Going Postal
Done Gone
FROM PUBLISHING
TRENDS (JULY 2002)
The
DMD Marketing Conference & Expo, officially
a “forum of new ideas and technological advances” that
proffers “information in ecommerce, technology, media,
database, and creative services,” pulled a surprisingly
large group of attendees to the Javits Center during
its direct marketing mêlée on June 17-19, many of whom
were lured by the promise of hearing Rudy — “America’s
Mayor” — deliver the keynote. (Yes, he’s still planning
to get his ms. in and published by “October, probably,
maybe November.”) Most of the book-related businesses
that exhibited or attended have gone the way of Time-Life
Books, but there was a smattering of familiar badges.
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and BN.com,
and a slew of people from Bookspan and Scholastic,
trekked to 12th Avenue to hear experts on “Cutting Edge
Ideas to Refresh Your Customer Loyalty & Retention
Initiatives,” and “Is the Subscription Dead?”
Scoff if you must, but with publishers now selling off
their sites, and Amazon and BN.com hacking ever deeper
inroads through the business, cluing in to the vagaries
of direct response, especially email marketing, is yielding
increasingly mission-critical information. (Plus, some
of this arcane stuff is just plain fun.) Holding forth
on “Maximizing Your Email Retention Efforts,” one speaker
revealed that Brooks Brothers increased registration
on its site by 300% by offering a 10% discount with
first purchase. And 4-7% of respondents forward information
about a website when it is promoted; of those receiving
forwarded email, 70% respond to the site. Moreover,
store shoppers who also bought online spend $600 more
in the store than those who only buy in-store. But it
pays to do your homework. According to direct marketing
consultant Herschel Gordon Lewis, in tests the
line “Here’s one you’ll like, John,” pulled 14% better
than “John, here’s one you’ll like.” Go figure. In other
tests (this being direct response, there is nothing
that’s not tested), text outpulled HTML when
the message was URGENT, while the opposite was true
when the message depended on “artistry.” Lewis also
reminded his audience of the obvious: 80% of all possible
consumer targets have an AOL address, so any
email promotion should be sent out to some AOL addresses
seeded in the marketer’s recipient list.
Speaking of letters, a postal rate hike on June 30th
has made paying bills online a suddenly attractive proposition,
according to a Direct Marketing Association survey.
More than half of survey respondents under age 25, and
42 percent of those between 25 and 34, said the rate
increase will have them searching for bill payment alternatives,
such as electronic payment. That’s a bummer for the
postal system, however, as “transactional mail” such
as bill payment accounts for almost half of all first-class
mail — which now will cost you a hefty 37 cents.
Back at DMD, and in a trip through the twilight zone,
the Jungle Group announced that it had developed
software that allows a company to take the best telemarketer
and clone their abilities to be used throughout the
entire center. As you may recall, a Random House source
estimated recently (PT,
5/02) that telereps account for 10% of the field
sales by dollar value. Any twins or triplets seen in
Westminster lately?
©2002
Publishing Trends
