^{June 2000}

Leveraging the hottest new one-to-one marketing technique for expositions

When Megan Forrester first joined Penton Media Inc. as Executive Producer and Vice President of Marketing for the Internet Events Division, she wanted to educate herself on all aspects of Internet marketing. Ironically, her own Internet World shows proved to be the greatest resource.

“I listen to the show’s conference sessions on tapes when I go for my morning runs,” she says. Last year, she was completely captivated by one speaker in particular — Seth Godin, author of Permission Marketing, a new book on leveraging e-mail and the Internet for one-to-one marketing. “I read the book and became a convert of permission marketing,” she says.

So when her division launched the Internet Everywhere CEO Summit last October, Forrester had the perfect opportunity to test the new marketing strategy on a small scale. The conference, held Feb. 28–March 1, in San Francisco, targeted high-level Internet executives.

The attendance promotion campaign began like any other — with direct mail. But Forrester and her attendance marketing team also decided to try something bold. Magazine ads for the event directed potential attendees to send an e-mail or visit the show Web site to request an invitation. “The potential attendee had to go to our Web site to ‘request an invitation,’ thus giving us ‘permission’ to market to them and communicate via e-mail,” says Forrester.

Of those who responded, 47 percent were converted to attendees. With such phenomenal success on this first campaign, Forrester has begun implementing permission marketing techniques for Penton’s Internet World shows, the most recent of which attracted 50,000 attendees in Los Angeles.

Penton has begun building opt-in lists and using e-mail for solitation and retention of attendees. “We deploy the practice regularly at Internet World — but we are just scratching the surface on the potential,” Forrester says. While it’s not one-to-one marketing yet, the goal is to implement a personal marketing campaign, including e-mail, Web site and registration, for 2001 shows.

Think this would only work for events in high-tech industries? That argument may have been true a few years ago, but today more than half of all business executives rely on e-mail, according to the American Management Association. And e-mail is the No. 1 use of the Web, with more than 80 percent of Web users listing it as the main reason they go online, according to Godin.

While the standard response rate for direct mail is 2 percent, response rates for permission marketing campaigns average 20 percent, according to Godin. “In my experience with clients, we averaged a 35 percent response rate,” says Godin, whose direct marketing company, Yoyodyne, was acquired by Yahoo! in 1999.

What is permission marketing?

Simply put, permission marketing means prospects and customers volunteer to be marketed to. It’s an interactive campaign, where customers are rewarded for paying attention to messages. According toGodin, Permission marketing is:

• anticipated — people look forward to hearing from you;

• personal — the messages are directly related to the individual; and

• relevant — the marketing is about something the prospect is
interested in.

The permission marketing model is fundamentally different from traditional marketing campaigns. “Traditional sales and marketing involves increasing market share. One-to-one marketing involves driving share of customer, which means ensuring that each individual customer who buys your product buys more products, buys only your brand, and is happy using your product instead of another to solve his problem,” says Godin.

Permission marketing is one-to-one marketing using today’s technology — e-mail. “The Internet is the greatest direct mail medium of all time, and the low cost of frequent interaction makes it ideal for permission marketing,” writes Godin.

How does it work?

As with traditional marketing campaigns, the first step is still to interrupt prospects and get their attention. But instead of focusing the message on getting the sale, the focus is on getting permission. For example, the management team for Internet Everywhere ran full-page ads in Business 2.0, The Red Herring, Wireless Systems Design and Internet World magazines. The two-color ads asked prospects to send their name, title and company via e-mail to request an invitation or visit the event Web site,www.i-everywhere.com.

The only goal of each step is to expand permission. Step two is to make an offer and ask for volunteers. The offer should provide selfish motivation with virtually no downside. Offers can range from information to entertainment, and from contests to special discounts. “For business-to-business customers, the incentive is more about time than money,”
says Godin.

“An interrupted customer won’t fill out a long demographic form. The less you ask of the customer, and the bigger the ‘bribe,’ the more likely you are to get permission,” says Godin. “Make it crystal clear what you will be doing with the data you collect and exactly why it’s beneficial to the consumer to give this data.”

Attendee prospects for the Internet Everywhere conference were only asked to provide a minimal amount of contact information in the hope that they might receive an invitation to attend a conference they were obviously interested in. “We now have a database of 900 executives and CEOs who gave us permission,” says Penton’s Forrester.

Step three is to teach the potential customer and leverage their permission. “Build trust through frequency,” says Godin. “Tell your story patiently to each consumer who is willing to participate in the exchange. Gradually raise the level of permission extracted and the rewards.”
Within 72 hours of receiving their e-mails, Penton’s two-person in-house attendee marketing team responded via e-mail to each applicant who qualified. Prospects received a personal invitation to the event from Forrester with registration instructions and a special password. “Once potential attendees granted permission, they received e-mail updates about the program — about one each week and two as we got close to the event,” says Stacey Phillips, Director of Attendee Marketing for Penton.

Along the way, special incentives were offered. “For example, we sent an e-mail reminding attendees that if they registered three weeks out, they would received a $300 discount,” says Phillips.

Following the conference, attendees were notified via e-mail that they would receive a complimentary copy of the conference program in MP3. In addition, management tested an electronic badge, which recorded contact information from other attendees via infrared waves, provided by event sponsor Charm Technology. Attendees were e-mailed the data after the event.

The Internet Everywhere management team continues the dialogue with attendees today by offering additional rewards. “Internet World magazine launched an Internet Everywhere column and a weekly Internet Everywhere e-newsletter for which attendees were invited to opt-in,” says Forrester. “And we’ll send out an e-mail as soon as we announce dates for next year.”

 Building a database

Association show managers can build a permission marketing database by starting with the member
e-mail database. And any show organizer can ask for e-mail addresses on registration forms.

“Show producers must be careful when using names from these sources,” warns Godin. “Just because attendees or members provide their
e-mail addresses doesn’t mean they’ve given permission to market to them.” Make it obvious what you plan to
do with that information, he says.
For example, clearly ask prospects if they would like to opt-in to receive
e-mail updates and information about the show.

Penton built its initial prospect database from its high-tech trade shows and magazines, including Internet World, CLEC, ISPCON and Boardwatch. E-mail addresses were collected by opting in on registration forms and inquiries.

Some marketers choose the opt-out option, where a list is rented and used until the prospects takes action to opt-out. Most Internet marketing experts abhor the use of opt-out programs and warn against the risk of being considered spam. And as online privacy issues are coming under closer scrutiny by legislators, opt-out options could lead to legal prosecution, especially for non-U.S.-based prospects.

Godin doesn’t recommend renting e-mail lists, and he advises that show organizers who build permission marketing databases never rent out their list. “As soon as the data is shared, its value decreases. By maintaining the privacy, marketers enhance their asset,” Godin says.

Permission marketing is quickly becoming a popular tool, and there are a number of new companies building opt-in permission databases and selling them — mostly on the consumer side. “There hasn’t been much focus on the b-to-b side yet,” says Anthony Priore, Vice President for yesmail.com and co-author of Email Marketing: Using Email to Reach Your Target Audience and Build Customer Relationships.

There are a few list brokers with b-to-b opt-in lists, including Worldata Information Marketing Services (www.worldata.com) and SRDS Direct Marketing List Source (www.srds.com). Before purchasing a list, do your homework on the company, says Priore. “Find out about their privacy policies, join the list and test a small sample.”

Most Internet marketing experts agree that the best way to build a prospect e-mail database is to collect addresses through a Web site. “Ask them to opt-in to receive a show newsletter or participate in a contest or sweepstakes,” says Priore. For example, set up submission forms on show Web sites on the opening pages or on registration forms.

“Then, clearly identify in all communications who is the sender,” says Priore. “One-third of e-mail recipients throw away e-mail based on not knowing the sender. And always allow receivers the opportunity to opt-out.” It’s also a good idea to send e-mail confirmations to receivers who have opted out.

Costs

A permission marketing campaign will cost less than a traditional marketing campaign, saysGodin. But you will need to begin your budget with the cost of the initial interruption ad — whether it’s a print or banner ad. And frequency still counts. “We had two- to three-time schedules with most publications,” says Forrester. “We ran eight times in our own Internet World magazine.”

Show organizers will need a database system that can track e-mail addresses, but most e-mail software will work without sophisticated requirements, says Priore. “Because frequency is free in
an online permission program,
the marketer has the luxury of
riding the impact curve up without a matching cost,” adds Godin.

While the cost for each consecutive response to the customer will go down considerably, show organizers will still need to factor in the costs for writing the copy, designing landing pages on Web sites, and testing the campaign’s effectiveness. If you can find a list, especially on the b-to-b side, expect to spend anywhere from 25 cents to $1 per name and, in some cases, transmission fees.

Beyond permission

Since Godin’s book was published last year, permission marketing has created a buzz in the direct marketing community. Many major retailers have already begun extensive permission marketing campaigns, and more and more consumers are volunteering.

For example, yesmail.com, a permission e-mail network, has more than 11 million subscribers who have opted in over the last year. “About 100 network partners share their subscriber databases with us and each other. Some of the network companies include Mapquest, the New York Times, AT&T and Officemax.com,” says Priore. About 50 percent of consumers who subscribe to these sites are opting in to be marketed to, he says.

“For show producers, the single biggest asset is the attendee list. It would be even more valuable if they had the permission to follow up with each one of those attendees,” says Godin. “What if show producers could offer exhibitors the opportunity to talk to attendees on a regular basis?”

For example, he suggests tracking attendee preferences at conference sessions. “On evaluation forms, ask if attendees want to receive more information from vendors on this topic,” Godin says. “How much would an exhibitor pay the show organizer to send information to this targeted prospect?”

But show organizers shouldn’t wait too long, warns Godin. “Once the customer has given permission to one company in a particular industry, they most likely won’t give it to another.”

Danica Vasos is Editor in Chief of EXPO.