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 Third‑  party  e‑newsletter. In this visitor acquisition option, a company publicises itself in 

a  third-  party e-newsletter. This could be in the form of an ad, sponsorship or PR (edito-

rial) which links through to a destination site. These placements may be set up as part of 

an interactive advertising ad buy since many e-newsletters also have permanent versions 

on the website. Since e-newsletter recipients tend to engage with them by scanning the 

headlines or reading them if they have time, e-newsletter placements can be relatively 

 cost-  effective.

Viral marketing, which is discussed in the next section, also uses email as the mechanism 

for transferring messages. Email is most widely used as a prospect conversion and customer 

Mini Case Study 9.6

Launched in February 2000, Toptable (toptable.co.uk, Figure 9.15) is now Europe’s largest online restaur‑

ant booking and advisory service – a free service for customers to research, plan and book anything from 

a romantic dinner for two to a large corporate event. Toptable receives a fee for every booking and is on 

course to seat 3 million diners in 2008.