Last week, in our “Digital Power Houses” series, Portada interviewed German Herebia, CEO and founder of Intextual. We continue our series with Victor Valverde, Manager of Sales and Latin American Markets for Response Media Group, which owns Canalmail and Hotwords.
Canalmail specializes in E-Mail Marketing, while Hotwords specializes in Contextual Advertising in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. Victor talks to us about the e-mail advertising market and gives us advice on e-marketing strategies worth considering.
At a Glance:
Name: Canalmail
Type of Company: E-Mail Marketing
Country: Spain
Offices: Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Portugal
Employees: 100
Market presence: Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Portugal, Ecuador, Bolivia, Uruguay, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Honduras, Paraguay, Cuba, Nicaragua.
Portada: How big is the direct e-mail advertising market?
Victor Valverde: “In Mexico and Latin America, direct e-mail advertising accounts for 63% of all dollars spent on online advertising.”
Portada: How do you structure your e-mail marketing strategies?
Victor Valverde: “Canalmail has the advantage of having a microsegmentable database, so we are able to offer our clients highly-targeted prospects. We do this by analyzing our clients’ strategy, reviewing the results of previous campaigns, measuring our average by industry, and finally producing the best recommendation based on the target and number of mailings.”
Portada: How many subscribers you have? How do you calculate this figure?
Victor Valverde: “Canalmail has 7.3 million subscribers in Mexico and 33 million in Latin America, audited by Price Waterhouse Cooper and Permission Marketing. We are able to reach this figure because we manage a co-registration program with over 6,000 affiliated vertical portals. This gives us an advantage, since we have volunteer users who give us their profile in a very transparent manner, and this helps deliver better results in a Canalmail e-mail campaign.”
Portada: Has e-mail marketing increased in the past year, compared to previous years?
Victor Valverde: “Investment in e-Mail marketing has seen an average increase of 23% per year. This is because e-mail campaigns are cheaper and have a wider reach, plus there is greater control of the campaign results due to the metrics that an e-mail strategy can provide.”
Portada: How do you expect this market to evolve?
Victor Valverde: “We expect the market will continue to grow, and we are reaching out to new clients and acquiring new technologies. Canalmail is a results-focused company, and we apply our expertise to provide this benefit to our customers.”
Portada: What are the benefits of e-mail marketing, compared to traditional digital marketing such as pop-ups or search engine advertising?
Victor Valverde: “We can’t compare with pop-up or search engine advertising because it’s not the same thing, but traditional digital marketing is known for its pull campaigns, which means that their campaigns are reactive— that is, you have to wait for people to take action to see the ad. E-Mail marketing is a push campaign: we put the campaign directly into our users’ inboxes, taking care to target our campaigns according to the information the user requested receiving. We segment it by country, age, occupation, etc. This is one of the main advantages offered by Canalmail, because it provides an authorized e-mail campaign.”
Portada: Who are your main advertisers?
Victor Valverde: “Our biggest advertisers are those in the Automotive, Computer and Technology, Health & Beauty, Promotions, Fashion, Electronics, and Travel industries.”
Portada: What are your goals for next year?
Victor Valverde: “To acquire new Internet companies and continue growing the range of services we currently provide. Response Media Group, Canalmail’s parent company, also owns Hotwords, of Brazil, the leader in contextual advertising in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Spain and Portugal. The group acquired Hotwords as part of the company’s expansion plan to continue growing.”
Other articles in the "Digital Power Houses" series:
