Innovating Email List Marketing

Today we signed a new contract with a list publisher, NewParent.com. To be honest, it was pretty small. In fact, the number of records in the list is much more modest than some of the industry whose lists we also feature. Does this mean we trade the champagne for water and bread crumbs and sulk ’til the next big deal? Not at all; in fact Marketfish doesn’t even have a minimum list size requirement as most list marketing companies do. And here’s why:

The new list is smaller, but highly targeted. And new business trends report that in an increasingly bloated online space, narrowcasting is the wave of the future for successful marketing campaigns. In English, this means that smaller, highly refined group offer exciting conversion potential. But don’t take our word for it; just look around you.

Lilliput Marketing: The lay of the land

One only needs to look at the modern marketing trends to see that narrowcasting is hot, hot, hot. On Facebook, simple “shoe lover” groups have refined into highly specialized microcosms like “I don’t care how fashionable Crocs are, you look like a dumbass” (yes, that’s a real group). Here in Seattle, a recent “Top 75 media sites” list shows industry giants like The Seattle Times being steadily nudged by local neighborhood blogs like Wallyhood (Wallingford) and the West Seattle Blog. Similarly, Gourmet Magazine, which folded this week to the shock of many, was criticized as becoming too broad to suit its demographic’s discerning palette. What’s all this noise around “niche-ing,” and what do marketers have to gain from getting in on the narrowcasting trend?Put simply, the answer is passion.

Phoning it in: A lazy approach to fitness list marketing

The more targeted the list, the better your chance of tapping into a highly engaged population. Now that’s not to say “large listers” like CEO’s or auto Industry workers can’t be passionate too, so let me tell you a story that better illustrates my point (bear with me people, they don’t call me a Corporate Storyteller for nothin’). Recently, I signed up for the Jillian Michaels email newsletter. Jillian is my beloved fitness muse and I avidly read anything she has to say. From this subscription, you could realistically conclude that I am a good target for “health and fitness” lists. Well I’m not, and if there were a way for me to communicate this to the Marketing Overlords who are now avalanching me with Curves coupons and clover alternative medicine samples, believe me, I would do it. I may love Jillian Michaels, but you will not see me in an 80′s sweatband jumping on a Curves trampoline while snorting medicinal clover, well, ever.

Rented marketed lists must be refined (and refined and refined!)

As you can see, this is where the narrowcasting concept directly plays in. By crafting an offer vaguely directed at “health fanatics” these marketers wasted my time and theirs. If they’d done a little more homework, they would have realized that Jillian Michaels fans are often young women whose purchases are inspired by celebrity blogs and reality television. Curves customers on the other hand, are generally middle-aged women whose purchases are inspired by magazines, infomercials, and direct mail. So you see, even though we both fit under the “health and fitness” category, we are really quite different customers and shouldn’t be lumped together. As my beloved Jillian would say, these marketers were “phoning it in!”

The moral of the story? Marketers, dig a little deeper, distill your list down to a smaller, but better-matched, passionate demographic and don’t be surprised at the delightful results.List owners, even if you’re list is small, considering renting it out for a satisfying revenue pop. A large list offers powerful reach, but small highly-targeted lists have a potential clout all their own. As a start-up, Marketfish celebrates these targeted sweet spots when we sign them, and you should too!

Further reading on narrowcasting:

Use Digital Profiles to Narrowcast Your Audience

Facebook’s Use of Narrowcasting

Ten Commandments of Narrowcasting

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

list marketing, list marketing campaign, list publishing, list rental, Marketing, narrowcasting