A new internet advertising explosion is on the way, and it may all ultimately depend upon the fact that we’re a pretty darned forgetful and perplexed bunch.
    The information revolution has flooded us with so much information that we forget stuff we’re supposed to remember or can’t find facts we need or can’t locate advice we’re looking for.
    And now the revolution has spawned its own solution, and a web site called LifeMinders has emerged as one of the early and effective practitioners.
    LifeMinders offers users regular emailed newsletters on subjects of personal interest. The service now has 9 million subscribers. 700,000 people have signed up in the last week alone—since the LifeMinders Super Bowl ad—and the web site has seen its members double since September.
   "We send relevant, timely advice, recommendations and tips on topics of their choosing that are personal to them and life-centric," says Mark Bryant, LifeMinders.com’s senior vice president for strategic partnerships and corporate development. The phrase "advice, recommendations and tips" is a mantra that trips repeatedly out of Bryant’s talkative lips.
    Much of this information is tied to specific things that people want done or want to remember to do, such as a garden mailing that offers tips and advice related to what time of year it is and where the recipient lives or a car-related mailing that reminds recipients about maintenance that needs to be done or a personal events mailing that reminds people about birthdays and anniversaries in their lives.
    The email newsletters are advertising-supported. To date, LifeMinders has signed up about 250 advertisers including Home Depot, Ralston Purina and Kimberly Clark.
    It looks like 2000 will be the year email advertising uncorks its potential. According to a new report from eMarketer, email advertising spending will leap from $97 million in 1999 to $289 million in 2000 and on to nearly $2 billion by 2003. The same report says that while email advertising represented just 3 percent of all web advertising dollars in 1999 it will expand to comprise 15 percent of web advertising expenditures by 2003.
    Opt-in email—of which LifeMinders.com is a prime example—will account for 61.1 billion pieces of mail by year-end 2000, according to eMarketer, a 52.3 percent increase over 1999.
    With LifeMinders, people not only voluntarily sign up but if they go through a so-called "full signup" process they can provide specific information to the web site that will result in even more highly targeted emails and accompanying promotions.
    The obvious allure of this from an advertiser’s point of view, says Bryant, is the precision targeting opportunity. "Not only can I target ads to people who have an interest in cars, but I can target people who drive domestic vehicles that are between 5 and 10 years old," he says, as an example.
    The attraction to the user, Bryant adds, is the content.
    "This is not just coupons, promotions, specials and offers. We’re actually sending people content of value, content that’s about them." While some content is written in-house or by freelancers much of what goes into each mailing is content that has been culled from other web sites by LifeMinders.com producers and editors.
    While people sign up for general categories, the email can become increasingly customized over time, notes Bryant. "There may be several hundred thousand permutations of the same category email," he notes—depending on what people have clicked on and responded to.
    For instance, he says, a user may have signed up for a garden-related email and indicated an interest in both annuals and perennials. But if this person over time continually clicks on the annual-related content and never clicks on perennial-related content, LifeMinders will phase out the perennial content from the email. 
    Most LifeMinders.com emails go out every two weeks, although some are more frequent. Subscribers have signed up for an average of four different categories, reports Bryant.
    "We’re very conscious of frequency and saturation," he says.
    The service is growing at a vigorous rate. From a member base of 30,000 in March, LifeMinders now has 9 million members, all of whom have voluntarily subscribed to one or more of the email services.
    The web site experienced a recent flurry of success with its Super Bowl ad, which was not only one of the more remembered efforts—the ad pointedly called itself the Super Bowl’s worst commercial—but emerged as the conspicuous winner in terms of concrete response.
    According to Nielsen//NetRatings, unique visitors to LifeMinders.com grew by 91.4 percent comparing the week ending Jan. 30 to the week ending Jan. 23. The Super Bowl was on January 30. The No. 2 site in terms of audience growth as a result of a Super Bowl ad was HotJobs.com with just a 37 percent increase in visitors.
    LifeMinders.com users can choose from 15 basic categories of interest: family, entertainment, home, personal events, pet, auto, health, personal finance, travel, shopping, cooking, sports and recreation and small business. Within these categories, the email a user receives may vary depending upon how much sub-category information the person.
    Of the advertisers working with LifeMinders.com, roughly 70 percent are themselves dot.com companies so far. "This is principally because this is an interactive medium," says Bryant. "People can click on an advertisement and go straight to the dot.com site."
    LifeMinders began life in 1998 with a sponsor-centric model. Its first product was CarCareMinder and was sponsored by Jiffy Lube; its second was EntertainmentMinder, sponsored by Blockbuster.
    This model had two challenges, says Bryant. First, it relied upon the sponsors themselves to distribute the newsletters in their retail stores. It was seen as a sort of bridge between offline and online but corporate buy-in from headquarters didn’t always mean the thing got seen in any given store.
    Second, the content was limited by the sponsor’s objectives—which ultimately caused the LifeMinders brain trust a lot of angst, he says. If all links on your entertainment newsletter have to go to Blockbuster, you may be addressing your sponsor’s needs but not your readers’. "So we basically reengineered the proposition and created a consumer-centric model," says Bryant.
    The ad-supported reader-oriented model launched in late March 1999. Subscribers and revenues blossomed. LifeMinders went from 30,000 members at the outset to more than 8 million by January, 2000. Revenues went from $25,000 during the first quarter of 1999 to $8 million by the fourth quarter.
    LifeMinders has spread the word through judicious use of online advertising and, of course, a notably successful Super Bowl ad. But the company too has relied heavily upon so-called "viral marketing"—basically, word of mouth. The LifeMinders signup process is laden with opportunities to spread the word to friends and family, as are the email newsletters themselves.
    An affiliate program was also launched recently.
    For all the information LifeMinders collects about its subscribers, Bryant is careful to note that none of it leaves the company. "We don’t sell information in any capacity," he says. "While we have permission from our members to use the data to send them relevant content and information, it’s a closed system."

-Jeremy Schlosberg is the senior editor for new media.