Question

Topic: E-Marketing

Looking For A Good Esp To Track E-campaigns.

Posted by Anonymous on 8/25/2004 at 12:33 PM ET 250 Points
I've recently stepped into a lead marketing role, and was shocked to discover we don't track or personalize our e-mail campaigns.

I'm starting to evaluate various email service providers now; emaillabs, cheetahmail, exact target, etc. using the list I found here as a starting point for my research: https://www.espcoalition.org/members.php.

It seems it's going to be somewhat of an uphill battle convincing c-level executives the value of direct marketing. So, right now I'm in search of a cost effective solution, that will demonstrate the type of information we've been negligent in collecting all along.

I'm looking for standard tracking functionality, with the ability to create HTML campaigns with a WYSYWIG interface, surveys, dynamic content, personalized messaging, etc. If anyone could provide some insight or personal experience I'd appreciate it.

Thanks
Frank
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Inbox_Interactive on 8/25/2004 at 1:01 PM Accepted
    As you'll find, there are solution providers with amixed bag of features and pricing. The companies you named offer a top-level solution, but they also command what I would call premium pricing. I'm not saying you don't get your money's worth (we're actually considering signing up with one of the services you mentioned after about 18 months of research), but you're going to pay to play.

    One company that you might want to take a look at is https://www.globalintellisystems.com. They have a unique combination of features with dirt-cheap pricing that seems hard to beat. (And yes, we might end up using them in some cases, too.)

    Along the lower-priced lines of Constant Contact, which is very, very inexpensive, you might also consider https://www.verticalresponse.com and https://www.mailermailer.com. These solutions don't have all of the bells and whistles that the top-level solutions offer, but you should have no trouble getting economic buy-in from upper-level management.

    Good luck!

    Paul Broni
  • Posted by Inbox_Interactive on 8/25/2004 at 1:12 PM Member
    Frank,

    EmailLabs has a very nice solution. At the time that we were considering them, their pricing was much higher than what we needed to make it work. Maybe as the landscape has become more competitive, their pricing has dropped and it would be time for us to revisit them.

    In answer to your question, I think $500 per month for a 10K-message account is very attractive considering the functionality that EmailLabs brings to the table, even more so considering the relative small size of the account (a half-cent per message at this low volume is pretty good).

    Before you sign on the line that is dotted, however, give a quick peek to Global Intellisystems. Ask for John Brogan, and tell him that I referred you. John bends over backwards for his clients.
  • Posted by Blaine Wilkerson on 8/25/2004 at 1:27 PM Accepted
    Constant Contact is the way to go for trying out intial campaigns. Their branding isn't any more obvious than any others.

    Frankly, it is not taboo to have the email provider log at the bottom of your newsletters. Just about every major provider does so.

    If you want to really make your own, track, etc, go to www.download.com and get a free program called "Group Mail". You can create your own HTML file with a beacon image (a pic that is called from your webserver - it can be transparent or your logo). Use Group mail to send out your messages (it keeps a log and allows you to create/customize muliple groups), then track the open rate by looking at your webstats for how many times that beacon image was downloaded ,then compare to your send rate.

    Depending on your website analyzer, you can even trace all of the IPs etc. that opened the beacon.

    Providing a link to your website within the message, a special link that ONLY appears in the email is an additional way to track.

    Group Mail has an upgrade for like $40 that will do more extensive tracking, autoresponders, unsubscribe, etc. It's a cool little program, but you have to do all the work.

    I hope this helps!
  • Posted by Pepper Blue on 8/25/2004 at 3:13 PM Accepted
    Hi Frank,

    I am a huge fan of Constant Contact because for the money the combination of value, functionality, and ease of use make it pretty hard to beat.

    To answer your questions about it:

    1) Standard tracking functionality - Yes
    2) Ability to create HTML campaigns with a WYSYWIG interface- Yes
    3) Surveys - No, but it integrates extremely easy with Zoomerang and others
    4) Dynamic content - No
    5) Personalized messaging - Yes
    6) Application Programming Interfaces - No
    7) How obvious is there branding? Once you are a paid customer (you are through with the trial period of 60 day or 50 subscribers) you can email support and they will remove their logo and other branding from all campaigns you send.

    So, although it is limited on higher-end features, at a price starting at $15.00 for 51-500 subscribers, it is perfect for first-timers (not you, you're company). It will allow you to get to know and cleanse your subscriber list, learn what calls-to-action work on them, etc. without spending a fortune.

    This is usually a very easy sell to management because you are sitting on a permission based list and doing nothing with it which as you know just doesn't make any sense.

    Once you've shown an ROI, upgrading to a more premium service should be an easy sell.

    I hope that helps!
  • Posted by SRyan ;] on 8/25/2004 at 5:13 PM Member
    Frank, one of the great things about this forum is that EVERYONE benefits from the questions posted here.

    I was just about to search the Q&A archives for the information you're seeking, because I'm about to launch our first email campaign. (That's something you should do, too, to see ALL of the advice that's been offered on this topic.)

    So... I'm glad you asked!

    - Shelley
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