Publisher goes Paperless: revenues up, costs down, ebill transactions increase 400% through centralized email efforts for over 30 titles

need

Prior to working with Zeta Interactive, Time Inc.’s magazine groups were working with over seven email vendors, making it very difficult to manage email in a consistent manner. With the multiple brands their titles represented, Time Inc. needed their email marketing strategy to embrace the independence among the brands, but also to supply a bolted down standardization of processes, copy and creative to launch campaigns and achieve measurable results.

solution

In 2002, Time Inc. and Zeta Interactive built a full service relationship, with a team of fifteen full-time, dedicated Zeta staff assigned to the account. This led to a centralized, global strategy for ebilling, renewals and new customer acquisition. Since centralizing email with one primary vendor, Time Inc. has experienced benefits such as increased response rates, increased revenues, decreased costs, and decreased administrative work.

Zeta Interactive has grown its relationships within the extended enterprise—starting with 3 titles, Zeta now works with over 30 magazine titles, including Entertainment Weekly, Time, People, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, Money, and Golf Magazines. The usage of email marketing at Time Inc has gone from one of exploration to a belief that there are solid and sustained cost savings and profits to be made from this marketing channel.

results

Zeta Interactive is proud to have helped Time Inc discover the value of email as a marketing channel and understand how it can become a meaningful element in Time Inc’s acquisition, renewal, and payment strategies. In working with multiple magazine titles within Time Inc., Zeta Interactive has a horizontal view of the results of testing across the business units. Zeta Interactive shares this learning across the magazine titles, increasing results for all. In the past twelve months alone, open rates across all programs have increased by 34% and click-through rates have increased by 77%.

According to Ernie Vickroy, Time Consumer Marketing’s Email Director, "Zeta Interactive is more than just a vendor to Time Inc., they are truly a partner. Zeta Interactive’s flexible solutions allow them to serve the wide variety of needs that we see across multiple magazines, and our dedicated account manager combines a deep knowledge of our business with email marketing expertise. Zeta Interactive’s commitment to continually improve their quality and level of service has allowed us to expand our business with them over the past five years."