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 that is five times higher than that of CNET’s typical promotional e-mail, and a clickthrough rate that is 12 times higher.
“The reason we’re getting the high response rates is we are targeting what people really want,” said Markus Mullarkey, vice president of outbound media at CNET, in an interview.
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 those items. E-mail messages go to consumers who have already registered on CNET to receive product announcements.
CNET has about 1 million records of registered consumers in its database.
The customized e-mails highlight three to six products in the category the user is interested in. If they were looking at flat monitors, for example, the e-mail would feature pictures of three top-rated brands, such as a Samsung, an NEC and a Compaq model. It also displays links to product reviews for those brands and links to purchase on the manufacturers’ own e-commerce sites.
The customized program covers only products that have been the most popular over the last month, Mullarkey said.
Mullarkey will cover the CNET e-mail program in a session at Net.marketing at the New York Hilton on Thursday.
