Engage Business Media to Offer Publishers Opt-In E-Mail

Engage‘s B2B
ad network Engage Business Media
expanded its product offerings through an alliance with fellow CMGI company yesmail.com, an opt-in e-mail services
provider.

The deal, which was announced Monday, enables EBM to offer an opt-in
e-mail package to publishers on its network, who then can sell the names and e-mail addresses of site visitors who are willing to receive marketing messages.

“For our Web publishers, building opt-in e-mail lists will provide
them with a new advertising revenue stream, in addition to banner and
e-mail newsletter advertising,” said EBM general manager Joanne Currie.

From the marketing perspective, “Engage will be able to generate a
very targeted group of B2B yesmail members who have volunteered to
receive industry-specific information,” she said.

Engage Business Media will act as the intermediary between
yesmail.com and EBM’s network of sites. Yesmail.com will manage
publishers’ e-mail lists and handle direct e-mail campaigns using the
lists.

Opt-in e-mail can be a lucrative proposition for both advertisers and
publishers. Recent analyst reports have put clickthrough rates for
opt-in e-mail as high as 5 to 15 percent.

Traditional on-site banner ads’ clickthroughs average about 0.45
percent.

EBM’s deal with yesmail thus gives it a product-offerings edge over
chief rival B2BWorks, the
companies involved in Monday’s deal said.

“Permission-based e-mail marketing is a critical component of B2B
online advertising,” said yesmail.com chief executive officer Dave
Tolmie.

“We can now offer our
advertisers a direct, highly effective means to reach their precise
customer online,” he added.

While lacking a direct e-mail product, the privately held B2BWorks
recently announced a deal with CBS’s Web directory services company Switchboard to
offer B2BWorks’ more than 300 affiliates entry into a yet-to-be-created
B2B site directory.

B2BWorks will hold exclusive ad-selling rights for the directory,
which, the companies say, will eventually integrate e-business services
such as request for proposal and request for quote.