In the past, our industry has overwhelmingly focused on short term gain. We continue to do so More...
Ten Simple Compliance Points for Advertisers
Working with the right size partners
Top Offers from Top Networks
MLM Start to Finish
2004: Hows it Looking So Far?
"Say Hello to My Little Friend" Classifieds:
In the past, our industry has
overwhelmingly focused on short term gain. We continue to
do so. Instead of long term solvency, many companies in our
sphere opt for immediate cash based on less-than-honest
dealings and promises. Focusing on the long term is never
an easy feat, but it is a sign of maturity. Our industry
needs to take on that level of maturity if we are to survive
the challenges we are facing from ISP’s, government, angry
consumers and large corporations seeking to end competition
in the online marketing space. “Products created for short-term or
one-time use are becoming more numerous and crucial to our
way of life. We must develop a throw-away mentality to
match our throw-away products.” Alvin Toffler, 1970 We have made email marketing and, for
the most part, banner placements expendable parts of our
consumers’ lives. By sending bulk email upon bulk email
pitching throw-away offers, we’ve created a disastrous
affect on the CPM metric. There is no conversation between
our users and our businesses. Instead, we’ve inundated
consumers with throw-away offers on our creatives that get
them to our sites, we explode them with throw away offers on
pop under interstitials and we follow them to the next site
with post pops, all in a hope to gain a few more pennies.
Maximizing the profit on traffic coming to our websites is
natural and the way of business. However, doing so by
offering throw-away merchandise and services ultimately
hurts your business and our industry in the long term. The
value quotient for consumers is seriously and considerably
challenged by the attempts of email and banner marketers to
maximize short term profit. There is a defined limit as to
how much value can be extracted by these short term
strategies. However, there is a gold mine of value still
untapped within our industry – the long term value of the
human quotient. “And it remains true, no matter whom
the idea displeases, that no merchant lives at ease. He has
put his heart into such a state of war that he burns alive
to acquire more, nor will he ever have acquired enough. He
has undertaken a wondrous task: He aspires to drink up the
whole Seine, but he will never be able to drink so much that
there will not remain more. This is the distress, the fire,
the anguish which lasts forever; it is the pain, the battle
which tears his guts and torments him in his lack: The more
he acquires, the more he needs!” Roman de la Rose, 13th
century In his seminal work,
Small Is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered,
British economist E.F. Schumacher lays out a vision for
economics that took into account the human aspect of
existence. In a similar way, we need to take into account
the human aspect of data. Schumacher’s basic point is that
growth in economic systems is a positive movement; however
there is a definite end to any such growth. There is a
limit to how much GDP can grow, and balance must be restored
to the system of economics in order to fully take advantage
of the benefits that our modern economic theory offers.
Similarly, we can act as if our data potential is unlimited,
however we must face the fact that data and consumer
activity is a limited resource. Short term, blasting out
the latest and greatest high cpm yielding offer might
provide profits. In the short term, amassing staggeringly
large databases containing tens or hundreds of millions
addresses and profiles can wow your contacts and drive the
price for your service up. However, in the long term these
tactics have placed legitimate email marketers in the same
ranks as those “marketers” with less-than-best intentions
according to public surveys. In other words, there is value
in analyzing your data for its long term value, and taking
into account your brand. There is something to the idea
that “Less is More” when it comes to long term solvency.
If we have only trash and
trivialities to sell, we must produce trashy and trivial
personalities to serve as consumers. Lewis Mumford,
1944 So how do we take into account the long
term potential of our data? How do we re-align our
practices so that consumers might actually come to value our
commercial messages? Whether you’re a website owner, email
marketer or advertiser in the online DM world, these are
serious questions that must be answered. Consumer
personalities cannot be molded by us as the marketer.
However, there is value in treating the customer with
respect and not just as a piece of data in a spreadsheet.
The difficult part is extracting that value as easily as
we’ve been able to extract the short term value by large
email blasts and tacky html creatives. Scale back and look at the larger
picture. Align your verticals according to consumer
wants. Provide services relevant to a consumer’s
interests. Perhaps include content, but be original in your
newsletters or website placements. You may be surprised
at you’re your increased CPM’s. Where will you and your
company be in 5, 10 or 25 years? Think of the future and
how much value can still be extracted when you take into
account the human quotient of data. Sam Harrelson is co-editor of the
Digital Moses Confidential. Reach him at
sam@digitalmoses.com
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Make sure your company is in full compliance.
2004: Hows it Looking So Far? We are now
in Q1 of 2004, after a great year of success for our
industry in 2003. According to the IAB and PWC (http://www.iab.net/news/pr_2003_12_09.asp),
the online industry
generated
$1.745 billion in the third quarter of 2003,
which was a 20% increase over the third quarter of 2002 and
a 5% increase over the second quarter of 2003. This tells
us something we all really knew already, and that is our
industry has recovered from the burst and is blowing up
again. Despite tightening controls within our industry
because of the government intervention, I think every sector
will continue to grow. One
important area we have to monitor in 2004 is how the
government gets involved within our industry. All of us
have our CAN-SPAM agreements in effect full force by now,
but many companies are reading into the ambiguous laws
differently. We won’t know exactly what the law makers want
with this law until there is some litigation that takes
place to more clearly define how it is being enforced
because the law is written in such a way that many
interpretations can exist depending on who is reading the
law. Until then, companies like my own, Intermark Media (http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040107/nyw114_1.html)
and yours to I’m sure will be making certain every point is
covered to the best of our knowledge.
The result of CANSPAM and the definition that is finally put
forward by the courts will definitely be a major story
within the online DM industry for 2004. Does a
signed document cover you when it comes to the law? Just how
in-depth should our agreements be? Well the ever infamous
OptinRealBig/Synergy6 case would have you think not and that
our agreements are arbitrary. What this case breaks down to
is that Synergy 6 had OptinRealBig advertise an offer
through their CPA Empire, in which a publisher within Empire
allegedly spammed the offer. Now despite the fact that I’m
sure everyone within the line of fire signed agreements
stating they wouldn’t spam, somehow Optin and Synergy are
still responsible. Because of this case, I’m sure that the
networks and merchants are going to be much more aware of
whom they are partnering with, but still you can never be
totally positive. As long as our documents cover all the
parts of laws in effect and good standards in our industry,
we should not be liable if a publisher signs them. Speaking
of good standards, what exactly are the general good
standards everyone practices? I think there needs to be
some central form of quality control, such as the
Responsible Marketers Seal that provides a clear explanation
of whether or not this is a company you want to do business
with. Speaking of
our “documents”, those IO’s and agreements we all sign, are
these valid contracts? Dictionary.com defines a contract as
“An agreement between two or more parties, especially one
that is written and enforceable by law.” What is it that
makes a contract enforceable by law? Well, usually in order
for a contract to be binding it has to have competent
parties, consideration, and mutual assent. Typically our
IO’s always have competent parties and consideration which
means if the other side is to be
held to the contract, you must give up something in exchange
(www.contract-law.com).
However, the third section can be foggy, mutual assent means
that each side must be clear as to the essential details,
rights, and obligations of the contract. In order for this
to be true there must be a clear channel of communication
between the two companies to go over details, and this isn’t
always the case. What it comes down to are our IO’s
enforceable under law. How many IO’s do you have that are
unfulfilled or never acted upon? Do we have the write to
pursue these legally? Well, if they are a valid contract,
then that answer is yes and yet no one does, interesting.
Does this all mean that even if a partner signs a CANSPAM
agreement they are not liable even though they are signing
that they are liable? Another
interesting area to watch in our industry for 2004 are the
consolidations taking place. In 2003, ValueClick bought up
two networks, BeFree and Commission Junction along with
Hi-Speed Media an email marketing firm. I’m sure those
aren’t the last ones on the list either. As the economy of
our industry strengthens, the big guns are going to continue
to expand their roles and it won’t be by creating from
scratch either. The question is, will we see these buyouts
and mergers turn into great successes or overloaded
behemoths like AOL/Time Warner. Which companies will be
targeted by these large corporations looking to do biz in
online marketing? The well-run companies that have a solid
reputation and clean books. Happily, in
2003 we saw the reemergence of the popularity of
conferences. I was at Ad-Tech:NYC and wow I could barely
move through the different booths. One facet I love about
these events is the parties thrown during the few days
everyone is in town. I had a fantastic time at the
Synergy6/OptinRealBig/Intermark party and met so many new
people. The speakers and booths are nice, but the parties
are where the real networking takes place and for an
industry built on relationships it’s important that these
events gain strength. It’s a
shame that it took the government to get involved in our
industry for us to perk up and realize we should’ve been
more strict within certain areas. However, we still have a
chance to do right. I think the fact that companies were so
fast to comply with CAN-SPAM shows that we want this
industry as consumer friendly as possible as the consumer
would. In 2004, I hope to see the industry become more
involved in regulation so that we don’t have to rely on the
people within the government and authorities outside the
world of direct online marketing who really don’t understand
this industry. Whether this is the Responsible Marketers
Seal (RMS) or something else, we definitely need to act so
the government doesn’t force misunderstood regulations upon
us. Big industry names often have big
capabilities and big budgets. Working with them can add
credibility, traffic, revenue and prestige. But they are
just that: BIG. And with a big company comes, procedures
that cannot be deviated from, red tape, layers of approvals
and other standard big company woes. For smaller companies
or start-ups, partnering with a big player can make or break
a single year, if not the entire company. That’s not only
risky, but often counter-productive. The partners and
relationships that we worked with in 2003 are the ones we
need to focus on this year. As you look
back at last year it shouldn’t be too difficult to figure
out what relationships have worked. Once you know that,
it’s important to thank them for the previous year, and plan
how to increase and strengthen your relationship for the
coming year. Be creative in planning how to utilize both
sides’ resources in new ways, and make sure that the things
that worked last year remain the focus of this year. Be
sure and communicate better as well, especially if you’re
doing new projects. There is
much more to a relationship and partnership than space
allows here, but remember two basics that I believe work:
Mutually beneficial relationships are the ones that build
success, Warren Buffet was right on with that. Also, try to
treat your partners as you want to be treated, its often
difficult, but the golden rule still goes a long way. Rob Seolas -
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Banners of all sizes, mini-sites, pops,
splash pages, email newsletters, animated interactive
banners. 24 hour turn-around. Contact Michael at
mm@maridium.com AOL IM:
maridium
"Say Hello to My Little Friend" A
developing trend in email marketing has been the presence of
the mini-drop. First used as a means to avoid filters that
might be triggered by the amount of messages being sent from
a particular server, mini-drops have proved quite useful for
a variety of other purposes. Ultimately, mini-drops
constitute the end to bulk emailing. Mini-drops
are fairly simple to understand, yet have been slow to gain
ground in email marketing. Simply put, mini-drops
constitute sending out your commercial messages in packets
of much smaller numbers. Instead of blasting a mailing out
to your entire database over the process of hours,
mini-drops allow the ability to send to your entire database
over a longer, and more targeted, period of time. In this
way, you are able to target consumers at certain periods
during the week and day when it is known that consumers open
and respond to their mail on a more frequent basis. Of
course this is variable on your database, but a quick study
can easily and cheaply be done to ascertain specifically
what time frame is most advantageous to your bottom line.
Deploying a series of mini-drops to the most active users of
your database at that time can easily pay-off the research
time spent. There is a great deal of data already on
various websites studying the issue of deployment times, so
the foundational resources are certainly already available. Along with
the ability to deploy mailings aimed at specific audiences
at specific times, min-drops go one step further and allow
you to analyze your results even quicker. Email marketing
has long been hailed as “the next best thing” to offline
marketing because of the ability to quickly and easily
analyze data from campaigns. Advertisers love this feature,
and it is still a major draw for advertisers of all size to
become involved in email marketing. It is also a reason
that email marketing will survive (in one form or another)
the challenges it currently faces. Mini-drops allow
incredible flexibility in metric measurement. Using
different creatives, and so on, to determine maximum revenue
potential is possible in this format. By developing means
to quickly and effectively show the results of mini-drops,
there is a great potential to even have differing prices
under the umbrella of one commercial message. Allowing this
sort of metric measurement, mini-drops certainly stand to
become an industry standard as bulk email continues to wane
in popularity, profits and industry reputation. Clearly,
mini-drops are a better solution to mailings. For the
reason of filters (which is debatable), send flexibility and
quickness of analyzation, mini-drops should be included in
your mailing strategies for the new year. Sam
Harrelson is co-editor of the Digital Moses Confidential.
Questions? Comments?
sam@digitalmoses.com
MLM Start to Finish Here at ESI
we focus on education and success from home. This is not a
MLM but isMLM to be educated in multiple ways
of making money by knowing what is available to them in
their area and on the internet. There are 200+ employees
here –and coaching staff of over 50----all to make sure that
the client is well taken care of after the initial order.
Their isn’t much risk in
taking on our campaign because as far as the programming,
feel of our site, and creatives/banners/etc , goes…we are
constantly changing and testing of our offers to make sure
that the offer produces on the front end for the Advertisers
and the backend for our follow up. The offer converts to
even the general population and there isn’t any slow time
for people wanting to make extra income---meaning, in good
times, people want to do more and invest their money, and in
bad times, people want to get something going to get out
their current situation. We constantly are coming up with
new offers as well. We actually flew some of the
Success Story students out here for our Christmas Party
(They all came from our online efforts from start to finish)
and the expressed a great appreciation for the work we are
doing and for sending them the Email that has made such a
difference to in their lives. We are one of the only
companies that do it all from start to finish---we do the
programming of the site, initial advertising to create the
lead , fulfill the order, call the people for follow up, do
our own coaching, and customer service follow up.
Everything to make sure that the program works for us and
the client that we bring aboard……we know that if we make it
work for the client—it will work for us. The Biz Opp Market seems to
be holding strong for 2004. With all the new laws and
regulations ---we have continued to increase in the amount
of orders produced for our offers. Possibly the spammers
are no longer plugging up the mail boxes. We believe in
doing in right and staying in compliance with all laws and
regulations. Our Motto for this year is “DO MORE in 2004”
–meaning for our clients and services that we provide.
We are looking for an outstanding year and to do some great
business with our publishers. We are very good when it
comes to paying and are looking to do bigger and better
things in 2004. Jeff Gardner
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