March 07, 2002
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1. Publishing Marketing Job Opening
2. Why Media Buyers Say No to Your Sales Rep
3. Online Quiz Generates 100k Opt-Ins + $ Millions
4. eDiets Sells 10 Million "Weeks" of Subs in 2001
***** THIS WEEK'S CONTENTBLOG
[03/07/02 11:23AM] PUBLISHING MARKETING JOB OPENING
Carol Crowell, a Publisher at UCG's Technology Division in
Needham Mass, asked me to post a note here asking if anyone knows
of a good candidate for a publishing job opening. She needs to
hire a new mid-level marketer for their subscription newsletter,
reports and conferences business. Requires an entrepreneurial
attitude and "direct marketing, strong copywriting skills, and
ability to multi-task." If you're interested, or know someone who
might be, emailed resumes and cover letters can be sent to Carol
at ccrowell@ucgtech.com
[03/05/02 6:13PM] WHY MEDIA BUYERS SAY NO TO YOUR SALES REP
Semi-obvious, but still useful comments on selling online ads
successfully today in Tom Hespos's MediaPost column entitled,
"Why didn't we make the plan?" If your ad sales reps ever wonder
that, it's worth checking out:
http://www.mediapost.com/dtls_dsp_Spin.cfm?spinID=109399
[03/04/02 3:40PM] ONLINE QUIZ GENERATES 100K OPT-INS + $ MILLIONS
Clever content model of the week: check out Tony Alessandra's
Platinum Rule" free self-evaluation form." According to marketing
consultant Nancy Roebke of Profnet.org, who helped Alexander
develop the idea, this free online quiz generated about 100,000
opt-ins in 12 months. (You have to enter your email and agree to
get a free weekly email newsletter in order to learn what your
quiz results are.)
Alexander generates revenue from the list by offering an upgraded
version of the personal evaluation to all takers for an
additional $25. (Alexander also tested a $15 price point, but
made more with $25 despite a slight conversion percent drop.)
Roebke says, "This is a multi-million dollar product."
Can it transfer across other content topics? Well, at the very
least I think using a quiz to gather opt-ins is a great idea even
if you make your back end money doing something else (selling ads
against them, or ebooks to them, or whatever.) If you're
considering it, definitely check out Alexander's page for some
copywriting tactics to make it work. I especially like two of his
tactics:
1) He doesn't call it a newsletter, possibly because "newsletter"
has negative connotations for many people (too much email
clogging your inbox, too many ads, useless content, etc.) Instead
he focuses on positive benefits, saying, "Persons taking this
profile will be added to our mailing list to receive a series of
52 FREE articles -- one per week -- on how to improve various
facets of their personal and professional relationships."
2) He overcomes potential "I have too much email" objections by
saying, "You can cancel these free weekly e-mail articles at any
time after receiving the first one if you feel they don't provide
value to you and your relationships." (Note again how he pops a
benefit statement in there too.)
http://www.mentoru.com/asmt.asp?asmt=1&id=13
[02/26/02 2:52PM] EDIETS SELLS 10 MILLION "WEEKS" OF SUBS IN 2001
This morning eDiets announced their 4th quarter earnings for 2001
-- profits galore -- but my eye was struck by the bit which read,
"Revenue growth was driven by growth in program attendance, which
reached 10 million in fiscal 2001..." So I contacted eDiet's
Manager Marketing Communications Merilee Kern for clarification.
Were the 10 million free registered users? Paid users? Weeks of
paid membership sold?
She replied, "It was determined that at on any given week
throughout the year of 2001, eDiets had an AVERAGE of 191,000
unique paid members active. So, the 10 million was derived by
multiplying 191,000 average "membership weeks" by 52 weeks in the
year, totaling almost 10 million (9,932,00 to be exact)."
eDiets didn't pick this method of reporting figures to confuse us
content folks, but to strike a pose in comparison to competitor
WeightWatchers who publicly measure their sales the same way.
Interestingly the virtual world is catching up to the real world
fast -- counted by weeks of attendance eDiets is 42% of WeightWatchers' size.
If you're interesting in learning how eDiets did it, check out
our Case Study from last August, eDiets Profitably Sells Millions of $65 Diet Counseling Subscriptions Online :
http://www.contentbiz.com/sample.cfm?contentID=1793
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