May 08, 2001
Article
|
SUMMARY:
No summary available
|
|
=======================
MarketingtoWebMarketers From MarketingSherpa.com
======================= May 8, 2001 - Vol. II, Issue 17
--> Yes, you can forward this, but PLEASE DO NOT CUT. <--
NEWS:
- Show Review: @d:tech Not as Bad as You Think
- SkipIntro Site Educates "Flash-Hole" Ad Agencies
CASE STUDY: Start-Up InternetVIZ Lands $15,000 Corporate Accounts
with Clever Guerrilla Tactics
Sponsor: Engage
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Free Audience Insight Report
EXCEED the ordinary in online advertising results...with
Engage Interactive Media & Analytics. Call 1-877-U ENGAGE
x 31 or click here for a FREE Audience Insight Report!
http://www.engage.com/exceedic
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
=====
NEWS
=====
* Show Review: @d:tech Not as Bad as You Might Think
"How bad was the show?" everyone asked us yesterday when we got
back from LA. (Note, nobody asked, "Was it any good?") Thing
is, while @d:tech certainly didn't live up to previous years, it
wasn't all that incredibly, horribly, awfully bad. This is a
show that will last. This is a show that we expect to chug
along, gamely keeping its head above water, until things get
better again.
So, neither the negative (even bitchy) reviews in iMarketingNews
nor the hypey positive reviews from the show's own daily (actual
quote, "Signs of distress in the interactive marketing industry
were hardly in evidence on Wednesday as a large and
overwhelmingly positive crowd filled Peetree Hall....") really
put their thumb on the truth.
Here's our take. Feel free to disagree.
A bunch of bigger companies - MessageMedia, DigitalImpact, etc. -
pulled out because February's Seattle net.marketing show scared
them, and because first quarter EBITDA was looking skimpy. For
the old guard it's about holding on, not blowing bucks on
expansion. A bunch of new players, especially rich media-related
firms, took the leftover spaces because for them it's about
getting new clients in the door. Which meant that most of us old
timers walking the floor didn't recognize a bunch of newbie
companies exhibiting.
Everybody was careful with show expenditures. There were only a
few big booths. Attendees and press weren't handed stacks of
glossy marketing materials when they registered. The show daily
for Thursday only had a single sponsor (Neilsen.) Usually there
are a zillion party invites stuffed in your press kit. This year
there were none, except official opening night cocktails. Out-
of-town attendees hoping for a blow-out were on their own.
All of these muted tones aside, it was still an ok show for the
vendors who exhibited there. Not utterly thrilling, but
definitely worth the investment. Joel Farbstein at Red Herring
said, "Our booth was getting decent traffic and many advertising
inquiries, several from media planners. Some are for the print
magazine, instead of online. But from our perspective it's not
totally a bust."
Geoff Smith, ClickAction's Director of Clients, says, "We got
better than expected traffic, but we got a lot of riff raff
coming through. One man shops. So we probably got 150 leads,
which for us was really good for a show that size, but only half
were really good." It must be noted that 75 rock solid leads are
nothing to be sneered at these days.
Susan Murphy, VP Marketing for the rich media shop TMX
Interactive (which just opened eight -- yes eight -- new offices
across the US) told us, "Our salespeople were having a blast at
the booth. It was getting top traffic. It was like that for the
Seattle show too." Which pretty much answers the question, are
America's marketers really truly interested in rich media?
Will we go to NY @d:tech this fall? You bet we will. And maybe
we'll even throw a cool party there because it looks like nobody
else is going to.
http://www.ad-tech.com
P.S. Please don't cut the above review to forward to people.
Just forward them this whole issue. Thanks!
* SkipIntro Site Educates "Flash-Hole" Ad Agencies
Why do ad agencies keep adding bad flash intros to their sites?
It's probably something to do with the art directors preferring
glamour and "excitement" vs. boring old usability. Unfortunately
the prevalence of annoying intros has now given rise to a new
pop-culture term, "flash-hole."
Wanna avoid being called one? There's a useful site we hope
every agency creative visits before creating his or her next
flash intro. SkipIntro.com combines all the sins of typical
agency intros into one awesomely dreadful display. Visit it
today; and then go forth and never Flash-sin again.
http://www.skipintro.com
==========
CASE STUDY : Start-Up InternetVIZ Lands $20,000 Each Corporate
Accounts with Clever Guerrilla Tactics
==========
While it's always fun to read Case Studies about big famous
companies, we've often found it's the little underdogs who are
doing the most effective marketing that you can steal ideas from.
Case in point -- InternetVIZ. Read on ...
CHALLENGE
InternetVIZ, a company that produces email
newsletters for corporations, launched at the worst possible time
economically, February 2001. The two-person founding team didn't
have loads of money to tide them through. Since InternetVIZ is a
bootstrapping effort, Co-founder and Marketer Jason Kassel needed
to think up guerrilla marketing ideas that would pay off fast.
CAMPAIGN
First Kassel devised a basic, no-frills, site that
would turn as many visitors as possible into named sales
prospects. Instead of just collecting names through a single
offer, the site has three distinct offers:
1. A free newsletter "VIZable Value" offer asking for email only.
2. A free prototype offer wherein marketers have to fill out a
lengthy multi-question form to receive a newsletter prototype
devised specifically for their company.
3. A free white paper offer asking for name and email address,
plus permission to email the recipients six notes:
a. immediately - "hope you found the white paper interesting"
b. next day - a quick tutorial on the difference between
direct mail and email including costs
c. four days out - "what permission marketing is all about",
plus, an invitation to take a survey so "we can learn more about
you"
d. eight days out - a quick tutorial on marketing with email
newsletters
e. 10 days out - a quick tutorial on response measurement
tactics and email newsletters
f. 12 days out - a quick note how InternetVIZ can help you
create email newsletters
In order to drive visitors back to the site (where they will
hopefully fill out the prototype offer and become a more
qualified sales lead), each letter includes two links at the very
bottom -- a link to a second white paper featuring statistics on
newsletter marketing, and a link to the prototype offer itself.
The initial white paper itself is quite brief -- just 3-4 pages.
Kassel says, "Nobody wants to read long papers anymore." He
explains the idea behind adding on the additional email notes,
"Many people still have no knowledge about how to do email
marketing. The idea is to be general and to get them to focus
over time." (See below for a link to info from another expert
who recommends sending multiple-series notes as a sales tool.)
Kassel uses a mixture of time-tested guerrilla tactics to send
qualified traffic to the site, including:
- Local PR: Kassel cold-called 15 companies in the Minneapolis
area and asked them if they were planning on using email
newsletters as a marketing tool. Then he sent the info her
gathered as a "Survey Results" news release to the local business
press.
- National PR: Kassel used his BusinessWire account to send
general releases to the national press. He says, "I try to be as
theatrical as I can. I'm positioning myself as an email
evangelist."
- Web articles: Kassel planted articles about newsletter
marketing in about a half-dozen related sites such as
MediaPeak.com and IdeaMarketers.com.
- Newsletter ads: Aware that high tech companies are often early
adopters when it comes to Internet marketing tactics, Kassel
planted a banner ad in xfp Compass, an email newsletter read by
about 15,000 ASP executives. (Note: Kassel worked a deal to get
the ad space for free in exchange for help with the newsletter.)
RESULTS
So far four multinational companies, and several
smaller corporations, have signed deals for InternetVIZ to
create, produce and fulfill their email newsletters at prices
ranging from $950-$1450 per month.
Kassel himself was surprised by his client's size. He says,
"Originally we thought we'd attract a much smaller clientele, but
we're really finding large corporations are much more interested
in this."
Site visitors are far more likely to accept the free white paper
offer than any other; however, those who request a prototype are
more likely to become paying clients. (In fact so far
InternetVIZ has a 50% close rate for prototype requesters.)
Kassel recommends offering a prototype because it shortens sales
cycles, "Prospects can show their boss what they want to buy from
us. I think it speeds the sales cycle." His sales cycle so far
from prototype to contract? Less than two weeks.
Kassel's PR activities got him "a little play" on both the local
and national level, so he plans to continue them. The xsp
Compass newsletter also worked, driving four qualified leads
directly to the prototype request form.
PARTNERSHIPS: InternetVIZ is definitely interested in reseller
agreements. If you bring them customers, they'll pay you 15% of
the customer's first year business. Since the average customer
pays about $15,000 a year, that's not a bad ancillary revenue
stream for someone who wants to work it. Interested? Contact
Kassel at jason@internetviz.com
http://www.internetviz.com
http://www.xspcompass.com
NOTE: Want to know more about offering a timed group of letters
to prospects? Check out this short article:
* Schmooze Sales Prospects With a Free eCourse
http://www.contentbiz.com/sample.cfm?contentID=1560
================================
MarketingToWebMarketers INFO
================================
To subscribe (Free!) or unsubscribe (Easy!):
Use the box at our Web site
http://www.marketingtowebmarketers.com
Want a Media Kit?
ads@marketingsherpa.com
Editorial:
editor@MarketingToWebMarketers.com
Publisher:
anneh@MarketingSherpa.com
To change your email address:
Please unsubscribe your old address and subscribe with
your new one. Easiest way -- go to our Web site at
http://www.marketingtowebmarketers.com
MarketingToWebMarketers is a MarketingSherpa.com
service. (c) Copyright 2001, MarketingSherpa, Inc.
