New media and direct marketing departments clash over email
Mailtrack: New media and direct marketing departments clash over email
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Story Filed: Monday, September 03, 2001 12:01 PM EST
Sep 03, 2001 (M2 PRESSWIRE via COMTEX) — Direct marketing and new media departments have wide differences of opinion over email marketing, reveals a new survey released today by email marketing specialist Mailtrack.
The research, carried out among both departments in the UKs FTSE 100 companies reveals a number of divides. Most crucially, neither department can agree on who should be responsible for their companies email marketing. 75% of direct marketers think they should run the email function, while 73% of new media marketers believe it to be their role. This is despite the findings that 72% of the new media marketers questioned use email, while only 43% of direct marketers do.
Methods of data collection are also causing rifts between the two departments.
Many more direct marketers still collect data using pre-ticked data collection, or opt out boxes, while just 13% of new media marketers would chose this over their preferred method of using unticked, or opt in boxes (71% preferred this method, with 56% citing because it was more ethical).
There are no new media professionals that would use only opt out over opt in email although there were 8% who would use a combination of both. This rose to 50% in the case of direct marketing professionals with 48% also saying they would use opt out because their lists were cheaper and bigger.
One area of agreement among both departments were the reasons given for using email as a marketing tool, with 62% of participating direct marketers preferring to use opt in email because of the results it achieves.
The two departments also agreed on the barriers for buying opt in and opt out email lists, which were mainly knowing how the names were collected. 43% of direct marketers and 39% of new media marketers highlighted this as their main barrier to using the medium. Almost 45% of both departments not using email currently, will within the next 12 months.
Both departments also believe that the emergence of spam email will also have an effect on the way consumers view postal direct mail. 57% of those working on the new media departments of the participating companies felt that the spam concept would have an adverse effect on consumers feelings towards unsolicited postal mail, with 43% of Direct Marketers also agreeing
Andrew Petherick, head of marketing at Mailtrack, commented: "The results of this survey are perhaps not surprising. Email is still a relatively new marketing medium which requires technology more familiar to new media departments. The Internet, and email in particular, are essentially direct marketing mediums, and as the market matures, we expect more direct marketing professionals not only to embrace email marketing but to gain a better understanding of the very real opportunities that sophisticated email or SMS campaigns represent."
About the Research
Telephone interviews were conducted between 1 August and 28 August 2001. Of the New Media and Direct Marketing departments among the UK's FTSE 100 companies, 87% responded.
About Mailtrack
Mailtrack is an established permission based email marketing and fulfilment company, offering specialist online customer acquisition and eCRM tools to on and off line businesses. For all campaigns, Mailtrack's powerful proprietary software and systems perform detailed tracking and response analysis to determine campaign effectiveness. The company also works with businesses to build their databases and execute email delivery. All Mailtrack products are 100% opt-in and permission based.
CONTACT: Nickie Farrington, Band & Brown Communications Tel: +44 (0)20 7419 7000 e-mail: [email protected]
