Know-How Exchange : E-Marketing

Hi, Val -

Well, for someone who claims to be a novice, I'd say you're off to the races with your list. That's a great start!

We routinely research e-mail service providers to ensure that we're aware of the services that are available and that our pricing (as a customer) is in line with the market. We currently use two ESPs to service our own clients. Therefore, we have a somewhat exhaustive list of criteria that we use; I'd be happy to share that with you offline. It has been developed as a result of using many solutions over the last six years and working with many clients. (Only when you start to really use some of these services do you realize what you need -- and that it's not available!)

A few of the questions that I'd immediately add to your list, however, are:

1. Do you provide code that I can add to my site to add new subscribers to the list? Or do you host a page on your server that handles that function?

2. How do you keep my data secure?

3. Do you provide any analysis of my top 20 or 25 domains so that I can track open rates on them easily and specifically?

4. What is the procedure if I know that one of my corporate recipients is blocking you at the server level? Whose job is it to try to get the mail through?

5. Do you offer content analysis to help reduce the likelihood that my e-mail will be perceived as spam?

6. What steps do you take to ensure that your other clients are not sending spam?

7. Are you whitelisted with the major ISPs? Do you have a full-time employee dedicated to these relationships?

8. Do you have a forward-to-a-friend function?

9. Do you offer dynamic content (a/k/a dynamic message assembly)?

10. Do you offer sequential mailing, where a series of e-mails are automatically deployed at various times post subscription?

11. Do you support event registrations that send reminder e-mails automatically at pre-determined times?

12. How many e-mails can you send in an hour? (And be wary of anyone who claims to send millions per hour!)

13. Do you monitor my bounce rate? My unsubscribe rate? If so, what happens and at what point?

14. Do you automatically generate a Web version of my HTML message that keeps user-level link tracking intact?

15. Do you offer various level of user access to that some people can have reporting only, some can only upload lists, some have full control, etc.?

These are the handful that pop into my head, but as I said, we have a 4-5 page questionnaire that we use to evaluate vendors. I'd have to "pretty it up" to share with you, so I could share it with you later in the week, if you still need it by then.

Looking forward to other replies on this one! Maybe I'll find something to add to my list!

Paul

Here's some more questions...

Can you accomidate AOL, Earthlink and other e-mail addresses, and assure deliverablility to such e-mail addresses?

Why should I rent your online system when I can buy one for $45.00 to $2,500 and own it outright?

Is there an opensource version that works just as well?

Will the email system also work with my database of 'registered' users on my website? Will the email system interface with administration of my 'registered users'?

Can I brand the system with my own logo?

Can I have all email delivery system company logos and references removed from out going mail messages and just have my own logo and contact information?

Do you allow/provide e-mail marketing message templates?

Does your e-mail system send in BOTH text and html formats, and is it smart enough to know which version of email message to send to each recipient?

Can I send an 'attachment' with my outbound messages?

A few questions I've come up with from my own experience.

Darcy Moen
Customer Loyalty Network

Alright Val,

you guys have almost asked all the questions.


Do you also provide mailing addresses for your list so I can send some direct mail pieces?

Does your list include zip codes so that I will know where my clients are coming from?

Can you break you list down by cultural demographics?

These are a coulple that have concerned me Val when I'm looking at email vendor's or list?

Your Servant, Deremiah, *CPE (Customer Passion Evangelist)

VAl

Looks like a plethora squared.

One suggestion: Create a "Request for Proposal" document which contains all the questions you need to ask in groups

1. Questions with Yes/No Answers only - with check boxes
2. Questions which require more wordy explanations
3. Finally, Questions where you need their input for your business case - in other words, if they get this far they are in the frame, now it's the decisive criteria of price and performance.

Hope this helps.

ChrisB

Hi Val,

Thanks Shelley for the nice compliment.

Val, this is an exhaustive list above. There is no other line items I can add that would not be repetitive, but here are what I hope are some unique thoughts:

I guess that one thing I didn't notice is (and pardon me if somebody did) how important it is for a company launching or upgrading their email marketing initiative to first create a list of what your short and long-term goals and objectives are, along with your budgetary and human resource constraints.

There are a mind-numbing number of ESP options available, and the reality is that competition has created a marketplace where most everybody, depending on the service level required, (and how much you want to spend) has the same basic feature sets.

What you are seeing now however is on a seemingly daily basis the major players are trying to one-up their competitor by creating partnerships with companies that specialize in deliverability because deliverability is the hot topic right now.

6 months from now it will be something else.

So much depends on what stage of an email marketing program a company is at and like everything in marketing, you need to be able to calculate and show a positive ROI or it is not a good business decision.

Also, keep in mind scalability. As your list grows, you need to be able to grow with it for example implementing features like dynamic content delivery.

I hope that helps, and this is one list I will be keeping in my files!

In today's instant gratification world, one interesting claim I have seen from lead generation vendors, including email broadcast vendors, is the ability to monitor campaign progress on-line, and rapidly test various approaches (e.g. various subject lines).