Marketing
Linked
Resources
News*GOLD
Table of Contents
(1—7)
- DMLR statistics (Jan-Jun)
- Two-step
- Man spricht Deutsch
- Direct Marketing
- Linked Resources
- Downtime
- Review: Create PDF
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One Q? For U! Vote NOW and check the result! |
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| I. DMLR statistics (Jan-Jun).
First half-year 2002 has passed right now. I offer you a glance at the DMLR community simply by counting moves and news within the subscribing basis. In the past 6 months DMLR released two quarterly Gold issues (Jan., Apr.) and four bi-monthly Brief issues. A copy of them was delivered as email to the regular subscribers for free. Main indicators keeping you up-to-date on what's happening are: 30 NEW SUBSCRIBERS, people who requested DMLR for the first time DEMOGRAPHICS (PERCENT)  MALE (72) FEMALE (28)LANGUAGES (PERCENT) ITALIAN (93) ENGLISH (7)7 EXPIRES, former subscribers who requested to quit the DMLR-list 1 EMAIL ADDRESS CHANGE 8 NIXIES, old email addresses which have become undeliverable ACTIVE SUBSCRIBERS ON JUNE 30 BY RECENCY (PERCENT) 41.6% HOT LIST, less than 1-year old 39.8% REGULAR, between 1- and 2-year old 18.6% LOYAL, more than 2-year oldTo compare these figures to the previous data, go to STATS 2001.
II. Two-step. Since April DMLR has become a double opt-in e-mail newsletter. A new procedure is wanting the readers to confirm their subscription to the e-mail list. I know what to expect... someone arguing against the two-step subscription! Probably it comes to your mind such a question: opt-in is important to draw continued readers, but double opt-in it's quite a choke. Tough decision, isn't it? It deserves I drop a line, better three answers: a) all subscribers are requested to confirm the first message in order to avoid false registering or email sent by error; b) one could subscribe to receive a first email issue as sample and only after reading the first issue he will confirm the subscription; c) being DMLR a non-profit Web-based newsletter, I have no interest in reaching the wrong person only to state a higher number of subscribers. From a statistical perspective the two-step process led meanwhile to the following result: - in the first quarter of trial, 54% of the new subscribers have confirmed their willingness to receive DMLR*News; - one-time subscribers, those who did not confirm their subscription, are 46% of the overall subscribers and so they have received only one release of the email news. In both cases they all made a better choice and this is the real fact!
III. Man spricht Deutsch. (DMLR*News has got the first subscriber from Germany. The following dialogue, in German, is what could happen in any Italian shop on any tourist place in a summer day). - Kann ich Ihnen helfen? - Ja, ich möchte ein Geschenk für Freunden kaufen. Ich muss es nach Deutschland bringen... - Unser Angebot der Woche ist italienischer Qualitätskafee für Mokka zum Sonderpreis! - Wieviel kostet es? Können Sie das bitte aufschreiben? - 19.50 euro. - Der ist sehr teuer... zu teuer... Dieser Kaffee gilt billiger, was für eine Sorte ist er? - Koffeinfreier Kaffee, kommt aus Deutschland... - Das macht nicht. Danke schön! - Bitte schön. (or) - Gefallen Sie Lebensmittel? - Ja, sondern ich möchte Diätwaren... meine Freunde sind übermässig! - Was können sie trinken? - Sie trinken nur Tomatensaft, Tee mit Zitrone, oder Apfelwein. - Wie haben keine, nur Flaschen Wein und alkoholische Getränke! - Haben Sie Italianischen Delikatessen? - Paprika ist kalorienarm und vitaminreich, reicher an Vitamin C als alle anderen bekannten... - Ich habe es eilig. Um mir ohne bittere Erfahrung zu machen, wieviel kostet es? - Was ich Ihnen noch ersparen kann, entnehmen Sie bitte den Preisschildern... - Da nehme ich eine grüne, eine gelbe und eine rote Schote! Note: Germans have coined the term "TEURO" to designate the rising of prices consequent to the introduction of the Euro-coin (so "Teuro" sounds like "teuer" that means expensive). If you are not German you may find the proper resource online to translate the dialogue above. How to do it? See the Tools-category at DMLR Guide.
IV. Direct Marketing. The DIRECT MARKETING glossary is now available on DMLR, as English text, in a 3-document edition (PDF) you can browse here or easily download onto your desktop. It consists of 19 pages as a whole, 311 paragraphs/terms, 236 Kb, 7450 words, 44772 types! - PART I (A to D), http://www.dmlr.org/pdf/DMglossary/A-D.pdf. - PART II (E to N), http://www.dmlr.org/pdf/DMglossary/E-N.pdf. - PART III (O to W), http://www.dmlr.org/pdf/DMglossary/O-W.pdf. Sure the Internet has been changing the traditional snail-mail based direct marketing. And yet the Internet marketing is a consequence of the old direct marketing somehow, somewhere. Many terms you'll find inside the DM glossary are suiting for the e-marketing too. Let's consider only three major examples: A) AUDIENCE is the term indicating "the number of individuals reached by an advertisement". Thus Mastercard, that extended World Cup sponsorship to the Web, has promoted its banner on the FIFA World Cup official web site powered by Yahoo. That Web site attracted as audience more than 527,000 visitors the week ending June 2. Each of them probably viewed the Mastercard's promotion wooing the audience to visit the Fifa World Cup section at Mastercard.com. B) BROCHURE is "any high-quality promotional pamphlet or booklet". While distinguishing the high-quality in typography should be easier than on the digital works, the e-brochure remains one of the main purposes a business elicits to start its own Web site. Hence the showing of the products in detail or in use allows the marketer to stimulate the desire of potential users wanting to buy just those items as online as offline. C) C.P.M. stands for Cost per Thousand and refers to "the total cost-per-thousand pieces of direct mail". CPM is widely used in email marketing and banner advertising too. It detects the cost-per-thousand email messages delivered or the cost-per-thousand views of a banner on a specific Web page. This case needs more real figures in depth. Running an email promotion where one can send out to up to 10,000 names for 50 euro. Cost per Thousand (CPM) = (50/10,000)*1,000 = 5 euro! Buying the home page's top level banner for one month. (Only one ad showed in a given space). At the end of the month, it has been calculated 2 million unique impressions were delivered. If CPM was established at 2 euro, the bill for the advertiser had been: 2 * 2000 = 4,000 euro! PS. In both cases CPM does not consider how effective the promotion has been. It only considers how many readers have been reached by the message or had the opportunity to see it. Exercise. Fixed as above the CPM-term for advertising online, what is the meaning of these other measurement tools: CPA, CPS, CPC, CTR? (Answer on DMLR*News Brief, August).
V. Linked Resources. Poll, forum, quiz, guestbook are the best tools to interact with people online. A business usually puts a Web poll on its site to get the customers' opinion on a product or service. With a forum it is easier to discuss a topic interesting to the community of a product's frequent users or buyers. Adding a Web quiz to a site allows the visitor to be involved by testing her skill and knowledge --the quiz should be aimed to sweepstakes or rewards. Finally, the guestbook is widely used by user-friendly or informal Web site to get instant feedback from online visitors. Alxnet (www.alxnet.com) is a provider of such Web tools. I did recourse to it for my personal Web site poll placed on the starting page. Now I'm showing you a second interactive tool, the Guestbook. To send your opinion about the DMLR experience, visit my Guestbook!
VI. Downtime. Haiku n.1: Lizards catch some rays Nike-player fires the match ball Blood flows in the dark Haiku n.2: Message came from sea Fast forward it to the sky Rain will reply to (PS. Remember a little haiku is of 5,7,5 syllables).
VII. Review: Create PDF. This new service allows you to find out one or more web sites at a time I have personally visited/tested. On this issue let's look at: "Create PDF Files". - Web location is http://createpdf.adobe.com, managed by Adobe®, USA. - Type of site: files translation service. This online utility allows you to convert several types of file into the Portable Document Format (PDF), readable by a freeshare program as Adobe Acrobat Reader. - Means: by creating your own Adobe ID (free) you may access the special services and benefits offered by the Adobe Web site. Among those the Create PDF Online service is a simple tool to convert your files in a PDF one. Any subscription is validated to convert up to 5 files. You can translate both text or image files from a wide range of types (.doc, .rtf, .tiff, .html and so on). Adobe Acrobat is the most reliable, efficient, and effective way to share information electronically because it's cross-browser and usable by WIN and MAC OS. - Web site: information on how the service is working should be the first step for visitors before registering. The subscription is very simple (User ID plus password) and will be notified by email. From this moment you have been activated to proceed and exchange files stored on your computer with the Adobe system. You will be notified via email for each conversion completed succesfully. The ultimate PDF file is delivered to you via browser or email. In any case the converted file can be picked up on the server within 72 hours from the conversion time. - Demo: all PDF files published on DMLR are resulted from the use of this online service --see here the complete list. For a 200K-sized file the conversion time may take some minutes, say 2 or 3, depending on the traffic to the site and the speed connection of the user. Any file can be optimized for the final user's purpose by means of the optional features (print, read, or browse). - Rating: 10 out of 15. (Evaluated following DMLR Primo-award criteria, see http://www.dmlr.org/come/primo01.htm). |
Roberto Dondi - word processing, HTML and the ropes.