IQ News: Doubleday Direct Hires E-Dialog for QuickReply

New York-based publishing house Doubleday has tapped Lexington, Mass.-based digital direct-marketing firm E-Dialog to develop and manage the e-mail marketing effort for the Doubleday Direct unit. E-Dialog will provide Doubleday Book Club and Literary Guild Club members with personalized e-mail services, including information on upcoming book releases and offers to pre-order titles. The partnership marks Doubleday’s first foray into e-commerce.
“For Doubleday, we’re going to be promoting a pre-sale reservation of a book that’s not yet released,” said Bill Herp, president and CEO at E-Dialog.
“The idea is that no money needs to change hands,” he continued. All we’re doing is putting an interested person’s name down for a reserved spot, and they’ll receive the book when it comes out.”
E-Dialog will integrate its proprietary QuickReply technology into the e-mails, enabling recipients to buy products simply by typing the word “yes” in the subject header and replying directly to the e-mail. According to Herp, eliminating the inconvenience of transferring to another Web site from an e-mail link generates higher buy-rates than e-mailings that require recipients to click on a separate link.
The QuickReply technology was originally developed for a campaign for Harvard Business School Publishing Corp. “The result we found for Harvard has been on average 2 to 10 times greater than direct mail,” said Herp.
“Clients find QuickReply very effective, as opposed to having to click to a Web site and engaging in a shopping-cart transaction.”