CNET Networks sends half a million e-mails each week customized to the specific interests of visitors to its digital sites. These e-mails pay off with an open rate five times higher than that of CNET's typical promotional e-mail, and a clickthrough rate 12 times higher.
“The reason we're getting the high response rates is we are targeting what people really want,” said Markus Mullarkey, CNET's vice president of outbound media, at the Net.marketing conference.
CNET, which has been broadcasting customized messages for about three months, operates a handful of sites highlighting the latest and hottest tech products on the market. Among them are a shopping area, a product review site, and one called Digital Living, which lets visitors operate products virtually in an online home.
The portal's tracking system observes visitors' behavior on the sites, watching which products they check out and how long they spend investigating them. E-mails are sent to consumers who have registered on CNET to receive product announcements.
