Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Marketers Say eMail Strongest Performing Media Buy


BoSacks Speaks Out: Call me a skeptic or just a realist, but I don't believe these statistics. And I am a guy who has sent out more emails in the last 15 years than Bayer has pills. But I pass it along for you to make up your own minds and draw your own conclusions. Is email powerful? Yes, you're reading one now, right? Is it the best ad platform money can buy? No, at least not alone. And that may be the answer to this and several other studies. The possibilities of media dilution are now endless and there is no longer a single answer as the best media buy. So take this info with either a grain of salt or a Bayer Aspirin.

"If you have a lot of tension and you get a headache, do what it says on the aspirin bottle: "Take two aspirin" and "Keep away from children"."
-Unknown


Marketers Say eMail Strongest Performing Media Buy

http://success.datranmedia.com/research/2008survey.php
Datran Media recently released the results of its second annual survey of over 2000 online marketing professionals, finding that 82 percent of the marketers surveyed indicated that they plan to increase their use of email marketing in 2008, and 55 percent of the respondents cite that they expect ROI from email to be higher than any other channel. The reports says that the survey results are consistent with the Direct Marketing Association's recent report, which found that email ROI will hit $45.65 for every dollar spent in 2008, more than twice the ROI of other mediums including search and display.

In addition to increased use of email as a media and lead generation channel, the Datran Media survey found:

80 percent of respondents indicated email was the strongest performing media buy ahead of search and display.
Search is the favored channel for complementing the email channel.
More than 80 percent of marketers send targeted email campaigns.
Selected key findings include the following...

Company Email plans for 2008, compared to 2007:

82.4% to increase use of email marketing
15.3% to stay the same
2.4% to decrease email marketing expenditures
Source: Datran Media, January 2008

Expectations for company's Email marketing ROI in 2008:

55.3% say higher than other channels
25.9% feel ROI roughly equal
18.8% say lower
Source: Datran Media, January 2008

Advertising media buys that perform strongly for your company: (multiple response OK)

80% say eMail
37.6% display
70.6% say Search
16.5% feel Print
10.6 say Broadcast
7.1% Cable
1.2% think Mobile
2.4% report RSS
34.7% say Ad Network
8.2% uncertain
Source: Datran Media, January 2008

Media channels that complement the eMail media channel: (multiple response OK)

51.8% say Display
71.8% say Search
24.7% think Mobile
17.6% say Broadcast
10.6% Cable
41.2% report Direct
Source: Datran Media, January 2008

Of those who plan to employ eMail, they also expect:

80% to send newsletters
78.8% drive sales
67.1% will increase upsell or cross sell opportunities
50.6% will sent transactional messages
52.9% to reactivate dormant customers
70.6% plan to enhance customer relationships
64.7% expect to increase brand awareness or lift
Source: Datran Media, January 2008

The respondents say eMail planning includes these elements in 2008:

74.1% to conduct content or creative split testing
36.5% will test creative across inbox devices
29.4% to pay for eMail marketing based on CPM model
58.8% will pay on a CPC or CPA model
36.5% will include banner ads
25.9% will measure effect on Brand lift
36.5% will measure effect on customer satisfaction
64.7% will measure eMail effect on sales
Source: Datran Media, January 2008

Response to... "use and/or plan on using an outside vendor for email marketing?"

69.4% say Yes
20% say NO
10.6% Not Sure
Source: Datran Media, January 2008

Thursday, January 3, 2008

BoSacks Speaks Out: 3 Concepts for Every Publisher's Success


This article comes from the most recent issue of Publishing Executive Magazine.

This is not one of those usual tips and tricks issues, because the editor, managing editor, and most of the writers are personal friends of mine, and from my perspective that means that they know "stuff" worth knowing. The fact that I'm a monthly columnist for said publication has nothing to do with my aforesaid observation.


"You are the embodiment of the information you choose to accept and act upon. To change your circumstances you need to change your thinking and subsequent actions."
Adlin Sinclair (British born Businessman, motivational speaker and Humanitarian,)


3 Concepts for Every Publisher's Success

By Robert M. Sacks
Publishing Executive Magazine
http://www.pubexec.com/

My friend Dr. Joe Webb is one of the graphic arts industry's well-known and outspoken consultants, economic forecasters, commentators and pundits. As director of WhatTheyThink.com's Economics and Research Center, he was pontificating and predicting in a recent online column the future of our industry, and he threw out the following ideas.

1. "Managing" content is not the issue; deploying content is.

As my readers know, I have been suggesting similar concepts in this column for years. I think we can all agree that today's print publishers have attained and acquired an excellence in creating and managing vast amounts of content. In fact, nobody does it better than we do, and that is why we get paid the big bucks to continue plying our chosen trade. But, as we move forward, we will be continuously challenged and even threatened by the need to deploy our content. These deployment tactics will require increasing needs for greater global reach, efficiency and accountability. It is/will be the deployment of this well-managed content that will be at the core of any successful franchise.

2. Reaching desired targets is not as important as having targets find the content.

This has always been an intriguing exercise for print publishers, but now it gets harder. There was, at one time, a finite playing field for print publishers. You had either the newsstand circulation or subscription circulation or, in the best of both worlds, you had both. Here, you were limited to the actual number of newsstands available to you and the efficient use of the U.S. Postal Service. In the new and future tier of publishing, you enter the infinite world of global digital publishing.

Now, instead of trying to maximize a limited number of newsstands to attract loyal readers, you have to attract them in the forest of unlimited competition of the worldwide Internet. This shouldn't scare any publisher; it can be just a matter of perspective. You now have the ability to reach a far greater number of potential readers than ever before. That is the good part of the equation.

The down side is that, where once you had, at best, 7,000 consumer titles to compete with in a limited newsstand arena, you now have an unlimited number of writers, bloggers and publishers seeking the attention of as many readers as possible, just as you are.

3. Rules may change, but the objectives do not. Long-term profitability and innovation never go out of style.
This, my friends, is what we must take to heart. We have always had the content, and we have adapted technologically quite well as an industry to bring superior efficiencies to content distribution.

Now we need to adapt once again to a new paradigm of content distribution. The rules are, indeed, changing-and changing quickly. But with creative innovation and smart leadership, any title or series of titles can not only exist in the new world order, but prosper as never before. Where once the best possible execution of a well-rounded business plan had somewhat narrow parameters of possible success, we can now pursue and sell our content to an unlimited number of readers.

The new performance possibilities, paralleled with new, innovative technologic practices, may yet prove to be the best candidates for initiating the biggest revolution in successful publishing since Gutenberg's moveable type.

Bob Sacks (aka BoSacks) is a consultant to the printing/publishing industry and president of The Precision Media Group (www.BoSacks.com). He is publisher and editor of a daily international e-newsletter, Heard on the Web. Sacks has held posts as director of manufacturing and distribution, senior sales manager (paper), chief of operations, pressman, cameraman, publisher, columnist, politician, volunteer fireman and well known corporate janitor.