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Major Communications
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Major Communications
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Didn't we all pick our cereal boxes based on what prize it had inside? Often times we didn't even know that particular brand of cereal, but the prize was good enough to make us want to try it. Well the same holds for Web sites. If the prize is good enough we can attract new visitors and show them what we have to offer. So this week we interviewed Steve Markowitz, CEO of Intellipost a leading e-mail marketing company, and asked him how he thought Web site owners could get new visitors and keep the ones they already have coming back.
Editor: Why is it important that Web site owners create relationships with their visitors?
Markowitz: Relationships enable a Web site owner to engage in targeted outbound e-commerce. That is, once a merchant has created a relationship with a consumer, has learned something about that consumer's interests, he can then proactively reach our to her with a special offer geared toward her profile. This is a much stronger marketing technique than the approaches that currently dominate the Web-i.e., passive banner bars and buttons, intrusive interstitials, or, the worst, unsolicited commercial email (known as spam). A relationship is built on trust-so the marketers must make a strong privacy pledge, or work with a medium that does, like BonusMail. It is also built on relevance-so the marketer must collect the kind of data that will enable him to tailor his marketing message in a true 1:1 style, or, once more, work with a medium that does.
Editor: What is the easiest way to start creating a relationship?
Markowitz: The easiest way to begin building a relationship is to create or find an opt-in email service that you can use to reach out to your consumers. This list should be managed with kid gloves. Messages should be tailored-no unaimed blasts- based on demographic data. The list-if you build your own- should be very private-never rent it to any third party. A privacy pledge should be strong and clear. That is very important on the Internet to winning the consumer's trust. And, if possible, some kind of incentive reward should be given the consumer for his or her participation in the marketing process.
Editor: How do you begin an e-mail marketing campaign?
Markowitz: First, you must target your audience, and tailor the message for that group. That is, as I noted above, the key to the entire outbound e-commerce strategy. Web users simply do not have time or patience to sift through a lot of irrelevant messages. They must be targeted. Services like BonusMail have relational databases that can be queried quickly to pull out consumers with relevant interests.
Editor: How can Web site owners gain from such a campaign?
Markowitz: E-mail is quite simply cheaper, faster, and better than any other marketing medium. A piece of targeted, personalized, HTML-enhanced BonusMail is less than the price of a stamp, and 80% less than the typical piece of print-postage direct mail. Campaigns can be carried out in days by email-as opposed to weeks by "snail" mail. And each email message is interactive. In BonusMail, more than half go out in the form of a Web page, with all the bells and whistles. And all the messages enable click-through to the merchant's Web site for immediate secure online ordering.
Editor: What can Web site owners do to improve responses to an email campaign?
Markowitz: Take advantage of an email services' incentive rewards infrastructure-and test, test, test. Since campaigns can be carried out so quickly, a marketer can easily test different versions of an offer. And with BonusMail, the marketer can add an incentive to fetch higher response rates.
Editor: What is necessary to continually be successful with email marketing?
Markowitz: Keep in mind that email-like direct mail may require frequency techniques, especially for considered purchases. Don't be afraid to send out offers a number of times. But to do this, a relationship must be in place that enables a continued dialog with the consumer. This means opt- in, privacy, relevance, rewards-all the things I've been talking about.
Editor: What one thing should Web site owners be doing to improve their site today?
Markowitz: Build traffic through the use of targeted, permission-based, incentivized email. It is the single most effective way to reach consumers over the Internet.
About the Expert: Steve Markowitz, Chairman & CEO of Intellipost Corp. (www.intellipost.com), is a recognized leader in the Internet marketing industry. He is a sought after speaker on the subject of online direct marketing and loyalty rewards, addressing audiences at many of the Internet's most prominent events. Under Steve's leadership, Intellipost has grown quickly to serve millions of consumers across a wide variety of innovative membership programs, lead by the Company's own rewarded email service, BonusMail (www.bonusmail.com), and its online incentives program, MyPoints (www.mypoints.com).
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