Comments on: What I Learned at XDrive

By: Gareth Cutter

Gareth Cutter — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 13:19:03 +0000

We have a similar problem with the ‘open rate’ in email marketing: it really doesn’t matter how many people have opened your email because that doesn’t mean all (or any) of them have actually read and absorbed your message. What really counts is a click-through to a landing page or email address because that’s a clear sign of user interaction and can be qualified as a lead.
I think your example, Allen relates to a wider tendency of some marketers to exaggerate and go with the higher figure all the time, whether or not it’s strictly meaningful or even true!
N.B. There’s been some discussion about introducing new industry standard metrics for email marketing with the ‘Render Rate’ over at the Email Experience Council’s blog, which I recommend to those who are interested.

By: Balaji

Balaji — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:28:24 +0000

A very interesting post. And I completely agree with you. if only there was one tool that could measure statistically what will be acutal percentage of die hard users from the ones who have signed up. It is interesting you talk of X-Drive. I am sure there are numerous companies out there facing the same. How many have heard of Twitter, Friendfeed and numerous other stuff that is gaining attention forget the fact that people use them to do something meaningful. I am fairly confident that not even 1% of the internet population in India would have heard of Twitter

By: Dusan Vrban

Dusan Vrban — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:24:55 +0000

As my professor used to say – until we marketers don’t make standard language as doctors do (what is a skalpel), we ain’t gonna be taken seriously.

By: courtney benson

courtney benson — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:23:21 +0000

Monitizing Twitter is a real problem no matter what the investors say. The only possibility today is by charging for API access. For brands it is very difficult to data mine what is happening in real time and filtering what you need. One has to ask is this a FAD because who has time to twitter all day?

By: Jonathan Kranz

Jonathan Kranz — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:03:35 +0000

“No incentive to reveal those numbers.” Sadly, all too true.
As a kind of acid test, I talk to people who either cut checks to me or could, some day, cut checks to me. I like to find out what they do (or don’t) online. These conversations are often very revealing…

By: Allen Weiss

Allen Weiss — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:40:06 +0000

My sense is you won’t find good numbers. There is no incentive to reveal those numbers. There seems to be a group-think mentality that fuels this along and then it crumbles at some point. At least, that was part of what I learned at XDrive.

By: Jonathan Kranz

Jonathan Kranz — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:32:12 +0000

Right on!
Remember the inflated statistics about the number of bloggers? Gadzillions signed up — and these gadzillions were always referenced as representing the vast breadth of the blogosphere.
Except that an enormous percentage of these gadzillions opened accounts, posted once or twice, then vanished into the ether…
Yes, we need to look at real usage. Any thoughts about where we can find good numbers?