MarketingSherpa Blog

OK, one last thing and I’m out of here in search of restroom (oh the fun of business travel). Hotmail is counting all messages in one’s “junk box” toward your total messages. If you get too much junk then you start bouncing the email you do want to get.

In the past this wasn’t a problem, because the box auto-deletes everything after 7 days. Now with the higher incidence of junk, I routinely lose incoming hotmail mail due to full-box bouncing, even when I ruthlessly delete stuff every day. If it’s happening to me, then it’s happening to all hotmail users because it’s a system so open to dictionary spam attacks (where spammers create lists tacking on words and letters to @hotmail.com endings and send until they get a live account).

This means anyone in the email publishing or list building game should be pushing hard to get Hotmail names to switch to other accounts, and you might even add a note next to your sign-up form saying something like “Hotmail accounts not recommended, if you want to make sure mail gets through please use a different email address. Thanks”

In our case, you’ll notice all MarketingSherpa sites ask for “Your work email” on purpose. That one little word “work” inserted into the sub form does wonders for us.

Several biiig media companies have already started fretting about the latest version of the Google toolbar. This incredibly popular download (no nobody at Google will give me an exact number of downloads, but hey don’t you see it on everyone’s desktops?) will now block all pop-ups for sites you visit.

The problem for publishers is two-fold:

1. You still serve the pop-up. It’s just blocked on the recipient’s end. Your site stats will show you served a whole lot but suddenly your conversion stats will plummet. Oh goodie (sarcasm).

2. Many sub sites depend on pop-ups for the majority of their sign ups to new ezine, new magazine and new site trial takers. I’ve known some folks who tested an eyeblaster creative instead to use interruptive creative that’s not a pop-up. It didn’t work. At least for them.

They say their true strength is in customer service, but NetFlix will probably end up spending much of their time and attention on lawyers bills as they defend their brand new patent for the idea of running an online subscription service.

http://www.patentlogistics.com/patents/US65/US6584450.pdf

A new report from Borrell Associates on how local TV stations are making money online, shows their sites only get 4% of total estimated local advertising online ad dollars. In comparison local newspaper sites get 40%. The rest is divided between big national sites offering local services and search marketing. (I suspect search is growing by far the fastest.)

http://www.borrellassociates.com/research.html

Want to know how much America’s top 100 National advertisers are spending online specifically, and how their ad spends in each media channel varied between 2001 and 2002? Here’s a link to the 79-page PDF of AdAge’s free report. (Includes agency names too.)

http://www.adage.com/images/random/lna03.pdf

This week Ford gets a major slap on the wrist.

Ford’s Forddirect.com Web site must have launched a major traffic-driving campaign, because we received identical offers to visit the site from no fewer than five CPA mailers who send to junk lists on a regular basis: WhatanExtreme.com, Cosmic Offers, ForumXpress, and National Deal Club.

Industry-wise, consumer magazines’ were as a group the biggest offenders, including:

USWeekly
Body & Soul Magazine
Elle Magazine
Shape Magazine
Family Circle
Yoga International
Grace Woman
Budget Living Magazine (repeatedly)

More brands featured in mail clogging our junk address this week:

Oil of Olay
Target
Doubleday Book Club
Victoria’s Secret
Fredericks.com
Gevalia Kaffe
Fox Sports
DirectTV
LowerMyBills.com
T-Mobile
Disney Home Video
Frontline Phonics
iwon.com
Norton

Weirdly enough, both Harry Potter and William Shakespeare.

How it works: We have a junk mailbox here that’s not used by any human being, although the address is posted on one of our Web sites.

When mail hits that box we know for a fact that no one ever signed up to receive it. Once a week we pluck through the box, looking for brand names and add them to our List of Shame.

If your brand is listed here, you can get a copy of the offending email in order to track down the bad list owner by emailing me at AHolland@MarketingSherpa.com There’s no charge for this service.

Thanks for your support,

Anne
Anne Holland – Publisher
MarketingSherpa

#2. PR on a Low Budget: Combine 3 Tactics for Peak Impact

When Matt Pitchford started his new job last May, his boss gave him 10 months to make their Company a lot more famous. Here’s how he used classic PR tactics including:
– Getting reporters to pay attention to releases
– Planting articles in trade publications
– Gaining speaking gigs at conferences for his execs
If you’re a PR pro, you won’t find anything radically new in this Case Study. However, it’s a great tip-sheet for folks new to PR, plus a nice reminder of best practices for experts:
http://www.b2bmarketingbiz.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2375

#3. Can Email Newsletters Sell Subscriptions to Print Newsletters? HCPro’s Tests & Results

If email is an important part of your marketing mix, definitely check out this Case Study for notes on how to database and report on your email list names (as opposed to your regular customers).

Also includes results data on using a printed postcard mailer to gain email names, and lifetime value of email-sold vs. offline-sold customers.
http://www.contentbiz.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2376

#4. Tower Records Combines Print Catalog Plus Email Marketing: Sales Boost from 8% to 11%

Tower Records’ direct response team recently tested an integrated campaign, and we have the results for you. Their test cells included:
o Catalog only
o Catalog plus email offering no-cost shipping
o Catalog plus email offering 10% off any purchase
o Catalog plus email offering $5 off any purchase
o Control group � no marketing whatsoever
Find out what moved the needle:
http://www.greatmindsinmarketing.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2380

#5. Almost 40% of Kelly Clarkson CD Buyers Sign Up for Content Sent to Their Desktop (Bypassing Email)

Marketers at RCA who distribute the American Idol II and Kelly Clarkson albums are in the midst of testing a new relationship marketing tactic: Offering a desktop app that fans can download to get more news about artists on a regular basis.

If you are involved in loyalty marketing in any industry, this article may be useful for you. Applies to high-tech, finance, pharmaceutical and many other industries:
http://www.emailsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2377

#6. Marketing to the US Hispanics Online: 8 Tips, 6 Creative Samples, & Useful Links

US Hispanics spent an estimated $4.2 billion online last year, and they are one of the swiftest-growing Net demographics. We polled several top experts to find out how you should approach this market.

Includes creative samples of 6 email campaigns to inspire you:
http://www.consumermarketingbiz.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2381

#7. How to Get Your Article Published in MarketingProfs

80,000 marketers and marketing students read MarketingProfs’ email newsletter every week. Unlike other publications, it’s comprised entirely of contributed columns, so if you’ve written a great article you’ve got a good shot at planting it there. Here’s how:
http://www.marketingfame.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2379

Doug Kneeland of www.faberkneeland.com just sent this note in:

“On Wed some hackers put up a mirrored version of the BestBuy website and then sent out a bunch of spam pretending to be the BestBuy customer service department. The email said that some purchases were recently made using your card but that BestBuy thinks the purchaser is not the cardholder. There is a link to click on to confirm that you did not, in fact, make those purchases. When you went to the form, it asked for your credit card and address to confirm. When I got the email I called BestBuy to tell them what was going on and they said they had received thousands of phone calls in the previous hour about it. ”

According to Online Journalism Review “News Sites Experiment With
‘Dayparting: Studies show that people want different content at different times of the day.'”

Who is going to convince advertisers of this? Because nearly everyone I’ve spoken to on the ad sales side says they can’t sell online daypart no matter how hard they try. Dumb but true.

http://www.ojr.org/ojr/aboutojr/1055792590.php

Wahoo! The average amount a Blogwriter makes by selling ads via BlogAds has gone up from $30 to $50 month, with the really red hot sites pulling $750 monthly.

My favorite part of this site is the personality with which many Bloggers write their little media selling blurbs. “7000+ blog traders are a prime audience for your gizmo or service. Expect good things from their evil capitalist machinations,” reads one. “Sell something to our readers. Click the clicky.” says another.

Makes mainstream media kits sound so stuffy.

http://www.blogads.com/order_html

Back when Google launched its contextual editorial ads (ads which appear on content sites vs search results) a couple of months ago, I poked their spokeswoman a bit on the subject of how they chose the partner sites involved, which at the time had to have millions of visitors per month to qualify to join the program. After all, the best AdWords advertiser results invariably come from very niche keywords and search terms, the exact kind of stuff you find best on niche sites.

This morning Google announced it is throwing open the doors to all publishers who want to join, regardless of size. The new program, entitled AdSense, allows any publisher to pick up and carry Google AdWords content ads on their sites in exchange for a cut of click revenue.

I’ll be interested to follow results metrics of ads in future to see if the swarms of niche sites which will no doubt join will help advertisers get better results. (Results from Google non-search content ads so far have been generally abysmal in terms of clicks, and slightly below par in terms of conversions according to hundreds of MarketingSherpa readers surveyed earlier this
year.)

http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2314