The Evolution of Email Marketing - Enabling
Two-way Messaging Through Database Driven Email Marketing

Direct Marketing News

AUGUST 2009 - Do you send regular emails to your customer base? Do you feel you don't get the response you had expected from your clients? Are you limited by the one-way communication with your customers using run-of-the-mill web-based email applications? Then you are not alone. Enticed by cheap upfront costs and the so-called flexibility offered by web based email applications, a growing number of businesses now find themselves increasingly frustrated at not getting more out of their investments in these technologies.

Most businesses started using email marketing as a less expensive method of spreading their message to their customers. Not unlike traditional marketing techniques like FSIs or Newspaper ads, these early emails were a one-way means of communication. Moving on to the email platform, businesses continued with this philosophy of sending out their messages without really intending to get a response from their clients - whether positive or not - to such campaigns. This cheap way to reach mass audience helped create a new industry of web-based email marketing applications where a business could sign-up for an account, upload their list, use a predefined template or use one of their own and then deploy the message to that list.

The system worked fine, and it still does for new businesses who want to reach out to a mass audience while keeping the costs down. However, as businesses grow, so do the demands of their campaigns - demands which are not being met by the web-based email service providers.

Increased competition and the recent economic downturn makes it even more important for businesses to target their messages to individual customers based on their preferences or behaviour. To accomplish this, it is vital to open two-way communication with clients, whenever you send a message to them. Over a period of time, this two-way communication provides you with a wealth of information regarding client behaviour enabling you to target relevant messages and offers to clients. By using these practices, you can achieve a better ROI on your campaigns.

Web-based email applications have a specific purpose and they serve businesses at a specific stage of their growth. However, once you decide to refine your email strategy to better meet your goals or if your business grows from an upstart firm to a more established firm, web-based applications simply cannot cope with the growth and increased demands.

This is where Database driven email marketing (DDEM) applications come into the picture. The best platforms are workhorses that enable you to communicate more effectively with your client base.

Let us take a look at some of the benefits of a database driven application:

• Tracking Conversions beyond the click. While web-based applications provide you with information on the number of clicks to a particular link, database driven applications allow you to track the actions taken by your clients on your website. Simple codes placed in the "Submit Order" button for example could enable you to quantify the success of your email campaign.
• Creating Sub-lists so you can trigger future email communication. Based on actions taken by your clients, you could create sub-lists of such clients and modify/segment your future campaigns based on this information.
• Advanced Reporting. Reports encompassing multiple campaigns enable you to monitor "client behaviour" over a period of such campaigns. This critical information helps you to target your campaigns specific to your client
• Taking advantage of new-age technologies like tracked RSS feeds to clients who prefer to subscribe to such feeds (rather than be sent bulk emails)
• Creating flexible templates and analytics-driven messages Within the same campaign you can send targeted messages based on analytics.
• Centralized Platform. Where your lists, campaigns and reports are stored, enabling you to access information you need.

These are just a few of the features that you can leverage when you use a database driven email deployment application. If you have evolved beyond sending one-way messages and want to sustain long-lasting relationships with your customers then you owe it to yourself to look beyond the web based application.

Saiprasad Kamath is the Senior Data Analyst for Cornerstone Search Marketing & Web Services. He is responsible for the management and ongoing deployment of emails for over 200 Clients who leverage the database driven email application Cornerstone Email Messenger.

Contact Saiprasad at skamath@cstonecanada.com or 1-416-932-9555 ext. 193.