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B2BM
April 2009
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Technology
39
choose the right email delivery platform flexibility of in-house systems cannot
will depend on the market sector your usually match hosted platforms.
A buyer’s checklist
enterprise operates within, its email
marketing budget, and the analytical Focus on business objectives
According to Newsweaver,
resources already available. Choosing which route to use for an email B2B marketers should consider
marketing solution must always focus on
the following when looking to
Option 1. Web-based platforms the ROI your business is looking for. Web-
purchase an email marketing
Hosted ESP systems have become very based systems may seem very attractive
system:
popular as they enable a business to because of their low costs and fast set-up
effectively outsource their email marketing and implementation, but many businesses 1. Does the email provider understand B2B?
requirements. No software – or its also require help with understanding their Does it have a significant number of B2B
accompanying maintenance – is required, market and designing campaigns to reach customers?
and these services are infinitely scalable as what can be highly-focused leads – 2. Is the company white listed?
your business’s needs grow. especially in the B2B. 3. Does it have provable deliverability rates
Hosted systems, however, can suffer Full-service agencies that have over 96 per cent (across all customers)?
from shared IP address and servers. Look experience in your sector can be worth the 4. Is it proactive in providing advice and
closely at the IT infrastructure of any consultancy? If so, at what cost?
hosted service you are thinking of using. 5. What levels of support are provided, and
Other issues to be aware of include the at what cost? Note reaction times and
fact that customer data will be held on a limits of support including time zones.
third-party server. There can also be data 6. Are template design services included as
protection issues when using hosted services part of the service?
based outside the UK. It’s also a good idea 7. Does it offer a template-based content
to check that the services on your shortlist management system?
are not listed on the Spamcop, 8. Does it recognise if HTML cannot be
Spamassassin or Spamhaus websites. accepted and automatically deliver a text
version that links to an online version?
Option 2. Fully-managed services 9. Is the system easy to use? What technical
Many first-time email campaigns choose to “Marketers must take the skills are needed to set up an email
use a full-service agency. Outsourcing email campaign?
services can make commercial sense, as
time to build a strong
10. Can email addresses be moved easily in
the agency is not only able to provide the
database, test before
and out of the system?
physical campaign services, they can also 11. Can you segment email addresses into
offer help and advice.
sending, analyse metrics,
separate lists for targeted mailings?
The downside to fully-serviced
and then segment and target
12. Does reporting on individuals enable the
campaigns is their cost. Using this method further targeting of sub groups?
of mounting, an email campaign is the
based on the findings”
13. Does the reporting tell you what content
most expensive. Also, the business buying is proving most or least of interest?
the services can lose a level of control over Denise Cox, newsletter specialist, Newsweaver 14. Can you see what content individual
their campaign. recipients have read?
Timescales to design and launch a new extra investment as their insight is
marketing campaign can be long when potentially invaluable. Clearly not all email the organisation or simply not read by the
compared to other methods. Background marketing platforms are equal, and in this recipient.
checks and research about past and current sector one size definitely doesn’t fit all. Edward Weatherall, MD of Concep, says
clients of an agency are pre-requisites Service level agreements are a must and he has found many businesses in the B2B
before contracts are signed and exchanged. always link your ESP to your stated ROI for sector want to do email marketing, but are
each campaign. This in turn should be not clear how this should be handled.
Option 3. In-house applications supported with KPIs that track each “What email should do is build a
For the ultimate in control, mounting an campaign in detail. relationship with clients that ultimately
email marketing campaign completely in- leads to high conversion rates, which we
house is the best solution. A level of IT Testing times can see with detailed tracking of every
infrastructure will be required and the If you want to test email marketing for the component of the campaign.”
software application that will handle the first time, web-based hosted services give For all B2B enterprises, the purchase of
marketing campaign will have a minimum you a simple point-and-click interface that email marketing services should be
systems requirement as laid down by its can have your first campaign up and approached with all the due diligence that
developer. A licence will also usually have running in a matter of minutes. Services would be used when procuring any
to be purchased to use the platform. The like DotMailer, NewZapp, Icon mission-critical services.
high level of control these installed systems Technologies and Lyris offer services that With a market that now offers a
offer is their major attraction. Data security enable you to test the email marketing platform for any size of business,
is high as this is held in-house, and spam waters for the first time. communicating – even with niche markets –
and shared server issues are not usually a In the B2B market the value of the can be achieved effectively.
problem to be addressed. relationship is so high. You can’t afford to With the abundance of services
However, linking to legacy systems, send irrelevant communications as available, email marketing has now truly
maintenance and support, plus the eventually these will be either blocked by come of age.
B2BM APRIL 09 – www.b2bm.biz
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