The Zooba Zeitgeist
FROM PUBLISHING
TRENDS (NOVEMBER 2001)
As
jitters over snail mail consume the media, email marketers
have been keen to whisper what amounts to the new gospel
in direct-to-consumer marketing: opting-in. Wary of
their mailboxes, the theory goes, customers are much
more likely to agree to receive promotional messages
via email. Whether or not this is actually the case,
sagging response rates to traditional mail and the prospect
of cheap bulk emailings have made “permission-based
sales opportunities” look better than ever.
One company working in the book realm is Zooba.com,
a direct marketer that sends email newsletters on a
variety of topics to its 2.8 million subscribers. Income
is based primarily on advertising (mostly of books and
videos that complement the newsletter topics) and branded
sites. One of Zooba’s more liberating aspects is a chary
attitude toward its own services: “We recommend you
select no more than three topics,” the site warns, apparently
warding off email overload. The user is also told how
many emails will arrive on a particular topic, so that
the fear of an unending avalanche of newsletters — like
an electronic Time-Life continuity series — can
be put to rest.
As of the beginning of 2001, Zooba also has some staying
power amid failing dot-coms, namely the advantage of
being owned by Bertelsmann (50% by the DirectGroup,
and the other 50% by Bookspan). Forty-five is
the magic number in this respect: Zooba has 45 employees,
sends out newsletters in 45 content areas, and now has
access to Bookspan’s 45 book clubs, which it makes no
bones about plugging in pop-up ads (“Get 3 great cookbooks
for only $3!”). But it has also provided publishers,
including Cambridge U. Press, Henry
Holt, St. Martin’s and Simon & Schuster,
with access to lists on focused topics — everything
from “Great Minds” to “Golf” — as well as advertising
opportunities tied to the topic (in some cases a bit
loosely: a sample newsletter advertises Dreamcatcher
to readers interested in Pilates exercises). When they’re
roused by the ads in their emails, readers can click
on over to B&N.com and other e-tailers to
purchase books posthaste.
More than 20 book publishers have availed themselves
of the site’s “microcast transactive content technology,”
and some of them, like Harvard Business School Press,
have their own branded channel offering subscribers
branded content (Harvard’s is mostly taken from Harvard
Business Review articles). “We tap into an electronic
universe that they’ve aggregated,” says George Pratt,
Director of Web Marketing for Harvard Business School
Publishing. Still, while Pratt reports “some success”
throughout the company using outside email lists, they
aren’t a silver bullet, at least not yet, for driving
sales. “It’s fair to say that we’ve been successful
in terms of getting additional reach,” he says. “The
question is whether that has translated into enough
actual business to continue doing it. That remains to
be seen.”
According to Gwen Seznec, Zooba Director of Client
Services, advertising fees range from $25 to $40 per
thousand, depending on the use of original content,
logos, and other customized items. To date, however,
the major drawback for many e-marketers may simply be
the paucity of known targets: only about 20 million
email names are said to be traded in direct-email lists,
compared to hundreds of millions of names available
the old fashioned way.
©2001
Publishing Trends
