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| March 29,
2002 Dear Reader, Welcome to the first issue of the Jennings Report! You probably heard about Gartner's study suggesting that e-mail volume will exceed direct mail by 2005. We bring you a link not only to the press release about that report, but also to a related piece about e-mail vs. postal mail volume in the UK and a counter-opinion piece with quotes from the Direct Marketing Association. These are just a few of the resources here for you today, read on for more. Table of Contents 1. Bumpy Road From Free to Fee: Paid Online Content Revenues To $5.8 Billion by 2006, Jupiter Media Metrix 2. Protecting the Users Mailbox, Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox 3. Blast from the Past: Mailing List Usability, Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox 4. New DMA Report Finds Online Marketers Responding to Consumer Privacy Issues, Direct Marketing Association 5. Point: Email Savings Threaten a $196.8 Billion Dollar Direct Mail Market, Gartner|G2 6. Point: Record Email Usage Signals Last Post for Letters; Email Overtakes Letters Sent and Received from UK Homes, NetValue 7. Counterpoint: Email vs. DM is like Apples and Oranges, iMarketing News Content 1. Bumpy Road From Free to Fee: Paid Online Content Revenues To $5.8 Billion by 2006, Press Release, March 18, Report available soon, Jupiter Media Metrix Note: Link stopped working in mid-August 2002 and was removed. Free vs. Paid content, whether in e-mail newsletters or on websites, is a hot topic among my industry colleagues, how about yours? This press release gives statistics from a recent Jupiter report, as well as touting their (now past) conference on this topic. Maybe we can all meet there next year. In the meantime, check out the stats, including the fact that 70% of adults can't understand why anyone would pay for online content (ouch!). 2. Protecting the Users Mailbox, March 17, Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox Jakob Nielsen, the Internet usability expert, usually sticks to websites, but every once in a while he delves into the world of e-mail. The link above goes to a good summary of how to treat users and address their potential objections and concerns about providing their e-mail addresses. Reading this reminds me of an Alertbox on e-mail from August, 2000. A brief description of it and a link to it follow in this issues 'Blast from the Past.' 3. Blast from the Past: Mailing List Usability, August 20, 2000, Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox A great piece on getting readers to subscribe to your e-mail newsletter, including a case study where new subscriptions increased by 128%. A must read if you haven't read it, and a great refresher if you have. 4. New DMA Report Finds Online Marketers Responding to Consumer Privacy Issues, Press Release, March 21, Report available in April, Direct Marketing Association Interesting. 60% of those surveyed for this report stated they do not rent third party e-mail lists, which is higher than I expected. Also, 96% of those surveyed included an unsubscribe mechanism in every e-mail they send (which made me ask: Why not 100%? Isn't this sort of the least you can do in the way of respecting your recipients?). Good statistics, especially on B2B lists. As is often the case, the full report is bucks, but the press release is free (although you may have to register on the DMA site to view it). 5. Point: Email Savings Threaten a $196.8 Billion Dollar Direct Mail Market, Press Release, March 19; Report released January 23;Gartner|G2 Unfortunately for us, you can't read the full report unless you're a Gartner|G2 client. But you can read the press release. Bottom line: Direct mail has peaked, e-mail will continue to grow and overtake direct mail by 2005. I think the 'threat' is farther into the future than they seem to believe, but they make some good points. Among them, the statistic that unsolicited e-mails have an average click-through rate of 1%, compared with 6-8% for opt-in e-mail. Once more statistic to add to my 'business case for opt-in' project. 6. Point: Record Email Usage Signals Last Post for Letters; Email Overtakes Letters Sent and Received from UK Homes, Press Release, March 13, NetValue This report gives a bit of a UK perspective on the Gartner|G2 report. In addition to e-mail vs. postal mail stats, it offers e-mail penetration statistics for a number of European Countries and statistics on e-mail platform preferences ('free' e-mail addresses like Yahoo and Hotmail vs. 'protocol' e-mail platforms like Lotus Notes). Tons of numbers for those (like me!) who like that stuff. 7. Counterpoint: Email vs. DM is like Apples and Oranges, March 22, iMarketing News The DMA came back in force, calling the Gartner|G2 report 'flawed.' Brief but good info here on the shift in the financial services industry move to e-mail away from direct mail in some instances. Also, you gotta love the laptop/beach/sand quote at the end (I guess I'm unusual, I take books or magazines to read on the beach, not catalogs, but hey). Closing Thanks for reading! Look for our next issue to be published on Thursday, April 11. Feedback is welcome; let me know what you liked and what you'd like to see changed. Also, if you run across a resource, e-mail me the link and your thoughts and I may include it in the next issue. Ciao for now, Jeanne Email Me by Clicking Here |
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The
Jennings Report
