DM TECHNIQUES A SUCCESS ONLINE

A recent study of direct marketers on the web reveals they are adapting their techniques to e-commerce successfully; in fact, some are showing a profit from online sales. Web marketers are collecting information, targeting offers, conducting e-mail campaigns and tracking online origins of offline sales.

The survey, querying 60 leading Web marketers in June, was conducted by catalog consultant W. A. Dean & Associates, San Francisco, for direct marketing investment firm Gruppo, Levey & Co., New York.

A large majority of the respondents, 79%, either currently collect or intend to collect demographic data from users on their Web sites. Eight percent integrate or have plans to integrate that information into their marketing databases. Nearly half of the respondents said they would not make the data available for list rental.

The survey shows that e-mail marketing is gaining steam, with 48% of consumer marketers conducting e-mail marketing campaigns compared to 22 percent of business-to-business marketers. Reasons given for this difference are that b-to-b marketers rely on high-volume orders that are often negotiated on a per-customer basis by account reps who have frequent contact with their customers. E-mail marketing, the report claims, is more efficient on a mass basis, rather than an individualized basis and not as cost-effective for b-to-b marketers.

According to the survey, direct marketers are tracking offline sales that are initiated on the Web: 59% of direct marketers use unique source codes for their online product offerings, another 21% offer online customers an exclusive 800 number for placing orders.

The Web businesses are profitable for 39% of the survey respondents; another 29% expect them to be this year. Six out of ten project that at least 10% of their gross sales will come from e-commerce in 2001.

Sixty-nine percent of the respondents said they now offer their complete print catalog online (8% of these offer exclusive online-only items).

A complete copy of the survey results is available free by contacting Karen Burka of Gruppo, Levey at 212-697-5753 or by e-mail at kburka@glconline.com.