Are you on the list???  Did you get this email this morning???

This is not the first and will not be the last.  The question is, what are you going to do about it?

This media company has opt in online investor list as well as online advertising on a brand name investment portal.

At risk of harping on the same point, I’ve posted on this topic again.  I’m not sure how long this will last.

Un-edited except the sender and media name.

——————————————————

—-Original Message—–
From: xxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 7:56 AM
To:
Subject: RE: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.com Media Kit

Hi Diane,

I hope you’re doing well!  I thought I’d send a quick note to check in on any campaigns you’re planning for your clients.

I’d be happy to share our availability for November dedicated mailing dates and reserve some space for their offers.

We’re also running special discounted rates for placements on our websites due to the boost in traffic we’ve experienced over the past few weeks as people seek information online regarding the current financial situation.

I’m guessing the market will settle down in a few weeks, but until then we’re in a position to offer substantial discounts to any advertiser who can act fast on taking advantage of this sudden increase of available impressions.

Our rough estimate of the amount of additional space we’ll have available is:

336×280 Large Rectangles: 1.7 million impressions

468×60 Banners: 2.6 million impressions

728×90 Leaderboards: 1.6 million impressions

Featured Sponsor Text Links: 2.8 million impressions

Stock Research Text Links: 1 million impressions

I do want to emphasize that this is a deal we’ll only be able to make
right now, once we’re back to selling all our space the pricing would
return to our standard discounted rates.

Please give me a call if this is something that any of your clients
would like to take advantage of.

Thanks!

xxxxxxx

——————————————————

Happy Trading

Committed to life long learning.

Doug Morneau

I’m writing today from the Direct Marketing Association Conference (DMA) in Las Vegas.  An industry favorite event for me.

This year’s roster in not to shabby.

Craig Newmark, founder of CraigsList on “The Future of Online Community and Commerce. He should know, his site serves 10 Billion page views per month and 35 million unique visitors from 567 cities and 55 countries.

Christine Hefner, Chairman and CEO of Playboy Enterprises speaking on Marketing in the Digital Space. Playboy has experienced dramatic growth in the digital space and is now distributing through online and mobile platforms.

The list of great marketers presenting is long.

So what does this have to do with Online Investor Relations and Email Investor Lists?

EVERYTHING!

• If “we/you” keep doing the same old thing, guess what?  We get he same old results.
• Many from within the direct marketing industry still consider email marketing a young immature media with lots of growth and opportunity yet to be realized.
• Many examples and case studies are easily transferable from tradition email marketing and can be applied to the online investor relations space.

Direct feedback I’m receiving is that the numbers are down at this year’s conference.  Many companies although they registered have pulled back and will not be attending. Time will tell as the exhibit hall opens today at 3:00pm.

Is this a time for list managers, marketing, media, and investor relations companies to reduce or eliminate efforts to look for “new” investor email lists, new media, meet with prospective new partners, existing partners?

I think NOT.

In my usual contrarian approach, we’ll maximize opportunities; continue to invest money as other retreat, and apparently, we will do it with a lot less competition at the conference.

Committed to life long learning.

Taking one for the team, Doug Morneau from Las Vegas, Nevada.

What’s in a list name? Mailing List Name Fraud?

Does the sound of this list sound like these online investors are well funded and ready to buy speculative stocks trading on the OTC BB market?

Why did you click?

WARNING: This list Does NOT Exist.

This list name and blog-posting headline were made up to prove a point.

I quickly researched what seem to be popular search terms right now. The approximate Search Volume [Previous Month] for Derivatives was 246,000 and Hedge Funds 138,000. The combination of these two terms should attract some attention, plus they must be top of mind because they are being typed into Google search.

My point is simple. Finding the best email investor list is tough enough with out companies taking email and direct mail lists and renaming the “same old” data with a fresh hot name and then re-marketing it.

Some simple math should prove my point. Take a look at how many mailing lists exist for the investment sector. Add up all the contacts from all the lists and see how many times the total exceeds the total US population.

Make sure you find a reliable list broker or email marketing company who can help you with you list requirements.

We actually have one tool in house that reports on investor list opt in and lead generation source. It’s actually quite funny to look at many of the “investor email lists” where the opt in source was a dating site.

So, the old saying “if it sounds to good to be true…” may also be good advice here.

On Friday morning after I received my WSJ ( Wall Street Journal ) NEWS ALERT: House Passes Financial-Markets Rescue Bill,  I pinged several of our investor list suppliers, public companies, stock promoters, and Investor Relation Company clients to hear how they felt about the stock market bailout.

Most confirmed my Friday night blog post, that they are not locking in the big discounts available now.  They are waiting at the sidelines until the market stabilizes and the email list prices go back up.

I did however receive this gem in one of my emails that we can likely apply in many areas of our life.

Warren Buffett says, “be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when they’re greedy”

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…

For those of us who work in the online investor relations and financial communications space, the recent events in the USA stock markets have created an unexpected marketing opportunity.

As with anything else, supply and demand often dictates price.  This apparently is now true with online media and advertising as well.

Like the many investors, it appears that many stock promoters, investor relations consultants, and media buyers have run for cover.

For those still in the game, big discounts for many top investor email lists is now a new reality.

In some cases, you can reach almost twice as many online investors for the same price (2X more).

Obviously this deep price reduction won’t last for ever.  But it’s here now for those astute enough to pre-book their media for the next quarter or more.

The second benefit if half price media wasn’t enough, may be less competition with other marketing messages.  Our inbound email from stock promoters is at an all time low.  I guess time and the results will tell.

I’m a buyer.