Catalyst Investors Digital Media Panel – Fuzzy Online Metrics

Here’s another video clip from the Catalyst Investors Digital Media Panel last year. In this clip I talk about email metrics that we were using at Aspire/Interweave to measure the ROI of each marketing email we sent out, the value of a subscriber, and how certain metrics can be hard numbers. But I also talk about how you have to know the caveats surrounding these metrics and take them with a grain of salt. Keep in mind that Aspire/Interweave is a consumer enthusiast media company, so the bulk of our revenues were generated by readers, not advertisers. In that sense, we were more akin to an online retailer / direct marketer … selling our best content as products (books, magazines, and even one-off digital patterns).

But the point about online metrics having caveats and being fuzzy applies to any market, B2B or consumer. And the point about too much fixation on the numbers applies to advertising in any market as well.

BTW, I cannot BELIEVE how quickly I talk during these videos … it’s a bit embarrassing. Just too much info that I’m trying to get across in a short time, I guess.