Half of U.S. households are projected to have high-speed broadband Internet connections by 2007. But it seems direct marketers are playing catch up with companies doing brand marketing when it comes to taking advantage of the technology.
Some of the best and most effective new e-commerce applications are coming from retailers and manufacturers, rather than online catalogers, according to Ken Burke, president and chief executive officer of Multimedia Live.
During a session earlier this week on e-commerce best practices at the Direct Marketing Association’s annual conference, Burke gave a rapid-fire survey of online marketing techniques and strategies being used to increase response rates, boost order size and manage customer relationships more effectively.
Most direct marketers use the Internet more as an ordering mechanism, he said, instead of adapting standard offline marketing practices to e-commerce.
About 75% of online shopping is done via high-speed Internet connections, but overall growth in new online shopping households is slowing. That means by necessity direct marketers will need to find more effective ways of finding and maintaining customer relationships, Burke said.
Direct marketers should follow the example of retailers by incorporating more integrated merchandising strategies on Web sites, and do more of the kind of testing that’s commonly practiced offline, he said.
Burke said he has observed that many direct marketers seem stuck in the perception that that Internet is an ordering mechanism. Retailers, he noted, have been effective by devising more diverse online merchandising spreads and updating Web sites more frequently.
“You need to go through the site revision process every month, not every few years. You need to use messaging that calls for action on every page and determine an appropriate frequency of e-mail messages, like you do offline with catalog mailings,” he said.
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