Wednesday, April 4, 2001

eMarketing is Essential

63% of companies already have an eMarketing strategy in place, a survey undertaken by eMarketing Company NewWorld Commerce/Marketing Week has revealed, with websites being the most important element of an eMarketing campaign, and sponsorship of third party sites being the least popular. The survey was conducted using NewWorld Commerce’s online marketing tool, NewWorld Direct.

Early adopters of technology, such as the Telecoms, IT and Services Industries are leading the pack in terms of eMarketing activity, with 76% of Telecommunications Marketers responding claiming to have an eMarketing strategy in place, followed by 75% in the service sector and 60% within the IT industry.

Other striking findings of the survey, which was run in conjunction with Marketing Week's eMarketing Conference, include that 85% of companies view advertising to be a key part of their marketing mix. Surprisingly, this beats direct marketing, which was viewed by 84% of respondents to be an essential part of the marketing mix.

One factor that came out strongly in the survey was the use of the Internet and email as an integral part of a marketing mix, with 73% of companies surveyed including email marketing within their marketing mix, and 58% planning to use wider eMarketing. Means of customer acquisition brought up some interesting results, with websites viewed as the fourth most effective method – a medium that hardly existed five years ago - and banner advertising being viewed by only 3% respondents as the most effective means of customer acquisition.

Four factors are driving companies towards the use of online marketing methods. They are: interactivity; cost-effectiveness; efficiency as a means of regular contact; and speed. However, around half of those that responded to the survey admitted that their current website did not integrate well with their offline marketing activity, which may explain the current growth in eMarketing activity, as marketers realise the importance of open communication channels with their customers and prospects.

Valued-added services, such as newsletters, loyalty programmes and surveys are growing, with 63% of respondents offering a newsletter. However these are only being moved online slowly, with 24% of respondents offering an online version of their newsletter in addition to the hard copy.

Run in parallel with the Marketing Week Survey, NewWorld Commerce undertook a similar survey using its own database of contacts, the results of which concurred with those of the Marketing Week survey, thereby reaffirming its conclusions.

"The overriding message from both surveys is that the Internet is now viewed as an essential part of any marketing campaign," said Donal Daly, CEO of NewWorld Commerce. "However, the benefits that bring real value to the users, such as real-time communication and two-way interactivity, are yet to be capitalised on by the majority of respondents."

"More visionary marketers see the Internet as a dynamic, interactive tool for building customer relationships – not just a means of cheaper outbound messages and a repository for static information."

Consumers Want Free Online Content
According to a recent survey of Internet users conducted by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), consumers believe they should get content online for free. The results of the survey show that 89 percent of Internet users download multimedia content and information.

According to CEA’s ”Digital Download” survey, a good portion of respondents oppose any kind of Internet government fees or restrictions. Ninety-two percent oppose paying taxes for accessing the Internet, another 75 percent oppose paying sales tax for items purchased online and 61 percent oppose laws that prevent the usage of file sharing software such as Napster.

”This survey underscores that we are on a collision course between intellectual property owners who want consumers to pay by the bit for access and consumers who want free access, but will pay for better or more complete content,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of CEA. ”Public policy debates must shift to reflect the paradigm of the new economy as technology creates new ways for more consumers to access information and entertainment. We must protect the ability of technologies to evolve, especially those that allow personal, non-commercial recording. These new technologies vastly expand our collective knowledge base and ultimately benefit those most concerned-copyright owners.”

In the survey, most online consumers have downloaded various types of multimedia content and information in the past year, and many who have not downloaded online content, expect to do so within one year to two years.

Half of Internet users oppose fees for downloading content online, and in the cases of fees for downloading information, pictures, audio files and games, consumer opposition rises as high as 77 percent.

The survey also points out that while Internet users want their online content to be free, this free content does not seem to be deeply diminishing their purchasing habits. In fact many times, free online content spurs future purchases of music, videos, books, games and computing software, countering the content industry’s fear of losing sales to the Internet. Online households noted that being able to download items from the Internet onto their hard drives led them to increase their purchases of similar items online, through the mail or at a store.

If consumers can sample content on the Internet for free, most say that they are even more likely to purchase that content. In the case of online music, 33 percent say they will buy more music if they can sample it online, justifying the acts of numerous recording artists who preview their songs on the Internet.

”Almost every technology innovation from the VCR to the CD has enriched the same copyright owners that initially attacked it. Consumers want free and public access to content online, and those same consumers are more likely to purchase similar content once they experience it online,” commented Shapiro. ”The challenge for our industry is to develop new business models, products, technologies, and services which provide a balance between the legitimate interest of content owners and the desires expressed by consumers in this survey.”

This survey and other issues surrounding the debate between intellectual property and public access to digital content will be discussed at CEA’s upcoming conference, Digital Download: Public Access to Content in a Digital World to be held March 6, 2001 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. More information and registration for the conference can be accessed at www.CE.org/digitaldownload or at 703 907 7600.

CEA’s ”Digital Download” study was conducted via the Internet to a sample of 1,812 U.S.-based adults during February 2001.

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