I believe the reason that only 1 out of 10 database marketers are using email as an effective channel is because traditional email marketing service providers have limited system capabilities. These systems do not have the level of sophistication that database marketers have become accustomed to from other enterprise software applications, like CRM. In my previous article on Email Relationship Management, I began to explain how ERM solutions differ from existing email marketing service provider offerings. The Business Intelligence Network (B-EYENetwork), the publisher of electronic newsletters, recently challenged us to demonstrate the capabilities and benefits of our ERM platform versus their current email marketing service provider.
We agreed to engage in a comparison test against the B-EYE-Network's existing email provider which is a leading vendor in the market. The objective of the test was to have the B-EYENetwork use our Dynamic Messenger ERM platform to create and deploy their weekly BEYE- Network newsletters. We were then to compare the ease of use, features, and benefits of the ERM platform against their existing email system. The ERM platform utilizes a relational data model which provides business benefits that greatly exceed what can be accomplished by most of the leading email marketing applications that use a list or flat-file architecture.
If you are a database marketer, what you don't know about your customer data can hurt you. In real-time, Dynamic Messenger provided data to the B-EYE-Network regarding each individual subscriber that didn't receive the newsletter and explained why. While some of the delivery issues were typical bounces, Dynamic Messenger also identified an error in how subscriber data was being captured from a website form that totally prevented them from receiving the newsletter.
The data I have about our readers is the lifeblood of my company, says Shawn Rogers, Executive Director, for the Business Intelligence Network. I was amazed at the level of reporting and metadata generated by the ERM platform. My current email marketing service provider had been destroying my customer data by accident for months. As a database marketer, that could drastically reduce my ROI or destroy my business.First, Dynamic Messenger identified emails that had been bounced and gave me the reason why. With this data and using some specific email delivery features of the ERM platform, like Spam Score and Delivery Performance reporting, the B-EYE-Network was able to convert some of those bounces into successfully delivered email. Then, the B-EYE-Network was able to quickly and easily view their customer database identify data collection errors that were causing some customers to not get the newsletter at all.
Email bounce management seemed so simple that I hadn't thought about it. Now, after seeing how much of an impact it has on my subscriber base, I can't believe I lived without it, says Shawn Rogers. Given how intuitive and easy to use the ERM platform is, I predict our editors will prefer to eliminate the dependence on IT and be empowered to send out their own newsletters and manage our customer data. This will help to reduce my IT expenditures and make us more effective! In addition to identifying the business critical database issues and addressing them, the BEYE- Network found another notable difference, ease of use. With the current system, an IT technician was needed to send out the B-EYE-Network newsletter, whereas, after receiving just a few hours of instruction on the ERM platform, the B-EYE-Network editor was able to create and send out the newsletter.
In summary, if you are a database marketer looking to leverage email as a channel to increase your ROI. I would like to challenge you to do what the B-EYE-Network did and put us to the test against your current email service provider. There are significant advantages to utilizing the next generation of ERM platforms and the B-EYE-Network proved it!
About Alterian
Alterian (www.alterian.com) is a global provider of integrated database marketing, customer insight and marketing execution solutions which enable businesses to improve the effectiveness of marketing activity through sophisticated customer insight. Alterian products are based on the Alterian Engine, which provides unrivalled performance, speed and scalability for large volumes of detailed data.
