Did I get your attention? Okay, so demographic targeting will never die any more than the Web will kill TV or RSS will kill email. But a recent article in Fortune magazine did get me thinking about this.

In its August 21, 2006 issue, Fortune editor Geoffrey Colvin interviewed the CMO of Best Buy, Michael Linton. It's a great interview and I recommend reading it all the way through if you can: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/08/21/8383648/index.htm

The part that really got me thinking is Linton's quote, "... trying to market to demographics is less important than trying to market to purchase patterns or behavior." He goes on to explain that consumers don't necessarily want to be grouped in by their age or income levels any more. He says that marketers are far better off marketing to people based on what they do rather than who they are.

For decades, marketers have had little, if any, real behavioral data to work with. Marketing was brand driven. Purchase information was lost in the downstream retailers and distributors. Pre-purchase behavior was all but impossible to track. For all these reasons and more, marketers have developed a great deal of expertise around grouping their buyers by the only information they had available -- their demographics like age, gender, income and ZIP code. This approach led to the movement of the data companies like Axciom, Experian and Equifax into the marketing world. By matching customers' names with the demographics these companies gleaned through their credit businesses, marketers were able to get new insights into segmenting and analyzing their customers.

The Internet is changing all this.

For the first time in the history of marketing, not only is it possible to easily link purchase information to marketing databases, but the even more elusive behavioral data is now readily available. I think Mr. Linton's quote will be seen as visionary as we look back in the years to come.

Ask yourself, if you want to find the 10,000 people most likely to respond to zero-percent financing on a new car, would you rather know their age and ZIP code, or which people recently clicked on your newsletter looking for more information on financing options? For the new generation of marketers, the answer is easy.

I don't think demographic targeting is ever going away. But mark my words, the rise of behavioral targeting is now officially underway.

Posted by Bill Nussey at 09:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I just read a great article by Rebecca Lieb for ClickZ about the new email "unsubscribe" button being tested by Microsoft. (See my previous blog entry.) In her article, Rebecca explores why email marketers, including myself, seem so happy about the proposed new feature.

What's so great about inviting recipients to bail from your list?

A lot of things, she finds out. By offering an "unsubscribe" button in place of a "report spam" button:

• Permission marketers no longer face being “guilty until proven innocent.” There's a big difference between unsubscribing from a list you’re no longer interested in being on and calling a sender a spammer. Unfortunately, current systems only allow for the latter. Even if a recipient loses interest in a newsletter, the marketer ends up getting labeled as a spammer.
• Email recipients drive a clear action that is all-but-guaranteed to work, rather than a vague complaint that forces them to "wait and see."
• ISPs get far, far better data with which to tune their spam filters.

Microsoft's "unsubscribe" button is still in the early stages, and the concept no doubt will undergo refinement by Microsoft and other ISPs in order to address issues that arise. For instance, I believe ISPs need to offer both an unsubscribe button (when the sender is legitimate) and a “report spam” button. Apparently, ISPs think two buttons will be confusing, but I think it’s inevitable that two buttons will be required. Giving recipients the choice will result in extremely accurate information for their spam filters and thus the most balanced solution for both recipients and marketers

In any event, the "unsubscribe" button is finally becoming a reality. It's an exciting development, and one that will benefit everyone.

Posted by Bill Nussey at 09:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

In the latest on the ongoing battle between ISPs and spammers, AOL reportedly is planning on sending in bulldozers to dig for gold and platinum it believes a spammer buried on his parents property in order to evade seizure in a lawsuit.

AOL last year won a $12.8 million judgment against Davis Wolfgang Hawke for sending millions of illegal emails to its customers. But Hawke, whose enterprise at one time took in a reported $600,000 a month, disappeared, leaving the ISP empty-handed. AOL has since uncovered several receipts for large purchases of gold and platinum bullion made by Hawke, and gotten a judge's permission to search the two-acre Massachusetts property where it believes Hawke buried his ill-gotten gains with a shovel.

Hawke's family said it will fight AOL's plans in court. In the meantime, if you are contacted via email by someone in a far-off land purporting to be in urgent need of your help in retrieving a cache of treasure hidden in the U.S., and promising you a generous share of the fortune, check the signature. If it's signed Davis Hawke, it just might be genuine <grin>.

Posted by Bill Nussey at 08:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My colleague, Chris S., forwarded me the Beloit College annual survey listing the worldviews of its incoming freshmen. Some of the items impact us as marketers and are very interesting. Here's a snapshot of the list:

18. They grew up with and have outgrown faxing as a means of communication.
19. "Google" has always been a verb.
20. Text messaging is their email.
36. They have rarely mailed anything using a stamp.
38. Being techno-savvy has always been inversely proportional to age.

Check out the full article here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060823/ap_on_re_us/mindset_list_glance

Posted by Bill Nussey at 08:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We've all heard about 3G mobile networks over the last few years, even if most of us don't exactly know what 3G means. In a nutshell, 1G, or first-generation, cellular networks relied on continuous analog signals (think old phonograph records) to bring mobile technology to the world. Second-generation or 2G networks made the leap to digital technology, providing a quantum improvement in the cost, weight, talk time and features of cellular phone technology (think VHS to DVD). We are in the midst of a massive U.S. roll-out of faster 3G, or third-generation networks, as we speak. Sprint led the way with its EVDO network, which allows for quick Internet access and very-high-speed wireless access. With speeds exceeding 1 million bits of information per second, EVDO is much faster than old modem technology and, in many cases, approaches the speed of modern broadband connections. I've been an EVDO user for years and I swear by it.

Now, the world is about to change again. Sprint has once again leapt ahead of the pack with the first 4G network in the U.S. and perhaps the world. This new technology is based on a standard called WiMax, which one could think of as the prodigy child of traditional cellular technology and the Wi-Fi wireless Internet devices we have in our offices and homes.

What does this mean for marketers? I haven't the faintest idea, but I know it's going to be big. Just consider what happened to the online world when we moved from modems to broadband. Now take that sea change and put it in your pocket wherever you go. An entirely new world of opportunities for mobile businesses and savvy marketers is about to unfold, and the possibilities are amazing. What changes do you think wireless megabit speeds might bring? Let me know and I'll post them here. Who knows, you might get credit for seeing the "next big thing."

Posted by Bill Nussey at 01:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Apparently, a young lady who lives in Ivory Coast is a fan of my recent column in iMediaConnection. She went to the iMediaConnection site and selected the "contact the author" feature. In the tiny text box provided, she shared with me a long and horrific personal story and asked for my help.

Her name is Susan Billy and she has been deaf since birth. Her only parent, her father, was recently poisoned at the hands of his unscrupulous business partners in their ongoing attempts to steal his wealth. Fortunately for Ms. Billy, she was able to reach her father on his deathbed where he told her about his secret stash of $28 million. She has contacted me with the hopes that I am a truly honest person and that I can help her move that money into the United Stated where it will be safe. For my efforts, she has offered me 25 percent of the money.

Obviously, I'm flattered at her interest. To quote my colleague, "There are a lot of unscrupulous people out there. It's a miracle she found you!"

My advice to Ms. Billy is to read my article on targeting a little more carefully. As a marketer herself, she needs to think about her target audience very carefully. For instance, people who write articles on effective email marketing are unlikely to fall for the oldest email scam in the book. Perhaps with better targeting, Ms. Billy will be able to increase her response rates for future scams. On the other hand, if she continues to target so poorly, perhaps she will motivate the Federal Trade Commission and other government agencies to prosecute her for attempted fraud, which may be the best outcome for everyone.

Posted by Bill Nussey at 02:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My hat is off to Microsoft. The company is the first of the major ISPs to move toward offering a true "unsubscribe button" in place of the ubiquitous "spam button" (see my entry on this last year).

The idea has taken a while to see the light of day, and Microsoft's initial foray is a pilot program, but it's definitely progress no matter how you look at it.

Here's why this is important. The main characteristic that an ISP considers when deciding whether to block a sender's messages is the number of complaints it receives. Complaints almost universally are determined by the number of times ISP subscribers hit the spam button in their email programs. The problem is, recipients have discovered that pressing the spam button usually results in being removed from a list -- even lists they've subscribed to. As a result, ISP subscribers have started pressing the spam button for any message they don't want, even when they know the message isn't unsolicited (spam). By replacing the spam button, or adding a second button, subscribers can now be more specific about what they want done, and ISPs can get much more accurate information about which senders they really want to put on block lists.

Check out http://directmag.com/disciplines/email/microsoft_unsubscribe/ for a good article on Microsoft's recent pilot.

Posted by Bill Nussey at 09:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I received an email from reader Lisa Harmon with some kind words about my blog, and telling me about an email marketing contest she and her Seattle-based agency sponsor each quarter.

The "Best EDM" Contest is part of a series of ongoing quarterly reviews designed to highlight outstanding examples of email marketing creative design, strategy and implementation. She and her panel evaluate hundreds of candidates and narrow it down to four before opening the contest up to voting.

You can take a look at the current four top contenders, and vote for your favorite here. And, to see tons of great examples of email creative in all categories, be sure to check out her firm's Email Direct Marketing Creative Review Blog here.

Thanks, Lisa!

Posted by Bill Nussey at 08:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)