Today we meet Kay Levada, account manager in the list brokerage division at Millard Group Inc. Levada believes Internet media represents the future of direct marketing, although she recalls how the dotcom crash broke many hearts.
"I got into this business working for a dotcom, Empower, a spinoff of ALC back in 1990. Everyone then thought they would become millionaires right away," says Levada.
Empower didn't survive, nor did a second dotcom company, where Levada also brokered lists in various consumer markets.
Levada joined Millard Group in 2003. Her brokerage clients currently include Orvis, Woolrich, Eagle America, TravelSmith and Home Bistro.
"The Internet is coming back. This is personally exciting for me, because that's where I got started. Companies that got burned are getting back into Internet marketing," she says.
Levada has seen catalogers shift resources online, paid search advertising budgets grow and e-mail prospecting increase, as companies seek less expensive ways to find new customers and retain old ones.
Mobile marketing is shaping up to become the next big thing, she adds, with consumers ordering products and responding to offers received on cell phones.
"If you're open-minded and willing to evolve the changes happening will be very good for the industry in five or six years," she says.
Levada doesn't slow down after work. She and her husband have an adult daughter; and a girl, 14, besides a dog and a cat at home. She enjoys entertaining, especially this time of year. "We had 21 people at my house for Thanksgiving and I'm expecting about 45 people on Christmas Eve."
Levada admits being a rowdy fan of the Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots—not just during games at Fenway Park either. "I do get pretty loud. My voice gets louder and louder as the game goes on. When I watch at home I yell at the television," Levada says.
How is online media changing your work?
"Five years ago I used to concentrate on circulation planning for catalogs, but now I'm also doing circulation planning for e-mail and I'm involved in testing subject lines for e-mail," says Levada.
She estimates she spends about 20% of her time focused on Internet media, but expects it will grow to 40% to 50% of her workday in a few years.
Levada signs up to receive e-mail blasts, so she can monitor campaigns, much in the same way brokers get themselves on catalog mailings lists, as way to keep on top of market trends, list usage, etc.
What are marketers testing and what works?
Compared to postal lists, e-mail list applications for many companies are not terribly advanced. For many companies appending e-mail addresses to house files and cleaning e-mail lists are still relatively new concepts.
Text messaging lists are being used successfully by retailers to generate store traffic, notes Levada.
Some marketers are testing more selections, and especially mail order buyer data with e-mail lists. "So at least if they don't respond to the e-mail, you might get them to respond to a catalog," she adds.
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