The growth of digital advertising is estimated to continue to throughout 2011, industry forecasts have advertising within display media set to grow at between 15-18% year/year, to a level of $800M for 2011.

This is supported by the recently released estimates for the Future of Digital Advertising by PWC – IAB, predicting Digital and TV (free to air) will be on parity at $3.8billion in 2014.

Demand for targeted media is at an all time high, but as the options for targeting improve for larger publishers, they continue to struggle to offer true targeting. Website publishers are often left with technology driven targeting promises to try to sell to advertisers.

Technology that analysis masses of user data to try to deliver targeted banner advertisements based on users browsing history (behaviour) or against the very minimum details user may have completed as a member registration process.

This is VERY basic targeting, when do you remember a banner ad that is relevant to your interest?

For as long as there has been the internet there has been email advertising. In fact since the beginning of connectivity, email remains as the most popular activity across all internet users, yes bigger than Search!

More than 90% of Internet users between 18 and 72 said they send and receive email, making it the top online activity just ahead of search engines, & The number of marketing emails sent by U.S. retailers and wholesalers this year will hit 158 billion and grow 63% to 258 billion in 2013.

- Forrester’s c/o emailstatcentre.com 2011.

Currently demand for email advertising is far outstripping banner advertising, and we put this down to emails’ targeting capabilities, but targeting is not emails only benefit. Below are listed the key benefits of email as a advertising media.

• Targeted Media– a stand out benefit when compared to banner advertising. Members join a database completing details in relevant to themselves. The most basic information captured is Name/ Sex/ Age and location. More detailed databases are asking up to 200 profile questions, on consumer behaviour, what they are interests. The best part is that consumers a granting their Permission to use this data to receive relevant offers. This rich information allows marketers the ability to send campaigns to a highly targeted member who is anticipating receiving offers.

• Permission Marketing is an emerging marketing term on the verge of becoming mainstream. Consumers grant their permission to receive information based on the details they have entered during a registration process. The Spam Act 2003 requires consumer permission to be granted for email marketing. Once permission is granted communication is anticipated by the consumer and as a result campaigns consistently achieve very high response rates. Permission is a form of Pull Marketing.

• Pull marketing – next to search marketing, permission marketing is the only other true form of Pull marketing. Consumers have a desire for information on their interests and offers based on their profile – targeted offers. Permission reduces clutter to consumers; marketers should be respecting the consumer’s request (permission) and moving from Push marketing to Pull Marketing. Stop shouting to try to be heard, listen as there are captive audiences wanting information, in their require timing and at their personal volume levels. What is to be received and how often

• Reach and usage – email is the most widely used application on the internet – 90% of all people accessing the internet have an email account*. 35% of people surveyed checked their emails as one of the first activities each morning, 45% check their email at least 3 times per day and 70% have multiple email addresses. Email is a big part of everyday life! Email for marketing has mass reach possibilities. 3di’s email network provides access to over 5.2 million permisssioned members across b2b and b2c

• Personal – the direct nature of email (delivered straight into the consumer’s inbox) allows a powerful opportunity for brands to build a one to one (1-1) relationship with current and perspective customers. The simple use of addressing the message with the recipient’s first name is a great way to start building this relationship. This is made possible via basic HTML coding within the email creative pulling information off the database.

E.g. Dear {member_firstname}

• Impactful and responsive – 100% share of voice is the term used by media planners/buyers. Email is a advertising opportunity with no clutter. Direct into a consumer’s inbox, 100% share of voice, full page add, targeted and anticipated recipients’ generates high responses.

Below are some industry response rates by medium:

Display medium Average Response Rates

Banner ads – website 0.05%
Direct Mail – 3rd party list 1.0%
Direct Mail – in house list 1.5%
Email – in house list 2.0%
Email – 3rd party non -incentivised 5.0%
Email – 3rd party incentivised 15.0%

Source: Email and banner estimates via tracking technology utilised by 3di- DREAM mail (Epsilon), TPN for publishers (OpenX), Direct mail based on customer input

• Timely – broadcasting an email can be timed to generate the highest response. Technology allows the choice of time of day and day of week for each campaign broadcast. The recommendation for highest response when broadcasting a campaign is based on generic consumer behaviour for the target audience. Across the board Tuesday at 11am yields the highest Reponses. Monday is normally jammed with admin that needs specific attention, but it is also well know for sickies and long weekends. 11am because generally people have got through deleting of overnight unwanted emails, and chats about the night before and are well into their working day. Response rates for emails opened are measured by the minutes/second with 60% of all responses received within the first 24hrs. Friday afternoons are perfect for competitions as most people are so anticipating the weekend they will respond to anything and complete a lot of details in entry forms
• Social – we track a very high “Like” share with a friend element of majority of email campaigns, due to the tight targeting and offer relevance members will share with friends. We have experienced as high as 20% pass along rates for campaigns, with these views as a bonus to marketers – courtesy of happy members. We recommend the inclusion of links to facebook as standard within email campaigns allowing members to “Like” and post to friends the offer they have just received

• Cost effective and environmentally friendly – it has dawned on me that this key benefit is the last on the list, however by no means should be last, in fact a key decision in all marketing planning is cost effectiveness. Compared to traditional direct marketing – Mailing, email rains supreme on the carbon footprint – No mass printing, no envelops, no stuffing no mailing house, and no stamps required. Email campaigns do come at a cost but truly a fraction of DM campaigns.

3di has been at the forefront of email sales, since 2000, offering clients access to AU’s premium permission databases. Start a conversation with one of our experts and we will be able to discuss your requirements and create a highly responsive campaign for your next media campaign.

By Mark Halstead, Head of Media, 3dinteractive

Follow: linkedin.com/in/markhalstead

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TPN operates across a network of 200 diverse quality websites and email lists focussing on local .com.au and .co.nz domains.

Because TPN manages the remnant inventory of its publisher clients it is sensitive not to undercut their premium CPM advertising offerings and so placement on any particular site cannot be guaranteed via TPN. However TPN is also sensitive to the needs of advertisers to know where their campaigns will run. To support this need TPN provides a list of sites that an advertisers campaign could run on and TPN will only run campaigns on the sites listed all of which are either IASH Standard and Recommended IASH Optional class sites. (TPN Code of Conduct)

Sites your TPN campaign could appear on (PDF)

(last updated: 16 sept 2010)

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