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in online marketing
Study: Coupons were found to be highly effective
By David Everitt
Online marketers usually tread a fine line, liable to veer back and forth between attracting consumers and just really getting on their nerves.
But significant opportunities exist, a recent study asserts, if you give people some tangible benefit, target the right groups, and show some respect for the people you’re trying to reach.
The study, conducted by the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing, addresses such techniques as email offers and pop-up ads. Based on its survey of how consumers respond to various methods, CTAM has some specific recommendations.
"We wanted to know more about how online marketing works," says Char Beales, CTAM’s president and CEO.
"We found, for instance, there’s increased use of email marketing. But also we found that consumers expect marketers to get their permission before sending them anything. That’s very important."
Anyone with an email account knows how much unsolicited garbage comes down the pipe to the computer screen. According to the study, 53 percent of online users get unsolicited email. Beales herself attests to this as we speak: "Just now I went online, and I had five new unsolicited emails."
And most people react to these intrusions the same way you would. Seventy-seven percent said they object to this technique. Fifty-two percent went so far as to say they never want to receive messages of this kind.
"Marketers should always include an opt-out option," Beales says.
Once marketers have consumers’ permission, they still might not have their undivided attention or interest. An effective way to get a response is to include an e-coupon.
"Coupons were surprisingly popular," Beales says. "More than one-third of the people surveyed said that coupons were what most appealed to them."
In other marketing areas, banner ads don’t get much of a reaction out of people one way or the other. Pop-up ads, on the other hand, do get a reaction. Most people don’t like them, presumably for the same reason that they don’t care for unsolicited emails: they’re intrusive.
Even here, though, there’s room for some beneficial fine-tuning.
Some groups respond better to both banners and pop-ups. African-Americans, Hispanics and young people from 18 to 34 are more interested, but the difference is not dramatic, so don’t bet the farm on it.
More significant is the response of African-Americans and Hispanics to marketing efforts that make use of rich media, meaning content that incorporates either animated or interactive material. This applies to both ads and emails.
Among African-Americans, for example, 33 percent are interested in emails containing video-clip previews of upcoming cable TV shows. The number is 21 percent for Hispanics. In contrast, only 9 percent of Caucasians said they were interested.
The figures are more impressive for ads making use of rich media. Seventy-two percent of African-American online users are likely to notice rich media ads, and 40 percent are likely to click through. The comparable numbers for Caucasians are 46 and 26 percent, respectively.
Hispanics also showed more interest: 51 percent are more likely to notice these ads and 41 percent to click through.
The implications for what sort of action marketers should take are clear. "When testing rich media methods, you should target specific groups," Beales says.
What’s less clear are the reasons for this interest among African-Americans and Hispanics. "We don’t have very good data on Hispanics and their receptivity in this area," says Beales, "and I don’t think I can speculate."
She is willing to speculate, though, on the African-American response.
"We know in general from other studies that African-Americans consume more TV and more pay-per-view. So, obviously, they like TV-style content. Not surprisingly, they like to see that sort of thing over their computers."
October 2, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-David Everitt covers technology for Media Life, writing from Huntington, New York.
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