This article was guest written by Joel Book

One of the most valuable assets a company has is its database of email subscribers.

Just ask highly successful large companies like Papa John’s, Scotts, and Hitachi Data Systems as well as hundreds of small and mid-sized companies like CardsDirect, Aptera Software, and Powell’s Books. Each of these companies has the ability to deliver relevant and timely information and offers to their email subscribers – when they need to do so. By “owning their own communications channel,” these companies are not dependent on traditional print or broadcast media to attract customers or drive repeat sales. They have the advantage of choosing when, how and with whom they communicate. Read more…

Email Marketing Email Marketing, exacttarget, joel book, list growth

ExactTarget just published my article, 4 ways to use analytics to improve your email campaigns on their email marketing blog. I am excited because this is my first article as a guest blogger.

Please go check it out and let me know what you think. You can post a comment to their blog, this site or just @ me on twitter, @LaryStucker

Tomorrow FreshClicks will be publishing, “Wining Strategies for Growing Your Email Subscriber Database“ by  our first guest writer, Joel Book

Email Marketing analytcis, Email Marketing

MailChimp is a funny email marketing company. They have gone out of their way to make the language and the feel of their site relaxed, yet their documentation and features are thorough. There is something reassuring to me to see a company that has a rich offering, doesn’t take themselves too seriously, and has far less hand waving than most other email marketing services. They offer a free trial that gives you full access to their services and the ability to send over 600 emails. Read more…

Email Marketing Email Marketing, mailchimp review, mass email

My fifth and final review in the Email Service Provider Round-up was ExactTarget. ExactTarget was named a “Market Leader” by the Jupiter report for Top ESP 4th quarter 2007 and they hold mind share within the Email Service Provider industry. Read more…

Email Marketing Email Marketing, ESP reviews, ExactTarget Review

Criteria for evaluating the ESPs.

Now that we have our ESP selected we need to create a way to fairly evaluate the ESPs against one another. We have chosen five areas of Email Marketing to evaluate:

Features:

Which features are critical to your marketing team will vary from the list we have here but many of them will match:

• Automated mailings- Email campaigns that run automatically based on a query string that updates the mailing list automatically. Usually run on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
• ISP / server relationship management- Ho closely does the ESP work with the major ISPs to spot problems and intercede on your behalf if a campaign gets flagged as spam. Find out if they have a dedicated ISP management team and then find out who is on the team.
• Personalization- If i get an email that says “Hello Lary,” I am so much more likely to continue reading then if it says “Hello patron” Even if I know that it is an automated system it just feels like the sender cared more. Read more…

Email Marketing Deliveribility, Dynamic Content, Email list, Email Marketing, Email Service Providers, Triggered Events