Print Advertising Drives Web Traffic

A new study by the Magzine Publishers of America indicates that traditional print advertising are the best way besides eNewsletters to drive traffic to a website. Some key findings:

--Magazine ads had a major impact on building web traffic, with a lift of more than 40% over the control group, on average
--Magazine ads generated web traffic at each stage of the purchase funnel, especially purchase intent
--Including a URL address in magazine ads significantly increased web visits. When the URL was included, the percent change in visits tripled

eNewsletter Dos and Don'ts

eNewsletters serve three purposes:
--Reinforce your brand relationship with your magazine readers in an interactive medium
--Drive traffic to your website
--Generate incremental revenue for your group

If you are not accomplishing at least two of the three, you need to seriously consider the viability of your eNewsletter as it currently exists, whether it is worth it to refocus your editorial in a new direction, or whether you should abandon the medium and concentrate your efforts in another area.

Do:
Link all content somewhere, preferably to your own website (rule number 2).
Don’t:
Include articles that are self-contained in your eNewsletter unless they relate to the newsletter itself, as in, “This week’s XYZ eNews features a new content section on technology.”

Do:
Keep news items short—two-to-three sentences max—and offer readers a click here to read more or read more link that takes them to the entire story you have posted to your website.
Don’t
give them the entire story in the lead. Tease them and entice them to click thru.

Do:
Keep columns and commentary to the same length as articles and link them back to your posted column on your website.
Don’t
write multiple paragraphs under your byline as commentary without jumping the story to your website. Also, I recommend you do not lead your eNewsletter with your column. Since it is an eNewsletter, lead with news. Instead, run your column as another section after your first news content section. If you feel your column is strong enough to lead your eNewsletter and run in its entirety, we can explore the viability of taking it out of the eNewsletter, repackaging it as an opinion blog and giving it a dedicated mail date.

Do:
Link photos to the same article on your website to which the accompanying news item links.
Exception is your photo that accompanies your column or commentary. That should link to your email address.
Don’t
run photos that do not link anywhere. Readers expect them to be clickable.

Do:
Ask for feedback, prominently and often; especially in commentary.
Don’t
ignore the feedback when it comes. Include some of it in future issues as a follow-up on the original story. This generates additional click-thru activity and keeps the issue simmering.

Do:
Include a reader poll in every issue. Does not need to be more than 1 question long, but the format is always multiple choice (that includes “yes, no, maybe”). Why am I harping on this? Polls are a cheap and easy way to get into your readers heads, find out what they think, what bothers them, what they are doing. They also give you instant intelligence that you can use for editorial content development across all media platforms: online, print, in-person.
--Further, consider taking four weeks of poll results and creating a Pulse department in your print magazine that consolidates those results with a little analysis. This is a perfect example of using each medium to their best advantage and leveraging content across multiple platforms.
Don’t
think it is difficult to do. Your WebDev team will help you.

Do:
Study your article click thru patterns. Knowing which topics resonate with your readers helps you choose articles they will like to read.
Don’t
be afraid to jettison a topic that is not generating click thrus. You are doing your readers a favor.

Good news about MMW eNewsletter metrics

From EmailLabs comes a thought-provoking look at eNewsletter metrics.

The average Open Rate for all B2B eNewsletters (taking EarthLink users out because of their aggressive opt-in spam filter) across domains is 26.4%. Drilling down, at Meister Media, our eNewsletters are averaging about 23% companywide, so we are in good company.

An increasingly more meaningful metric is Click to Open Rate (CTOR), which expresses the measure of click-through rates as a percentage of messages opened, instead of messages delivered. Taking out EarthLink again, the B2B average is 26%. On our Benchrunner last week, our CTOR was 47.6 Almost double the average for b2b.

Click thru rate? B2b averages 4.39 (EarthLink excepted), we hit 6% average companywide last week. Benchrunner and TGC Retail Scan are usually well over 10%.

Just Say Hello

A "Welcome" Message Keeps 'Em Coming Back
The Email Experience Council and the Direct Marketing Association announced the release of its second annual Retail Welcome Email Subscription Benchmark Study, examining the welcome emails of 118 of the top online retailers to identify best practices and benchmarks in the areas of merchandising, relationship-building, deliverability, and CAN-SPAM compliance.
Ramesh Lakshmi-Ratan, Ph.D., DMA's executive vice president and chief operating officer, says "... welcome emails have significantly higher open rates than regular emails...", while Kara Trivunovic, director of strategic services at Premiere Global Services, notes that "... emails should set the tone of the program... (and) properly executed welcome messages actually create anticipation in the recipient for the next message."
The report says, in the Executive Summary, that In 2006, only 66% of major online retailers sent welcome emails. With 72% sending welcome emails this year, it appears that more retailers are recognizing the value of these critical emails. Instead of engaging subscribers with incentives and links to products, departments, loyalty programs, catalogs and other shopping-related material, a great number of the largest online retailers simply say hello and leave it at that.

McKinsey Survey: How Companies are Marketing Online

A McKinsey global survey of marketers shows that companies are using digital tools—from Web sites to wikis—most extensively for customer service, least in pricing. Two-thirds are using digital tools for product development, almost as many as are advertising online.
Respondents consider online ads to be as useful for brand building as for direct response. Spending is expected to increase on all types of online advertising vehicles over the next three years.
In 2010 just over half of all respondents expect their companies to be getting 10 percent or more of their sales from online channels—twice as many companies as have hit that mark today. And 11 percent expect to be spending a majority of their advertising budgets online by then.
Most companies today don’t integrate their online and offline marketing efforts; companies that use online tools across the full spectrum of marketing activities are much more likely to do so.

Streaming Video Becoming a Habit At All Age Levels

Advertising.com, in their Bi-Annual Online VideoStudy, comparing the first half of 2007 with the last half of 2006, reports that 62 percent of survey respondents are viewing video online and are comprised mostly of those ages 35 and older viewing news clips. Analyzed by age group, 31 percent of 18 to 34 year olds watch streaming video, while 69 percent of consumers ages 35 and older view streaming video online.
Approximately 83 percent of consumers surveyed indicat­ed that their online video usage in 2007 has either stayed the same or increased since 2006. More specifically, 36 percent of consumers have increased their consumption of online video, with an even breakdown between men (36 percent) and women (37 percent).
The majority of consumers are streaming online video at home rather than work or school, with 45 percent of streaming activity taking place in the evening. 95% stream at home; 4% at work; 1% at school or university.More than 62 percent of consumers said they are most likely to stream news clips, with movie trailers and music videos next in line. Compared to the second half of 2006, consumers are streaming fewer music videos and streaming more news clips, user-gen­erated videos and sports clips.

Stand out in the Crowd

The average consumer is exposed to 3,000 ad messages daily, of which they notice 80 and react to 10. How will your e-mails break through the noise? Think about how you can gain entry into the recipient’s inner circle – the 10 to 15 companies whose e-mails they always read. Start by using compelling headlines and leads to direct the recipient’s attention to your call-to-action. Include graphic and textual links in your e-mails to complimentary downloads, Web commercials, recorded webinars and push-to-talk technology for richer end user experiences.