July 8, 2002

Quality Data Solutions for Lifetime Value

.Your bi-weekly direct marketing & mailing industry news source

Headlines

Internet Shopping Expected to Rise  Cataloger Finds Success With Online Address Check Tomorrow’s Bill Payers Will Go Online E-mail Marketing Budgets To Grow 17 Percent Rate Hike May Impact Small Businesses  Direct Marketing Tips From the Pros  FREE Online Look Ups

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News Internet Shopping Expected to Rise  Consumer confidence in the Internet is rising and that will translate into higher sales next quarter, according to the latest Internet Confidence Index from Yahoo Inc. and market researcher ACNielsen. In the third quarter of this year, 53 percent of Internet users plan to shop online with an average spend per shopper of $199, compared with 42 percent who bought online last year with a $184 average spend. Consumers will spend $14 billion in Q3, up 41 percent over last year, the survey reports. The shopping results were part of a larger survey that shows consumer confidence in the Internet rising two points to 113 from Q1 to Q2 this year and 13 points since the survey was instituted a year ago, when the starting baseline was 100. In related news, cataloger Coldwater Creek announced that its Web sales now account for one-third of all sales, and in-flight magazine Sky Mall said it gets 30 percent of its sales from the Web. Cataloger Finds Success with Online Address Check  Shari’s Berries International, Sacramento, CA, the nation’s largest online retailer of gourmet fresh strawberries, has found success using real-time address verification at its Web site. Shari’s Berries (www.Berries.com) promises next-day delivery of strawberries anywhere in the U.S. Since the berry packages cost between $11-14 to overnight and have highly perishable contents, this company can’t afford undeliverables. They rely on Web-based address verification to validate addresses prior to printing the FedEx shipping labels. “Address Object allows us to process more orders more smoothly, especially on big holidays when we are taking up to 200 orders per hour,” said Lowell Feil, vice president of operations. “We have been able to reduce address errors on shipped packages [from 20 percent] to less than one percent,” he added. Tomorrow’s Bill Payers Will Go Online  According to a new study from the Direct Marketing Association, last Sunday’s postage rate increase will push younger Americans, at a faster rate, away from First Class mail when paying bills. More than half of the respondents under age 25, and 42 percent of those between 25 and 34 said the rate increase would lead them to look for bill payment alternatives, such as electronic bill payment. In 2000, bill payment, or transactional mail, accounted for 49.1 percent of all First Class mail. The DMA argued that because the USPS’s business operations are based on a volume-growth model, it is ill-prepared for a generational crisis that reduces the use of First Class mail by those who represent tomorrow’s high-volume bill payers. The telephone survey queried 1028 Americans aged 18 or older. Opinion Research, Inc conducted the survey in mid May. E-Mail Marketing Budgets To Grow 17 Percent  Only half of the U.S. companies surveyed recently by DoubleClick are increasing their marketing budgets this year. But 61 percent will spend more on e-mail, according to a new survey of 190 executives by the e-mail marketing firm. All of the respondents were from companies with annual sales of $50 million or more and marketing budgets of at least $1 million. Their e-mail budgets will grow by an average of 17 percent. Catalog marketing budgets, however, are expected to decline by 13 percent, and direct mail by 7 percent. Email is used for the following applications: lead generation (65 percent of the respondents reporting); sending information (55 percent); retention (55 percent); building awareness (55 percent); generating sales (53 percent); and upselling (51 percent). Roughly 60 percent of companies said they could measure the effectiveness of e-mail.  Rate Hike May Impact Small Businesses  “Small business is sending the USPS a warning sign: Continue to hike rates and we will continue to find alternatives to using the post office,” said Andrew Langer, regulatory policy manager, National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB), in announcing a recent study. Small businesses will suffer a $2.3 billion bite as a result of the postal hike that took effect this week, the NFIB study revealed. The trade group reported that small businesses prefer to use competitors to the Postal Service, when available, rather than cut volume. The study also shows that almost 60 percent of small firms will take no action if First Class rates rise by six cents or 10 cents. But 20 percent of mailers will cut volume, and another 16 percent will shift from First Class to cheaper forms of mail. More than half of all small businesses use Priority/Express Mail, but 40 percent said they would change service providers if rates rise 10 to 15 percent. And 40 percent would switch from USPS parcel services in response to a similar hike.  Look for Melissa Data’s Fall Catalog The fall edition of the Melissa Data catalog will showcase many new product and services, such as Contact Zone for Microsoft Outlook, Canadian Data Quality Solutions, and MAILERS +4 with Delivery Point Validation (DPV) and Enhanced Line of Travel (eLOT). Take advantage of special free offers for first-time users. Watch for the new gold-and-black colored summer edition in your mailbox.  .Click Here to get your FREE copy!   Direct Marketing Tips From the Pros  When it comes to writing letters to customers or prospects, never write just one version. Start by writing “base” copy that mails to the largest and most valuable segment. Forget about all the other versions and write one letter or e-mail as though it were the only one you are writing. From this letter write spin-off versions using this base copy as the foundation. Sometimes all it takes is changing the first paragraph or e-mail subject line. At other times you may need to vary two or three key paragraphs, bullet points, the Johnson Box or postscript. -- By Pat Friesen, president, Pay Friesen and Co.

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