This investment represent a tenfold increase in its subscriber sales force and a significant increase in percentage of its marketing budget being spent on outsourced telemarketing.
Rick Zednik, circulation marketing director for The Wall Street Journal Europe, said that the investment reflected the growing cost-effectiveness of telemarketing over direct mail.
"In the past, direct mail was the engine of our acquisition efforts but is now less cost effective. Telemarketing allows us to be more efficient with our marketing spend in targeting potential customers; we need to reach out to them in real time and in the right place in order to get a buying decision. We've found the response rates are significantly better than other direct marketing initiatives," he said.
The paper's current telemarketing campaign is being run in conjunction with the Journal Europe's Brussels city campaign, but Zednik says the new push is very much a pan-European strategy and call centres in other key cities may be added to the mix.
The three recently hired telemarketing firms include two UK agencies: Channel Strategy in Peterborough and LBM in Manchester. The third is IP GlobalNet in Brussels.
The campaign is being overseen by David Mekkaoui, who started as a telemarketing representative at the Journal Europe in Brussels in September 2002 and has been in the role of telemarketing manager since August last year.
If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the .
_1.jpg)
.jpg)
