Latest Findings About Online Marketing from iMedia’s Brand Summit in Deer Valley

Mary Ann Packo, chief client and marketing officer of research firm Millward Brown, unveiled results of a new study, which was sponsored by Advertising.com in conjunction with iMedia.

We’ve bulleted for you the highlights of the findings presented in iMedia’s Connection newsletter. If you want more information, check out the link we’re provided at the end of this story:

For full text of this article and link to powerpoint presentation go to http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/4247.asp

List Hygiene Up, Open Rates Down for E-mail

Marketers are getting better about delivering e-mail messages, but fewer consumers are opening them and clicking through to Web sites, and sales are dropping according to an e-mail trend report.

Overall, delivery rates -- the number of e-mails sent less the number of bounce-backs -- were, at 89.5%, nearly unchanged from second quarter 2003's 88.5%. According to DoubleClick Inc., which conducted the study, this likely indicates a trend toward cleaner lists and heightened attention to list hygiene.

But open rates slipped from just under 39% to 36%, and click-throughs fell from 8.3% to 7.7%.

Financial service mailings recorded the highest level of bounces, at 15.7%, while efforts by business publishers generated the fewest, at 6.5%.

While all categories experienced declines in open rates, travel mailings, which dropped from 44.5% to 37%, and consumer publishers, which fell from 35.5% to 30.3%, led the decliners. The smallest amount of dropoff came within the business publishers and business products and services mailers, each of which saw their open rates decline by just over 1 percentage point.

But while recipients were opening business products and services messages, they weren't clicking through links in them. Click-through rates within this category fell more precipitously than among any other group. Conversely, the biggest gains in click-through rates were among business publishers. This is likely due to fewer new customers -- who tend to be more responsive to advertisements -- coming online, DoubleClick concluded.

Revenue per e-mail slipped to 20 cents per message, down from 30 cents a year ago, while the average number of orders per e-mail delivered fell 26.7 %, to .22 per order. (Direct Newsline 9/16/04)

Paper Mail to E-mail Conversion Service Introduced

Data Dimensions, a Janesville, WI-based data management company and MailSurity Systems Inc., a software firm in New York have formed a strategic alliance and launched a new service for converting postal mail to e-mail.

The companies have introduced an online digital mail service center for converting paper mail to digital images, which involves scanning and uploading paper mail for e-mail delivery, which notifies recipients that an e-mail message has arrived. (Direct Newsline 9/13/2004)

Amazon Launches Advanced Search Engine

Amazon has announced the launch of its A9.com search engine.

The new service will offer users the ability to store and edit bookmarks on an A9.com central server computer, keep track of each link clicked on previous visits and the ability to make a persona diary of notes on those pages. A9 organizes query results into expandable columns.

"The idea is to take search one level further and organize the information we search for. We wanted to build a search engine with memory and help you organize it yourself," says Udi Manber, chief executive officer of A9.

Findwhat.com announced the launch of its FindWhat.com pay-per-call advertising service. This service enables advertisers and private label partners to choose pay-per-click or pay-per-call advertising.

With the pay-per-call service, advertisers only pay when someone calls them after seeing their ad, as opposed to the pay-per-click service where advertisers only pay when someone clicks on their ad and is transferred to their Web site.

"FindWhat.com’s foundation was built upon an innovative, efficient business model -- an online performance-based marketplace that introduces buyers to sellers at exactly the right moment, when buyers are looking for specific products and services," says Craig Pisaris-Henderson, chairman and chief executive officer at FindWhat.com, Inc.

Yahoo Inc. and Mark Burnett Productions have formed a relationship in which Yahoo! will produce, host and sell advertising for the official Web site for the second and third season of "The Apprentice", as well as integrate "Apprentice" content throughout the Yahoo network.

The site, at apprentice.yahoo.com, will feature up to 40 minutes of Web-exclusive content each week. Sam Solovey, ousted from the first season of the NBC show, will write a weekly column for the site, and users will be able to download a themed "Apprentice" IMVironment background in Yahoo! Messenger, as well as use a verbally animated "You're Fired" Audible to taunt their friends while instant messaging

It's a fact of life these days that you have to get to the airport early when you travel, because of lines at security checkpoints. Now there's a Web site you can search to find how long you'll have to wait at these checkpoints in U.S. airports. At TSA Wait Times (http://waittime.tsa.dhs.gov/index.html), a site created by the Transportation Security Administration, you just select the airport, day of the week, and time of departure, and you can find out the average and maximum wait times at various security checkpoints. It's a useful tool for trip planning in this age of heightened security.

(listing from http://fita.org/useful/archives/92.html)