For some reason still unfathomable to me, I didn't get sleep before the Techvibes Massive 2005 conference. Although I attended 4 speaker sessions, I really only took notes for one of them. I did record audio of all 4 and will post them up likely tomorrow. The notes I took mostly involve my impressions of Roman Bondarchuk's talk entitled "The Future of Database Marketing using Web and Email". Roman is the CEO of a company called N5R.
Dry sounding title but a pretty earthshattering concept. In the age of the Internet, at long last, businesses are able to almost perfectly match people to products. We are able to sell stuff without making people angry about unwanted mail, telemarketing calls at dinner, and unwanted emails about body part enhancement. More important, we are able to make people feel special.
I think it is important for both businesses and buyers to get their heads around this concept. I absolutely think what Roman talked about is much better for everybody and is truly a great example of how the web is changing things for the better.
A Adobe PDF copy of Roman's slides are here and I will update here tomorrow with a link to the audio. Here are my notes from his session:
- Going online now tied with TV for most time spent weekly on average. The more educated the person, the less TV and the more online.
- direct mail marketing - less than 1% response rate considered good. Awards come if over 5% response.
- if you send person direct mail which invites them to a web page specially built and addressed for them, response rate can soar. Instead of www.anysite.com, mail that goes to Mary Smith would ask her to visit www.marysmith.anysite.com. This mass customization is possible using web technology and a printing technology called digital variable technology. People feel special.
- High definition video is now possible to use on web sites without too much issue with long download times. Even people on lower speed Internet connections can access pretty easily. This way, you can create a more human and interesting experience for people.
- Roman got his start building a email database of 3 million people for the Backstreet boys. What's more interesting that that, he says, is how they used those emails. They took great care in writing emails that would really connect with the people receiving them. They would ask people 5 or 6 important questions when they signed up for the email and then tailor the emails according to their answers.
- Roman also talked about junk email and how often email people have signed up for winds up in the junk email box. The key to this he says is to give people incentive to forward emails themselves to their email network.
- The key is to make people feel special, make them feel valued, and to respect their time. This is much easier with this type of marketing.
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