applied it to
e-mail.
"Most people who were taking bets on this stuff thought the
spammers were going to win," Rosalind said.
And why shouldn't they? Junk mail in the real world is
standard operating procedure. Why is the Internet any
different?
The major difference is how easy it is on the Internet to
respond. And respond people did, in the worst possible way -
lawsuits, hate mail and even guerilla attacks on the
senders' computer systems. As a result, spammers are on the
run according to Rosalind.
"The fact is that in the e-mail world, unlike the postal
world, the marketplace has spoken. And it has said, 'We
don't want spam'," explained Rosalind.
When Rosalind started Postmaster Direct no one believed that
people would actually come to a Web site to register for
commercial e-mail messages. That's because in the direct
marketing world, consumers are looked upon as almost the
enemy. The pervasive philosophy is that you must trick or
bribe people to get them to look at your message. Rosalind
decided that instead she would reach out to people through
the Internet and ask what information they wanted to
receive. The bet paid off. And now there are more than one
million e-mail addresses in the Postmaster Direct database.
SECRETS OF SUCCESS
Rosalind shared some of her secrets about Postmaster
Direct's success.
Secret number one is that everyone on the list is a
"member".
"This is something I stole from America Online," said
Rosalind. "I thought that Steve Case did something very
smart when instead of calling the people who joined his
service 'users' or 'recipients' he called them members."
Secret number two is that people can leave at anytime.
"That is why it is truly a membership organization," she
added.
Secret number three is that Postmaster Direct is always in
control of their lists. The list is never handed off to a
third party, they only distribute messages to it.
"If a person who joined that list is not allowed to remove
himself immediately, he is going to feel his privacy has
been violated," Rosalind explained.
WHY GO OPT-IN?
So why would anyone want to use an opt-in list? The obvious
answer is people are more qualified, and that leads to
better response rates. It is not unreasonable to expect a 5
percent response rate on the low end and as much a 16
percent on the top end.
It is also cheaper than regular e-mail - 15 to 20 cents per
address for a whole campaign. Compare that to regular mail,
where costs can be 50 to 70 cents per address by the time
you factor in list rental, printing, postage and delivery.
"The fact is most e-mail lists cost less than most postal
lists," said Rosalind.
Another benefit is that you reach qualified buyers in
seconds. (Rosalind confirmed something we've seen here at
Tenagra - most response from an opt-in e-mail mailing comes
within the first 48 hours.)
WHAT MAKES IT OPT-IN?
No matter how you structure an opt-in e-mail effort,
Rosalind feels it should contain these three elements:
1.) When collecting e-mail addresses/information, give full
disclosure of how the information will be used.
2.) Always give people a choice, never assume they want the
information. (Rosalind said that "pre-checking" a box on a
Web site information form to add a person to a mailing list
**IS NOT** opt-in e-mail marketing.)
3.) People must have a way to, at any time, modify or delete
the information they have given you.
DOUBLE OPT-IN
Running a service such as Postmaster Direct on a medium as
public as the Internet has its problems. In particular, how
do you know that people signing up to a list are who they
say they are? Actually, you don't. It is common for people,
either as a practical joke or out of spite, to sign others
up to e-mail lists. To defeat this Postmaster Direct decided
about a year ago to switch to "double opt-in". What this
means is a person must return a confirmation, which is
e-mailed to the address entered in the sign-up form, before
being added to a list.
Making people go through an extra step does decrease
response. According to Rosalind, as much as 30 percent of
the people now signing-up for Postmaster Direct don't
complete the confirmation process. (We've found this same
trend on the Online Ads list.) However, the quality of list
members improves because these are people that really want
to be on the list.
SUCCESS STORIES
Rosalind went over a few campaigns done through Postmaster
Direct that had incredible results.
Ichat -- Postmaster Direct created a campaign for the chat
software company Ichat aimed at Web site developers. The
campaign launched at 10:00 AM eastern time with a mailing to
14,000 developers and Internet professionals. The message
announced an online demo of Ichat's new software. The
campaign was timed so that mail would start arriving around
lunch, which is prime surfing time in most offices. Ichat
had sales people standing by online to close the sales.
Within five hours, Ichat had sold $50,000 worth of product.
Internet Billing Company -- Facilitators of Web
transactions, Internet Billing Company ran a direct e-mail
campaign through Postmaster Direct that targeted webmasters.
Over a 12 month period they did a mailing every six to eight
weeks and followed up on the leads by phone and e-mail.
Sales rose 1000 percent in 12 months and billings topped $1
million per month. Though Postmaster Direct can't be
credited entirely for these results, Internet Billing
Company considers it a major factor.
Rosalind also said that many of the major magazine
publishers have found that direct e-mail is a cost-effective
channel from promoting subscription trials.
DOs and DON'Ts
Rosalind offered a list of DOs and DON'Ts one should follow
when getting into direct e-mail marketing:
1.) Do get your lists from reputable brokers. Don't buy
lists strictly on price.
There are lots of people hawking lists of e-mail addresses.
But often they are just addresses harvested from newsgroups,
Web sites and directories without the owner's knowledge.
Rosalind warns that you only need one bad experience to ruin
your reputation.
2.) Do deliver a compelling message. Don't deliver last
year's corporate brochure.
Make sure your messages are short and sweet, have a call to
action, and give people an incentive to buy right now.
3.) Do have salespeople standing by. Don't expect to close
the sale in a single message.
Often the best use of direct e-mail is to generate leads. It
is reasonable, for example, to expect a couple hundred
responses from a mailing to 10,000 people. Be sure that your
sales force can respond to close the sale.
THE FUTURE OF DIRECT E-MAIL
Rosalind sees a few trends unfolding for the future.
First, she predicts spam will die out, as more and more bulk
e-mailers are driven out of business by litigation.
She sees that e-mail lists will be as rich demographically
as their postal list counterparts.
As more and more traditional direct marketers get into the
online business, Rosalind feels that companies will be able
to cross reference their postal and e-mail lists so they can
run campaigns that aren't redundant.
And finally, though in her estimation about 50 percent of
the market can view HTML-enabled e-mail, that doesn't mean
they want it. Most of the direct e-mail will be text with
hyperlinks for the foreseeable future.
This ends the fourth report of _at_d.Tech.Chicago. Stay tuned for more
in-depth session analysis.
======================================================================
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This conference coverage is generously underwritten by:
AdKnowledge makes planning, placing and tracking web advertising easy.
If the web spells chaos to you when it comes to developing a web media
plan, it's time to check out MarketMatch Pro and SmartBanner from
AdKnowledge. Find out how to automate the entire web advertising
process from pre-planning to billing and everything in between. Gain
control over your campaigns with a single point of contact. Save time
and money with the experience and know-how of AdKnowledge. Contact us
today!
e-mail: mailto:info_at_adknowledge.com
phone: 1-800-286-6778
URL: http://www.adknowledge.com/
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