In recent years, brand marketers have moved from a broadcast-oriented approach to an engagement-centric one. The increased adoption of email marketing and social marketing by brand marketers are the two main factors accelerating this shift.
But just how effective are the different media vehicles that enable engagement marketing? While these are still early days, useful data is beginning to emerge that helps us understand the unique capabilities of email and social media in terms of enabling meaningful and relevant one-to-one conversations with consumers.
Below is a snapshot of the click-through rates of different engagement vehicles. These numbers provide a good estimate of how users are actually interacting with the content and advertising on different media (sources include Mashable, Sarah Smith, Facebook Online Ad Operations Manager, and eMarketer).
As you can clearly see, email is an essential cornerstone of a brand engagement strategy. This explains why an increasing number of brand marketers have shifted their focus to acquiring motivated consumers and engaging them through email.
As an online marketer, there are three different pricing models that you can use to acquire consumers and build your email lists.
In cost-per-thousand (CPM) campaigns, marketers pay for impressions. CPM is typically used to purchase third-party lists or run display banner campaigns.
In cost-per-click (CPC) advertising, marketers pay for clicks. CPC is typically used to run paid search campaigns.
In cost-per-lead (CPL) advertising, marketers pay only for leads or sign-ups.
Over the last two years, transparent cost-per-lead advertising has become an important arsenal for the brand marketer looking to engage with interested consumers. Brands that have acquired email addresses through marketing lead campaigns include Kimberly-Clark, Disney, Blockbuster, Graco, Johnson & Johnson, Heinz and Tommy Hilfiger, as well as national non-profits/political advocacy campaigns like the 2008 Barack Obama presidential campaign, WeCanSolveIt, and the ASPCA.
Cost-per-lead is the pricing model through which advertisers ask consumers to provide contact information and pay only for qualified sign ups.
It's important to make a distinction here. When advertisers think of lead generation, they often think of sales leads. Sales leads are generic leads that are typically resold to multiple advertisers. Sales leads contain detailed consumer information such as telephone number, social security number, household income, and FICO score.
Brand marketers looking to acquire the email addresses of interested consumers are more interested in marketing leads. A marketing lead is the contact information of a consumer who has explicitly signed up to receive communication from a specific brand. Marketing leads are collected on a strict opt-in basis and are never resold.
Ultimately, for a brand marketer, it's about talking to a real person as opposed to a metric or data point. "CPL allows us to talk to real moms," says Sarah Buckenberger, director of customer acquisition at BabyCenter. "We measure everything against a cost-per registration metric because ultimately, we are about driving registrants -- which are real moms, as opposed to abstract clicks and impressions."
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