• by Ken Liebeskind , February 21, 2002

Sept. 11 traumatized the nation, but it gave oneFN – a network of financial sites - an idea. The company developed an email advertising program that links email messages to events that impact the stock market.

Each of the 15 sites in oneFN’s network, including Motley Fool, ThomsonFN, Stockpoint and Worldlyinvestor.com, has an opt-in email list to which the company sends messages based on the effects of a given event on the stock market, both scheduled and unscheduled. The scheduled events include consumer confidence and earnings reports. The unscheduled events include market swings, price changes and disasters.

The program’s first client was a financial newsletter, which in the past had sold subscriptions solely on a free trial basis. "They converted the offer to one that reflected a sensitivity to 9/11 and how to allocate your assets based on the new economy," says Lewis Gersh, oneFN's chairman and CEO. The first campaign went to two of oneFN's opt-in email lists, the same lists that had received previous solicitations for the newsletter. As a result, response rates went from 1.5% to 4.2%, Gersh says.

Another campaign was launched this week in response to an event concerning accounting practice news. OneFN would not disclose the advertisers for any of the event-based marketing campaigns it has run so far.

OneFN charges a $150 CPM fee for event based marketing email with a 20,000 minimum. It needs a one week lead to schedule the event. Advertisers develop the creative and oneFN sends it out and provides full reporting.

The company decided on email as opposed to any other marketing medium because it can be delivered immediately. "After 9/11, all the financial companies did full page ads in the Times and the Journal, but this is much faster," Gersh says. "When the news hits, advertisers can take a leadership role with thoughts and ideas for action."

Event based marketing seems ideal for financial advertisers, since just about everything impacts the stock market. Gersh thinks it can also work for the pharmaceutical and health care industries, with important events like drug approvals and advances in disease treatments impacting the industries and having a major effect on consumers.

He believes event based marketing can take email to a new level of acceptance. Sending an email targeted to an important event "sends them a message they welcome," he says.