Good Information: Drake Morton

E-Mail Performance Steady

JANUARY 30, 2009
The tactic’s low cost keeps it popular with marketers. E-mail marketing metrics have stayed largely steady during the past couple of years, according to Epsilon data released in January 2009. The company said deliverability rates were almost exactly the same in Q3 2008 as they were in Q3 2006. Open rates and click-through rates dipped during the same period, but only slightly.

“Despite concerns about the declining effectiveness of advertising and the challenging economy, e-mail continued to perform consistently in 2008,” said Kevin Mabley, senior vice president at Epsilon, in a statement. “We anticipate increased reliance on this highly measurable and engaging method of customer interaction [in 2009].” 

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Good Read: Drake Morton

Hyperlinking Reality

by Gord Hotchkiss , Thursday, January 29, 2009

ELLOW SEARCH INSIDER DAVID BERKOWITZ (David, it’s been too long since we riffed on each other’s columns!) allowed his curiosity to wander down some fascinating potential directions search may evolve in a couple of recent columns, first looking at Ford’s plans for integrating GPS-enabled voice search  in all its  vehicles, and then speculating how one search could be launched in 17 different ways, both today and in the future. One of his speculations is what I wanted to explore further today:
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Something New: Drake Morton

Introducing The ‘Render Rate’

by Loren McDonald , Thursday, January 29, 2009

AS AN EMAIL MARKETER, publisher, email service provider or other participant in the email industry, you have a chance to help shape the development of an important new metric: the render rate, as proposed by the Measurement Accuracy Roundtable of the Email Experience Council.

The “render rate” is a new industry-wide metric created to measure the initial level of email engagement more accurately and consistently than the open rate (more…)

Interesting Spending Information: Drake Morton

Change Noted In Consumer Spending Expectations

According to the latest ChangeWave survey of U.S. consumers, conducted January 5-9, editors Paul Carton and Jean Crumrine suggest that this latest survey shows some intriguing signs that consumer spending may finally be stabilizing after a prolonged slowdown. While overall spending still looks terrible, they say, the 90-day outlook is not quite as horrible as it was in the December 2008 survey. Fifty-seven percent of U.S. respondents said they’ll spend less during the next 90 days than they did a year ago — but that’s three points better than in the December survey. Another 13% said they’ll spend more — two points better than previously. (more…)

Social Network User Demographics

JANUARY 27, 2009

Adults constitute the bulk of social networkers, but use still skews young.

The share of adult Internet users who have a profile on an online social network site has more than quadrupled since 2005, from 8% to 35%, according to a November–December 2008 Pew Internet & American Life Project survey.

Pew said adults still make up the bulk of social networking site users. But younger online adults were much more likely than their older counterparts to use social networks, with three-quarters of those ages 18 to 24 using the sites, compared with just 7% of Internet users ages 65 and older. (more…)

Excellent Read: Drake Morton

Email Data Is Your Friend:

4 Deliverability Measures To Increase Revenue

by Stephanie Miller , Friday, January 23, 2009

THEY SAY EVERY RECESSION HAS opportunity, and I believe there is good here for email marketers.  Due to its high ROI, executives are actually paying attention to email marketing.  It’s up to us to rise to this occasion, and dissuade everyone else from thinking of email as a cheap alternative. Email has proven its ability to sell, engage and build loyalty. We just don’t always use it that way.

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Need to Know: Drake Morton

Line Length Matters

According to a new study by Epsilon on the importance of the subject line in an Email promotion, shorter subject lines do generally perform better than longer ones, but the relationship between subject line length and response is weaker than previously thought. Though the research showed that, overall, shorter subject lines correlate with higher open rates and click rates, subject line word order, word choice, and brand and audience awareness are also critical success factors. (more…)

The Future of the Web: Drake Morton

Businesses Embracing Online Video Will Fuel

The Web’s Revolution

by Dave Dutch

IF VIDEO KILLED THE radio star, online video will surely kill the static Web.

Video is poised to permeate the Web in a way that goes far beyond YouTube’s user-generated clips. The Web’s design and flexibility make it a powerful visual medium, with moving images, Flash and animation fast becoming the lingua franca. This presents corporate America — and private enterprise in general — with a huge opportunity.

Video e-Mail Tactical Advertising

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Need to Understand: Drake Morton

Targeting For Value

by Phil Leggiere

ONE CLEAR SHIFT IN THE zeitgeist driven by economic strain and uncertainty is currently being referred to as “the flight to quality.”

As investors are forced to shift from trading to value investing in their stocks, so advertisers must seek ways of shifting from quantity to quality. This shift can manifest itself in numerous ways, including the eschewing of “me-too” ad networks with minimal or deficient targeting capabilities. It can, and increasingly will need to, include more intensely scrutinizing the blind spots in current display spending strategy and tactics, especially areas where behaviorally based targeting has been under-utilized, or entirely ignored up till now.

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Kraft Hits on Killer App for

IPhone Marketing

Package-Foods Giant’s IFood Makes Cooking,

Food Shopping Darn Near Sexy

by Emily Bryson York

Published: January 19, 2009

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) — One of the coolest apps on the iPhone isn’t Pandora or Facebook: It’s recipes and shopping lists for Kraft singles, Jell-O gelatin and Minute Rice.

Yes, enough Kraft Food devotees are actually paying to be marketed to on their beloved iPhones that the company’s iFood Assistant is now one of the device’s 100 most popular paid apps, and No. 2 in the lifestyle category. With its endeavor, Kraft is pulling off a rare trick: getting consumers to pay a one-time 99-cent fee for the app and also sit through ads on it. And in the process, it’s collecting useful data for targeting them more closely.

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